Welcome Tara and Nathan Tuttle!

"We believe the most effective student ministries begin with relationships. After all, Jesus Christ himself gave us the perfect model of ministry to students. He not only taught His disciples the truth, but He was invested in their lives, cared for them like family and loved them through their sinfulness. Through the ministry and life of Jesus, we desire to emulate His blueprint for ministry by equipping students, encouraging families, enabling leaders and empowering the church."

"We believe in one God-Father, Son and Holy Spirit-to which Holy Scripture, the infallible Word of God, bears witness. Due to our sinful nature, our knowledge of God is limited and imperfect. Yet, through grace, we are called to grow in the knowledge and love of God and to serve Him by seeking to lead young people into a saving relationship with Jesus Christ. Through equipping students, encouraging families, enabling leaders and empowering the Church, we can glorify God and further His kingdom."

Tara Tuttle:
Regional Assistant, Tar Heel Region Young Life, Winston-Salem, NC
Director of Student Ministries, First Presbyterian Church of Ocean Springs, MS
Ministry Staff, Volunteer Leader, Asheville-Buncombe County Young Life, Asheville, NC
Program Coordinator, The Cove Camp, Billy Graham Training Center
Youth Ministry Intern, River Oaks Community Church, Clemmons, NC
Youth Ministry Intern, Covenant United Methodist Church, Asheville, NC
Bachelor of Arts, Bible and Religion/Youth Ministry, Montreat College, Montreat, NC

Nathan Tuttle:
Youth Minister, Bethany Baptist Church, Winston-Salem, NC
Director, Upward Basketball and Cheerleading Program, Bethany Baptist Church
Head Coach, Girls JV Soccer, Reagan High School, Winston-Salem, NC
Substitute Teacher, Winston-Salem Forsyth County School System
Community Relations Coordinator, Carolina Cobras, Arena Football League, Charlotte, NC
Sports and Activities Program Coordinator, Carmel Baptist Church, Matthews, NC
Bachelor of Science, Business Administration, University of North Carolina Charlotte
Divinity School, Campbell University
Eagle Scout, Boy Scouts of America

The Great Escape 2008

Get Out of Your Rut

"I believe the greatest trick of the devil is not to get us into some sort of evil but rather have us wasting time. This is why the devil tries so hard to get Christians to be religious. If he can sink a man's [or woman's] mind into habit, he will prevent his heart from engaging God."

Don Miller

Our Coach, Our Teammate, Our Gameplan

What if?

What if we get to Heaven and find out that there always had been solutions to all the problems of the earth? What if when we meet our Maker we find out that all the time we were on this earth there was enough food, clean water, shelter, and love for everyone but we just couldn't get it out? What if we thought we were too busy to get out the Word but He shows us that we had all the time we needed? What if there were plenty of resources to go around but a bad distribution plan kept them from being used? What if we find out that we had more than others because He trusted us to be His distributors...the ones to get out the message and the means?

His Church (us) should be the distribution center for needs of the world. The Church has been doing this work for centruries but has some human traits that hold it back. What if we reassessed how we used our time? What if we take a long hard look at what we use our resources for and prioritized the distribution of the Word, food, water, shelter and love?

What if?

Culture’s Song

Everyone has their favorite song for different reasons. The fact is like most everyone enjoys some form of music: Hip/hop, rock, Heavy metal, jazz, Christian…. People like music for different reasons some because of the arrangement, the lyrics or maybe because they just like the beat. For whatever reasons, we all enjoy music because it expresses us and our styles music is so versatile that it changes and evolves into different forms all the time. The music industry makes millions of dollars or even billions of dollars a year from CD and digital music sales, but how much of it is really worth buying, not just because of poor quality but because of a poor message? Or does it even really matter if we buy these albums? If everyone would post some lyrics of their favorite songs or songs that are currently popular at your schools and with your friends we can kick off this discussion.

Mikkel Lysne

God's Yellow Pages

Click on the image for help

How to Live!

Jesus, Others, and Yourself

The Greatest Commandment (Matthew Chapter 22)

36"Teacher, which is the greatest commandment in the Law?" 37Jesus replied: " 'Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.' 38This is the first and greatest commandment. 39And the second is like it: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' 40All the Law and the Prophets hang on these two commandments."

