Salt Lake City: LDS Capital of the World

For the past two weeks I've been in Salt Lake City, Utah. Our team's trip was fantastic. We were a big encouragement to the church plant that we were working with and we were able to run a pretty sweet VBS while we were there. We also learned a lot about the Mormon faith and some of us were able to have some very interesting coversations with mormon people about what they believe. I had four LDS (Latter Day Saints) kids in my VBS group, three from the same family and their mom followed my group around all day to the different stations! It certainly enouraged me to speak boldly and love her kids with the love of Jesus. In the end I think everyone of my kids had a lot of fun. One of my kids' names was Ian. He was a perticular treasure coming complete with ADD and ADHD. Any form of sugar would just set him bouncing off the walls, hitting other kids, kicking other kids, running at me while I wasn't looking and head butting me in the stomach. One day I actually pinned him face down on the ground with his legs and arms behind his back so that he would stop going insane while we were singing songs! But it was this same Ian that the Holy Spirit was working in all week long. On thursday the story of Jesus was shared with the kids. That night I wrote this poem:

Vacation Bible School

The rain fell softly.
Ian smothers me
His biggest hug yet
Starting the morning right
Our crew makes sundaes
Snack comes later, but you wouldn't know
Neither did Ian
Laughter rules communication
Love and second chances meets
Attention Deficit Disorder
Snack time sugar high
Chaos ensues
Ian leads the charge
My energy is spent
But my hope is in the Lord
And so I dance
Ian on my shoulders
He sings for the first time
Our God is an awesome God
The Spirit softly fell.
I wept for his soul
Smiled at his beautiful face
Remarkably he stops squirming
A whispered conversation
Jesus come into my heart today
Be my best friend
Thank you for dying for all my sins
So I can be with you in heaven forever
He turns and hugs me
Ten seconds later I release a grinning Ian
So excited to tell mom
Three hugs before Ian left
And the Rain softly fell.

Well I am home now, and safe. Thank you to all of you who took the time to pray for my team and I. I love you all.

Stewie