The Loss of Love

Editor's Note: I am unable to get up to Tennessee for the funeral, so this is my gift to my family and my grandmother!

When you lose someone in your family to death, it can be a hard time that no one is ever prepared for. We all know life is not fair but we continue on and get caught in a daze with life. I know for me, the last loss of love I experienced was when my great Aunt Carolyn died when I was a Senior in College. Before then, it was the loss of my father when I was in 6th grade.

I think we get caught up in life and find ourselves surprised when one of our grandparents or elder family members fall ill. As a kid growing up, I looked up at my grandparents (whom we affectionately call Poppie and Mommie) and saw them as invincible. I mean my grandparents have been through the great depression, numerous wars, disasters, etc. yet they persevered and have become a foundation for our family. A couple of weeks ago, they celebrated their 70th anniversary, which is unimaginable to me. I love my wife with all my heart and I am thankful that I get to wake next to her every morning, but to have that feeling for 70 years is incredible.

Mommie (my grandmother) had been fighting a mental war for a while. Doctors tried medicine that only made her worse. Over the course of time, it took its toll on her. She was taken to the hospital about 3 weeks ago with not much hope to live through the day, but just like my grandmother has always been, she did not go down without fight. We hurriedly flew home to TN where I was able to hold her hand and tell her I love. She progressed slowly over the the days we were there. She was still fighting. But yesterday morning, she grew tired of fighting and I think after 90 years she had a right to throw in the towel and go be at home with her Savior! Mommie died yesterday morning between 2 and 4 am. I grieved yesterday numerous times over her passing yet deep inside, I knew she would not want me to be sad. So I found a reason to rejoice, then another reason, then another...soon my tears of sorrow became tears a peace, relief, and joy...

- I rejoice because I got to experience 28 wonderful years with a great women who loved me and always wanted me to come see her and Poppie.
- I rejoice that I got to drink her lemony sweet tea and popcorn. I have tried many sweet teas and have never had a kind like hers. The taste of it is easy to recall like I have an infinite glass of it with me at all times.
- I rejoice because I got to eat her cooking, which is in my top 3 of the best cooking of all time
- I rejoice that I got to go to Clearwater Florida with her and go "squishing" in the bay looking for shells.
- I rejoice that she got to meet my wife and hold my daughter Maddy
- I rejoice in all the times she would scratch my back when I was a kid
- I rejoice in the conversations I had with her, and her "mommie-ism's" that kept us laughing
- I rejoice in that as she was getting older she would rifle off about 4 names before she got the right one right when I got in trouble. And then she would be thankful that she had so many names to rifle off!
- I rejoice because I know that she no longer needs a walker to get around, or her medicine to think clearly, or help getting in and out of chairs.
- I rejoice that because of Jesus, I will see her again.

I am sure my dad was waiting on her as she walked into the presence of our Creator, and Jesus was there to hold her and tell her welcome home. Mommie was a strong and great women who now has nothing holding her down. She is back to her old ways...Although now she may have to hold off on telling some of those jokes in heaven!!!

LF

Sunday Replay, September 6th and Praise HIM

This blog is two fold...

1) Recap Sunday - We are on our 3rd foundation for the Sr High Ministry @ AHUMC. This past Sunday was Outreach. We talked about being not just hearers of the word but doers. How we are called to go make disciples and the fact that there are people out there in that are in need of a Savior, and we have that truth, we know that Savior and we are doing an injustice to them, if we keep HIM to ourselves. We talked about upcoming outreach opportunities and summer mission trip destinations and why, you can take it to the bank, that we WILL serve!!! Very refreshing to see the excitement from the students about the opportunities we will have to make a difference in our city, state, country, and across the globe. God is moving in the hearts of many of our students, and I feel honored to be apart of that.

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2) Praise HIM - I want to spend that 2nd part, thanking God for where we are and what He is doing in the ministry...

Our Creator and Redeemer, I come to you solely thanking and praising You for:

- Jesus, the reason we do what we do, for His death, burial and resurrection, so that we are free of sin
- The grace we so undeservingly receive from You, who lovingly gives
- High school students
- Parents who care
- AHUMC, a place where student ministry is encouraged
- Our leaders who want to spend time advancing the kingdom by loving on students
- Your spirit moving in the lives of students who have not been involved in the past
- The past leadership, who You used to get us here
- Students who have bought in to change
- Students who have bought in to YOU
- Guidance and direction, it s nothing I'm doing or planning, it is You guiding and directing the leadership
- The redeeming power of a relationship with you
- The students who have not come to grips with your call for their, because they are in for an amazing ride
- Divine appointments, that allow us to reach more students and share Your love with them even when we least expect it
- Fellow student ministry leaders in the area and the support and friendship they provide

God, we don't know what tomorrow holds, but know that we are satisfied with your Grace, but never satisfied in the amount of change and hope we can bring for your name...

This is Your ministry, use us to make your name known!

Amen
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Blessings,

LF

Sunday Replay - August 23rd

Welcome back...

The summer was great and I know alot of you did some great things. Summer camps, summer school, and vacations. Now its time to get back to the grind. So I say to you, have a great day and welcome back...

Today's Sunday replay is from kick off sunday. The Sr high has four foundations; community, LIFEgroups, outreach, and worship. Over next four weeks, we will be discussing these foundations at length as well as talk about what opportunities we have out there for them.

Kick off Sunday was about Community. Everyone is apart of some type of community. Students could be in numerous communities at school. But what does it look like to live in biblical community? We looked at the book of Acts that deals with what the believers were doing after Pentecost. They all had a common belief, Jesus was King and he really was God in human form. So what did they do? They shared life together. The spent time eating and praying together as well as supporting one another in their time of need. If we are to be in true biblical community in the Sr High, we are to have each others back. And we are to share life together. This can happen in several ways, by being involved on Sunday mornings as well as joining a LIFEgroup. But being committed to the growth and well-being or the Sr High community is essential to growth.

