FBC Bryan Trip to Mineral Wells

Our retreat with Compass was a great way for our students to connect with God outside of a traditional church setting. Their conversations naturally flowed out of our activities in a way that just doesn't happen when we are back at home. Our students really connected with God and with each other over that weekend.

A lot of good conversations are still coming out of discussions that started that weekend! Thanks for helping us out with everything!

Aaron Hogan

Spring Break Trips

Ahhh, Spring Break. We had several groups join us last week in the Wichita Mountains and I am thankful to have been a part of them. Thanks to the youth pastors from FBC Newalla and Harmony Baptist Church in Atoka, OK for bringing a couple of great groups of students along and being so open to experiencing God in the great outdoors. My favorite parts of the trips this week were the times of solitude,and the discussion around seeing God in specific things in nature. Sitting on a lookout point, far enough away from civilization that the only sounds you hear are the birds singing, the creek rippling by, and maybe a faint voice of someone singing during their time alone with God The atmosphere here just makes entering into worship more accessible sometimes. It makes me really clear my mind of the distractions that life in our busy world that constantly beg for my attention. Richard Foster says in Celebration of Discipline that we should set aside four times a year to get alone and prioritize our lives. I agree with him that this is vital to our pursuit of God and our pursuit of goals, but I think that there is so much more that can happen in isolating yourself, particularly in nature. We not only get the chance to see things more clearly, but it is essentially good for our spirit. Being in the fresh air, seeing the grandeur of themountains, and hearing the chorus of nature singing to God, is beautiful.

A youth pastor this weekend made the comment that the rock climbing and camping trip with Compass Wilderness was so much better than taking the youth to a amusement park. No kidding! It's a different, richer experience altogether! It was so good to be with people who really got it. We have this coming weekend off, which makes me kinda bummed. I enjoy sharing this experience with different people who maybe haven't taken the time to see God in the world he created for a while. Maybe they haven't ever. How long has it been for you? Come away with us...

Steven

What a Trip!

WOW!!! What an awesome experience!! I really enjoyed the adventure trip with Compass Wilderness. It was a great way to get in touch with your internal soul and to see what you are really made of. God can show us so much about ourselves during moments like these. Just equally important, is what God shows us about HIM, and believe me God can really show Himself when you experience an adventure like this.

Buck Osborn
Cross Timbers Community Church

Spring is Here

I am so glad that spring is here. Winter just doesn't have the luster to it that the other seasons do, at least not in Oklahoma. When the only color to see is brown, and you can't separate what's dead from what soon will be in bloom, it just doesn't seem to invoke the wonder that creation generally stirs up in me. Everything is harder, coarser, and the constant wind has a crispness and a hissing in the trees that keeps your collar up and head down. Maybe it's this that makes me love spring. In this contrast, the beautiful creation is so vibrant in the spring, colors stand out more, and the warm sun on your face makes it nearly impossible not to suck the fresh air through your nostrils and just smile in thankfulness that once again, the seasons have changed.

I saw a lizard for the first time in 2007 today. She reminded me of the rain that was soon to come. This rain will, along with the warm sun, bring life back into the flowers and trees. This same warm sun will bring back creation, in the way we always remember good times, colorful, smiling, and laughing. I guess when we seem to remember that the beauty of spring is so intensified by winter's bland cold.I've heard it explained that the reason that God allows evil in this world is that we would have no way of appreciating the good without their being bad to contrast it against. Sure, there are ways this can fall short in one's paradigm, but it does make sense that when we experience dark, it makes us glad when there is light. When we experience our parent's stern words, it makes their true expressions of love all the richer. And when we understand our depravity, it makes grace so much more profound. Contrast against a harsh background, we more fully appreciate the beautiful.

It was a good weekend, sitting around a campfire with a group of men from various professions, talking about what God wants to show us within ourselves, within the community we call the church, and in the bigger community we call humanity. I enjoyed seeing fear turn to delight in a fifty year old man as he learned to trust in the system we provided to safely rappel down a cliff. It was good to remember that the seasons change and God is faithful. He's set this thing in motion and we can expect that every year, just as he intended, about this time we'll start to see the lizards again.

Steven