long summer

Well for the two people out there who still read my blog, I realize I haven't updated or added any new posts for quite a while. I have only 3 weeks left before I go back to college. This next semester I will only be able to take 4 credits towards my major, everything else I have already taken or conflicts with my schedule. The good thing is that I am able to take 3 credits towards my master's degree this semester. Hopefully I can arrange it so that I get my master's a year after my bachelor's degree. We'll see. But the purpose of this entry is to share what I have been doing for the summer, not what I will be doing in the future. Anywho, I have been helping in Bullhead City as a youth pastor. I started in May and am continuing until the 18th of August. The teens are great. They have really grown this past summer despite me being their pastor. God has really worked in their lives whether they realize it or not. I have about six teens that come regularly, and a few visitors that come once in a while. Two of my teens and I went to Camp Ironwood a couple of weeks ago and God was really working on them, and myself. Unfortunately, after a great spiritual high at camp, the cares of this world and the daily grind have taken their toll on their decisions. They are great people, but they struggle. They are teenagers, and still have a lot of maturing to do, just like we all did. Besides working with the teens doing youth activities and teaching Sunday school, I am also working with the kids in a children's choir, painting the church and occasionally preaching for Sunday services.
I have been busy, but I have learned a lot of practical things that they don't teach you in college. For instance I have had to answer questions I never even thought of, or never thought about having to explain to my teens. One of my teens asked me how I know that my religion is the right religion. I was driving at the time and wasn't able to think of a satisfying answer, so the next day, in Sunday School I answered his question. Unfortunately he wasn't there, his family was, but for some reason he wasn't. My answer was basically an apologetic. I explained that I believe in the Bible because of the Bible. That the Bible never has and cannot be proven contradictory. That there are no errors in the Bible and that the Bible was inspired from God. I also used some philosophy. One of the main goals in philosophy is to explain the problem of the one and the many. I believe that the Triune God of the Bible explains the problem of the one and the many. There is only one God, yet He has three distinct Persons. God is at the same time One, and Three. I showed them also that the basics of almost every religion, except the Christian religion of the Bible, is based on works. There is only one religion based solely on Faith in Christ alone for Salvation. Mormonism, Buddhism, Hinduism, Zoroastrianism, Taoism, and Islam are all based on works for salvation. I don't think that God is just going to say, "majority rules, I guess it'll be a works based salvation." But rather it is "God rules, and what He says goes." And He has spoken to us in His Word the Bible, (I Tim. 3:16).
I am going to miss the people here at Bullhead when I go back to IBC, but I am thinking about coming back if God leads me here again. I certainly do have a burden for them and want to see them serve God with their lives.