God continues to show Himself every single day. Robert & Tyler stopped me to see what I was up to..these are a couple of nice guys who are in their early twenties, with pierced tongues, earrings and tattoos. Not my style, but a couple of God's children expressing themselves in a fashion this sixty-three year old doesn't understand but God whispered..."You don't have to understand them, Nick, just love them."
A little later down the road, a car stopped and out jumped a couple of friends from Kansas City; Randy & Elizabeth Davenport. They travel the country doing prison ministry. With Randy's music and Elizabeth's preaching they make a powerful team for the Lord. Take the time to check them out.
Next, we get a call from our good friends Don & Pat Knepp and they are only an hour away! Wow! How great it is to see folks from home on the road. They graciously treated us to a night in a hotel...how sweet!
The next day, we met Jeff Holley & Jeff Berg. By now we'd walked through Dewey and into Bartlesville. These guys do youth ministry in both towns. They work with the churches to make sure none of the kids fall through the cracks. When you think of middle America, you think wholesome and safe but unfortunately, drugs and alcohol have left their mark on families here too. Parents on coke or in prison leave many kids without direction and that's where these two come in.
They embraced our ministry and invited us to speak to a group of young men Wednesday afternoon. We talked with these guys for over an hour and half. Telling stories, answering questions and asking some. It was great! That night there was an after "the pole" event.
Meet me at the pole is a youth movement that encircles the world. Each September junior high and high school students gather around the flag pole to pray in the early morning. The youth ministers in Dewey & Bartlesville worked together to put on an evening event as well. Over 500 students attended. There was food, music, a clean comic, more music and Lucy and I were asked to address the crowd for a few minutes. These guys trusted God enough to allow us to speak without knowing what in the world we were going to say...that, my friends, is faith!
After the event, we got to speak to a number of young people one on one. Let me tell you this, if there is one thing people need in America...it's encouragement! They couldn't get enough of us telling them that their dreams were awesome, they were smart and that God loved them... And...it's all true! It felt so good, Lucy and I could have stayed their all night!
The next morning I was walking by the American Baptist School and a young man named Michael waved at me from across the street. I crossed over to say hello and he said, "You guys did good last night." This coming from a teenager is a huge compliment! A moment later a lovely young girl (perhaps his sister) named Addie came out and we talked for awhile before they had to go to class. That day, I can't tell you how many cars passed us honking their horns and waving. We had only spoken for five or ten minutes but God touched lives and it felt good.
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