It’s offically Thursday morning here in the Sheets household (12:35AM to be exact) – I’m finishing a cup of decaf coffee that my wife brewed after my long shower and I will be glad to roll into our bed in just a few minutes – but I felt the “need” to update all of you who might have been praying for tonight’s goings-on!

Tonight was an incredible event.

The Warsaw Wesleyan gym has never seen such a time as was had tonight. All together we had 111 people attend tonight’s Kick-Off! 79 of those were students in 7th through 12th grade, so we were shy of our goal of having 100 students, but still had a record-crowd for any BOX event!

Now for the real news…

For the last few months I’ve been feeling the Lord’s leading to do things a little different this year at our Fall Kick-Off. I haven’t really mentioned it a lot because I wanted to be sure that I was motivated by the Lord and not by anything else. What I felt God asking me to do was somehow present the Gospel at our Kick-Off this year. The last three Kick-Offs have been all about eating pizza, drinking soda, listening to loud music, and fellowshipping together. The last three years have been more about getting our students to bring their friends to a “church event” without it feeling too much like “church” and thus not seeing them ever again. This year it was as if I was nudged to present the Gospel in a “new” way – and at first I wasn’t sure what that would look like.

God is God – did you know that? He has a way of working things out.

Tonight I showed a 25-minute film illustrating the Gospel message of a father sacrificing his son to save a train-load of people. The film is called, “The Most” and the imagery is so powerful – I really can’t explain what it draws out of me – but I followed it up with a short, “lowest common denominator”, this-is-how-much-God-loves-you, message and then gave an opportunity for students to make a commitment to Christ for the first time.

Seven of tonight’s students stood to accept Jesus Christ as their personal Savior for the first time tonight!

It was an incredible thing to witness – not just for me, the youth pastor – but for their peers and sponsors, too!

I also invited those who needed to recommit their lives to Christ to stand and pray tonight and at least forty other students stood committing to get on the right track – tonight.

I’m so thankful that God still uses his “still, small voice” to get through to my media-hungry mind and ask me to “change things up”!

I’m also thankful that I won’t be needing to shave my head! (and so is Jess!)

Tomorrow I will attempt to sleep in for a bit and then I’ve got a few hours of work to do in cleaning up the things I didn’t get cleaned up before heading home tonight!

You know what I hate about stress?

I hate the fact that I KNOW I’m putting myself in a situation that will be high-stress. I tell myself that I don’t need to get so stressed and yet I do.

Tomorrow is our big Fall Kick-Off for theBOX – our youth ministry. These last weeks have been a huge blur as I continue to put last-minute things together for this thing and today was just “one of those days”. It really is a blur – I know we accomplished a lot and yet I am still sure that I have a million things to check off of my “to-do list” tomorrow, too!

And the stress – well, the stress has allowed me to “catch” whatever is floating around my house and has hit me straight in the throat. This same stress has also begun working a number on my “innerds” (READ: intestines and surrounding functional wierdness) and is keeping me “on my toes”.

Tomorrow will come together. Tomorrow teens will have fun. Tomorrow sponsors will build relationships with teens. Tomorrow the Gospel will be presented. Tomorrow is almost here.

Wanna help: Pray for theBOX Kick-Off tomorrow. Pray for teens’ hearts to be open to the Lord’s nudging. Pray for our sponsors as they interact with a population of students that probably wouldn’t otherwise be at a church tomorrow night. And also pray that the message of Jesus is shown in such a way tomorrow night that seeds are planted and lives are changed!

Hope you all enjoyed your families today.

Steve Irwin was killed while filming a documentary just after 11AM, Australian time. What a sad tragedy for the man who seemed to have no fear!

Apparently it was a sting-ray barb that went through his chest and killed him. I’m sure the national media will be giving us more details as they come in.

Irwin leaves his wife, Terri, and two children – Bindi (8) & Bob (3).

News story here.

We traded in Jess’ Buick for this beauty today after a couple of weeks of searching for “the one”! We really feel like God put this van in our path.

I had vowed early in our car-hunting experience that we weren’t yet at the minivan-buying point in our lives and look what happened – we own a minivan. I’ll learn to keep my mouth shut.

The van is incredible. Seating for 7 with enough storage room to make us extremely happy! This new-to-us vehicle will aid us as a ministry tool for sure! Thank you to those who helped us along the way by praying about our situation!

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