Surge '07

WOW!!!! What an amazing week! God showed up in a huge way this week and did what only He can do, change lives!!! We had several salvations and I had the honor of baptizing over 20 students in the ocean. Sammy (www.sammyclary.blogspot.com) did a great job bringing the Word and challenging our students and adults. He was also the mastermind behind our challenges, which I heard many students say were their favorite so far. I would highly recommend getting Sammy for your next big event as a speaker. The youth band did a sweet job as always and I am so proud of them and how they live their lives as an act of worship to Christ! You guys ROCK!!!
We had an incredible service on Wednesday night with the students as we observed the Lord's Supper. It was a moment I plan on never forgetting. Just to see students on their faces worshiping God and getting things right with Him is all worth it. I must say we have the most incredible group of students on the planet!! I love each and everyone of them so much. It is an honor to be their Pastor. Props to all my volunteers and all the hard work you put into Surge. You are priceless and you ARE making a difference in the lives of our students!! I hope to post more this week about Surge and how awesome our God is!!

Keepin it Real,
Bryan

Ultimate Food Fight!!

Last night at AMP'd we engaged in a battle; a battle of skill, speed, strategy, and sheer nastiness!! We had our first ever Ultimate Food Fight and it was a blast!! We loaded up 30 gallon trashcans with a mixture of water and "chum" (for lack of a better word) which honestly, was probably to nasty for sharks to eat!! We divided our students into 2 teams and had the trashcans placed throughout the playing field where they would load up ziplock bags and hurl (pun intended) them at each other. It was played in a capture the flag type format and it was great. At the end, we had a 1 minute free-for-all which was, to say the least, delicious. We had over 100 students participate and a ton of spectators. Props to Sammy(www.sammyclary.blogspot.com) for helping a brotha out pulling this event off. It was a great event, and the kids all loved it!!
Now our attention is fully focused on Surge, which is our summer camp. I am expecting God to show up in a major way, like He has for the last 2 years!! It's busy and crazy, but well worth it!!!

Keepin' It Real,
Bryan

Gearing Up

I'm really looking forward to this Sunday at Marathon. I will be speaking at all 3 services on Sunday morning, which should be a blast. Myself and Sammy are doing a 2 week series called "Life on a Limb", which will challenge people to step out in faith and follow God no matter what. Sammy will be bringing the message on the 27th and will look at Matthew 25:14-30, and I will be looking at Luke 5:1-11 this week. It should be an awesome series, we've got some crazy illustrations and videos planned so I'm pretty pumped. If you wanna watch the services, you can check them out at www.marathonchurch.org, they should be posted on there by Tuesday or so. Hope you have a great weekend!!

K.I.R.,
Bryan

I'm Blog Lazy-Sorry

Well, it's been about a week since my last post. I've come to a conclusion of sorts, either I just don't have a life and can't think of anything to say, or I'm just blog lazy. I like to think it is the latter, blog lazy. So, with that being said, I'm going to hit ya with some info about what's been going on the last couple of days.
I rode go-karts over at the Clary Speedway(www.sammyclary.blogspot.com) on Saturday night, and I must say, I'm getting a little more daring and aggressive, but have yet to find that elusive 1st victory. On Sunday, Crystal and I ate lunch with my family for Mother's Day, and later that evening went to her Grandma's for dinner. Needless to say, I was stuffed all day and LOVED it!! So that brings us to this week. I've been getting ready for our 3 week series called "Cruise Control" at AMP'd. I'm pumped about this summer and some of the crazy, out-of-the-box stuff we are going to be doing. I will hopefully write something again in the near future, until then, keep it real!!

Keepin it real,
Bryan

You Runned Over My Brother's Car!!!

So me and Crystal (my wife) decided to whip into this subdivision a little while ago to check out a house for sale. We pulled into the cul-de-sac and there were 3 little kids playing and riding their bikes so i was trying to pay attention to them and ended up running over a small tonka truck that was in the middle to the cul-de-sac (i like saying that word!). Well, one of the little boys started crying and saying "you runned over my brother's car!!" and i was all like, "ah shut it, life is not fair, get over it kid!" Ok, not really, i was like "oh i'm so sorry i didn't mean to buddy" He then proceeded to pick up the pieces and throw them in the grass, while still crying. I ran and got a flyer about the house and jumped into my truck and got the heck out of dodge!! Needless to say, we won't be purchasing that house, because the neighbors would hate us, and consider us tonka truck killers!! Make sure your kids pick their toys up out of the cul-de-sac, especially if you're trying to sale your house.

