End of Day 3 at The Nest

Sorry for the lack of updates on the blog! It's been busy busy busy the past couple of days! We spent Thursday and Friday working at a local school here in the area. Many of the kids at the Nest will be going to this school in the fall. The Wileys and the Robin's Nest really want to reach out into the community and shine the light of Jesus. So that's exactly what we did! Ryan McElveen did a great job getting us all organized to paint the school! Today (Friday) we even had a newspaper reporter come out to do a story on the painting project. It was a great way to show that the kids from the Robin's Nest are serving their community. That type of thing isn't very common in Jamaica.

Nights have been split into two different experiences. A team of 8 or 9 stays at the Nest while the rest of the team treks back down the mountain to the villa. At the villa the team will eat a dinner prepared by the house staff and then have "team time." It's so cool to come together and worship and share about the highlights from the day. Thursday night Jacob and Taylor Wiley stayed with us at the Villa and we had all the MS boys gather around them and pray over them.

Meanwhile, the team up at the Nest gets to eat dinner, help put babies to bed and hang out with the older kids for a while. And I should mention that watching the sun set over Montego Bay from the top of Jake's House (older boys dorm) is one of the most beautiful sights I've ever taken in.

It has rained each afternoon, and we count it a real blessing because it cools everything down! But Friday the rain made the mountain trek just a bit more interesting! And it knocked the power out at the Nest for several hot sticky hours! When the power goes out, they say "the current is gone."

Shana has been leading minute to win it games when it's raining! Shelley has been helping the boys paint flags and she's also been teaching one of the girls some dance and sign language! The Jake's House boys love Jason, Noah, Brandon, Chandler, Jack, Walker and Hugh! Brandon Row has found a little buddy named Alex who is 10mos old! Brenda and Eva had a chance to pray with some of the staff here at the Nest!

Be praying for everyone's health. It's been a great three days but now is the time when fatigue can begin to settle in. A couple people have some minor stomach issues, but nothing too serious. Saturday is a big work day around the Nest and another one of the kids is going home with their new family!! Then Sunday we'll be going to the beach with the kids and we have something HUGE happening....two of the girls are being baptized! Can't wait to tell you all about it.

We miss everyone!

Travel Day And Day 1 at The Nest

Hey everybody! This is Noah, Abby, Haylee, and Brandon coming to you live from M0ntego Bay, Jamaica. The trip was good except for the part when Jon's bag exploded (or got run over by an airplane)!!!

It was great. The villa is great too. There is even a new fruit called a ginnup. Jacob Wiley brought some for us the day we came. Its like a hard grape with jelly inside. The kids love to climb the ginnup trees and pick them.


This is our first day at the Nest. Everyone has fallen in love with the orphanage and are looking forward to helping out the rest of the week. Some of us will be staying the night at the nest tonight, and some will stay at the villa.

One of the orphans was adopted today. His name was Chavar. The orphanage does a cool thing whenever one of the kids are adopted. Everyone prays with the family, then all the kids line up on the side of the road and wave until they're out of sight.

Today we read a story with the kids out of the Bible that has to do with love. Then the kids got to make a streamer to hold and wave around as they worshiped.

Shelley taught three of the older girls some sign language to a song and they did it on the playground as we all sat around and sang, accompanied by Kay on the guitar. We got some good video of that! Hope to be able to share with you at some point.

So far the trip has been great!! :) Tomorrow we go to a local school to paint! Then back to the Nest after lunch.

(Trying to post pics today was a little frustrating. Hopefully better luck tomorrow!)

Heading to Jamaica, mon!

Hello everyone! A team of 12 students and 12 adults is leaving Tuesday morning to serve at The Robin's Nest Children's Home in Monetego Bay, Jamaica!

We would appreciate your prayers while we are away! I'm going to paste some daily prayer request below. If we are able, we will be updating this blog with highlights and possibly pictures each day!

Tuesday, July 12 - Travel Day
Safe travel, no traffic to ATL and no incidents going through immigration and customs in Jamaica.
Team unity.
That all week we would be a blessing to the Wiley family, the Nest staff, and the children who live there! Pray that God would speak incredibly intimate and specific words to the staff and children during their prayer times with our team.

Wednesday, July 13 - First Day at Nest
Pray no one gets sick on the bus ride up the mountain!
Our theme for this day is LOVE. We will flavor every conversation with 1 John 3:1.

Thursday, July 14 - Working at a school in the community
That our light would shine in their community
Against the attack of the enemy (spiritual darkness when we're out in the community)
Our theme for this day is HOPE.

Friday, July 15 - same as Thursday
Our theme for this day is PURPOSE.
Health and stamina for the team. By the end of this day some of the team will be getting weary.

Saturday, July 16 - work day at Robin's Nest
Our theme for this day is STRENGTH.

Sunday, July 17 - Church and Beach with Nest kids
Two nest girls are being baptized at the beach! Pray the heavens would open up and shine on these girls!!!

