There are times during the week I feel like a teenage bus driver. I remember back a few months listening to a sermon about a college age youth leader driving middle and high school students around on Friday nights to their church's youth services. She did that for years and poured so much into the lives of those teens. Her life was passing by and her friends were out dating and getting married and she continued to sail the teenage bus back and forth on Friday evenings. For the past few weeks now, I have given up my basketball tickets to attend our middle/high school bible study (LOL) on Wed nights. I don't get home until 9pm on those evening and I am wiped out. It takes sometimes an hour to pick everyone up and drop them back off at home. I got aggravated this week because there is just not enough time to get it all done and everyone to where they need to be on time. I am a stickler when it comes to being late for stuff but sometimes the clock just doesn't slow down enough. Is all this worth it? Is the time I am investing driving all over the place to get these students to bible study worth it?
You better believe it!!! This past Wed night we had 2 students stand and accept Christ. That is a victory!! That is reason to celebrate and enjoy the fruit of all the effort we pour out and into them. Eternity has changed forever in those 2 students. Is that vacation time worth it each week to pick up and drop at school 5-7 students on Friday mornings to YCI? You better believe it. I had a student who I have only met through YCI - ask me this morning if it would be ok for her to call me "Uncle Lonnie" like so many other students do. I had a student ask me - do you go to church with everyone in here? - I love the smiles, the good mornings, the handshakes and the high fives. I love that God is being brought into that media center in our school system and this group of middle school students have something in common. To know Christ better.
I want to share Ephesians 4:1-3
I therefore, a prisoner for the Lord, urge you to walk in a manner worthy of the calling to which you have been called, with all humility and gentleness, with patience, bearing with one another in love, eager to maintain the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.

This kind of sacrifice isn’t about money or time, it drills down to the core of who you are. The strength and muscle behind this pledge is in the sacrifice of yourself. Humility is the word that comes to mind here.
Pastor Travis called each one of my rock group kids by name out on Wed night. He told them how awesome it is for them to have Carol and I in their corner along with their parents. Not everyone in my rock group kids have both parents...and that role makes it all the more special. Travis has it right when he told them that we would do anything for them. He knows my heart.... I pray it really shows. How you see people shows others where your heart is.

Happy Friday everyone,
Lonnie~