Summit 2010 in St. Charles, IL

Some of you might be wondering where next year's Awana Summit will be held. In case you didn't get the memo....it's in St. Charles, Illinois (just West of Chicago). Hope to see you there!

What a Weekend!! Thanks for Praying for Awana Summit 2009!

Thanks for those of you who have prayed diligently for us! The college & ministry fair went great! Doug & I had the opportunity to share with so many teens & adults what God is doing around the world amongst unreached tribal people & how they can help reach them. We shared a lot about NTBI (New Tribes Bible Institute) & about what tribal missionaries do. I was blown away at how many people stopped by with great questions & genuine interest!

All I can figure is that God answered your prayers!

This team is from Grace Bible Church - Charlotte, NC. Two graduates from their Awana Group are now students at NTBI! Lane (gray shirt) is planning on attending our campus in Jackson, Michigan this fall! It was so cool to meet him before he comes up.

These students are from Evangelical Community Church - Jackson, Tennessee. I've gotten to know them over the past two years and it was really great visiting with them this year again! Two of their students won First Place overall in various fine-arts competitions! Way to go Page & Emily!!!

The last event was the Platinum Round of the Bible Quiz. They narrowed it down to the top 10 teams from all over the nation...

All the teams did great! Our friends from Grace Bible Church, Charlotte, ended up winning! The top 3 teams recieved nice scholarships for college & the champions recieved a $500 scholarship from Awana to use for the college of their choice!!

Finally, we finished out the weekend with our final closing session. Kevin White from Awana gave the final message & really did a phenomenal job at wrapping up the weekend. He had me come up & share how God led me to New Tribes Mission & how Awana had a huge part in all that. Again, THANK YOU for praying!! I was able to share with the whole group about the thousands of unreached people groups in the world & challenge them to discover their role in Expanding the Reach of the Gospel. Your prayers were answered! There was a great response from the students! Hundreds have begun praying specifically that God would send out laborers into His harvest field (Matthew 9:37) & take the gospel where it's never been before.

Praise God! Let's continue praying to this end...until every tribe is reached!!!

Awana Summit - Greensboro, North Carolina!

This year I get to represent New Tribes Mission & unreached tribal groups at the biggest event that Awana Clubs Intl. puts on....Summit weekend! If you haven't noticed yet, it's in Greensboro at a HUGE convention center! I'll put up some pictures as the weekend goes on.

Please pray that I'd be able to connect with and challenge students & adults to discover their role in Expanding the Reach of the Gospel to places & people who have still never heard of Jesus Christ.

Awana Summit Events & Friends

Art Rorheim (founder of Awana) is a big fan & support of New Tribes (& has been around since it's beginnings in 1942). He stopped by our booth to say hi & we snagged this picture. Art has been a hero of mine & a great influence on my life all these years through the Awana ministry! Thanks Art, for your labor in the Lord!!

This is Joel Culberson, a good friend & Awana Missionary from Kansas. He organized the Awana games.

Here are the games. I got to talk with a lot of students & cheer for a few teams. This year there were around 40 teams from all over the US!!

This is my buddy Caleb who came with his team from Colorado. We're in the general session (there are 4 general sessions this weekend) where different speakers are challenging the students & leaders to Serve the Lord with their lives.

Here's about 3/4 of the audience in the general session.

Arlyn & Marcy Nies (Awana Missionaries from North Dakota) were my team leaders when I went to Zimbabwe back in 2001. They organized the Awana Bible Quiz for this year's Summit.

Here are some teams competing in a preliminary round of the Bible Quiz. There are multiple rounds where teams are eliminated & tonight the top 10 teams from all over the US will compete in the Platinum Round!

Chicago trip! Talk about a bunch of fun!

Ever since last fall, Shannah & I have been wanting to get away and just hang out together in Chicago. Last weekend Shannah & I finally got to make that trip! We had a blast!

This is a HUGE bean! Gives you a great view of the city!

Shannah is very strong of course!

Neeto...

At Buckingham fountain, these people just walked right into her hand. Told you she was strong!

"We are Awana Cubbies....we hop because we're happy..."

"...and we jump and shout for JOY!!..."

Shannah took me to the house of mirrors at Navy Pier. Whoa...I've got a big head!

Guess I aint seen nothing yet. haha

I think this is my favorite.

Ate lunch at a Thai restaurant.

Would someone tell that little jade guy to STOP blowing his little jade trumpet in my ear?

Whoa...BIG people!

This is very serious...

We went for a walk down by the lake..

...and stopped by Shedd Aquarium...very cool!

Especially since I got to hug a HUGE fish!!!

We tried to do our best impression...

This is the best I can do.

A friend of ours, Janessa Davis, is a student at Moody Bible Institute. She set it up for both of us to stay there at Moody, right downtown! Thanks so much Janessa!