Woodville's Fall Outpost 2009 video

Please click on the link or copy and paste to check out the video that the Woodville guys put together for the Ohio District GBB Fall Outpost Camp. Jim and the gang did a great job and I want everyone to see this video!

http://www.gbbnational.com/Woodville%20Videos/GBB%20FALL%2009.wmv

As the seasons change

So yesterday in Northeastern Ohio it was about 70 degrees and sunny with a light breeze. If you closed your eyes it felt almost Spring-like. Then you opened your eyes to see the amazing display of colors. More than half the leaves have fallen but the ones that are left still grace the trees with all kinds of fall colors. The ground in the park outside the GBB office was completely covered with leaves - there was no grass showing anywhere. There's something about walking through piles upon piles of leaves, kicking them up as you shuffle your feet a bit, that just makes you feel good about the season.

As I met with a young man yesterday morning I was thinking back to our first meeting last year. He was so child-like in his faith and thoughts. In just one year's time he's grown so much! As I worked through some good stuff with him I couldn't help feeling good about this new season in his life. He's transformed so much over the past year and everyone can see the changes.

And I've grown so much through the process as well! Being a discipler over the last year has taught me so much about the guys I'm with but I think I've learned the most about myself. My faith has been strengthened and I'm constantly challenged to live up to the same expectations I have for the students I've discipled. My prayer life is better, my Bible study time is AMAZING, and I feel HIS peace in my life.

If you haven't discipled a young man (more than just meeting during GBB time) I encourage all of you to invest part of your lives in younger men (either in age or in faith or both). God will bless you for it!

GBB National Board Meetings

The GBB National Board Meetings are October 23rd and 24th. I'm looking forward to an encouraging time with the GBB Men as we work through the business side of GBB this weekend. Please pray for the board as they travel to the meeting and pray that God would give us wisdom in our decisions.

Save the date: November 14th is the Ohio District Leadership Conference at Millersburg GBC. Check the Ohio page or contact Jeff or Dan for more info.

Prayer needed!!!!

Dick has faithfully served GBB for many years. He is on our GBB National board. The following is a copied e-mail regarding his accident on Saturday and associated prayer needs.

Dick's accident was on Saturday. Dick was cutting a branch out of a tree and fell. He has a broken wrist. He will have surgery for the wrist, putting in a plate and a couple of screws TOMORROW (Wed 9/9/09)....During checks at the hospital, they were looking for internal bleeding. These checks revealed a mass on Dick's kidney. He will be having surgery to remove the kidney after his arm is stable. It will take some more tests, and scheduling the operation....probably sometime in October. Please pray for Dick. Thanks.

Weekly Curriculum on THE way!

The GBB National weekly curriculum for 2009-2010 will be mailed out on Wednesday. The CDs will be mailed to the contact address listed at GBB National Headquarters and the package will be mailed to the attention of the unit commander. If you want the CD mailed to a certain address that may be different than the one you submitted with last year's registration, please contact me before Wednesday.

A lot of time, study and research went into this year's weekly curriculum but please remember that the group of men who wrote it did so on a volunteer basis. None of us are paid writers and though the information has been checked and double-checked there is still a potential for misprints or confusing language. Please, if you find something that could have been different, please contact me so I can bring your observations to the curriculum review committee. We want you all to be good Bereans with this curriculum - check it out and if something's missing, LET US KNOW.

I pray that each of the units receive the curriculum well and that your units will be blessed by this year's lesson plan.

A big "THANK YOU" also goes to the curriculum committee for all of their hard work over this past year!

Why discipleship?

So I'm reading through Judges as part of my Momentum '09 daily devotions follow-up. Today's devotion was from Judges 2 and in the text it talks about how, when Joshua and his generation of spiritual leadership died, the nation turned away from God and gradually became more pagan.

God brought judges in to teach the nation and correct their behavior but when those men died everything not only went back toward evil but it got worse with each cycle of new judges.
How do we combat this in our families, our GBB units, our youth groups, our churches, our communities, our nation? Discipleship.

