Carthage, Texas

I know that so many people out there are already familiar with this town, but somehow, in my extensive travels, I have managed to miss it. Afterall, who hasn't been to the Texas Country Music Hall of Fame and Tex Ritter museum? Well, actually, I still haven't been there, even though I drove past it multiple times over the course of four days last week.

On Saturday, July 19th at 9:30am, the Emmanuel UMC youth group met to travel to the marvelous town. It was a two day peripatetic adventure that covered nearly 1000 miles, followed by a six day sojourn, and a return two day trek. Yes, somehow, that was squeezed into merely 8 glorious days. Big thanks to Lakewood UMC in Little Rock, Arkansas for putting us up on the 19th and the 25th as we journeyed to and fro about the region.

How do you sum up a mission trip that impacted so many young people? Quite frankly, I don't know. I was so proud of our youth group last week. They worked their tails off, avoided major issues during our time in Carthage, and got along for the most part. The week ended with a great service on Thursday night, which caused a mini-revival amongst our youth. It was amazing to see them all pray for one another, and to do so without the prompting of the adult leaders. The question now remains, "What's next?" We cannot go back to life as normal. We cannot ignore the things that happened on this trip. We have to be able to bring it home, to make it real throughout the Noblesville/Fishers community. My prayer now is that the fire doesn't die; that life as normal is no longer good enough, and that I can help to lead these youth, who are so fired up for God, to the next level in their life of faith.

Hopefully, we'll be able to post some reflections about the trip by some of our youth in the next couple of weeks on our youth ministry blog here. I've already uploaded a video there from the trip. It's hilarious. I suggest you check it out.