Epic Weekend in Laredo, TX: A God Adventure!

It was my honor to speak to students and youth leaders at Grace Bible Church in Laredo, TX—at a disciplemaking retreat called Epic Weekend. (Click any image to enlarge for viewing.)

The college-age students led worship and did a great job at each of our four sessions together.

I had the honor of speaking at each session. One student later wrote, "God spoke to my heart this weekend. I knew God loved me, but to know I'm His favorite in a 7 billion way tie for first is priceless and something I now hold dear to my heart." See 1 John 4:19.

We had a lot of fun—with lots of student participation—exploring D3 Disciplemaking together. One volunteer youth leader wrote, "God spoke through you and to us! Thanks for the Word. I know it will be dear to our hearts forever! May God keep blessing you in what you do! Your guitar playing skills are good too!"

And I threw in a few moments of crazy hand motions for memorizing Scripture on Kavanah and living a C323 way of life. Yep, take a close look at the picture above. That's me wearing shorts on February 1st. I'm not sure, but I think some of my freezing friends in the heartland saw this picture on Facebook and prayed that God would get me for it. And I think it worked. See below.

I landed in Laredo, TX, on Friday to this beautiful weather (see left). God is good. But then I came home to on Sunday, February 2nd—and I woke up to this slap in the face (see right). Let the record show that this is a 101 degree variance. YIKES! On Monday morning, I thought I heard the faint sound of laughter coming from my Facebook friends who live in the midwest. They were laughing, "Welcome back, Bill."

So many great God moments over the weekend with these students! This weekend lived up to its name: Epic Weekend. One student wrote me and said, "Thanks for an amazing weekend with our church, for being our guest speaker, and for being a Jesus freak! You really did encourage me a lot. I'm excited to be in a whole new level with God." 

This group picture led to a group hug and a pathetic rendition of Kumbaya. Not joking.

I also loved getting time with other men—youth leaders both volunteer and vocational—who invest their lives into the next generation of disciplemakers. And yes, it's looks like we all called each other up to make sure we wore the same clothing but we didn't. It's just that we're all brothers from different mothers.

So what did God do over the weekend? Well, ten students indicated they trusted Christ as Savior and are now joining the other students in a 25 Day Challenge through The Disciplemaker's Journal together with the adult volunteer youth leaders! Please pray for them as the study and apply God's Word to their lives.

Two of my favorite disciplemaking friends in Laredo, TX, Tim and Christina Rowley. Tim serves as the youth pastor of Grace Bible Church.

This weekend was such a God thing on so many levels—and a ton of fun.

Thank you God!

(We need YOU to join our prayer team! We are missionaries with Cadre Ministries. About 2-3 times a month, I'd like to send you a short email with details about how you can say a quick prayer for us. If you are willing to say a quick prayer for us 2-3 times a month, please email me and put "prayer team" in the subject line. THANKS!)

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