Inner City kids, teenagers from four churches, and few adults trying to keep it all running smoothly; triple digit temperatures, bugs, and no air conditioning; what is it I am describing? Free Camp: Columbus, Georgia – July 7-12 in FD Roosevelt State Campground.  Children arrived in awe of the campgrounds and kids who wept because their youth leader brought them to such a primitive site and in the heat no less. There were kids who were scared because they were away – way away – from Mom for the first time to kids who were excited about being away from home again. Youth who rode up in a chartered bus to kids who arrived in a van with no air conditioning and needing a quart of oil just to make it another hundred miles. Free Camp is a remarkable tool of evangelism and leadership training ground that crosses social, racial, and economic barriers.

Free Camp in Columbus was an event we have been working on with Pastor Guillermo Rivera to reach children in the “PJ” (Project Housing). Pastor Guillermo did a great job of setting things up with a small crew of folks. Free Camp was honored to work with such an insightful and energetic man committed to making a difference in his community, not just build a church.

There were folks from the following conferences working together for this event: Acts2Day; Cornerstone, Georgia, Great Plains, and North Carolina Conferences. Having folks from so many cultural, economical, and racial backgrounds working together is very inspiring. You know the Holy Spirit is at work when you see the love of God flow through common people to touch hurting people.

Pastor Keith O’Neal of Life Center Church, St. Pauls, NC, along with Pastor Josh Brown from Stanley IPHC, Stanley, NC, did an outstanding job in preparing the teenagers to minister to the 62 little children coming two days later. National Camp Directors, Jake and Chelsea Bunn, led their first camp with great success. To watch teenagers cross over the line to hold little ones of different races and socio-economic groups was almost breathtaking. Pastor John Howard from The First Church in Goldsboro, NC, led a team of teenagers as our music ministry team.

National Commander of the Royal Rangers, David Moore, brought canoes and archery supplies with a team to train and minister to the kids through fun they had never experienced before. There are no canoes or no place to shoot a bow and arrow in “PJ” housing.

It is necessary to teach these children life skills, eternal values, and how to live for Christ, but let’s get real, how much and how far can you take them in four days and three nights? How much can they really ‘learn’ in an environment that is so strange with people they do not even know? It is our opinion we assume way too much in our ministry efforts in order to make ‘us’ feel good. Free Camp never counts ‘salvations’ or tries to make big brags, but what we do claim we take to its fullest…these kids had an encounter with a power they had never experienced. They felt the Holy Spirit by the love they received from human beings, teenagers, and adults. If you could only see the tears of love that were shared, as they were held in teenagers’ arms for up to an hour and a half just loving and being loved. Teenagers had the joy of being Jesus to these little ones and received the love of Jesus in return. “When you do it to the least of these, you have done it unto me.”

We are anxiously awaiting the news on the follow-up ministry that Pastor Rivera and his team is doing. We truly believe we rocked some families with the powerful love of Jesus in Columbus, GA. Now we await July 27th when we will pull together another team in Amarillo, TX, to host their 20th Annual Free Camp, and then follow on August 18-21 in Petersburg, VA for their third Free Camp.

Gary and Carolyn Burd and the team from Amarillo, TX, were blessed to be involved and marvel at what God is doing through a twenty year old dream. Thanks to all for the support and prayer for Free Camp.

Free Camp 2010 – Columbus, Georgia is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

CAMP LEJEUNE – About 150 members of the 1st Battalion 6th Marines returned home from Afghanistan early Monday morning after having deployed last winter as part of the president’s second troop surge.

Friends and family members gathered at Camp Lejeune to welcome the Marines home.  [Added note: Watch for M25's presence as this welcoming!]

“I can’t describe the feeling,” Lance Cpl. Jonathan Aguirre said. “It’s the most amazing feeling I have ever felt in my entire life. It feels surreal to me.”

The Marines left in December to lead the way during a major offensive in Marjah early this year.

“The bottom line is that we got the job done,” Maj. Heath Henderson said. “It’s an ongoing effort out there in Marjah, but the Marines should be proud of what they accomplished. Marjah is better off for them having been there.”

But it was an intense deployment, and 10 members of the battalion were killed.

Other Marines from the battalion will return home later this week.

Original News Story from News 14 Carolina: http://charlotte.news14.com//?ArID=628017

About 150 Marines return from Afghan deployment is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

Earlier this year, our regional pointman and friend, Papa Smurf (Stan McClellion) of Greenville, South Carolina passed away after battling cancer.

In honor and memory of Papa Smurf, Mission: M25 will be presenting his widow, Shay, with a memorial on Tuesday, July 13, at the Upper South Carolina Conference campmeeting, in the evening service. We will also thank all those who gave in his honor to help us with RFTW.

