We have lift off!

Elevate has officially completed it's first ever summer camp season. Our first ever camp included students from Smith River Baptist, Medford First Nazarene, Pelican Bay Evangelical Free, and Faith Community of Redding. What a privilege it was to serve these churches through camp ministry. Thank you to our speaker Tyler Miller for bringing it every night to the students and challenging them to go deeper in relationship with Jesus. It was a blast to hang out and spend time with Brad Damas our camp worship leader. Thank you Brad for pointing us to Jesus each time we spent in worship. Close to 50 students made choices on Wednesday night to deepen their relationship with Jesus, and 3 students chose Jesus for the first time in their lives. Whether it was around a campfire, at our block party, during worship, or in conversations with students around the lake, God was speaking. And that is the simple beauty of taking the time away from routine to focus on hearing from God. Our theme was called Unmasked, removing the mask's that we hide behind. We asked students to remove those masks, and find that their true identity is hidden in Christ Jesus.

To our supporters: Thank you for your commitment to students and to Elevate. Thank you for your passion to further the Kingdom of God through summer camp ministry. God has called us as his children to share his message of hope, and because of your support that hope has now been shared with more people. God bless you for investing in the future generations.

To our staff: Wow. You guys are awesome and we couldn't have pulled it off without each team member! Amazing to see how God is bringing the right people to be a part of this team. We love you and pray that God continues to push your towards your passion of seeing students live a life with Jesus. Pray as our staff and leadership team continues to grow and develop. Pray that God would direct our movement. Simple put, God you lead and we will follow. May we choose to Love God. Love others. and Love life!

Past, Present, & Future.

The past 4 weeks have been filled with unpacking, remodeling, painting, meeting about camp, preparing for camp, and of course some swimming in the pool. :) Our kids have enjoyed their new backyard, in the house that I grew up in. What a huge blessing to have a familiar house and neighborhood for our family to settle into. Thanks Mom & Dad! As the weeks go by, we really miss our students, church family, and friends over on the coast. We miss our students and youth leaders who were such a part of our life. God has an awesome plan for Smith River Baptist Church and we feel blessed to have had a small part in that community. The lifelong friendships that we have built are amazing and so encouraging. We are now 10 days from our first camp, and our team is working hard in these final days. Please pray for our team as we speak the truth of God's word into the lives of students. We are praying for students who don't know Jesus, that they would experience his love and forgiveness. And for the students who do know Him to have a stronger desire for Him in their lives. We ask for your prayers and believe God is going to do amazing things.
God has already opened some new opportunities for speaking into lives of students. We started a bible study at our house for college students. Many students who were in our youth group on the coast, now are living and going to school in Redding. It has been awesome to reconnect with them and continue to be a part of their lives. If your a college student and you live in Redding or nearby, come on out! We love you all and will keep you posted of what is going on.

Scott, Dawn, Sadie, and Braden

Changes.

In Oct of 1999 Dawn and I moved from Redding Ca, to Smith River Ca. Now 12 years later we are moving back to Redding with our hearts full and our hands. :) We have a big task ahead of us, but we have a bigger God. He wants to do more in us than we ever thought possible. This world is promising so many things that it can't deliver. But our God will deliver and will honor his word. In Ephesians chapter 3:20 Paul writes "Now all glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think." We are believing in God's promise that if we start on our knees humbly before Him, He can and will work through us. Our time here in Crescent City, Smith River, and Brookings has been a huge blessing in our lives. So many memories and times of growth. We have developed lifelong relationships with so many people here. Our location will change, our church will change, the temperature will change :), but our purpose will stay the same.