If godly men invest wholly in the lives of younger men and ensure that during that process those younger men invest in even younger men, through our obedience to God's commands we will continue the cycle of godly knowledge and wisdom.

If we just live good lives and aren't convicted with passing on our knowledge and wisdom then the young men around us will surely have the world to influence them. We can easily see the values of the world in stark contrast to the values of our Holy Lord.

If you're not doing it now; get discipled, be one who disciples or both!

The History of GBB

Here's a portion of an e-mail I received from a dear man regarding his history with one of the founders of Grace Brethren Boys, Pastor Ed Jackson. He returned one of the gold belt buckles that was given him many years ago as a token of appreciation. He felt GBB would appreciate having it back as it has a lot of meaning for him and for GBB.

"As a young boy I accepted the Lord as my personal Saviour in 1944 at the Brethren Church in Long Beach, Californina. Many years later the Lord brought together an L.A. Fire Dept. Captain and a Ohio State Highway Patrol Lieutenant (Ed Jackson) to travel across the U.S. encouraging men in the Grace Brethren Church to be involved for the Lord. The Boys ministry was a natural for men so we encouraged others to be involved. Somewhere along the line this buckle was presented to me."

I'm so thankful for the history of GBB: men, strong in their faith, molding younger men into strong believers and trusted leaders, then passing the torch so those young men can continue the cycle of discipleship. God has placed each of the men involved with GBB over the years in a position to fulfill his commands to disciple younger men.

Thank you God for the men who pour their lives into young men so they may see the contrast between a worldly man and a godly man. Thank you God for the opportunities you've given us in GBB! Thank you Lord for the boys who are so teachable and desire to have a relationship with you. Thank you Lord for the hearts you've broken and thank you God for the boys you bring us that still have a long way to go. Amen.

What a trip!

If you haven't already checked it out - go to www.gbbnational.com and check out some of the High Adventure Pics! We had a great week, full of unexpected twists and turns. If you were there, and took pictures, please make sure you send them to Jeff on the website so he can get them uploaded to share. All of my pics are also on my facebook if you're interested in seeing more from the week.

Jeff did a great job, as did Pastor Bob, in writing up what we did. Check out the web site for the details of the week! My favorite part was the morning and evening discussion times. It was cool to see how the 10 minute discussion on Monday morning transformed into 30 minutes on Friday morning. The boys and men really stepped outside themselves for the week and I pray that each of us can carry that over into our own units, churches and communities.

And amazingly enough - there were no unexpected baptisms by canoe.

Are you ready?

So, T minus 3 days and counting for High Adventure '09 on the Rideau Canal in CANADA! Are you ready? Neither am I...

Good news - the canoe trailer is done. The canoes arrived and are put together. They look great and I can't wait to get them on the Canadian water.

As we prepare for another challenging High Adventure I'm most excited for what God has planned for us through our daily conversations. I can't wait to talk with the guys about the contrasts between the world's lies and the Biblical absolutes provided for us in the Bible.

Please pray for the men and boys headed to Canada with GBB this weekend. Please pray for open hearts and souls. Please pray for safety and good weather as well as easy travels.

See ya up there, eh.

The trailer is here!

GBB National's brand new trailer arrived on Monday and I put most of it together on Tuesday! It was kinda tough to assemble and I'm glad that Beverly stopped by a couple of times because I needed an extra set of hands. It is a sturdy trailer and I'm glad we went with the 12" wheels! To finish the trailer we'll have to wait until our canoes arrive so we can custom-fit the racks to our 8 brand new canoes!!!!

While we're on the subject... Nick said he has information for the week of High Adventure 2009. Pastor Bob also sent me information about our topics for the week. As soon as I have Nick's stuff I'll put out a mass-mailing to everyone who's registrered (19 boys and 17 men) to help you get ready for H.A. '09.

Please give me a call or shoot me an e-mail if you run into questions or have any thoughts on High Adventure!

CANOES on the way!