Please consider this post an invite for all who knew or which to honor this hero of the Kingdom.  The service will be just outside of Greenville, SC  — 115 Beech Springs Church Rd., Pelzer, SC

M25 Remembers…Papa Smurf is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

Mission: M25 Team and RFTW 2010 is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

Photos by John Smith includes photos of Washington, DC sites and Rolling Thunder event.

CLICK HERE to visit website.

You can also see photos from Run for the Wall Southern Route HERE.

Rolling Thunder Photos by John Smith is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

After making a statement about not really realizing what Memorial Day was about (oh, I ‘knew’ but it was just a thought, not a conviction), there were a lot of folks that approached me and spoke about the fact they did not really know either. It appears that most see it as the first of summer time, a three-day weekend, the end of school celebration, or just a great time for a family cook out. For most of my adult life, it was ‘my time.’ I used it to either play or catch up on some overdue work. Mission: M25 is trying to change that. We want it to be more than a day off. Let us reflect on what it started out to be and what it should be today.

In 1865, it was called “Decorations Day,” when women went to the graves of soldiers killed in the Civil War and decorated them. It was a first declared a holiday in 1871 by the state of Michigan. One historian declares, “Memorial Day speeches by politicians, veterans, and ministers spoke to commemorate the war and rehearse the atrocities of the enemy. They mixed religion with the celebration of our nation. It provided a means for the people to make sense of their history in terms of sacrifice for a better nation, closer to God.” Wow…if only there were more passionate ministers about our nation who would ‘mix it with religion’ that we could preserve our freedoms that we have held so dear. Maybe it would be great thing for us to be more vocal in the face of our national leaders to declare religion and war together.

What can we do? Well, Mission: M25 started something new this year. We call it “Reflections.” We had some patches made (see attached photo) to honor Memorial Day and then we had a rocker made with 2010 on it. The rocker also listed two men who served our country and Mission: M25 in a unique way. We then had two dinners, one in Dublin, VA (Appalachian Men’s Ministry sponsored the meal) and one in Fayetteville, NC. Those attending the meals were encouraged to get a patch and wear it in honor of Papa Smurf, our Upper South Carolina Point Man, and Garnett Jones from Wytheville, VA (please see Rolling Thunder report for more information).

As I listened to “Abraham, Martin and John” by Dion and reflected over my teen years, some things became more clear to me. I was a teenager in the 60’s at a time when our nation was rocking, the hippie revolution against the establishment (I was kicked out of a Conference youth camp for not wearing socks to the banquet with my suit); the Civil Rights Movement, and then the Viet Nam war. In my humble opinion, the church was paralyzed and did not know what to do. So our reaction was to be paralyzed and the only thing I remember about my youth in the church was a defensive mode. We tried to ‘hold on’ – preserve what we had. We bypassed a great opportunity called the Jesus Movement due to our paralysis brought on by fears. We attacked instead of embracing and including the uniqueness of the move of God.

Now, that may sound real judgmental and critical, but it is simply one man’s observation. What do we do? Do we criticize and go on a tour speaking of the evil of paralysis? Do we write a book? Do we preach to the choir? NO – Mission: M25 simply is trying to ‘light a candle rather than curse the darkness.’ We hope and pray that some day there will be “Reflection” dinners on Memorial Day all across this great nation we live in. If we honor our fallen, it will inspire our youth. We will see more young men and women love their country and bring Jesus to it.

You can complain all you want and make all the statements you want about being a Christian nation, but until we see evidence of Christ impacting our great country, you are simply just making noise. When we see population grow by 12% in ten years and the prison population grows by 33%, when there are as many divorces in the church as outside the church, when drug and alcohol abuse run rampant in our youth, and girls becoming pregnant at seriously young ages, it is hard to declare us as a Christian nation. When you see church attendance dropping due to our choices of pleasure and the almighty dollar – you are wasting your breath. Jesus declared he would “build the church,” not some weird concept of allowing people to do as they please and call themselves the church.

Let us believe together – pay the price and watch God bring a revival to our land!

Memorial Day Reflections is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

4:00 AM – really?! – a rider’s meeting and by 6:30 AM, we are on the Pentagon parking lot.  Before noon, there was an estimated 900,000 people waiting for the ride to the Wall.  It was extremely hot with no shade, but it was worth the price to pay.  This ride is for the approximate 700 soldiers still alive in Viet Nam.  Our government needs to find them and either bring them home or inform their families that they want to stay, and hopefully provide closure.  There is legislation to force our government to follow up on these soldiers and we pray it goes through this year.

