We own Charlotte...

Thursday we, the Lurecrestboys, cruised into Charlotte again... much to our dismay, seeing how we usually feel so out of place in the big city. We were heading into town to sign up for some retirement plan stuff that the Board here at camp wanted to get set up for us full time employeses. Seeing how "early is on-time" we arrived about a half hour before any one else did so we took a walk through a little neighborhood, please note Big Nate's button down shirt and "satchel", he went all out.

When we got back to the Wachovia building where the meeting was to be held lo-and-behold, there was a Porsche parked right next to the white van. By the way, Nate did an incredible job backing the white van into that parking spot without hitting any of the fancy Charlotte cars, it truly was impressive.

As we walked into the fancy-shmancy Wachovia Securities building we couldn't help but feel like we had just entered into another dimension, one that we really shouldn't ever be remotely near. And then the most amazing thing happened, the people there asked us if we would like a drink... we didn't know what to do. They sat us down in this big conference room and brought in food and let us sit in comfortable clean chairs and brought us Coke and water.

This spiffy dude is Travis McCullough, the gentleman who would be setting up our retirement accounts. He was actually a really neat guy and very helpful, check out the pose he's rocking, pretty sweet. Jeremy was probably the first person to ever sign up for an IRA wearing a Trucker Cap and Carhartts... or at least in Charlotte.

The whole gang was there, this is after the meeting... we had so much fun they eventually kicked us out of the building, not really... but we did have a lot of fun. It's always neat getting to see everyone again, seeing how Jeremy White and Scott have been stuck at the Camp Office for the better part of the year.

We took the white van because we were supposed to pick up all of the pool supplies but they ended up not being ready for us. We did, however, also have the opportunity to make a sidetrip we had been needing to make for some time now. We went to see Meryle Garr, who was the wife of the late founder of Camp Lurecrest, the Reverend Alfred Garr, who now is worshipping with our Lord Jesus in heaven. Meryle has been in the possession of the old Camp Lurecrest van and had asked us to come and take it away... check out the sweet paint job complete with old school logo and everything. It was really sweet to get to see her and tell her of how the camp has been going, as well as the way the Emmaus School of Biblical Studies is really a blessing to the students as well as our whole ministry.

On the way home we felt really blessed to have had such a good day in Charlotte. We were treated like royalty... which doesn't happen too often for us grunt Lurecrestboys... and got to see a sweet woman who invested so much time and love into the ministry which we now carry on, standing upon the shoulders of her and Alfred.

Pastor's Luncheon

Today we had a neat event here at Lurecrest, a luncheon with all of the local pastors. It was a time where we invited the churches in the local area to know who we are and join into the vision here at Lurecrest, to exalt Christ by sharing His Gospel to the children... specifically those physically located near us. The event was one filled with good homemade BBQ (courtesy of Nathan Shuttlesworth... props), Jerry joking around and losing his train of thought while talking, a sense of community and shared vision amongst the local pastors, and a sweet time of seeing God faithfully and patiently answering our prayers. We have been praying for some time now that we would be able to reach out to the local community moreso but have been desiring to do it the right way and at the right time. This meeting, along with the WAVE group meeting a month or so ago, have been tremendously exciting as the community has become to move toward us to see what Christ is doing on the mountain.

Jerry shared the mission of Lurecrest and how God has so blessed us with His faithfulness and mercy as we try to lift up Jesus Christ, that children would focus on Him instead of their mess, that they would live looking up and away at Him and the righteousness He has given them by grace. After Jerry spoke one of the teachers from the Fruitland Bible Institute in Hendersonville shared also about the richness of the blessings that we have received... and that in light of God's goodness we must continue to live in loving response and gratitude. All the pastors were in agreement that this community needs to see Jesus more, and that it was their charge together to help the body of Christ unite and fix their eyes upon Him.

The afternoon was a sweet time of community amongst the 10 or so churches represented as we prayed corporately that the children and community would be set free by the great work Christ did FOR us, that the churches would unite and use their resources along with ours here at Lurecrest to do His work by sharing the Gospel with the children and families in the area.

Project Challenge

We wanted to introduce you all to a wonderful group of young kids who have been helping us throughout the last year or so now... a group called Project Challenge. The Rutherfordton based group provides children needing to fulfill community service hours to ministries and organizations such as Lurecrest. They come and help us about one day a month, usually for about 3 or 4 hours at a time. We have been really blessed to have them come as there are typically between 4-7 kids, allowing us to do some larger scale landscaping work during the short time they are here.

This time they came for two days in a row, arriving yesterday and working today again. Unfortunately for them we had about 8 hours of leaf raking needed around the pool and volleyball area so they got to use a rake more in the last two days then they probably had their entire lives. This is Hakeem, after they all raked up the leaves we had a couple of the kids blow of the roads and do some more fine tune cleaning. All in all camp is looking ready for summer to be absolutely honest, these kids did an amazing job helping us through some of the drudgery jobs landscaping. They are a fun group to be around also, as they tend to warm up to us after a while and like using some of our power tools like the leaf-blowers and the weed-eaters.

The big guy there is Sean, who has been the contact person for the work done here by Project Challenge. He's a big man with an even larger heart who seems to really enjoy working with the kids he brings. He's been the constant one to come here and we can't be thankful enough for the work that he and the group has done here over the last year. As a token of our gratitude we gave him one of our very few spare "safety green" maintenance t-shirts. Big Nate sacrificed one of his spare XXLs for Sean, but that's just how much we appreciate him and what he and Project Challenge are doing.

Pray with us

Every week the bible school students and staff here have a day where they spend about an hour in intercessary prayer. This week they decided that they wanted to pray for the campus and the coming summer, for the campers and staff who would be coming up... that God would send His holy spirit down mightily that we would be set free by the reality of Jesus and His mighty work to make us children of the living God.

We broke into groups of two and walked through all of the cabins praying specifically for the campers and staff who would be in each... the girls went through the girl's cabins and the boys through the boy's cabins.

We also spent some time praying for the programming... for our waterfronts, for our outdoor adventure program, for our skits, and for the other activities such as nightgames and campwide activities. After spending some time scattered about we came together and prayed collectively for this summer. Things to pray for were the Camp Pastors, for Jeremy and Lindsay White and the transition with them and their children here, the theme for the summer, the safety of the campers in all the activities, the orientation time with the staff and the devotions amongst them throughout the summer, that God would bring the children up and fill our weeks, that God would bring the staff He has for us this summer, for Jerry and Charlotte, for the staff leaders as they prepare to lead their times, for the kitchen staff and food, and for just about anything we could think of. We mention these that you would see the vast needs that we are depending on God to provide for us.

We would ask you, our body of believers... our brothers and sisters in the family of God... that you would pray with us. God chooses to whom He will show His mercy, and we have been blessed to see His grace poured out over the children and staff here in years past and we cannot be thankful enough. We here at Lurecrest will continue to pray that He will grace us to see Him face to face, to see the freedom He has purchased for us and rest in His mercy. Please pray with us as we cry out for His grace and mercy, that along with all the blessings that we would not be distracted but see His miracle. That He would help us believe that He possesses the living water He says He has for us, that those who come this summer would see that it is found in knowing Him. We have not because we ask not... let us dare to ask that Jesus would bring children and everyone who comes on the grounds this summer from death to life.