Today Is The Day!!

Hey Ya'll! 
Today was a great day!  God is so good and I'm again blown away by the sufficiency of his endless grace!  Last night was a late night, both because I was yakking to some of you back home, not that I'll point fingers :) and the rest of it was hacking my full head off.  It was rather ridiculous if you ask me, but I don't write the rules of this game, I just have to follow them.  The first cool thing that happened today was that I slept late today.  Apparently I nuked my alarm when it went off and just rolled back over.  Oh, the power of a double dose of Nyquil!  That really isn't the cool part though.  The cool part is that Ray didn't call and ask me where I was when I didn't show up at 10 o'clock--my usual check in time!  So, I got some extra sleep, some extra prayer and study time, and Ray didn't miss me (which means he isn't stressed :)) 
The second cool thing is that my primary care doc back home, whom I am not all that fond of, agreed to just call me a prescription in for an inhaler instead of me trying to be seen here in this neck of the woods.  It should be called in and ready for me to pick up tomorrow before I leave for the retreat.  It would be super swell if I didn't need to go get it, but it's way cool that I can get it with relative ease, all it took was an e-mail!  I love technology, especially when God is in the mix!!  THEN, Jordan, one of the young ladies I have been trying to track down and hang with, and who hasn't been around the youth house, texted me today and asked if we could still hang today.  I was already planning to drive to Staten Island, in hopes of hooking up with some of the kids, and this one happened to track me down before I even left.  LOVE IT!!  It ended up just being Jordan and me, which was great.  It gave her the freedom to open up, and me the freedom to be honest and challenge her to step up and be the leader she needs to be.  She has been saved for a long time and has been shrinking back in fear and not stepping up to the plate, so I got a chance to challenge her.
IT...WAS...AWESOME!!!!!  AHHHH!!!!! These are the moments that light a fire under my seat and in my heart!  I can't even tell you.  One kid.  Or two.  If these are the two kids I connect with while I'm down here, then this trip will have been abundantly more successful than I could have asked for or imagined.  They are amazing, and their hearts are sensitive to the things of God.  They just need people with open hearts and open arms without an agenda or plan...people who love Jesus and love them to chill with them and kick them in the butt and motivate them to be more today than they were yesterday, and not do it by shaming them, but by helping them understand GRACE AND MERCY, and that by embracing grace and mercy, they can grown in Christ and know PEACE.  These kids desperately want and seek after peace.

I am praying the prayer that Nehemiah prayed, "Lord, strengthen my hands!!"  Please, PLEASE, pray that prayer for me.  Ask God to give me the strength to do the work that He has for me to do, and ask him to make it clear to me WHAT that work is, and who it is that he would have me connect with.  He is faithful and he will bring them in.  It's his gig, and these are his kids, just like me.  He likes them and he loves them way more than I ever could.  I just want to let them know that....let them know that they matter and they are significant!
WAHHHHH HOOOOOO!!!!  God is good.  WAY GOOD!  Pray for David and Aaron this weekend.  They are the two young men that will be going on the retreat in Dallas, PA this weekend (I'm going too, as a leader). Pray they connect with each other and with God.  I'm stoked to see what God will do in them and how he does it.  It's always interesting to watch God work with raw material :)  Good times!!  I'll check in on here when I get back and before I head to Boston.  Sorry there aren't any new pics.  My motivation for taking pictures the last few days has been, shall we say, uh....obsolete. 
Love you guys.  Thanks for entertaining my enthusiasm.  I hope you can keep up and it makes you smile :)
Blessings!!