Hello to all our faithful blog followers on the interwebs. I have not written a blog for quite a long time, for that I apologize. As I started to write, I could not think of what I wanted to talk about. I am not even sure I know where I am going as I type this out, but I am going for it.

We have done a lot since my last blog. More events, many more places we have been, lots of cool new people we have met. We even had a break in there somewhere, where we all got to go home, that was definitely a lot of fun, and very restful as well. I could write a whole blog about coming back from break, but I do not think I want do that right now. I want to talk about some of the awesome places we have been to, some of them more than once!

Being on the road it is hard to find any sense of home, or stability. We often go to host homes or churches where they say to make ourselves at home. I don’t know if it is possible to feel at home...

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Anyone who knows me even the slightest bit knows that one of my favorite things in the world is musicals. I always have at least one show tune stuck in my head. One of my favorite shows that I’ve ever performed in was Godspell by Stephen Schwartz. If any of you aren’t very familiar with the show, it’s based on an interpretation of the Gospel of Matthew. At the beginning of the show, John the Baptist comes to the front of the stage only to find Jesus, wanting to be baptized. After Jesus is baptized, He calls all of the 12 disciples from their normal lives in the audience and baptizes them. They all instantly embrace this new lifestyle of following Jesus around and just hanging out with Him while He teaches them how to live in Him. It is a brilliant adaptation of the Gospel and I recommend it to anyone and everyone. Anyway, the point I’m getting at is that the finale of the show is after Judas ties Jesus to a chain-link fence (a modern interpretation of the crucifixion) and all of the disciples mourn at His feet as He dies. But then, directly after Jesus dies, the disciples begin comforting each other and leaving the crucified Jesus while singing “Long Live God.” And what happens next is one of my favorite moments in all of theater. The disciples begin separating themselves one by one and go to the edge of the stage and start singing to the audience themselves and the words switch to “prepare ye the way of the Lord.” It’s just a great way of showing how the disciples are there for each other, but soon after Jesus rose from the grave, they took that miracle and “made disciples of all the nations.” I feel like this is something that we, as Christians, forget to do a lot. We know the truth about the miracle of God, and yet we keep it to ourselves so that we can enjoy it; when what we’re supposed to be doing is telling everyone that we know and don’t know! We should be shouting it from the rooftops, but we just act so apathetic about it all. So, my challenge for you today is to tell someone you don’t know very well about Jesus. You can tell them anything at all, even just a simple “God bless you” when someone sneezes behind you in the grocery store. I promise, it’ll be worth it.

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Lately, God has been constantly showing me just how great and impressive He really is. It all started about a month ago when we did a program at a church in Sidney, Montana. The church had quite a few people in it and they were a wide variety of ages. The youngest was a baby and the oldest looked around 60 or so. Then, in the middle of singing “How He Loves,” I got this overwhelming realization of the fact that these people have lived out their lives before we got there and will continue to do so after we leave. Which, I know, isn’t that big of a revelation, but just work with me here. Not only that obvious fact, but God has known everything that’s ever happened to them and everything that ever will happen to them, just the same as He does with me and my teammates. And he does the same with people we haven’t even met before. Earlier this year I started reading a book called “Man Seeks God.” In the beginning of this book, a man that isn’t of any particular faith is taken to the ER for what he thinks may be cancer. Before the doctor comes in with his test results, the nurse in the room with him asks him, “Have you found your God yet?” This experience causes him to live his life with more of a purpose and to go find what he personally believes in. After I read this book, I had the idea that we should all constantly be on this same search even after we find our own personal beliefs. I believe that there is a different form of the God we all know and love out there that is meant just for us. These last few weeks, God has changed that belief in a way. Because of these revelations, I stumbled upon an idea that I should’ve realized a long time ago. There is indeed a God out there meant for every individual person, it’s just the same God. The God we worship knows absolutely everything there is to know about every single solitary person on the planet! He knows everything you’ve been through, everything you will go through, everything you won’t, your strengths, your weaknesses, needs, wants, favorite color, and even the exact number of hairs on your head! He knows all of this because he took the time to create you and plan out a purpose for you. And on top of all of that, that same God that created you, tiny little speck of a being, also created the ridiculously and unbelievably large universe. What?! If that doesn’t just make you sit in awe of this amazing and wonderful divine being, I don’t know what will.

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Sometimes, I have no idea what to say, and that goes for when I'm praying, too. I find it can help me to write my thoughts out rather than try to voice them. Every so often, I find myself writing my prayers out; I can let pen and paper be my communication to God. Besides, I like getting letters, so why shouldn't He? A month or so ago I wrote a pretty serious letter to Him, and I thought I would share a slightly modified version with you all.