I received a call this week from Directboats.com to let me know that our check was received and our canoes, trailer and paddles are on the way! A BIG THANK YOU to all of you who contributed to the canoe fund already. You guys made it possible for GBB National to update our canoe stock which, as I was recently reminded, needed gum a couple summers ago to complete a canoe trip in Pennsylvania.
For those of you who weren't there on High Adventure '07, we had an overnight canoe trip planned. Unfortunately for us, the water level was down...considerably. We ended up hitting bottom or walking the canoes for a large portion of the trip and one of the fiberglass canoes took one too many direct hits. When we realized the canoe wasn't going to make it we resorted to pressed chewing gum in the hole. Believe it or not it wasn't much of a problem for the rest of the trip. It made for some pretty great memories, especially for our waterlogged guest speaker!
Even though the canoes have been shipped the canoe fund has not been closed out. We still need money to close out the fund and the canoes were bought with the prayer that money would continue to come in.
If you are holding onto money that your unit has collected or designated for the canoe fund, please put it in the mail or at least let me know you plan to send money to the canoe fund.
Thanks guys!

Pray for Pastor Bob

Pastor Bob is GBB National's Chaplain. Please keep him and his family in your prayers during this very difficult time. This is a copied posting from the BMH Editor's Blog:

Smokers' Daughter-in-Law Dies in Motorcycle Accident
Pastor Galen Wiley from Lancaster, PA, has forwarded this information and prayer request from the family of Bob and Jeanne Smoker of Wrightsville, PA. Bob is the pastor of Susquehanna Grace Brethren Church, and his son and daughter-in-law were in the motorcycle accident on Saturday.
Bob Smoker just called me with the information on the memorial service for his daughter-in-law Michelle Smoker, who was killed in a tragic motorcycle accident on Saturday evening. Her husband Dan was able to come home from the hospital on Saturday evening, but he is obviously devastated because he was driving the motorcycle. Michelle and her family are believers, so there is a peace that she is home with the Lord. But the emotions are still very painful at this time of loss and separation.
The memorial service will be this Friday at 2:00, following a time to visitation with the family from 12-2. The location is at the:Olewiler & Heffner Funeral Home35 Gotham DriveRed Lion, PA 17356 Phone Number: (717) 244-6991
Bob and Jean Smoker’s address is 8 Christine DrWrightsville, PA 17368
Their email is smok1@verizon.net.
I know the entire family would appreciate our prayers so much at this time.

Passports

Hopefully all of you planning to attend H.A. '09 have received your passports / passcards by now. I got mine a couple of weeks ago and realized they missprinted my date of birth. Please double-check your info and if there's a problem fill out the forms and get it back to them for correction. As long as you're less than 45 days from the date of issue you don't have to send new pictures. You just have to mail everything back to them, including their correction form and your proof of citizenship. The lady on their help line (1-877-487-2778) told me to write "Urgent Attention: Rewrites" on the envelope so it gets fixed ASAP.
Call me or shoot me an e-mail if anyone else is running into trouble with their passports / passcards.
I'm glad we insisted on the March 1st deadline to get the cards ordered or I'd have put it off!!! hahaha

My latest trip to Urban Hope

I'm still recovering from my latest trip to the Urban Hope Training Center in Philadelphia. Our group returned Wednesday night from our four-day trip but I'm still wiped out! I don't know if it was the 5-6 hours of sleep per night for so many nights in a row, the cold, wet weather we had while cleaning up the streets and watching the Phillies game Tuesday night or maybe one of those sweet students passed some of their yucky germs around... Anyway, I've been down and out since I got back!

Anyway, the trip was great! There were two other groups there for the week; a youth group from Indiana and a school group from Maryland. As you can see from the pic there were plenty of people to hang with for a few days and the students seemed to mesh really well. The bummer of the whole thing was that our group (Rittman) headed back on Wednesday instead of staying through the end of the week. Based on how I felt the last couple of days I'd say that really was kind of a blessing though...

As far as the trip went I know some of our students stepped way outside their comfort zones during many aspects of our visit. Knocking on doors in their hometown would be outside their comfort zone - knocking on row-house doors in the inner-city was WAY outside their comfort zone. Walking up and talking to a complete stranger would have been outside their comfort zone - walking up to and talking to homeless people in a subway was WAY outside their comfort zone.

