September 26 —October 13The second summit was equally benefcial, but was a completely diferent experience. The church was more fun to play music for because of their younger congregation—the church itself only thirteen years old, but the rapid growth of the church made it difcult for them to disciple and personally minister to each person that comes. Therefore, the most transformational night of the summit was the salvation message. The salvation service in done to avoid purely emotional responses in favor of knowledgeable decisions—the emotions come when God transforms their life. When the message is fnished, people are asked to go back to a specially designated room to be counseled by either church staf or team members. As I played background piano for the service, it seemed as if the entire church stood up on the invitation. There were so many that stood, that the stories of all of the touched lives and families continues to surface everywhere.

My frst host home 6

October 13, 2010Volume 2, Issue 2

Crazy Life In Action

August 13 — 31 had gotten a bike from one of the instructors at the driving school and was hoping to witness to him when I returned it. Unfortunately, he had gone home early that day. I wrote him a two page letter (much to the amusement of the ofce workers at the school) and returned the bike to where he had given it to me.

Thank you all for your prayers, it has been a very exciting time. My time in Life Action so far has been very benefcial for me. Every day has taught me something new. Since my last update, we have completed two full summits: the frst at a NC church, and the second at a WV church.

September 12 — 22

The frst summit was a wonderful experience where we saw a church truly revived. One of the most encouraging aspects of the frst summit was the unity of the church as we left. It was an older church with an older congregation. The greatest need of the church was just to come together and develop love behind the doctrine and tradition. Because of this background, the most important nights of the summit were about bitterness, and new life in old habits. The last night we saw the entire body joined together with love for each other and for the staf. It was a joy to see the church acting like a body in Christ.

During this frst period, we did little else than intense training. Toward the end of August, we did a Sunday morning service in a church in Grand Rapids. Since it was my frst time driving the truck and nothing eventful happened, I considered the trip a success. My host family had three daughters and a hairy cat. I had hair on all of my clothing when I left. Saturday night I spent in the oldest girl's vibrant room (as seen above). The service went quite well, and we were able to visit Lake Michigan at sunset.

In the frst issue of the frst volume (what! You didn't know that this is like the 12th issue—the frst issue of the second volume?! Just kidding, this is actually only my second newsletter, I just felt that it was time to move on to volume two since it has been so long since my other issue) I mentioned that I

FUNNY STORY! Because every good newsletter has a good story in it, I decided to throw in a recent one. Wesley is the team's drummer (I refer back to issue one: picture of 6'5” stroller-pusher). He and I are rooming together in the second summit, and share a car that is lent to us for the duration of the summit. We live 8 miles from the church and had left the car there the previous day. To retrieve it, I decided to run the distance and get it. Wesley wanted to come.

“Ok, Wes, but I will probably just go ahead.”

As I reached the church, I realized that Wes had beaten me! How? My ego claimed to be faster! Oh how I applied the lessons of humility to my life. All that we had learned, and I was still proud!

Well, evidently, Wesley had grabbed a policeman to help him, or rather the policeman had grabbed him. You see, the route we drive to church is interstate, but the route to run (at least legally) is by highway. Shame on me for not telling Wes that running on the interstate is illegal...or maybe shame on his mom. Lol whatever the case, the cop picked him up and drove him to the church. Sigh, I think I will keep working on my humility, and Wes can keep meeting new cops.

Since we will not spend Christmas with each other as a team, we celebrated a Life Action Christmas on August 25th instead!4

Some of my teammates that my parents met 6

PRAYER REQUESTS

That our focus stays on ministry when our minds and bodies feel tired.

That we will be able to prepare for a trip to Canada in May. There are many preparations that come with a trip to Canada and many hours of work to make the border crossing legal :)

For safety as I drive the semi for the coming two summits, but especially as we go to Ohio and Michigan in December. I am not entirely confdent about winter driving (understandably I hope).

Some fun in the city of Baltimore with my host parents 364

5 Some North Carolina mountains

World War II memorial—the Florida teammates and the Iowa teammates (The Iowa one being a bit lonely :)6