Dear God,
Out of all Your fruits of the spirit, I feel I need patience the most. I've never been great at it or anything, but recently I've been just awful. Patience with my teammates. Patience with team life. Patience with the plan You have for my life. In all these areas, I ask for Your help...

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It has been a while since i have written a blog. there has been a lot that has happened but i will spare you most of the details or else this blog would be many pages long. Right now we are in Laurel, MT and we are enjoying some time to get to know this congregation. We have had a ton of fun here in Montana but the sad part is that by this time next week we will be out of Montana and won't return until June. Before team i had never been to Montana and I was excited to go. Montana is such a great and beautiful state. i love traveling around in the mountains. The spirit of the youth programs that we have visited out here have just been awesome.

In the past few days i have spent a pretty decent amount of time digging into the word and other materials. As some of you know, i am a new believer and just came to know the Lord about 2 and a half years ago. one thing that keeps coming up in most of my reading is the concept of being a sheep/"the Lord is my shepherd"(psalm 23). It is just so amazing to think that the Lord watches over us at all times and protects us. He is there for you when the going gets tough and helps to lead you to greener pastures of thankfulness and rejoicing. Even through the times of trial i feel comforted looking to the fact that the Lord is there and all i need to do is bring it all to him and he takes my burdens. looking at my life over the past year i do not think that i would be in the same place or even here on earth if i did not have the knowledge that God is always there. so, if you are feeling sad, depressed, or just lonely go talk to God. one of my favorite sayings is "when life knocks you to your knees, you are in the perfect position to pray."

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Hello all of my faithful blog followers, all three of you out there.

For this blog I was thinking about the sound of music, now I really don’t know why that came into my head, but I started thinking about the song “ my favorite things”. I was pondering what my favorite things on the road are. So here it is my favorite things (captive free central plains version) by Kevin Lien. Now I’m not as good as Julie Andrews, but I’m going to try this song the best I can.

Warm almond latté simply the best
My kindle to read no time to rest
Packages from home without the string
These are a few of favorite things...

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For those of you who may not know, I am currently on my third Central Plains team within my one year of service! After losing some members back in the fall, (team #1) CP was blessed with three alumni who helped us out for a full six weeks on the road (team #2). The goal was for the office to find us permanent team members to start with us after our Christmas break (team #3). As you can imagine, we prayed a lot, hoping that we wouldn't have to split up and lose an entire region of Youth Encounter's ministry. It was quite the happy day in December when we found out we had one teammate signed on to join us in January!

Now, even with that first person signed on, we still would only have three members on our team. That isn't quite enough to do all that we do on the road, so we prayed that we would get at least one more teammate. A few days later...

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Team thus far teaches me that first times do exist for many situations. I experience new things each and every day on team. Before team I never lived in a van, I lacked band membership, I barely dabbled on any musical instrument, and of course I never had to live with 4 complete strangers for an extended period of time. I find that each host home environment differs, and teamers rarely find comfort not knowing where they will lay their heads down at night. Not showering for more than one day at a time occurs more than I would like to admit, and haircuts and shaves are rare commodities. Any sort of daily schedule becomes ram-shackled in an instance. Set list changes, band rehearsal, relational time…WHAT? I had no idea joining team would entail this much. Yes, many teamers state, “You’ll never know until you’re on team,” but I disagree, to an extent. I think you can smell the dirty van (recently cleaned mom, I promise!), the sweaty band mates, and the dirty socks; simply don’t do laundry for awhile and sleep in your car. You can imagine the cramped confinements of a van, packed with our lives. You can picture the bewilderment of host home situations, travel to a neighbor’s house unexpectedly and spend the night. You can also experience the weight gain by only eating, driving, and...

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Hello everyone this is my third blog post of the year. A lot has happened since my last post; we finished two big events since then, one in Wichita or the Witchitawsome event, as we like to call it. The second one in Topeka called the Topekamazing. I would love to talk just about events, about the amazing ministry we get to do at events, how we are ministered to as well, and all the fun we have at events. I think for now I’ll save that for another blog. For this one I’m going to talk about our team. My teammates are becoming so much more than just teammates, they’ve become like another family! It can really be hard to describe what team is like, but talking about it is a good place to start. Being part of a family means that we work together, we have fun together, we fight together, we cry together. We do all these things and more. At our last event, we got to work with a musician named Patter Edie, and in one of his songs he talks about what family does, we lift each other up, and we build each other up. This was exactly what I needed. Not too long before that we talked for a devotional about how we want the privilege of being part of Gods family, being sons or daughters of God, but we do not want to accept the responsibility that comes with it. We do things like love our enemy, we take care of orphans and widows, we forgive other. Why, because we are part of God family, and that is what God family does. Our team is the same way. We cannot call ourselves part of this team without accepting the rules, responsibilities, and high standards we have for each other.