Monday, July 18 - Team excursion day!
Fun, unity and safety! Pray the Wiley's can join us! That everything would be OK at the Nest so they could leave!

Tuesday, July 19 - travel day
No delays! Safe travel! The Wileys will be flying back to TN with our team!


Thank you for your faithfulness to pray!

Live Pure - Pure Words

Sticks and stones may break my bones....

...but words will never hurt me!

Who came up with that one?! Truth is...we have all been hurt by a careless word or a coarse joke. Maybe we have even hurt someone with our own words.

With over 600,000 words in the English language, you would think we'd always have the right word to say! Still we battle with the words we choose. God knows this. His Word speaks directly to this.

Ephesians 4:29

Do not let any unwholesome talk come out of your mouths, but only what is helpful for building others up according to their needs, that it may benefit those who listen.

That word, unwholesome, means ROTTEN. It's the word that was used to describe rotten produce sold in the street markets. Rotten fruit stinks! And it's dangerous to eat!

Our words have the potential to be rotten, and ultimately do serious damage.

Proverbs 18:21 (The Message)

Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit - you choose.

Our words can kill, but our words can also give life!

Jesus said our words come from our hearts.

Luke 6:45

A good man brings good things out of the good stored up in his heart, and an evil man brings evil things out of the evil stored up in his heart. For the mouth speaks what the heart is full of.

Angry heart = angry words

Insecure heart = hurtful words that tear other down in order to build ourselves up

Healthy heart = loving, kind, encouraging words

So how's your heart? You can tell by what's coming out of your mouth!

Much love!

You can listen to the podcast of this talk by clicking here.

March 5th Events

We have two awesome events for middle school students coming up on March 5!

Guys: Boys 2 Men, 12pm-6pm

We're heading to east Knoxville for some epic paintball battles! Meet at The Shed at 12pm. We'll travel by bus to Buffat Heights Baptist Church (where the paintball field is located). We'll return to The Shed and be done by 6pm. Cost is $25. Release forms must be completed and signed! They are on The Mix website!

Gals: Girls Night, 6pm-8pm

All middle school girls are invited to attend this party FOR GIRLS ONLY! Be assured that chocolate will be included in the night's festivities...and probably dancing! Cost is FREE! Event is located in the River Room and Cafe area at Two Rivers Church.

Live Pure - Run Away!

"Run like you stole somethin'!"

If you've ever been chased by a big brother or a neighbor's dog, you know what I'm talking about! Another example would be the famous running of the bulls in Spain! Those people are running for their lives!

That's exactly what God's Word means in 1 Corinthians 6:18: "Run away from sexual immorality..."

Joseph was a man who ran away from sexual temptation! Check out Genesis 39.

Potiphar's wife was aggressively after Joseph! She wanted his attention. She wanted his body! But Joseph rejected her advances because he did not want to sin against God! He understood the fence God has placed around sex!

So here are a few things we can draw out of this story:

• Sexual pressure can come from anywhere! Our world is sexually charged. Therefore we must be on guard!
• You think Potiphar's wife simply asked Joseph to come to bed with her? Not likely! I'm guessing she was flirty. She probably made sure there were great-smelling snacks and cookies waiting for Joseph each day he came to work in her husband's house. I'm also going to guess that she was dressed to impress! Modesty was probably not her mode of getting Joseph into bed.
• Girls: Modest is Hottest! Don't dress for the attention of boys! Be aware of what you wear! Those short soffe shorts and little cami shirts with your bra straps showing are not helping our boys stay pure!
• Boys: You've got to do what Joseph did. He ran. He didn't listen to her. He RAN!
• Difficult Situations - One day Joseph showed up to work and no one was there but Potiphar's wife! That's bad news! We have to be aware of these situations! Don't go to a party where everyone is sneaking off into the woods! Don't get yourself into a game of Truth or Dare! Don't get on the internet late at night when your parents are in bed and you're all alone!
• This could have been so easy for Joseph and Potiphar's wife. No one had to know. But God would have known. And Joseph would have known, too. Don't fall for the trick that "no one will know."
• Doing the right thing isn't always easy; it's not always popular, either! Joseph got framed and thrown in prison.
• BUT...God blesses our obedience.

You can listen to the podcast of this talk from The Mix by clicking here.

Live Pure - Fences

Do you have a fence around your yard? Why have a fence? There are some obvious answers:

• To keep bad things/people OUT
• To keep precious things/people IN
• To keep our dogs from running away and mauling people or becoming roadkill!

We're glad certain places have fences...places like prisons, power plants and zoos!

Fences are used to mark boundaries. We can look at God's commands in Scripture like fences that draw boundaries for us.

God has placed one of those fences around SEX. God designed sex to be an incredible act of intimacy between a husband and a wife. Any sexual activity outside of that fence is out of bounds.

And God did this for a reason. He loves us and wants the best for us. He wants to keep us close to Him. He wants to protect us from running off and doing something we are not ready to handle.