Killing tonka trucks in a subdivision near you,
Bryan

That dreaded knock on the door

So me and Crystal stopped in Chattanooga TN and spent the night at the Hilton Garden Inn. We are on our way home from Memphis where we had a pre-project meeting about the mission trip we are bringing students to this summer. I think it's about a 9 hour drive from Memphis to home and I'm not a long distance driver, so we stopped about half way and so here we are. Well, we got in off the road, brought our stuff to the room and headed out to the riverfront area here in Chattanooga(it's beautiful by the way). We walked around a little bit, took pictures then decided to grab dinner. I think it was about 7:00 when we went to TGI Fridays. Stay with me, there is a point. After dinner we headed back to the room. Well, i got in there and i had to um...well, go to the potty if you will. I took care of business and much to my dismay, i flushed the toilet and what happened next is going to haunt me for a long time. The toilet was clogged!!! Now, this is a Hilton, which means they don't leave plungers sitting next to the toilet. I had to make the embrassing phone call to the front desk and ask for a plunger. So, while i was waiting on delivery, i devised a plan to go down to the hot tub and let Crystal deal with the plunger incident, which quickly got vetoed immediately by her. So, finally after about 10 minutes the dreaded knock on the door was heard. It was hotel maintainance. It was something i have never seen before, the plunger was wrapped in a plastic Hilton bag. I accepted the tool of shame and then the guy said "I can wait for you to finish if you want me to" This somewhat took me off guard, and i hesitated briefly to figure out what to say. Finally i agreed and shut the door and took care of the problem at hand. If it were up to me, he could have just dropped it outside the door and left, that way i would not have had to even show my face!! Well, about 5 minutes later(don't you judge me, it was a toughy!!) i opened the door and handed him the weapon. The maintainance man never looked me in the face, i felt like i had done the most shameful thing you could do at a Hilton, stop up the toilet!! All is well now and we are about to checkout and head on home. I would like to thank the Hilton family for making the whole "i need a plunger in room 405" the most shameful thing possible!! :) I think i may invent a collapseable, mini plunger to fit in your suitcase....well, maybe not, that's pretty nasty!!!

Keepin it real (too real in this post),

Bryan

Amazing Race Weekend

I had the privilege of speaking at a youth event at Fellowship Community Church in Liberty on Friday and Saturday Night. Sammy Clary (www.sammyclary.blogspot.com) was supposed to be the keynote speaker but he had to head up to Cincy and wasn't able to make it so he asked me to take his place and speak, which I am forever grateful!! The theme for the weekend was the Amazing Race and I've got to give props to Sam Totman and his team for putting together a sweet race for his students! It was refreshing to see adults getting involved and helping out the student ministry for this event. Unfortunately, I didn't get to go along with everyone on Saturday for the actual race, but Sam and some others were telling me about and it sounded awesome!! They went all over the Upstate, literally!! They went to Ceasar's Head, Furman University, The Greenville Drive Stadium, Downtown G'ville, plus tons of other places. It sounded like the kids had a blast!!
But that's not the coolest thing about the weekend. The winning team won 3 brand new PSP's, which is a pretty sweet prize, but here's the kicker. The winning team didn't go to Fellowship, they were at the event with their youth pastor, Phillip Jewell who was leading worship. They decided to give the PSP's to the second place team because of the Christian testimony that team had shown to them and everyone else during the race!! How AWESOME is that?!!!! Oh yeah, there's more!! The second place team decided that they would E-Bay the PSP's and give the money to a ministry there at Fellowship that helps little kids!! I gotta say that's what it's all about, GIVE, GIVE, GIVE!! not TAKE, TAKE, TAKE!!
It truly was a great event, and everyone at Fellowship Community Church should be very proud of the youth staff, students and volunteers that participated!! GREAT JOB GUYS!!!

That's all for now,
Bryan