Gone Fishin!

It is a glorious time of the year. I know you are probably sweltering in mid summer heat index that just feels wrong. At FT Bragg I think they actually have a mechanism to actually increase the heat and humidity here just to make training soldiers more miserable. But while it is heating up in our environment something else is heating up too. With September just a mere month and half away, young boys, middle schoolers and high schoolers all across our land are sweating through this unbearable heat with the hope of a 100 yard field, cleats on their feet and shoulder pads and helmets strapped and its time to go to war. Football is almost here! Football, a purely American game in itself, is also a game for warriors and warriors in training. I cannot tell you how many of my soldiers in the very special community I work in tell tales of Friday night lights and epic games that they played in as young men. This tradition has been reliving itself out every fall for generations, I did it some

In 1996 my friend Clayton King started a camp for teenagers at Gardner Webb University in Boiling Springs NC. What started as small one week event for a couple hundred kids has now stood the test of time, trends and culture. I began taking groups of kids from the church that I worked at in 1997, those kids are all grown up now, in ministry, have jobs, families and kids. Over the years I've observed hundreds of young people see, hear and receive the Gospel in their lives. To be forgiven of their sin, set free to really live. I've also seen hundreds stand before their peers and proclaim that Jesus is worthy of everything that they can give back and commit their lives to missions. It truly has been an honor and a blessing to be both on the board and an occasional speaker with some dear friends in this ministry. This week though was especially good as my kids, both camp age, joined their friends from our church for another week at Crossroads. My daughter in her 4th year and my so