The Bible says we should "run away from sexual immorality..." (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

The reality is...sex is everywhere. Our world is kicking down the fences God has put in place. So it's that much harder for a middle school student (or adults for that matter) to stay pure.

We need to understand God's heart. The fence is there for our protection. To keep us from running away from Him and getting hurt.

You can listen to the Mix podcast from 2-13-11 here.

Doing "The Worm" at The Mix

Last Sunday at The Mix I made a joke. There was a huge open area on one side of the room directly in front of the stage. Since no one was going to fill it I decided to proclaim it the worship "mosh pit". I was just joking.

So...Brantley and the worship team start rocking and all of a sudden there is a student doing the worm during one of the worship songs! It was hilarious and awesome! (Don't know the worm?)

Now here's where it gets better...this particular student doesn't like our worship time at The Mix! He usually goes outside or hangs out in the back of the building. He doesn't like the noise. So what was different about this past Sunday?

It dawned on me this week...this student accepted Jesus as Savior at Big Hot Wednesday two weeks ago! I think this could be the first fruits of a radically transformed heart!

So is it OK to do the worm during worship? Absolutely! Praise God for taking our brokenness and giving us joy!

God is on the move in our middle school ministry!

Much Love!

Jon

Live Pure - Not Even a Hint!

We kicked off a new series this week called Live Pure. Over the next few weeks we are going to look at pursuing purity in the areas of sex, words and media.

Ephesians 5:3 says: There must be not even a hint of sexual immorality, or any kind of impurity, or greed among you. Such sins have no place among God's people.

Have you ever been sick from something you ate or drank? I have! Pretty much every time I leave the country! I seem to have a big problem with the microscopic impurities and gremlins that contaminate much of the food and water in other countries. It doesn't take much bacteria to create major problems.

I think that's why God commands that we not allow even a little bitty hint of immorality or impurity in our lives.

If I offered you a nice, fresh glass of pure drinking water, I imagine you'd drink it right up. But what if I dropped in just a hint of dog poop from my front yard?! C'mon...it's just a teeny bit!

No way! That little bit of garbage contaminates the whole glass, and it can really cause you problems!

It's the same way with little teeny sins. We watch a movie that just has one 'bad' scene in it; we just say one bad comment in a conversation about someone; we drop a little cuss word every now and then...

These things may seem small, especially in a world that does not have the same values and standards as God. But these 'small' impurities can do real damage to our lives.

Psalm 139:23-24

Search me, O God, and know my heart;

test me and know my anxious thoughts.

Point out anything in me that offends you,

and lead me along the path of everlasting life.

God, is there impurity in my life? Show me. Lead me away from it! Thank you for your forgiveness and love!

The podcast for this talk at The Mix on 2/6/11 will be available HERE on Monday, 2/7.

Big HOT Wednesday and Upcoming Opportunities

I want to fill you in on how God has been working in the lives of middle school students and then give you an update on what's coming up in The Mix! Last week we had Big HOT Wednesday! Over 125 middle school students attended! At least 20 of those were brand new students! We consumed 200 Chick fil-a spicy chicken sandwiches! It was a crazy night, but the best part was the work God did in the hearts of our students! Many students were moved to receive prayer from our adult leaders and prayer team members. We prayed with 8 students who accepted Jesus Chist as Savior! Praise God! He is lighting a fire in the hearts of our students!

Outpouring Worship Night @ Two Rivers Church - February 11, 7-9pm
I am encouraging all of our middle school students to attend this night of worship! We've been asking God to light a fire in our hearts. This night will be a perfect opportunity to practice passionately loving our God. Pastor Brad and I will be facilitating the evening, and our worship director Tae Cho will be leading the worship team. It's going to be a great night and I want all of our students there representing the next generation!

Sex Education for Parents - Wednesday Nights thru March 2, 7-8:30pm
It's not too late to join this series as Matthew Parsons educates and inspires you to raise young men and women who are able to make wise choices in our sexually-saturated culture. Matthew has been teaching abstinence education in local schools for five years. He also served as the creative director for Silver Ring Thing, which is a gospel-oriented approach to sexual purity for teenagers.

The program runs until 8pm, then there is prayer and Q&A for the final thirty minutes. Our small group leaders understand that we may have some parents running late over the next few weeks (small groups run from 6:30-8pm).

Purity Series @ The Mix
Over the next five weeks we will be talking about how to Live Pure! We will look at pursuing purity sexually (Feb 13), in our media intake and in our words. Please encourage your students to attend The Mix at 9am on Sunday mornings in The Shed! At the end of this series we will invite students to a fast from something that represents an area where they struggle with pursuing purity. I'll give you more info as we get closer, but I wanted you to know that invitation was coming.

Guys and Girls Events - March 5
We are planning a couple of great events for our guys and gals! You can be sure the boys will be shooting at each other in some way! And the girls will probably eat chocolate at some point in the evening. We'll send you something in the next few weeks providing times and details.

Feel free to contact me or anyone on our student ministry staff for more information!

Much Love!
Jon