So who was your neighbor today? Was it your teacher at school who is having a rough time at home? Was it the lonely kid, the loner, the geek, or the dork in your class? Was is the kid in your neighborhood who never gets invited to anything? Was it the person in class who got laughed at today? Was it the shy girl who no one seems to know anything about?

Was it the homeless person you saw on the street? Was it the mother and children who checked into the Domestic Violence shelter this week? Was it the person you saw on the news whose house burned? Was it the guy who only has one set of clothes? Was it the lady who did not eat a meal today? Was it someone fighting cancer? Was it the kids in your school who can not read? Was it the kids who abuse substances so they don't have to face the truth about their insecurity?

Was your neighbor an African street kid? An HIV orphan from Malawi? Was it a girl from New Orleans who is still not back in school? Was it the kid from the Sudan who was maimed in an uprising? Was it the little boy in a Russian orphanage who has no hope for the future? Was it the Afghan family who is displaced from the war? Was it an illegal immigrant family from Mexico? Was it children all over the world who don't have clean water?

God made it pretty simple for us. We are supposed to love Him with everything we have got. And part of loving Him with everything we have is to love His people. He wants us to love our family and our friends but loving God means loving His family as well. His family is incredibly diverse and incredibly needy in our world. Ours is a world in need of so much and our love for God is demonstrated by our willingness to feel the need and to act. God calls us to care for "the least of these" in response to our thankfulness for His gift of grace. By caring for our "neighbors" whether they be in our home, our neighborhood, our school, our city, our country or our world we live lives that are holy in the sight of God.

Look around you. Who is it that needs you? Who do you need to serve? What is going on around you in the world that you can not stand? Where do you feel a passion for change? Who or what is God calling you to? Which part of His world is He asking you to improve?

Who is your neighbor? And how will you serve your God?

Martin Luther: Dangerous Man for God

"Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me. Amen!”

“Whatever your heart clings to and confides in, that is really your God”

"I have held many things in my hands, and I have lost them all; but whatever I have placed in God's hands, that I still possess”

“You are not only responsible for what you say, but also for what you do not say”

“Pray, and let God worry”

“How soon 'not now' becomes 'never'.”

“All who call on God in true faith, earnestly from the heart, will certainly be heard, and will receive what they have asked and desired, although not in the hour or in the measure, or the very thing which they ask. Yet they will obtain something greater and more glorious than they had dared to ask."

By Faith, Not by Sight

Do you know the legend of the Cherokee Indian youth's rite of passage?

His father takes him into the forest, blindfolds him and leaves him alone.

He is required to sit on a stump the whole night and not remove the blindfold until the rays of the morning sun shine through it.

He cannot cry out for help to anyone.

Once he survives the night, he is a man.

He cannot tell the other boys of this experience because each lad must come into manhood on his own.

The boy is naturally terrified He can hear all kinds of noises.

Wild beasts must surely be all around him.

Maybe even some human might do him harm.

The wind blew the grass and earth, and shook his stump, but he sat stoically, never removing the blindfold.

It would be the only way he could become a man!

Finally, after a horrific night, the sun appeared and he removed his blindfold.

It was then that he discovered his father sitting on the stump next to him.

He had been at watch the entire night, protecting his son from harm.

We, too, are never alone.

Even when we don't know it, our Heavenly Father is watching over us, sitting on the stump beside us.

When trouble comes, all we have to do is reach out to Him.

Moral of the Story:

Just because you can't see God,doesn't mean He is not there.

"For we walk by faith, not by sight."

2 Corinthians 5:7

Jesus is Alive!

He is Risen! He is Risen indeed!

Amazing comments from Foldiers:

"There is a huge comfort from this message, that we are good enough and in Christ we have value. All we have to do is accept it. We live in a society that determines our value by our success, be it in sports or school our main focus is to rise above the competition and that we should not get second place. I'm not saying that success is a bad thing or that being determined to gain things is wrong but when our "success" determines our value we have lost touch with how God values us. And in our daily walk we often times think we are not good enough for Christ. That is wrong because he tells us to come as we are whatever our maturity."

"This is SO true! We just have to accept the invitation. It amazes me every time I think about how God would never judge us and just wants us to live a life that brings Him honor. I think that we, as foldiers, should make it our goal to dance with God every single day."

Selection Sunday-Do You Want to Dance?