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The event in Wichita this last weekend was awesome. A lot of random things happened, ranging from having the guest guitarist fall off stage out of purely rocking too hard to being silly-stringed in the back of another church’s van right after doing a Chinese fire drill with them. However, personally one of my favorite parts of this weekend was being reunited with one of my favorite camp counselors growing up. Starting in kindergarten, every summer I went to a camp in Mansfield, Ohio called Camp Mowana. I absolutely loved every moment I spent there and to this day it is still my favorite place in the world. One summer after third grade, I had one of the coolest people I had ever met as my counselor. His name was Kevin and he was funny, he seemed to genuinely care about us, and he made prayer and learning about God really interesting and exciting. At the end of our week, our entire cabin didn’t want to leave. We asked Kevin if we could have his address so that we could write to him the rest of the summer, but he said that he was leaving camp at the end of the week to join a rock band...

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The title, “An Amazing Adventure,” perfectly describes my team experience thus far, however, another word describes it as well; surreal. I constantly find myself reflecting on everything that had to, “fall into place,” for me to be here, and sometimes it all seems like a dream. I never thought I would be on Captive Free. I graduated from Hartwick College in May, and believed I was hospital bound. I took the fast track to my degree and graduated a year early, for the sole purpose of going on to medical school. Well, since I’m on team, we can all get an idea of the success of my plans.
God shows me each and every day how my plans falter under His. I possessed little musical talent before coming on team; aka I sang in my H.S. Choir. Oh and I can’t read music. I thought that I couldn’t offer anything to Youth Encounter. Through the fall, I sat at home scouring the internet for jobs, praying I could just get an interview; believing if God gave me an interview, I would get the job. That may sound pretentious, but I am trying to become a Doctor. I had no success in finding a job in any hospital within 45 minutes of home. I expanded my search to Oneonta, New York, the town of my alma mater. While I applied to jobs, I sat at home playing Mr. Mom for my younger sister. I cooked, cleaned, and drove her to and from school and sports (soccer and basketball) practice. My plans were crushed. Sure, I want to be a father some day, and those responsibilities will come, but as a 21 year old college graduate I expected...

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Children can be some of the easiest places to find God. They don’t know the meaning of the word “worry” and wouldn’t care if they did. We’ve been working with a lot of preschoolers lately and I’ve just been in heaven. While in Bellevue, Nebraska we put on a total of three short programs for the kids and then played with them in a huge gym for hours! It was so great. Before chasing us and tackling us all over the place, I was talking to some of the children when they all suddenly felt this dire urge to tell me what they got for Christmas this year. I was quickly drowning in a sea of kids toys, “I got a dump truck!” “Well I got a barbie house with a hot tub!!” “Santa brought me a puppy!!” And then, in the midst of all of the present bragging, one of the boys yelled, “STOOOOOOOOOOOOOP!” And once everyone was silent he yelled even louder, “I GOT SOCKS!” The excitement in his voice and the expression on his face just inspired all of the children and even myself to cause absolute chaos. We all started screaming, “SOOOOOOOOCKS!! I LOVE SOCKS!!!!” After I had cooled down and my love for socks began to dwindle, I got to thinking. What happens after childhood that makes it so difficult to get excited about things and to show that excitement? Why is it so socially unacceptable to be happy and thankful for what you have? In my opinion, more people need to get excited about their socks. If we can’t get excited about the little things in life, how can we expect ourselves to do the same with the important things like, I don’t know, Jesus! Today, I challenge you to tell someone what you’re excited about. Trust me, it’ll keep us young, care-free, and spirit-filled.

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Hello to all of you who may follow our blogs, I want to tell you about our time on the road. We have been together for about three weeks now, and in that time I feel like I have grown closer to my teammates than many friends I have known for years! On our first night together we were all eating dinner, getting to know each other, and just having a fantastic time, laughing until it hurt, hitting it off really super well! We were talking and for some reason that I cannot remember I said my hip-hop name was Ceatho (Pronounced Keith). Ceatho is the hip-hop way to spell it. There are many different stories as to who Ceatho is, some can be very interesting, and like Ceatho is a single father of at least nine kids! Others are that Ceatho is an avid outdoorsman. The last one, which is the truest, is that he is a pre and elementary school rapper by morning, and on the weekends, who raps about Jesus, a seminary school student by afternoon, and a psychic detective by night. There is still much I have to learn about my alter ego in the time to come. I also hope more people get a chance to meet Ceatho because he has a story to tell just like everyone else. This is Kevin or maybe Ceatho singing off for now. Until latter.

