Joe Nowowiejski

Well, today is the final day of camp and it has been  such a great day.  The team competition has been feirce and we’ve done awesome!

We, “Indiana Jones” came in 2nd place for the week of team competitions.  Yeah, not first, but still pretty good.  All of our students have had a great week.  There has been some of the typical type drama here and there, but overall, a great week of camp.

I’m sitting in the chapel right now by myself with the band practicing for tonights worship service.  I know that God is going to move and keep working and sealing what he has been doing in 2Eleven students!  I’ve got some seats blocked off in the front… hopefully i can hold onto them!  Everyones lined up outside waiting to get in and i really am excited about what the Holy Spirit is going to do tonight.

See you tomorrow about noon!

Wednesday was a great day.  Team Indiana Jones did an awesome job at all the team activities and we had a lot of fun. 

Last night’s service was really an amazing time in God’s presence.  A lot of the students have been saying that God has been drawing them closer and deeper into God’s presence and last night showed some of the evidence of that.

Greg Hubbard had one of the best teachings about the baptism in the Holy Spirit last night.  Many of our students sought the baptism in the holy spirit and some were baptized last night. 

After the service was formally over a lot of our students stayed in the chapel worshiping God with all their hearts and all their strength.  They were going after God and worshiping Him with focus and intensity.  It was awesome to see God moving in them!

Today’s going to be a great day!

Last night’s service was awesome!  God really did some great things in our students hearts and lives. Greg Hubbard spoke about hiding from God and how so many of us do it and some of the different ways and reasons.  

God really moved as hearts were soft and open to the Holy Spirit doing His work.  Many of our students walked up front to proclaim into the mic that their name was… and that they were no longer hiding from God.  It was such a privelege to see God working in their spirits and know that Bethany and i get to be a part of it! 

I was able to hold onto one of our students as they cried before God and as He was doing His work in his life. 

We are about to start tonights Chapel @ 7:45.  I’m expecting God to do more great things in us tonight!

Oh, also… we’ve really stepped it up on the team competitions today!  We came in first place in 5 different events!  So we’ll move up in the standings for sure.

We didn’t do so hot on the clean room competition though.  They’ll do better on that tomorrow!

Enjoy your week and continue to pray for God’s will in the lives of the 2Eleven students!

Oh yeah, check out the photo albums.  There should be some new photos.

Not only did we make it, but we’re all having a great time at Youth Camp today.  We have about ½ hour until the Monday evening chapel service.  It starts @ 8 tonight.

I’m expecting great things from God in the lives of all of our students this week! 

I’m a team captain this week.  We’re team “Indiana Jones,” it’s a blockbuster theme.  We got hung up one the swimming/iceberg climb earlier today, but were holding at 5^th place for the day.

All of our students are really excited to be here and we’re having a great time.

The teams got to come up with a human video for Wednesday night to the song Jesus loves you by Stellar Kart.  I’ll write again tomorrow evening.

Everyone says hello to their parents and friends they left behind for the week.

This Wednesday night 2Eleven student ministries hosted an end of the school year party.  It was awesome!

    We had a great time hanging out.  There was a cool rap group call No Compromise from Columbus, GA and a local rock band called lost and found.  They both did amazing and everyone loved it.  We had about 130 people there and the most awesome part was that about 20 of them put their trust in Jesus that night!

    Thanks to everyone that made the night happen, from sound and lights to trailers for the stage, the food people, registration, the fire starter, security, b-ball and football organizers, and of course the 2Eleven drama team!  You all did a great job and we pulled it off well as a team! 

    I hope that you all are pumped about the life changes that took place that night and i hope that you will all be praying that God will cause the ministry of 2Eleven to grow as we continue to reach out to teenagers and disciple them.  Discipleship is ofcourse about teaching, but it’s so much more than that.  We need to be relational with students, and students, you need to reach out to your peers and bring them along on your journey with Jesus.  That’s the best way to teach people to live their lives with God, by letting them live their lives with you as you help them live their lives with God too! 

Pictures will come soon.  Check out upcoming events @ www.myspace.com/2elevenyouth 

Hey everybody if you attend Victory World and you volunteer in any way we want you there this sunday night in room 212.  We are having our monthly wide open leadership get together.  You don’t want to miss it. 

Also, if you help out with 2Eleven at all please make it a priority to be at this wide open meeting.  It starts at 6pm.

See you all there.

So I’ve never been that great at b-ball, but I just got done playing a little 3 on 3. I was walking the dog and I saw a bunch of young guys playing. Lilly of-course ran through the middle of them… more than once. I walked around the tennis court and Lilly licked this guys face that was lying down on the merry-go-round. He was a sophomore at auburn HS. I think his name was Jacob. He liked soccer and drama and apparently sleeping on merry-go-rounds. I also stopped back by with the guys playing b-ball and invited them up to the church to use the goals there anytime. Then I went back to the house.

On the way back I though, “I bet those guys are thirsty,” I know genius mind, eh! Anyway, I got back to the house, filled a jug full of ice and water, hopped in my truck and drove back to the courts. I backed up my truck, got out with the water, and put it down on the tailgate. I told them I had some ice water if any of them wanted some. They looked at me like… “What?!” They said ok, cool, and continued their game. I pulled out the old trusty red-plastic Wal-Mart cups and proceeded to fill them up. I sat there for about 25 minutes, watching, while they finished their game. Most of them walked off, but a couple of them came up a grabbed a drink… and then walked off. Then a minute later a few came back and got a drink and we chatted a bit.

A couple of them were in 8th grade and some were in HS and one or two were in college. We chatted a few more minutes while a couple others played some 2 on 2. When they were done with that game, one of them asked me to play, so I did.