This was the message on the Middle School board at the HUB left by Kent after his awesome 945 message to us yesterday. It is a great question for us this week, especially. It reminds us that we do not have to anxiously sit in front of the TV cameras and wait to see if we are good enough (like some of the NCAA basketball teams yesterday) to be in the "big dance:" we are already in the greatest tournament of our lives. We are chosen by God who says we are good enough to dance with Him! A dance that will last into eternity; a relationship with our loving Father; a "madness" that is greater than anything we can imagine! Will we take the risk? Will we say "yes?"

Like the March Madness basketball teams, we do not have to play our way in. We don't have to be good enough or earn the position. There is no committee counting our wins and our losses; our good days against our bad; there is no consideration of how hard or easy our schedule has been. There is no "RPI" rating system with God. Everyone is in the tournament and no one loses. No one who wants to play gets left out! But like the seventh grade dance, you have to be willing to take the risk if you want to dance. You have to say, "yes Lord!, I want to dance with you not just today but forever!"

It is something far bigger than the NCAA National Basketball Championship: a personal relationship with a God who is always number ONE and who will never forsake you! A God who loved you enough that He sent His only son to die for your sins: because He thinks you are worth it; you are good enough!

So, the Holy Week is about being selected. He has chosen you and made the incredible sacrifice for you. Congratulations! You have been selected! Will you say yes to the "big dance?"

Stand Up, Stand Firm

1 Corinthians 10:13

No temptation has seized you except what is common to man. And God is faithful; he will not let you be tempted beyond what you can bear. But when you are tempted, he will also provide a way out so that you can stand up under it.

Rules: Condition or Confirmation

The book of Exodus in the Bible sets out rules for our relationship with God. These rules are not a condition for our relationship with God. These rules are a confirmation of our relationship with God which is guaranteed by His grace. We can not earn this relationship by our works and we can not lose this relationship by our behavior. In His grace, God has rescued us from our tendency to make wrong choices. We do not have an invisible fence to keep us on the right path. Therefore, our works, our thoughts, and our behaviors should reflect our thankfulness for His grace and rescue! We are rescued to His family forever! What us your Exodus story? From what situation or part of yourself has the grace of God rescued you?

This life, therefore, is not righteousness but growth in righteousness,
not health but healing,
not being but becoming,
not rest but exercise.

We are not yet what we shall be, but we are growing toward it;
the process is not yet finished but it is going on;
this is not the end but it is the road.
all does not yet gleam in glory but all is being purified.

-Martin Luther

Great Quotes Movie

Check out this cool movie! http://www.greatquotesmovie.com

Our Greatest Fear —Marianne Williamson

it is our light not our darkness that most frightens us

Our deepest fear is not that we are inadequate.

Our deepest fear is that we are powerful beyond measure.

It is our light not our darkness that most frightens us.

We ask ourselves, who am I to be brilliant, gorgeous,
talented and fabulous?

Actually, who are you not to be?

You are a child of God.

Your playing small does not serve the world.

There's nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other

people won't feel insecure around you.

We were born to make manifest the glory of
God that is within us.

It's not just in some of us; it's in everyone.

And as we let our own light shine,
we unconsciously give other people
permission to do the same.

As we are liberated from our own fear,
Our presence automatically liberates others.

—Marianne Williamson

[Often said to have been quoted in a speech by Nelson Mandela. The source is Return to Love by Marianne Williamson, Harper Collins, 1992. —Peter McLaughlin]

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The Farewell Party

Last night there were about 300 people gathered in our church gym to send us off to Colorado. They made a huge meal, a great video and sang some songs. It struck me on the way home that I just participated in a rare occassion.....and every aspect of that occassion gave the glory and thanks to our Lord. Kim and I received some incredible letters and gifts from our great friends here at St.Andrews-Covenant. After the meal, all the students and college kids and "real world" kids joined us in the HUB for a final time of worship and celebration. My tear ducts are dry and my back hurts from hugging.
I ran a diagnosis on my tears and It came back that they were tears of gratitude and thankfulness. This church has loved us well and we love them the same. At some point I will try and put the video up on the blog for yall to see.

God is Good
nate

El Fin

I'll probably delete this blog unless someone in el grupo wants to carry it on.
Let me know before we move and I'll turn over the info and the blog power.

natrone