It is an incredible experience to ride with hundreds of thousands of motorcycles and have hundreds of thousands of people standing on the streets to greet us.  We followed it by a trip to the apex of the Viet Nam Wall and laid a patch and rocker for M25 in honor of Papa Smurf.  Papa Smurf was our Point Man for M25 in the Upper South Carolina Conference.  We had a very moving prayer as we all knelt and people passing by stopped and honored our time.  People came by for a while and thanked us for our prayer and gave us a hug.

Then we walked to the WWII Memorial and laid a patch in honor of Garnett Jones who lived in Virginia and retired from the Army as the Viet Nam war was under way.  He was the first veteran to receive our ministry on Run For The Wall the first year out.  He always waited for me in Wytheville, VA when we passed by.  We had a prayer before we left.

It was a real blessing for Carolyn, Chaplain Moore and I to visit the other campsite where Mission: M25 was feeding the folks at Burke Lake Campsite.  CrossRoads did a fantastic job this year.  It was cool how both campsites fed the same type of meals:  chicken on the first night followed by barbecue pork the next.  God really worked through these two churches as they both went above and beyond the ‘call of duty.’

By 10:30 PM we were exhausted and ‘fell’ into our tents to grab some sleep.  It was an incredible day that ended with a feeling of “Mission Complete.”

Rolling Thunder 2010 is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

Breakfast began at 5:00 a.m. — first meeting 6:15 – you would think that after ten days on a long, hot journey across the nation people would be dragging – not this group. There were “High 5’s”, hugs, jokes and just a great spirit of anticipation. You can view the attached picture of our meeting where there where tears, hugs and again, jokes to lighten the atmosphere.

Our Hydration Team could hardly serve for all the “Thank You’s” and hugs coming to them. Josh stated, “I was never hugged so much in all my life”. Then at the last gas stop Pastor Mike Dodson, Jr. with Heart Attack and Little Girl showed up from Christian Life Church, Bedford, VA with 500 sandwiches (see photo). Again, Mission: M25 was a hit!

Attached is a picture of our emergency squad, Ether, Hailstone, Padre and myself. We were so concerned on this last leg, high adrenaline, massive traffic and tired bodies but there were no motorcycle wrecks. Right by some of our riders there was a car wreck (been telling you cages are dangerous) but they did not come into the bikes.

I have also attached a picture of our team that was in Wytheville, VA. You will never know the thrill of seeing all the folks working and riding for Mission: M25. Not only did we have the largest team but we had a fantastic team. At our last fuel stop there was a vacant spot in the fuel line, the Assistant Route Coordinator just pointed at Josh. Josh immediately dropped the water bottles and moved to the fuel line. Did he know how to work the fuel line (no), did he leave a place on the Hydration Team (yes) but did he respond – absolutely and with a smile. I was told, ‘your man was impressive; he just stepped up and took care of business with a smile’. That is our team!

When we arrived at Lake Fairfax we were greeted by fourteen people from Parkway Christian Center! It was a joyful celebration of completed journey and beginning of a new mission. We will now shift into a camp outreach, simply feeding and loving on men and women who have served and friends and family. After five years of Parkway doing this there men and women who state, ‘been looking for you’. The day ended with a devotion and early lights out!

They are cooking a one-hundred twenty five pound pig for dinner tonight – you want to come over?

Day 10 (Final), RFTW 2010 – Servants’ Hearts Through the End is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

Why would eighteen people leave family, ministry and work to ride across the USA and serve water? Water? Seems simple and maybe even insignificant. Let me share part of a letter we received tonight about our serving “water” last year. This came from a lady whose husband passed in February 2010. He rode all the way with us on RFTW 2009.

Please read this letter

“Last year Roger (her husband) rode “All The Way”. What no one knew was he was an Agent Orange exposed veteran. Over the past nine years was diagnosed with four different cancers – throat, lung, pancreas and prostrate. Your service at the hydration team allowed my Roger to cross the desert renewed….What Roger saw in ya’ll was embodiment of the questions. Something that he thought was lost. Your actions renewed him and brought to me a man who could finally make peace with his service to his country and his life. As a hospice nurse at a VA, I see many warriors who die terrible deaths because they are not able to come to terms with their duty. I believe that because of your actions you allowed my Roger to place his demons and worries to rest. I know that when my Roger went home, it was peaceful. I attribute his peace to your action based ministry. Thank you for your actions in a world of talk. Ya’ll say by doing what love is all about…..”

Rescue the Perishing

In March Dr. Hugh Morgan counseled me to read verse 3 of the old hymn and told me that was all that was necessary for me to know about being around these warriors. It simply states that there are people out there crushed by the tempter and that they need a gentle touch by a heart of love. It gives us the hope ….chords that were broken will vibrate once more… during a song by one of the kids at one of the schools a Nam Vet broke and wept and when I was asked to come and minister to him, all I could to was just set there. There have been several of us that have ‘just set there’. No words, no answers, just a tender touch with a heart of love.