The coolest part of the whole experience was that our students were able to gel with other students and they were all in the same boat. Everybody was out of their norm but they were in it together. They all did great and the Lord was definately at work this week!

Canoes!

With the approach of an "on the water" High Adventure GBB National took a look at our canoes and related equipment. We didn't like what we saw... Many of our canoes were purchased a long time ago and some were used when we bought them. They've seen some rough years. Many of them are aluminum and have broken or bent thwarts and seats. There are places where rivets have broken and become jagged. Some of the fiberglass canoes have hit far too many rocks. Some of you probably remember the gum-patching incident at our last High Adventure.
At Rendezvous last year some of our wood canoe paddles broke. They've suffered some dry rot and need replaced. Our canoe trailer, built many years ago, was a boat trailer that was modified to haul canoes. It's very tongue heavy when loaded and is made of heavy steel. (The weight does mean that its a smooth pull though...)
With all the problems GBB National started looking into purchasing some new equipment rather than trying to fix everything before this summer. We've found a great deal but there is definately a cost involved. We've asked that all of our GBB units send money to GBB Headquarters to help offset the cost. Because of other money that has been promised for the equipment, if each registered unit can contribute $100 each we'll be able to afford to replace the canoes, paddles and trailer without taking too much of a hit in the GBB National funds.
Please prayerfully consider a contribution to GBB National and please mark your contributions with a note to let us know the money is for the canoes. (IF you don't earmark your money then it goes into the general opperating funds.)
Thanks men!

GBB National Board

Wow it's been a long time since I've blogged. I've missed you too!

So we had our GBB National Board meetings this past weekend. I love hanging out with our board, recalling good times spent together and with men who've moved on. As much as I love talking about the time we got lost on an overnight backpacking trip, the time we chased bears off, the time we spent more time walking our canoes than paddling and the time we built boats with our bare hands; I loved talking with the guys most about the vision and the future of GBB.

I loved talking about High Adventure. I loved talking about the plans for a physically challenging, emotionally draining and spritually envigorating week. I loved talking about the renewed passion of discipleship within not only GBB but the fellowship as well. I loved talking about the spark, the excitement and the enthusiasm of our leadership.

Please pray that our message and the excitement it brings will spread!

Be imitators of God...

In my reading this week I came across Ephesians 5:1-2; "Be imitators of God, therefore, as dearly loved children and live a life of love, just as Christ loved us and gave himself up for us as a fragrant offering and sacrifice to God."

The first part of that verse is pretty powerful... "Be imitators of God..."

Its been said that the greatest form of flattery is imitation. But God is so perfect. How are we to flatter him in this way? That's some pretty high standards! Luckily, God gave us chapter 4 in Ephesians too.
Verse 31 - Get rid of all bitterness, rage and anger, brawling and slander, along with every form of malice.
Verse 32 - Be kind and compassionate to one another, forgiving each other, just as Christ God forgave you.
Verse 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.
Verses 26-27 - In your anger do not sin: Do not let the sun go down while you are still angry, and do not give the devil a foothold.
Verse 25 - Therefore each of you must put off falsehood and speak truthfully to his neighbor, for we are all members of one body.

WOW, right? I know, I said it before, that's a huge bill to fill! Isn't it nice to know that "with God all things are possible?"

Unplug

Sorry I haven't posted for a couple weeks - its been crazy busy here!



I spent last weekend at Unplug '09. It was an amazing weekend at Kalahari near Sandusky, Ohio. If you've never heard of Kalahari, they claim to be the world's largest indoor water park!
You can check them out at http://www.kalahariresorts.com/oh/

We arrived Friday night and cut loose with our friends in the water park. Then we joined up with about 700 of our closest friends from other youth groups in Ohio for the Friday night session. There were four session on the weekend and each of them included music from the Liberty University band, Exodus. http://www.myspace.com/exodusband

There were crazy eating games and whacky antics before each message. That kept the students entertained and engaged. Then Exodus played to signal the beginning of the worship portion of each session. The speaker was Pastor Jeff Bogue from Grace Church -North (Akron) and throughout the weekend he challenged the kids to look at trials as gifts and to persevere. Another highlight was a huge cross that was constructed. Students wrote down their struggle points on stickers and posted them on the cross, essentially giving them over to God. Sunday's session featured Ja'rod Cherry, a former NFL player, who shared his testimony with the students.