Mexico

Spending a week in a third world country will always change your perspective on life. 15 Adults and students made the 20 hour drive down to Mexico for a week of serving. We worked with a local church in Camalu Mexico, 4 hours south of the border. We helped put in bathrooms at the church by digging a septic system (8ft x 8t x 8ft deep hole). We also provided VBS for the kids of the church and the community. So many things about this trip made it very memorable, but one event that stood out was our time spent in a small impoverished village. This little village was on the side of a hill and was without electricity or water. We arrived and began inviting kids to come out and play. They began to show up from everywhere, very excited and hungry for attention, love and food. It was our plan to be there just one night, but after only 10 min I knew we needed to come back. We told the kids we would be back the next night and we headed home. We spent the next day working and doing VBS at the local church in Camalu. That evening we decided to head back to the village with food, and a full VBS program. As we pulled into the village, kids came running down the mountain side yelling with excitement. It was a very emotional evening as we poured our hearts out to these little kids in need of a loving Savior. We played, shared the message of Jesus through puppets and testimonies, passed out bibles, and food. It was an amazing night and one we will never forget. The picture above is Dawn with her friend Jennifer. Jennifer lives with her mom and 2 little siblings in a house made of plastic and sticks. We pray that we are able to go back and build her family a home. It is very humbling to realize how much we have been given in our country and how ungrateful we have become. My prayer coming home is that I will always remember. Thank you to those who helped support these students and this opportunity they were able to experience.

Tacos, Hot Tubs, and Jesus.

Our 12th Annual Mt. Bachelor Trip was one of the best ever. Snowboarding, skiing, shopping, hot tubs, eating, hanging out at the house, and worship God, you just can't ask for much more than that. We had some great discussions about absolute truth, and looked at what Romans has to say about those who choose not to follow Jesus. The next day we had 2 of our girls head to Barnes & Noble to buy their first bibles. Encouraging to see them seeking answers to life in scriptures. Retreats, Camp, Missions Trips, all these kind of trips are so valuable because of the opportunity to speak into students lives on consecutive days. Getting students away from everyday routines and environments helps them to refocus on what is most important. Please pray for us now as we get ready to leave for Mexico tomorrow. Road Trip :)

Alexander Mail Room.

We spent the day working on sending out our support letters. Sadie enjoyed helping, while Braden pretended to be Michael Jordan on his nerf hoop. It was very cool to see the names of all our friends and family across the country. Dawn and I were talking about all the memories that flood in just by looking at a name on a mailing label. Sure causes you to be thankful when you stop and think about all the people in your life. We love you all and ask you to pray for us as we move forward towards our new ministry. If you didn't receive one than we are still looking for your address. :)

Same Values...New Ministry

Our values have not changed, but our ministry might look a little different. For the past 12 years I have had the amazing opportunity to serve Smith River Baptist Church as their youth pastor as well as to work alongside my dad. I can't say thank you enough to our church for the love and support they have shown Dawn and I. This church is and will always be our home church. We will miss so many of our friends, fellow youth workers, church members, coaches, players and obviously my parents. Good news is that we will only be 4 hours away and will look forward to trips back to the coast. God has been moving us towards a new opportunity for the past couple years. Interesting how his timing is always perfect, while we often sit wondering when and where he will move us. After years of prayer and consideration, we have decided to start a new ministry called Elevate Worldwide. A ministry that will share the message of Jesus to high school and junior high students in Northern California, Oregon, and Nevada. Our main objective is that through our ministries we will show students how to Love God, Love Others, and Love Life. We will begin with summer camping ministry and move towards outreach, missions, and leadership training. This ministry will be something that we will be doing full time, year round. We are starting this non profit organization from scratch. This will take time to build and develop. We will spend the next year building our camps, reaching out to youth pastors, fundraising, traveling and speaking at church's and recruiting college leaders. We are excited for the opportunity and look forward to seeing how God is going to grow our faith in the process. We will be raising our salary as missionaries of Elevate for the next 3 years. After that time period we are hopeful that Elevate will be able to pay us a salary. Please pray for us as we make this transition into a new ministry. We will be moving to Redding California in June of 2011 and will start camps in July. We pray that our kids will adjust well and enjoy our new ministry. Here is an article written about our move:

www.triplicate.com/20110131111331/News/Local-News/A-higher-calling

Bye Bye Summer 2010

How time flies when your having fun. What a great couple of months although very busy and tiring. It stated with a family camping trip to Lake Selmac an awesome way to start the summer. Grant and Shelia then came to visit over 4th of July...river, beach, fireworks and the redwoods. Next came Ryan, Marty, P, and M for two weeks of fun times...and laughing. Along with a week and a half at Lassen Pines for camp. Then we headed to Hume lake for a week of high school camp, crazy. Then home for a week of SRBC family camp followed by a weekend in redding for Melanie Connell's birthday. Dinners and sunsets on the beach have been our latest family fun back to back nights. It has been an awesome summer! Now time for Sadie to start 3rd Grade....wow..can't believe it.