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Is this really happening? I’ve found myself asking the question a lot lately. This is definitely the most radical move I’ve ever made in my life. This is proving to me just how much control God has on my life. To think that I have any say in how to follow Him is absolute foolishness. And why would I want that anyway? If I know God makes my best decisions, why do I worry so much about this journey that I’m embarking on? So what if I’m about to spend the next 7 months with 4 people that I’ve known for 2 weeks now? There are much scarier things God could have called me to do. This is what God wanted me to do, so I’m doing it. End of story. I have absolutely nothing to fear because I know all of us are joining together for the same reasons. We want to follow, we want to spread the gospel, we want to live in Him! I keep forgetting the fact that this adventure is going to be taking up the majority of 2012 for me. That’s such an exhilarating thought. Again, I’m constantly having trouble wrapping my mind around this whole deal. I feel like I’m still not ready for what’s to come, but I know God’s already prepared my heart whether I know it or not. In the end, that’s all that really matters.

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Hello you people out there in blog world! This my first blog in two years of being on team, so I hope you enjoy. I want to talk about what God is doing with me. I’ve heard a lot people say “Jesus saved my life”, well good for them. I Believe God has the power to change lives, to save people from the power of sin and death. I Probably would not be here if I didn’t. But Jesus didn’t really save my life, he messed it up! Not too long ago, I was working a part time job I enjoyed, I was going to school and really loving it, I was working on finding a full time job. Almost everything in my life was going in the right direction, or so I thought. Then I started thinking about team and maybe God might be calling me back for another year, which had always been in the back of my mind. So I started praying and seeking God with this decision, then I started to talk with the Recurrent Director and shared how I might be interested in doing team again, thinking for next year or a LOT farther down the road! Then I found out about Central Plans. And that they needed people right away. I thought there’s no way I could go back on the road that quickly, but God had other plans in mind. Through lots of prayer, and seeking God I decided to join the 2012 Central Plans team. Now I’m sitting in a church in Ottumwa, Iowa, and if you would have told me a few months ago that I would be on team again. I probably would laugh in your face. Clearly God had a different plan in mind for me. So Jesus may have messed up my life, but I would not have it any other way!

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You know what's amazing? How much being around kids gives me energy, no matter how tired I am. This past week we had an after-school program as well as a morning preschool chapel. The kids at both places were great. I can imagine that even if you were having the worst day ever, these kids would still welcome you with loving, open arms (and sometimes latch onto your leg). At the after-school program I managed to make friends with an adorable second grader named Lily. She reminded me of how much I do miss my little sisters (I have four).

At first we had just been sitting at the same table for snack time, but later when it was coloring time we ended up next to each other. As I made some Christmas themed doodles, Lily began making tiny origami whales...

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So we, as Central Plains November/December 2011, met this past Thursday, November 3rd. We sat down, got to know each other, set up, and rehearsed. Friday we did work, performed at a nursing home, had dinner, an XP and a lock-in. Saturday we met up, tore down, drove, set up, had dinner, did another XP, tore down, loaded out, and went to host homes. Sunday morning we met, did an hour of Sunday school, led acoustic Sunday worship, loaded out, drove, set up, had dinner, did another XP and went to host homes. Talk about diving in. We barely had time to breathe.

Amazingly, though, we have pulled it off.

God has pulled it off.

It's crazy how things have been working out. Churches have been hugely gracious in allowing us time and space to do what we've needed to do. Music was incredibly smooth; we learned roughly a dozen songs our first day between program music and worship songs. We managed to put on three solid XP's, the first of which was 28 hours after we first met; Between Lindsay, Justin and I, we have experience in 9 of the 10 team jobs that aren't Max and Veronica's...

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Hello world of YE blog followers. 

My name is Sarah Biddix, I am an alumni (EC 08-09) serving for the next six weeks with Central Plains 11-12.

This is the story of the past two weeks of my life.

Sunday, October 23rd, I moved to St. Paul, Minnesota. That decision was made in haste... stemming from working with YE training, the month of September. I was re-integrated into the community and ended up interviewing for a job at Youth Encounter in the events department, and got it. I then talked to a previous roommate who now lives in the cities, about moving in with her again, decided everything was good and from God, and I moved. I packed our Chevy Cavalier with all of my things and drove for two days with my mom. It was fast, and unexpected.