The ‘Work’

This is work – the actions spoke of in the above paragraph – is not all pretty work. See the attached picture of Pastor Robbie Jones laundering hundreds of neck wraps. You put them in ice water and they swell up. Then you tie them around your neck and they keep you cool for a good deal of time. Just thought you might like to see some of the stuff that goes on during this run.

A Warrior

See the picture of Pastor Wes Alvarez kneeling with a survivor of the Pearl Harbor attack. Later Chaplain Moore also had the opportunity to share with this great hero. Over and over the opportunity to love on these ‘forgotten’ men and women is such an honor.

A Medic

One of the young man traveling with us is a Medic in Virginia. He has been such a blessing during two different incidents yesterday. God had him in the right place at the right time. The sad thing, he looked at Ox’s legs and told him they needed medical attention but Ox was bent on finishing this run. His legs were ‘weeping’ through the skin. Under counsel and much thought and prayer, I made the decision to have him return home. Please keep Ox in your prayers, we both wept over the decision but deep down we knew it was the right thing to do.

Day 9, RFTW 2010 – Simple But Significant Service is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries

Beautiful mountains of Chattanooga, TN — the handy work of God was breathtaking. After the riders meeting, we visited a cemetery with 155 unknown Confederate soldiers, or at least all but nine are unknown. RFTW donated a check from Run For The Wall for $1000 for grounds upkeep. It is such a sad little cemetery.

It was great watching our M25 Chaplains do “Biker Blessings”. God has allowed us to pray with so many as we worked to ‘serve’ them water, crackers, apples or just good ole junk food.

So many stories of men and women touching these veterans are shared each night that our devotion service can become rather lengthy. Tonight one of the stories that really blessed me, Chaplain Debbie Pearson shared as she rides behind the “Missing Man” rider that she tries to think, ‘what are they experiencing?’ She really wants to feel with them and be more sensitive to the pain they are carrying. A young man that is carrying the ashes of three Viet Nam Veterans to the wall for their wives was noticeably moved after the ride. He did not know these men but is doing what the wives asked. He stated, ‘I had the men in my heart at first but the last 20 miles they got in my soul and I will never forget them’.

We were so blessed tonight at the awards program they honored our M25 teams. It was an awesome experience. The crowd had to be told to set down and stop clapping for our Chaplain Corp. They stated it several different ways, ‘they are coming for the church’. This is what we really want – yes it is moving to be honored by their statements and certificates and gifts BUT we want them to know we come in the name of the church. I am attaching a picture of a very special gift – a neck scarf with my name, “The Shepherd” embroidered on it with the Viet Nam era colors flanking the name. It really took me back.

During lunch it was a blessing to set with a man who is “Special Forces”. He told me of things he had seen that were so painful. I will share one story, in Bosnia they discovered a hole that was some 10 – 12′ across and 1000′ deep. When the finished they removed over 19,000 bodies brutally killed in the name of war. He stated that he has tried almost every church there is and felt like he had found his church recently but when he and his wife went to the welcome class they asked what he did for a living. When he told, them one lady asked, ‘have you killed anyone?’ The pain that insensitive questions spawn is sometimes unbearable.

Well, we did have a busy day on the ‘Chase Team’. Bikes were breaking and then 2.5 miles from our ‘Target’ (destination) going into a construction zone a man laid his bike down on the payment. It was terrible. When I arrived we immediately went to work securing the scene. This is tough for a ‘preacher’ but as God would have it, there is a medical doctor riding next to me and he went to work on the man immediately. There was a retired police officer riding behind me and he was so kind, just standing there. I asked him to assist me seeing I was new at this role. He just stepped in and helped. I missed the dinner again tonight due to being in the hospital. We worked with his pastor at home to secure him help. They will have to do surgery and wire his shoulder together soon.

During the rider’s meeting today Robbie Jones and Kevin McBride were introduced due to them serving meals in the campsites. After it was over the man in charge of the Honor Guard (they place the wreaths) came up and told Robbie that several had been watching him serve out of the hydration trailer. They were inspired by his spirit as he worked to serve those in need of water and stuff. They had decided to make him an ‘Honorary Honor Guard’ member – it just keeps coming.

Chaplain Moore shared the devotion tonight on let’s finish well, give it all we have for the next few days. My oldest son text me and told me he was praying that we would end on a good note. Please join us in prayer that we can finish this race in victory.

By the way, thanks to all who have responded. It means so very much to all of us.

Day 8, RFTW – Service and Honor is a post from: Mission: M25 - Networking Matthew 25 Ministers and Ministries