Homewood Christian Community Church - August 24th, 2008

Leslie and I had the opportunity to visit our friends at the Homewood Christian Community Church in Homewood, KS this past weekend. Homewood was actually where I preached my first message about eight years ago and they were the first local church to partner with our ministry with Golden Spur Ministries.

Homewood is a rural church that is around fifteen minutes from Ottawa, KS. Please remember Homewood Christian Community Church in your prayers as they are working on building a new sanctuary to replace the hundred-year-old sanctuary that had been deteriorating over the past few years. They currently have the foundation completed and are going to begin exterior construction over the next few weeks. Pray that the project remains safe and that they would raise the funding needed to complete the project.

National High School Finals Rodeo - July 18th-27th, 2008

On July 18th-27th, 2008 I was part of a ministry team from the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys that ministered at the 2008 National High School Finals Rodeo in Farmington, NM. Last year was my first year of attending the National High School Finals Rodeo and if you recall I was absolutely blown away by the response from the students. I was even more encouraged this year!

The ministry started off with our crew arriving in Farmington on Friday and we spent most of the evening setting up our booth in the trade show. This particular booth was a scaled down version of the booth that we set up at the National Finals Rodeo in Las Vegas. We had a free table (stocked with Cowboy New Testaments and Bible tracts) and a table that contained a few FCC logoed items for sale. We also had a testimony DVD showing on a TV that showed a few well known cowboys sharing what the Lord's been doing in their lives. I was pretty surprised how many students would stop in our booth and just sit down and watch that video (sometimes the entire 30 minutes). The booth was open each day from 10am to 7pm and served as our "office" throughout the week. I call it our "office" because, while sitting in a booth for six or seven hours a day is not exactly the most exciting opportunity (especially during the slow times), we were able to use that booth space as a place to meet with and build up relationships with the students throughout the entire week.

Sunday was the final day for contestants to check in and Sunday evening was the first performance of the rodeo (there were 13 performances total). We held a Cowboy Church Service that morning in the Memorial Coliseum and there were around 950 people in attendance. That is by far one of the largest services that we have ever held! While that service was encouraging, I was even more encouraged by the students and families who talked to us throughout the rest of the week about the service (either thanking us for being there or sharing with us how they were touched).

If we were not in the booth or sleeping (or at the service on Sunday), then we were at the rodeo performances behind the chutes and in the announcer's stand praying with the contestants and helping out where we could. While at the performances, we each wore a vest that identified us as Rodeo Chaplains. Usually, I'm apprehensive about drawing attention to myself in that manner, but I believe that the Lord used that identification for His glory during this rodeo.

On Friday night (the second to last night of the rodeo) one of the bull riding contestants suffered a serious neck injury. I'm not sure of the specifics, but the doctors had said that his fifth and sixth vertebrae impacted and the result was that his sixth vertebrae was above his fifth. Ordinarily, people do not survive an impact of that magnitude and given enough time (hours in fact) they would definitely be paralyzed. The Lord used two factors to prevent this young man, Corbin, from being paralyzed. The first factor was that a nationally renowned sports medicine neurosurgeon happened to live in Farmington, NM. Within hours of the injury this same doctor had Corbin in surgury and within a day he was already starting to regain feeling in his lower body (he had lost feeling from the neck down in the arena). The second factor, and I believe that this is greater than the first, is that there were literally hundreds of people praying for Corbin throughout the rodeo and the city of Farmington. In fact, several times while we were still wearing our chaplain vests a group of students would stop us and ask us to pray with them for Corbin's recovery. What an awesome testimony...The Lord was using this tragedy to bring genuine thoughtful prayer into the sport of rodeo!

The Lord also used the identification that we had with our vests to lead a contestant to us late one evening so that he could pray to place his faith in Christ. Our team was standing in line at a concession stand after Thursday night's performance and the kid walks up to us and asks, "Can I be saved?" He was so bold and surprising that it took a few seconds for it to register with us what he was wanting. I've never experienced that before!

I left the 2008 National High School Finals Rodeo totally encouraged by the Lord's work there and my head swimming with ideas about ministries and opportunities for the next finals. Too bad it's a year away!

For more pictures from the ministry click here...

Ayore Church Camp - June 29th-July 4th, 2008

Last week marked the third year that I was invited to preach at the Ayore Church Camp in Horton, KS. The camp is organized by the Ayore Church in Morrill, KS and reaches out to youth from Morrill, Hiawatha, and Sabetha (all located around 45 minutes West of St. Joseph, MO).

The camp lasted five days and contained seperate Bible study classes for high school, middle school, and elementary school age students. In addition to preaching to the entire camp during the nightly chapel services, I led the high school age Bible study twice a day. The teaching (in addition to preaching) was a change for me but I enjoyed leading the students through a basic Bible study course. My prayer is that the students will have recieved the tools and methods necessary to study Scripture on their own during the year.

Please keep our friends at the Ayore Church in your prayers as they continue the relationships with these youth and as they prepare for the arrival of thier new pastor in late August!

Lifehouse Skit - June 27th, 2008

Last week at the Flat Tops Rodeo Bible Camp in Rifle, CO one of the camp counselors asked if I could display the following video clip to a few of the camp's students. It took a while to download, but I was blown away by the bold message that the video clip proclaims. It shows a few of the struggles that our youth face on a daily basis and how those same struggles can keep pushing us farther and farther away from a dynamic relationship with Christ. Ultimately we are shown how we can push through all of the world's distractions and struggles and discover the peace and security that comes only through faith in Christ. I warn you, the clip is a little graphic in parts. If you are like me this clip will challenge you...

