This photo is from a random Sunday lunch from several months ago — basically an ordinary event.  The place OME14 has in the context of my regular community is probably the part of it I currently look forward to most!  There are ten other students (and a staff member) from UT going with me to Branson, Missouri for the summer.  They are either already good friends of mine or well along that path, and I will continue to see them — living and serving Christ alongside them — for the whole next year after OME14.  (The man in the center of the photo – Devin – is going to be a fellow team leader at OME14!)

I will undoubtedly meet other really fun people and make other friends at OME14 — the program has a reputation for, among other things, generating great friendships.  But I am currently most excited about the fact that it isn’t an isolated program over the summer:  OME14 will be a spiritual development program on its own, but it also occurs in the context of my current community and my current ministry (role as a Christ-follower).  I already know several of the people who will be there and I will get to see them grow in their personal relationships with Jesus Christ.  Then I’ll get to continue living life and learning alongside them afterwards, encouraging them — and being encouraged by them — to put into practice the lessons we learn over the summer.  That really is something to look forward to!

P.S. I’m still looking for quite a few more people to partner with me personally for OME14, especially through prayer: Want to be one of them?