We played a little 3 on 3 and I was dominating!!!!…. No not really, but I didn’t suck it up too bad! We ended up loosing 12 to 9, so it wasn’t a complete blowout. I invited a few of them to check out VWPC and 2Eleven. They said they probably would so that’s great. Then I picked up a few empty cups tossed them in the back of the truck and went home.

I’m glad that I listened to the voice of God, to serve and show kindness. I did my part and I know that he’ll do his. It was a small thing, but I know that God will use those seeds of kindness and hopefully cause them to grow.

I know that none of this would have happened if I wasn’t willing to step out and risk connecting with those students. All it took was a little ice, some water, and about an hour of my time. Plus, it’s been too long since I played 3 on 3. I want to challenge and encourage you to step out of your comfort zone for the Kingdom of God. Whether it’s someone you know or not, when we take the time and effort to connect we help to bridge the gap between people and their relationship with Jesus. Whether we’ve already got a relationship with Christ or not, we all need that “person” element to help us along on our journey.

My wonderful wife took me to a Braves-Dodgers game this past Saturday in ATL.  We had a great time!  She drove up there while i slept, it was great… we did get stuck in traffic for about an hour and a half, but when we got in the stadium it was great.  Got a large coke and some nachos… mmmm. 

So sad to say, LA blew it 4-1 - Atlanta :(  I’ve been a Dodgers fan since like 88′ - Oral Hershiser baby!

After the game we went to the Varsity and ate chili dogs and drank more coke. 

Life Group this weekend was awesome!  We played some wiffel ball and and had some really good discussion about music and also read Colossians 3:1-4, which talks about thinking about the things “above.” http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=col%203:1-4&version=31 
check out the message too http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=col%203:1-4;&version=65;

Thanks to all my awesome adult volunteers who are so consistent in serving and calling students every week!  I’m really looking forward to the Campus Missionary program that we’re kicking off.  It is going to be a great discipleship tool and i can’t wait to see the 2Eleven student growing deeper in the walks with God through:
pray - live - tell - serve - give

Go Dodgers and Tigers!

What’s your favorite Team?

This past weekend our youth ministry “2Eleven” took a group of 20 students to Birmingham, AL for a youth convention.  It was an awesome time!  Basically, it was a conventions about getting closer to God in experience and challenging the student to step out in faith and use their mouths as a weapon.  A weapon to conquer the world… for Jesus Kingdom, of course.  That was just one of the messages, but that was one that stuck out to me.  There was a challenge to use our mouths to tell others the Gospel.  That being a Christian isn’t just about “not sinning.”  It’s about being holy as He is holy, yes, but it’s about seeing people come to a saving knowledge of Jesus.  That is the only currency that matters in Heaven, lost souls being saved.  So not sinning is important of course and it’s one of our goals, but it’s not for the sake of being good.  We must live holy to 1. obey God and 2. it helps to confirm our witness.

Like i said, that was just one of the many things that was mentioned this weekend.

It was awesome seeing all of the students that went on this trip connect with God.  I really believe that God did some lasting things in their lives and i’m looking forward to seeing those students live their lives out in the open for the sake of the Kingdom of God.  He really helped the students to connect with each other too.  And of course, we as leaders, were able to connect with them.  A great weekend.

One thing that God spoke to me goes right along with “blessed are those who have not seen and still believe,” what Jesus said to Thomas after he raised from the dead.  It’s this, blessed are those who believe even when they don’t FEEL it.  This in my mind has more to do with emotion.  Sometimes i’m emotional and other times i’m not.  God showed me that He will honor our faith and trust even when it’s hard because we don’t “feel” it.  Of course i knew that, but it IS harder to believe when you don’t feel or your emotions aren’t worked up.  I believe that our emotions will follow our faith, we can’t let our faith follow our emotions… because God knows what our emotions are like at times.

I hope anyone who read this didn’t think it was too long and rambling!

Thanks to Jeremy, Melanie, Cody, Shellie, Ashlee, and of course Bethany for all your hard work and help this weekend.  It was awesome to see you all connecting with our students!

So i’ve “always” had this thought, “you’re either growing or you’re dying.”  In the life of a plant it starts out as a seed, sprouts, grows, reproduces itself, and then goes on to death.  In the same way we are born, we grow going through different stages in our life and then at a certain point our bodies begin to die.  There really isn’t any in-between “just being” stage.  Our cells are continually reproducing themselves as the old ones die.  We are either growing or dying, full of life or becoming stagnant.  I’m not saying that there isn’t any down time or slow time in our lives or even a time when we are broken down, but what i am saying is that we have to continually strive to grow in our walks with Christ.  At least holding the ground where we are… standing firm is, in-essence, moving forward. (Galatians 5:1, Ephesians 6:13-14) 

I heard a great thought today about maturity, specifically, in churches.  “A mature church is full of immaturity.”  That’s because the mature are reaching the lost and new, baby, immature Christians are always popping up - seeds sprouting if-you-will.  I totally agree with that statement.  Mature Christians should be reproducing themselves, reproducing the character of Jesus in others through Jesus in them.  It’s like the statement of Paul, “follow me as i follow Christ.”

Lets make that statement and then strive to follow Christ with our lives open for others to follow as we follow Jesus.  It’s a bold and somewhat scary thing to say, but i think that it is one of the best ways to make disciples.  Following Christ and inviting others to follow your example.  (Man, i feel the weight of responsibility in that statement!)

How awesome is it to see lives changed by the love, grace, and even discipline of Jesus?  I’m challenged to connect with students and to help them connect with God.

Any thoughts, questions, or comments?  Please let me know.