I finished moving my stuff in on Tuesday and started my job at YE on Wednesday. I was back in a place that felt like home, with people I loved and a lot of new experiences in front of me. (Little did I know….

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Hello, friends! Allow me to say one thing: I have no idea how God decides to work the way He does. All I know is that it's AMAZING!

I've seen that a common theme in other teamers' blogs has been God providing them with things they need. Well, it's certainly been true from my standpoint. If you've been keeping up with my team, you have probably noticed the rotation of members; we have said good-bye to three of our original teammates now, with only two of us remaining. God wasn't done with us, though, because He has provided us with three new teammates!

Okay, I suppose one could argue that they're actually old teamers since they are all alumni, but they are new to me, new to this team, and totally awesome. I could not have known to ask for better! Lindsay, one of my new teammates, likes to say that God doesn't give us what we want, He gives us what we need. I believe I needed these people in my life. Just a couple weeks ago I was wishing I could be on another, less broken team. That was what I wanted, right? However, because things played out the way they did, I got what I truly needed...

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Hello Everyone

In the past couple of weeks we have had some really great ministry events and I would like to share some with you.

Our first really awesome event was our Mystery Bus Tour in Garden City, KS. On the mystery bus tour we were able to minister to the youth all night. We did fun activities like: bowling, basketball, and a very large game of Romans and Christians. In total there were 104 people that attended and the event was a huge success.

Our second really awesome event was at Mike Dufree Sate Prison in Springfield, SD. This night was so incredible. At this prison they had a praise band that played for us. It was amazing to see the talent that these inmates possessed. The inmates also did a puppet show that night. It was their first puppet show that they had ever done. After they did a few things they invited us up to do some songs. We did about an hour of music/sing-a-longs and a puppet show. The inmates absolutely loved it. I felt very welcomed by the inmates and really would like to go back in the future and see their progress.

There are some changes on the horizon for Central Plains. Keep your eyes posted on the website for when more information becomes available.

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It sure is windy out here! My team has spent the last week traveling around Kansas, and I'll tell you, a Pennsylvania girl like myself is just not used to it. I suppose where I live there are too many trees getting in the way of the wind for us to experience much. There is a different kind of beauty out here, though. For one thing, the horizon goes on forever, which makes sunsets look awesome and the night sky a true sight to behold. The stars stretch out as far as you can see. I'm happy to be able to see parts of the country I might not otherwise have gotten a chance to.

It has been fun to play at all the different types of bookings we have. So far we have done Sunday morning services, evening programs, school and preschool visits, a crazy all-nighter, and one visit to an assisted living home. I love that we are able to connect with the young and the old alike. This ministry is such a powerful thing; it still blows me away that I can be a part of it. I'd like to thank everyone who makes it possible for us to be out here, doing what we do..

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I can't believe we're already on the road. It's been an entire year since I began the application process for Youth Encounter, not knowing what team I would be placed on and wondering what I was getting myself into. Well, I still wonder at times what I've gotten myself into, but I know that I love it!

Training was an experience like no other. Imagine throwing 36 young adults, plus staff, together for four weeks with no breaks from each other. Crazy! The craziest part is how close everyone has become. The community we have between our teams is something I greatly appreciate. Our sending service last week was bittersweet, because I didn't want to leave my new friends; however, we are not only here for each other. We are here to spread the love of Jesus! In my opinion, it's the best "job" out there.

This week has been full of highs and lows, as can be expected. My team is learning to be very strong, and I have never felt God carrying me through more than I do now. He is so awesome! In a host home the other day, I saw a little saying that has stuck with me : Let go and let God. I got to thinking, and realized that of course God has it all figured out! We don't have to worry when the going gets tough. A favorite verse within our team at the moment is Philippians 4:13- "I can do everything through him [Christ] who gives me strength." Isn't that just the truth? Even when all else is gone, Jesus remains. It is with that knowledge that I can go forth and do this work for God. He has been providing for my team in wonderful ways.

With that said, I hope to be meeting many more people on the road this year! Prayer is always appreciated for all the teams. Until next time, God bless.

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I am so happy to be writing my first blog! We have been on the road offically for 6 days now. Its been so amazing to see the generosity of so many people. There has been alot of things that has happened in these last few days but it definitely lifts my spirits to meet so many amazing people. All the people we have met so far have been extremely generous and welcoming, their smiles and warm hearts cant help but make you feel better about everything.

I am excited to see what the future brings for my team and our ministry. I ask that you all keep us and the communities we meet in your prayers. Thank you and I would like to leave you with this verse that has helped me get through, Jeremiah 29:11.

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The 2011-2012 teams arrived September 3rd to start training! Please pray all the teams as they meet each other for the first time.

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