If you want more info about what this means for you, or how to be on the front lines of making a difference and growing the community of the Sr High at AHUMC contact Logan: lfritts@ahumc.org

blessings,

LF

Sunday Replay - August 2nd

Sunday we talked about the need in River City (San Antonio for those who don't know nicknames). Many of us went on mission trips this summer or summer camps, that saw us serving in various parts of the U.S. I do believe there is a need throughout this country but one thing I challenged the students to look at is the need right here in San Antonio. People are homeless, hurting, lost, and need help right here in out backyard and sometimes we feel we have to pack up a van and drive 15 hours to go do some good in this world.

I shared with the students that we will serve in our city. Not just on special events or D-Now but we will be a fixture in this city of reaching out and helping those in need. We are going to partner with Blueprint Ministries over the course of the year and reach out to the people in need in our city.

I also talked about the need around the world. Most of, if not all, the people that the we served this summer needed us to work on their houses, either light construction, painting, etc. And I do see that as a need, but lets face it a the end of the day we all got to take showers. I see children and families living around the world in 3rd world countries who camp out on at the landfill so they can get first dibs on the new trash that comes. I see thousands of children who die daily for lack of food. I don't want us to get comfortable in our BMW's and air conditioning, because that is not reality. Reality is the child who is sold into sexual slavery overseas. With that said, we are going to start serving out of the country as well. Get out of our comfort zones. I am excited to see the passion our students have for escaping the limited life style and go into God's unlimitless call to reach the weary, poor, lost, and hurting. We ARE going to serve. Will you join us!

Below is the video that was shown on sunday!

Viva La Mission Trip::: Wednesday

Sorry it has taken so long to post for Wednesday. And you will have to wait a little longer. Lets just say Wednesday was a crazy and scary day. I will post more on our adventures but this post is for prayer.

::PRAY::
- Several of the students have not been feeling well. There may be a stomach bug going around. Everyone is in high spirits just a bit under the weather. Pray that we all start getting better before we head home.
- Yesterday on our day off Cynthia Scofield had an accident while sledding down the white sand hills. She dislocated her ankle and broke it in three places. She had surgery in Alamogorda this afternoon and her and George will be heading back our way later this evening. We don't know what this means for Saturday as far as driving back. (We have not got that far. I wanted to have George's council before we made a decision) But as soon as I know anything we will give you an update. Please pray for peace for Cynthia. The first thing she did when we talked after the accident was apologize (that's Cynthia for you). Pray that she is comfortable and that Gods healing hands will relieve the pain so she can rest...

that is all update and pictures to come soon. Like I said yesterday was a little crazy!

Blessings,

LF

Viva La Mission Trip::: Tuesday

What a day…Tuesday was filled with lots of work. I think we talked about how we felt that we worked harder today than we did yesterday. Things are going well and the high today was around 79 degrees. I wore my Patagonia fleece to breakfast. Once again it is quite refreshing to have the temperature where it is. There are some negatives to the temperature. The guys have not had hot water until today and so we have had to take cold showers. But other than that, everyone is enjoying himself or herself.

Our theme has been “Reveal”. We are learning about bringing hope to the poor and today we are talking about what does it mean to be captive. I think many students today are captive by something other than God. The students from AHUMC have a real understanding of what God wants for their life, I think that they still are searching for areas that need to be examined and either let go completely of give their Savior control and enjoy his leading presence. Tonight is supposed to be a real challenging and eye opening night for the students. Lets hope they focus on the moment and not anything else.

Some fun highlights:
- we won our volleyball game in the tournament
- a trip to Sonic has become a daily routine
- we have heard many stories about Apache traditions and beliefs, including that bigfoot lives behind the houses we are working on
- Jake and Alex were chosen to participate in a game last night that we laughed so hard we cried (pictures to come)


::PRAY::
- that the unity that I so much yearn for this group and ministry continues to grow out of this trip
- that the students will experience their Savior in a real way this week
- thank God for our adult leaders; George, Cynthia, Crosby, and Micaeli. I would be lost with out them

Tomorrow is our free day so whatever we do, we will take lots of pictures and post them tomorrow. Tomorrow I am designating picture day, so tomorrows blog will be mostly pictures of the students working, laughing and being themselves.

Blessings

LF

Viva La Mission Trip::: Monday

We made it to Mescalero around 1:30, checked in, and got situated. The school is unbelievable. It is called the Mescalero Apache School. It is only about 7 years old and we are in our own room. Overall the trip has been good and the scenery is amazing. Oh and I hope this doesn’t make anyone jealous but the high today was 87 and tonight we have dropped to 54 with rain showers. It truly is refreshing to be in a place where you can actually enjoy being outside.

We got our groups tonight (sunday) and everyone is excited to get to know each other better and to serve. We are all painting and many of us were a little bummed that we were not going to do more construction type work, but we all re-focused and realized that this is the job God has for us. Maybe this way we will get to know one another better. I don’t know, but that is where we are and God’s in control. Those are the things that I know for a fact.

Monday we will wake up bright and early around 6:45 to get ready for they day. I am sure that we will make a trip to Sonic, which is always nice and we may stop by the race track or casino to test our luck. (Just kidding)

PRAY
- that our attitude is one of service
- that we begin our projects on the right foot as well as establish a relationship with who we are working with.

There is no internet at the school where we are so I will post and update on the afternoons when we are in town.

Blessings

LF

(Below are some pictures of today. I will have some of all the groups by tomorrow)

The drive on Sunday

Our sleeping arrangements.


Rachie Fran Painting

More pictures will come over the next couple of days...Hope all is well!