August Announcements

Here's what happening this month for New Life Student Ministries!

1. Back to School Swim Party! Sunday Aug 14 / after AM service / guys bring drinks & girls bring chips / bring your swimmers to church / no one-pieces or speedos!
2. Back to School Shindig Lock-In! Friday Aug 19 / $40 / meet @ NLBC @ 9:15 PM / Playtime Pizza / Riverdale 10 Cinema / mandatory sign up by Sunday Aug 14
3. Fall Retreat at Camp War Eagle! Sep 9-11 / $60 / deadline to sign-up Aug 24

Exciting things on the horizon! Great time to get involved & kick it with our student ministry!

Camp at the Mount Rules 2011

I had the opportunity to create the rules video for Camp at the Mount 2011! Don't worry. I've kept my day job. Enjoy!

Camp at the Mount Promo 2011

Camp at the Mount 2011! July 24 - July 29. Sign up TODAY!

Fight the Good Fight

Every Monday, Adam Young of Owl City posts an entry to his blog. I was highly challenged by today's entry, and wanted to pass this message along to you as well. You should follow this guy. http://www.owlcityblog.com/

Right now I’m tucked snugly into my bunk on the tour bus as a sleepy chorus of tires on blacktop sweetly serenades me through the night. My eyelids are growing heavy. Our fearless driver is at the helm, a great courageous captain of the moonlit open road. It’s 2:34 AM and we’re skirting the east coast, stealing through the night, trekking from Baltimore to Montreal. A rich scent of evergreen hangs heavy in the air as our landlocked cruise ship pitches and reels over wave after wave of rolling coniferous hilltops.

A dear fan gave me a beautiful letter after my show a few nights ago and she wrote a verse on the inside cover.

Whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through Him. (Colossians 3:17)

I’m sure I must’ve read this verse fifty times before, but tonight it struck me in a new way. I spend so much time DOING… in whatever capacity the definition of the word DO includes. I, as a mortal human being, would go nuts if I wasn’t always DOING whatever it is I DO… and of course not all of it is BAD per se, because all of it just IS and sometimes I don’t pay any attention to it. I wake up, I do stuff, I fall sleep, I repeat. The conviction here is the fact that I so often forget to do whatever it is I do… in the name of the Lord Jesus, not because I’m willfully trying to be a greedy little monster (despite the classic nature of the flesh) but because sometimes it just doesn’t cross my mind. I stood onstage the other night during the encore and felt the Lord suddenly say, “You don’t have to be afraid to trust me. I’ve got you.” Everything in me wanted to cry out and say, “Yes, but I’m such a helpless sinner! What good can I do?!” Later that night I found myself reading 2 Peter chapter 3, and there was my answer… the fact that my wonderful Savior is ALIVE, and He is going to return for His own. Despite my many flaws, despite my endless list of weaknesses, Christ is so much BIGGER than all of that… my prayer is only that He grant me the strength required to finish this race, to fight the good fight, to remain steadfast, to further the Kingdom, and to grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ… for it is painfully obvious that without Him, I am absolutely nothing. I deeply desire more than anything to make Him proud, that by my life or death, His name may be glorified.

Sometimes the good fight feels impossible, but I for one, am NOT giving up.

JV

"Open-Mic" NIGHT!

This Wednesday, June 1, will be our inaugural "Open-Mic" night at NLBC! You guys have heard me share all year long what the LORD has laid on my heart & how He's spoken to me. But now it's time for YOU to share!

What Does "Sharing" Look Like: basically, this is a time for you to share what God has done in your life this past year. How you've grown in Him. How you've become closer in your relationship with Him. Maybe it's a verse. Maybe it's something that spoke to you on a Wednesday night, Sunday School, a Bible Study or even your own personal quiet time. Whatever it is, pray & think about how God has been working in your life this past year & get ready to SHARE it!

And some of you may not want to. Some of you may be scared. But think about this: you never know how your testimony might encourage or bless someone else. 

Time to get real students & time to share the power of the LORD in your life!

JV

LOVER of Your Soul?

Have you ever considered treating your relationship with Jesus like an ACTUAL relationship??

I think that's a good, tough question, and one that generates a huge challenge for us. Think about it. In a real-life relationship, with a best friend or significant other, you:

• Spend hours talking/texting on the phone & not mind a bit
• Hate being apart...hate not being able to see that person
• Get excited about ANY opportunity to spend time or just hang out with that someone
• Spend numerous hours stalking them on Facebook

So what if we treated our relationship with Jesus the same? What if we didn't mind spending hours in conversation with Him? What if we dreaded not being in His presence or feeling His Spirit? What if we got excited about meeting with Him or spending time with Him at church? What if we spent hours stalking Him & looking Him up in His Word to learn everything we could about Him? What IF?

