Trip to Dallas

Hello all,

Kelsey here I wanted to take a minute to share with our amazing trip to Dallas Texas with all twelve interns, Jeff, Sara West, and Matt Hoskins. It was a trip that was filled with healing and reconnecting as a group, as well as, meeting with different ministries and doing some recruiting at two schools. While staying in Dallas the director of Horn Creek Doug Jones opened up his beautiful home for us to stay. The trip lasted 6 days from the 1^st of December to the 6^th.

Throughout the week out mornings consisted of devotions studying First John. I really like this book and loved to be able to participate in daily devotions reading this book and discussing with a group.

Every day throughout the week was slightly different. We were given the opportunity to meet with Doug Jones youth pastor, Justin, our first day in Dallas. Justin shared with our group about his desire to help parents rise up Christian youth. He intentionally plans his events during the week so that the family is able to bond on the weekends. He also is very good about studying directly from the word of the Lord. They take chapters to study instead of doing topical studies. He also gives many opportunities for his youth group to minister in different capacities in the church. That evening after a delicious meal cooked by Kathy Jones all the interns were able to attend his youth group and participate in his small groups. This was fun because they asked us to share our testimony and answer questions about our internship.

The second church that we met with was really neat as well. It was huge and had just begun a movement to expand its building. It was a church rooted in a no debt philosophy and stopped their project of a new auditorium when they realized that building cost had gone up and there was not enough money in the budget. I loved hearing this from the church because it was so encouraging that they truly placed everything in the Lord’s hands. We then met with their youth pastor, Braun, who shared with us his philosophy on ministry. He intentionally placed kids in small groups that met in homes with the same leaders for seven years.

The last day we had a dinner with family campers and past summer staffers. It was really fun for me to be able to see the summer staffers that I worked with that summer. The night also concluded with a heated game of werewolf shared by both the interns and summer staffers.

Probably my favorite part of the whole week was Sunday morning. We went back to Braun’s church and the service consisted of a powerful message from Nick Vujicic, a man that was born without arms and legs. His testimony was very powerful. It was hard for me to sit there and not to think that why did God allow this man to be born this way. He answered this answer by saying he had a purpose and that was to be the arms and feet in a way that no one else could be. I was very moved with hearing this and with him sharing the verse Jeremiah 29:11-12 “For I know the plans I have for you declares the Lord, plans for wholeness and not for evil, to give you a future and a hope. ” At the end of his talk he had an alter call which was so powerful and moved me to tears. Although this was just only a couple hours of the trip it was my favorite part.

The whole week was full of blessings and allowed me to once again just be thankful for being able to be an intern at Horn Creek.