Getaway Weekend

We had a good friend's wedding this weekend in Ventura so we decided to stay the night at our friends Arch and Tam's house. They have a little side house that they opened up for us and we felt like we were on a mini vacation.
Here's a couple of pics from the wedding. Dave and Mia have been living in the middle east for the past few years and are now moving to Hawaii. They had a beautiful wedding.


The next day we went upcoast to Santa Barbara. It was beautiful weather so we layed on the beach, went for lunch and then had dinner by the pier. Such a nice getaway.
This morning Clint left for a NIKO (outdoor adventure leadership training). There are 60 youth going to the mountains to be stretched by God. Clint loves his times of NIKO and always comes back with new vision from God and amazing stories.


We have a couple of good friends visiting but they're leaving tomorrow. Reg came for a quick visit, but Mark has been here for 3 months mission building. Everyone's sad to see them leave.

Our youth

Last night we had youth group, just like every Friday night, but last night was difficult. After a game of dodgeball, (a broken nose), some basketball we went inside for teaching. It seems like the youth nowadays are faced with so many more issues than we were.. A few of our kids have serious attention disorders, family issues, and have already started with drugs and alcohol. There's also an overall disrespect for adults and authority. It seems like we're getting through and then all of the non-Christian yet kids show up and it's madness.
Praise God that our School of Ministry is giving us some students to serve with us as staff. We are in need of one on one discipleship. Most of our youth don't have good parent figures at home, if any at all, and so anytime YWAMers come and serve the impact on the youth's lives is immense.
We love our youth so much and see so much potential for great change. Everything is so dependent on the choices they are making on a daily basis. Some are in danger of going to a boys home, moving in with another parent, choosing drugs and alcohol and other BIG decisions. Yet we know that God loves them, and is intent on them becoming followers and doers of HIS ways.
Quick story: we took one of our boys out for dinner a few nights ago and were asking him questions about when he became a Christian. His response was when he started coming to our group. His family situation is non-existent, a homeless mom and 5 foster homes since we've known him. He's visited our YWAM base a couple times and really wants to follow Christ. Please pray for him as he's learning what it requires to follow Christ.