Flat Tops RBC - June 16th-19th, 2008

The Lord is at work in our youth! If you don't believe that you should have traveled with me to the Flat Tops Rodeo Bible Camp in Rifle, Colorado last week (June 16th-19th, 2008).

Like last year, I was asked to both provide instruction in trick riding and preach during the six chapel sessions. Most of the time, at camps were I teach trick riding and preach I get pretty worn out pretty quick (that couldn't have anything to do with 16 hours of non-stop teaching). This year, however, the Lord blessed the trick riding clinics with three students who really had a desire to learn that was so great that it was only surpassed by their desire to walk with our Lord. In fact, the girls' and boys' Walk-the-Talk Buckles were won by trick riding students! (The Walk-the-Talk Buckle is awarded at each camp to one boy and one girl who displays the most Christ-like attitude.)

Just like at the Northern Front Range Rodeo Bible Camp, I preached through the book of 1 John. The age range of the students was from 8-18 (just like the last camp) but I was amazed at how well the students seemed to be paying attention and remembering the major points of our chapel sessions. Over all, it just seemed like the Lord was really at work in the lives of the students. In fact, the first night nearly half of the camp made a decision to either place their faith in Christ or work towards a deeper and dynamic relationship with Him. It only got better as the camp went on!

I was amazed at the energy that the Lord gave me at this camp. Sometimes when I do several camps back to back I get pretty worn out. This was not the case in Rifle though. I believe that this was, in part, due to the great relationship that the Lord has built up between myself and the camp director, Jeff Kehr. This is my third year of preaching at this camp and it is Jeff's fifth year as a camp director. Jeff (and the Flat Tops Chapter of the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys) have the discipline, maturity, facilities and endurance to run a great camp and the Lord uses them to do just that every year! I feel truly blessed to be a part of that. I was pretty amazed this year as Jeff asked me a question or I asked him a question about chapel or the camp in general, it seemed like we were always of one mind and had the same conclusion to problems or struggles. I really look forward to working with that whole crew again next year!

As with all camps, I would ask for your prayers for the students and staff who made commitments to the Lord. Pray that they will have the endurance they need to keep those commitments and that they will have the wisdom that only comes from a deeper understanding of Scripture. Pray also for those that do not have a home church--we stress pretty hard at each camp the need for commitment to a local church. Last, simply praise the Lord for another great camp in Rifle, Colorado and for the great crew that He has placed there!

Click here for more pictures from Rifle...

Below is a video clip of the baptisms that were perfomed at this camp...

Northern Front Range RBC - June 10th-13th, 2008

Just a few weeks ago, I preached and taught trick riding at the 2008 Northern Front Range Rodeo Bible Camp. The camp was held at the Island Grove Regional Park in Greeley, CO from June 10th-13th.

There were around sixty students at the camp from ages 8-18. That's a pretty big age range for preaching! Each Rodeo Bible Camp has six chapel sessions. For my part, I preached through the book of 1 John and focused on the major themes: (1) Real Joy, (2) Walking in the Light and Confessing Sins, (3) Obeying His Commands and Loving Others, (4) Remaining in His Word, and (5) Definition of Love - Placing Others Needs Before Our Own.

It was my prayer that the Holy Spirit would use the study of 1 John to challenge the students to develop a dynamic relationship with Christ by applying the above mentioned principles. There were quite a few kids who placed their faith in Christ and even more who, at the end of the camp, made a commitment to grow in their relationship with Christ over the next year.

In a bit of a side note, I was encouraged by the opportunity to present the Word at this camp alongside Paul and Linda Scholtz. Paul was the preacher who preached at the Rodeo Bible Camp in 1997 where I was saved. Linda, who is a renowned trick rider and instructor, was the reason why I went to that same camp (to learn trick riding). It was a great blessing to have Paul and Linda leading the music for the morning chapel services at this camp.

Please remember the students and adults who made commitments to Christ at this camp. Pray for their faithfulness and for the Lord to build up in them a hunger for the Word and a desire for fellowship with a local church!

Click here to see pictures from this camp...

Below is a video clip showing the two baptisms that were performed at this camp...

Flint Hills Rodeo Ministry - June 6-7, 2008

Earlier this month I was asked to partner with Flint Hills Community Church in setting up an outreach booth at the Flint Hills Rodeo in Strong City, KS. Strong City is about 15 minutes west of Emporia, KS. The church is one of our oldest support churches and is one of the few Bible-preaching churches located in close proximity to the rodeo grounds.

For the outreach itself, we set up a tent and handed out copies of The Way for Cowboys (a New Testament that includes testimonies from a few professional cowboys and cowboy preachers), a rodeo themed Bible and testimony tract called Are You Ready?, and copies of the Fellowship of Christian Cowboys' monthly magazine The Line Rider.

Despite the overnight destruction of our tent (strong winds are common in the Flint Hills), the team handed out a case of Bibles and built relationships with several spectators. This was the first year of doing this ministry and we are looking forward to partnering again with the Flint Hills Community Church next year for an even greater impact.

Click here for more pictures of our time in the Flint Hills...