Metaphors and Momentum . . .

Our Weekley FIFA Winner

If you know me, you know I love to use metaphors. I contextualize things by relating one thing to another. Becca, my fiance, will claim that I do it way to much and often compare things that aren't even similar. However, that's the way I see the world. As I look at what the Lord is doing here in Franklin I see this whole process like a train starting out on it's journey. At the very start you give it a ton of power while the machine starts to barely creak into life. Then something happens, and there is a moment where you can truly feel every bit of power you are giving it translate directly into momentum. At some point after you are just feeding the momentum that is basically carrying itself. Where we stand right now is that middle stage. This whole process has gone beyond creaking to life and we are starting to feel it move and gain momentum in some crazy ways. Where to begin?

The Group We Took To Hidden Valley Monday Night

We'll start with the most obvious, tangible and empirical aspect of it all; kids coming out to club. It has been a bit ridiculous to see the amount of kids wanting to drive 40 minutes away to come to club with us. Our semi-nomadic band settled down on going to Hidden Valley's club. It's become familiar, and our kids are starting to make friends with some of the kids in the club and so the once stark separation of FranCo kids and HV kids is starting to fade away. Another big change is that kids are starting to understand what the heck Young Life is! For those of you that have been to or led clubs you know exactly what I'm talking about. There isn't another place in a high-schooler's life where there is such freedom to be ridiculous across all kinds of different social groups. When a kid sees it for the first time they aren't quite sure how to react. That have no point of reference to liken it to. Now that we've been a number of times, are kids are some of the craziest ones. They are singing loudly, getting into the games and listening with a keen ear to the talk. As we bring other kids along it's more natural for them to follow the lead of their classmates. It has been a cool transition to see.

Our Own After Club Eating Place!

And now Young Life has become the talk of the school. The things that Twitter has done for our momentum have been without rival. Kids love to tweet, and before and after club kids have been talking about how excited they are about YL and how fun it was afterward. Their friends see it and are asking about it. Suddenly, two weeks ago we took 20 kids to club and 23 the following week. I'm certain that the next week we go it will be over 30. Its gotten so big that we've started to go to our own Bojangle's in Rocky Mount after club rather than the one in Roanoke with the rest of the schools, because we simply cannot fit! (Also it gets kids back much earlier which parents appreciate a ton, but that is way less exciting). As we've grown and grown and grown and grown, we've come to realize something. The pillar is starting to move again. Another way I've contextualized this whole process is by seeing the way the Israelites responded to God coming out of Egypt. The Lord led them as a pillar of smoke by day and a pillar of fire by night (that in itself is absurd, if you haven't read the story of the Exodus lately do yourself a favor and check out how awesome God is and how quickly we as humans want to lose trust). Anyway, if the pillar didn't move neither did the Israelites. I'm sure there were times where they wanted to say "To heck with this whole pillar thing, lets just walk straight to the promised land", but they didn't. And the Lord led them.

As we've been back and forth a million times about club, we have trusted that feeling that the time wasn't right yet. There were certain things we knew were essential to start club that we didn't have yet. Moreover, we felt that the pillar had stopped where we were for the time being. But now it is moving again. What does that mean? That means Couch-A-Rama Camp Sign-Up Cook Out Extravaganza (catchy name right?). Couch-A-Rama is a Young Life staple where you throw some teams together, and the teams have a truck with a couch in the back of it. The goal is to take pictures of your entire team on a couch in predetermined locations, kind of like a scavenger hunt. It is a lot of fun. We will be doing that on March 23rd with the end location being one of our girls' houses where we'll have a cook-out and introduce camp to the masses (and hopefully have some kids sign up)! We are now also thinking about dreaming about the first club of our own which is very, very exciting. More details will come as everything shakes itself out.

The Franklin County Group at CLW 2013

So with all that what else is new? We got to take six committee members and myself to Richmond for a committee leader weekend that we all left refreshed and with a renewed vision and vigor. It was incredible to be a part of the bigger body and to see where the Lord is moving all across the state. As a small group just getting on their feet in Rocky Mount, Virginia, it was good for us to see that we're not alone in this. On an even more close-to-home level we got to meet with some of the other committees in Southwest Virginia small towns and be encouraged that we weren't in this alone. We left with a fire in our bellies and a refocusing of why we were doing all of this in the first place; Jesus. Our time was rich, deep and fun. My favorite part was getting to spend time with one another outside of a Committee Meeting setting. While that may sound strange because we were still at a conference together, and that would seem like one long committee meeting, it was nothing like that. We got to enjoy each other and not be down to business. It was a wonderful time. 

Our Used Car Lot (Our House on Sunday Nights)

We've also run into some interesting parking problems at our house on Sunday nights. We've continued having our 'Destination Nights' and FIFA tournament and having a growing number of guys showing up every  week. The picture to the left shows the awesome mess we find ourselves in! We find a way to make it work though, and we're excited to teach our guys the magical method that some call Carpooling. I feel that there are a million other things I've forgotten to mention, so I'll go rapid fire. Ben is now a J.V. Soccer coach, I've began substitute teaching, we are having a group of kids over to discuss what it would look like to start YL club here in Franklin and Becca and I may have found an apartment for next year! As I've been doing my best to keep this blog updated, I've realized that I truly am struggling to keep up with everything that the Lord is doing. It is big, wild and beautiful. I truly appreciate your care, concern, prayer and support. More to come soon!