A Note from Nathan

On Sunday our youth will be leaving for our end of summer camp.  There will be 15 of us going.  It will be a nice few days to relax, fellowship, and be in God’s word together before the craziness of the school year begins.  Please keep us in your prayers over the next week.

Our youth have done a lot together this summer.  We started out with a trip to Joplin, had same great time in the Word at Study and Swim, and did lots of fun things.  I love the summer time because we get to spend a lot of quality time together so it’s always bitter sweet when the school year comes.  There are new opportunities for ministry once the school year starts but everyone is so busy in today’s world.

This summer has been extra special as I’ve been able to make some final memories with my students.  I have truly loved serving here at Oak Crest.  We have the best youth around.  It’s crazy because I’ve never really felt like I’ve had a home.  Growing up in a military family we moved every three of four years.  The longest I ever lived in a place was four years.  So when people ask me where I’m from I never really know what to say.  At the end of this year we will be a month shy of being at Oak Crest for 6 years.  This is the longest I’ve ever lived anywhere my entire life.  We started our family here and this is all that my kids know.  So now when people ask where I’m from I’ll proudly know how to answer.  I’m from Midlothian.

Though it is nice to feel that I finally have a place to call home, the reality is that this place that we call home now is only temporal.  Our citizenship is not of this earth.  The goal of the Christian life is not to find paradise on earth but to live for eternity.  We can never allow ourselves to be blinded by the American dream into thinking that our ultimate goal is to live as comfortably as possible.  Peter said, “Beloved, I urge you as sojourners and exiles to abstain from the passions of the flesh, which wage war against your soul.”  As aliens in a foreign land we cannot allow our lives to be consumed by created things.  Rather, we must give all that we are and have to the creator of all things.  May we all live with a longing for home.

“He is no fool who gives what he cannot keep to gain what he cannot lose.” –Jim Elliot

In Christ,

Nathan

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