I've been impressed with the impact the weekend had me as well as on some of the students. We've heard from parents who noticed a change in their child's life.

Praise the Lord!

Fellowship Council

Men and boys,
The GBB/SMM video project is done and will soon be in the hands of the FGBC Fellowship Council. The purpose of getting the video (DVD) to them is so they can see what GBB and SMM are doing - to show that we're still alive, and still blowing on the embers of discipleship in the fellowship.

Please pray for the safety of the members of the Fellowship Council as they travel this next week. Please pray that their meetings will be fruitful and their individual as well as collective missions will be clear. Please pray that our Lord will bless their time together so that our fellowship will be strengthened and our Father will be glorified because of it.

High Adventure 2009 Details!!!!!!

GBB National has released the information for the 2009 GBB National High Adventure. As a reminder, High Adventure Camps are for registered men and boys, age 13 and older who have completed their 1st Class Rank. Any requests for exceptions to those requirements must be communicated to GBB National for approval. Contact GBB National Headquarters for additional details.

The 2009 High Adventure will be a week-long canoe trip on the Rideau Canal near Kingston, Ontario, CANADA! Here are some need-to-know items for the trip:

When: June 20th – 27th, 2009
We’ll arrive and be in a base camp Saturday and Sunday nights
We’ll hit the water on Monday morning
We’ll canoe Monday-Friday
We’ll be transported back to the base camp Friday night
We’ll leave for home on Saturday.

Cost: $75 registration fee (covers camping / docking fees for the week)
If you want to bring extra spending money you may but there are few opportunities to purchase items along the way.

Food: Each person (or small group) is responsible for their own food. There will not be a daily store runner so plan for the week and pack light!

PassCard: You guessed it – you’ll need a passport or passcard to re-enter the USA after High Adventure. You can complete the paperwork on-line at http://www.travel.state.gov/. Just look for the “Passport Card” information and follow the links. The form has to be printed and submitted with a picture (like a passport) and the cards take 4-6 weeks. You can also get the forms at the U.S. Post Office. Make sure you apply for a Passport Card – unless you want a full-blown passport. The cost for the card is $45 for an adult and $35 for anyone under age sixteen. Contact Rob or Nick Jacobs if you have questions.

Equipment: There should be plenty of room for tents but it is not advisable to bring a family-size tent. The smaller the better since all gear and food will be in your canoe! Also, there will be no camp fires for cooking so plan on bringing a backpacking stove (shared among a group). You will need a mess kit and utensils as well. Plan to do some fishing! (more to follow about licensing, etc.)

Canoes: We need to know how many canoes are available. Please contact Nick Jacobs at (614) 861-2343 or Rob Gable at (330) 464-8185 or rgable1357@neo.rr.com if you are able to bring canoe(s). Make sure your local license is up to date and be prepared to present documentation if needed at the border.

Speaker: Though testing our guts for the week, we'll also be focused on the Glory of Jesus Christ! Men, young or experienced, should come prepared to challenge or be challenged spiritually during High Adventure 2009!

Deadline: We need your National Event Registration Forms and we need to know that Passport Cards or Passports have at least been submitted for approval by March 1st. Passports or Passport Cards must be in hand and we need your Event Permission Slip, Medical Form and registration fee by May 1st.

These lines are from "The Gate of the Year," a poem written in 1908 by Minnie Louise Haskins:

I said to the man who stood at the gate of the year"Give me a light that I may tread safely into the unknown." And he replied, "Go into the darkness and put your hand into the hand of God That shall be to you better than light and safer than a known way!"

Doesn't that just speak volumes for our relationship with Christ. Give it up! Turn it over! Have faith!

I am glad to have 2008 in the books and I look forward to things already planned for 2009! Keep looking here for (and / or the GBB National web site) for High Adventure 2009 updates.