Better question: so why not? Maybe this can challenge you to take a whole new approach in your relationship with Jesus Christ. Make Him more than your Savior. May He be your LORD & lover of your soul.

JV

Go Back or Go Forth?

When Jesus encounters the woman caught in adultery in John 8, He commands her to go & leave her life of sin. To go & sin no more. To go & no longer continue living her old ways. To go & begin a new lifestyle.

He ultimately gives her a choice. He commands her to go, but it's up to the woman whether or not she leaves her life of sin. She has that choice to make.

Today, when we encounter Jesus as LORD, we're faced with the same decision as the woman. Go back to our old life of slavery to sin? Or go forth with the Lord? Go & live in new life?

The choice is yours. Today. What life will you choose?

JV

MISSION:Chicago 2011

- WHEN: June 10^th (meet @ 6 AM) – June 14^th

- WHERE: Chicago (Wicker Park & Logan Square)

- WHY: Go serve & do MISSIONS with Mosaic Chicago Church

- WHO: All High School students (2012 school year)

- WHAT: Service projects / prayer walking / VBS / evangelism

- HOW MUCH: $100 (includes lodging, L-Train pass & meals while there)

- DEADLINE: June 1^st

- WHAT TO BRING: $$ for food there & back & general spending / sleeping bag, pillow & air mattress / toiletries / BIBLE / work clothes / games for hangout

*Contact John for any further questions! 479.381.7502

Don't Smear the Map

My heart has been heavy here lately. My mind has been boggled. My thoughts have been all over the place. Discouraged. Confused. Restless.

Tara & I have been here in Little Rock for almost 2 years now. And when we moved down here from Fayetteville for medical school, we left everything behind. Amazing jobs we loved, family, friends & all sorts of support. So moving was certainly a challenge. But we felt the Lord was directing us here for His purpose, so we came even at the expense of those things. We wanted to be obedient no matter what.

And in our obedience, the LORD has certainly blessed! He has given me an amazing opportunity to minister to students at a growing church in New Life Baptist. The LORD has used us in mighty ways to bring glory to His kingdom & He has proven to be great & faithful through it all. We've made lasting relationships, developed some roots, seen tremendous spiritual growth & gone through life-changing experiences we would have never experienced otherwise. God has been good to say the least.

So that's where things got complicated. In our desire to be obedient, God moved & provided us with a ministry to invest in. God proved He had directed us to Little Rock for a purpose. And God confirmed He had called us to minister to students at New Life Baptist Church.

Which wasn't necessarily our plan. Because when we moved, we knew there was a possibility to return to Fayetteville for Tara to finish her 3rd & 4th years of school. We weren't counting on being bound by anything here. But God had other plans. So when that time came around to make that decision to stay here or go on back to NWA this Spring, you can imagine the torment. The stress. The hours of thoughts spent on what to do.

On one hand, everything we wanted was back in Fayetteville. We could go finish up school in a better location, be surrounded by family & old friends, possibly make a return to an old job we loved & be in the place we wanted to be.

But that's not what God wanted for us. That's what we wanted. And as much as we pleaded with Him, He simply never said "GO." We realized we were wanting God's will to line up with our plans instead of the other way around. We were attempting to force God's plan to be ours. Which was so sinful of us. Of me especially.

In our hearts, we were simply attempting to discern God's will. We so desperately wanted to be obedient to Him. We prayed, sought wisdom & spent time in His word to figure it out. But we were also being so selfish in trying to make things work out for us. So selfish in worrying about our lives being perfect & things being the way we wanted them.

Life's hard when you try to outweigh God's will with your own selfish desires. When you try to manipulate God's will & use "signs" to have things work out the way you want. But at the center of it all is sin. The real issue comes not from God providing clear direction - but from your selfishness smearing the map.

This experience boldly echoed John 3:30 into our lives, which says "HE must become greater; I must become less." Our prayer is for God to be BIGGER in our lives. Bigger in our decisions. Bigger in our plans. Bigger in our direction. And definitely bigger than our wants & desires.

May His plans become our plans. May His decisions become our decisions. May His direction become our direction. And may His wants & desires become our wants & desires for our lives.

in CHRIST > jv

The Homecoming

Intro Video for "The Lost Son."

JV