Hey Y’all! My name is Brady Jester and I am the student ministry summer intern, and will be serving alongside Bryan.  I’ll be at all the events, and will also be doing a little bit of teaching here and there. Basically, wherever BSM is this summer, I’ll be there too!

I am 22 years old and I hail from the great state of Indiana. I grew up in the town of Kokomo, which is about 25,000 people, with my parents and brother and sister. My parents, Jack and Kelley Jester, have been married for 26 years. My Dad works as the evening coordinator at Wabash National where they build refrigerated semi-trailers. My Mom works as an insurance claims representative at St.Joseph Hospital in Kokomo. My older brother Curt, 25, works as a carpenter for J.G. Bowers Construction Company and is getting married in July. My little sister Chelsea, 17, just finished up her junior year of high school and really enjoys being a percussionist in band and indoor drumline like her older brother.

I just graduated from Johnson Bible College in Knoxville Tennessee with a degree in Preaching/Youth Ministry. While at Johnson I enjoyed reading, playing sports, and hanging out with my friends. My passion for youth ministry really started to take off when I was a senior in high school after being challenged by my youth minister to step up and take a lead role in our youth ministry. That passion grew and became deeper over the next four years at Johnson. Jesus has laid it on my heart to share the same unconditional love that He has given me with the youth of this nation. The best way to do that is to spend time with youth and develop Christ-like relationships while challenging them to grow deeper in faith. That passion has led me here to Bettendorf Christian Church in order that I may grow in godliness while building relationships with the youth here. I am very thankful that Bryan has allowed me to come spend the summer, and I am very excited to hangout and grow with the youth and their families!

AND… you can find me on facebook. So you should send me a friend request since we’ll be hanging out all summer.

With a new year comes lots of different things! Some of us lost friends or family members last year so 2011 may mark the first year without someone in our life. A lot of people seem to have new jobs lately. This may mark a huge transition for a lot of people with events such as weddings, graduations, special birthdays, etc.  But what is it that you really want out of 2011?  A better bod? The first week of every new year is the day where most gyms & fitness centers have the most people sign up and start showing up at the gym because of new year’s resolutions.  It’s kind of annoying to those of us who were going already because now we just have to fight and compete over workout equipment and parking spaces.  But that crowd usually thins out within the first couple of weeks simply because people give up.

So… what is it that you really want to change this year? And I’d challenge you NOT to encapsulate it into a ‘new year’s resolution.’  Do you know the success rate of people accomplishing their ‘new year’s resolutions’? It’s horrible!

I know my hope for this year and beyond is that here at BSM, we would make giant strides in our journey’s with God. That we would grow deeper as individuals and out wider as a group.  That we would make it our goal to impact our worlds and community with the power and love of Jesus.

One thing that’s going to help us get there is a conference we’re taking high school students to at the end of February.  It’s called ‘Dare2Share’.  And we’re so excited about it that we’ve bought 30 tickets ($70 value per ticket) for the first 30 people to sign up.  So if you are one of the first 30 to sign up, you only have to pay for your hotel cost ($50).  That’s a huge discount!  Once those 30 are gone, the price jumps up to $120.  So don’t miss out!  Registration will close this Sunday Jan. 9th.

(You can get more info about this event under the ‘Events’ section on our website)

My constant prayer is that God would meet our students where they are at, and take them to a whole new level of commitment and discipleship.  It’s not a ‘new year’s resolution’ though.  It’s an ongoing life transformation.  Are you ready?

we went up last friday, got our hotel rooms, at at this awesome place in chicago called ‘portello’s’, at least i think that was the name of it. o man… the italian beef sandwich was AMAZING! if u haven’t been, its actually worth the drive to chicago for that alone.  so after hittin up some amazing grub, we headed to the conference.  first night was awesome! the whole weekend was centered around ‘Messiah’ and who He is and what He does and what He wants for us in our lives.  it was so awesome.  Kurt was the speaker and he did an amazing job.  and after every session, we broke into smaller groups to talk about what Kurt had just taught about.  so we had two groups and we crammed each group into a hotel room back at our place and hung out and got to know each other and talked about some pretty cool stuff.  the small group questions were hidden inside of fortune cookies, which was really sweet (and delicious).  the questions were really cool and led us into some pretty deep discussions.  and we were able to do that after each session.  so friday night ended and we went to bed late, and then the crazy stuff happened! we have some students with weird night time behaviors.  in the hotel room, there were 2 beds and 2 people sleeping on each bed (so 4 to a room). i woke up in the middle of the night to see Aaron (who was supposed to be sleeping next to me) sitting on the end of the other bed, just starring at Jackson.  when i asked him what he was doing, he said ‘i really like his shirt’.  HAHA!  but Aaron has a history of this sort of thing.  last year in the middle of the night, he sat up and screamed ‘THERE’S BLOOD EVERYWHERE!’  so… never a dull moment.

so saturday we get up and continue the conference and it all rocked.  Kurt really did an awesome job teaching about Jesus and calling students to transformed living.  and throughout the whole weekend, our buddy Eric Timm was there too.  and man did Eric rock! we get to see Eric do his thing all the time.  he goes to a couple of the same conference that we do, so sometimes we see him 2 or 3 times a year.  but it was cool to see him and he actually came and ate at lunch with us for a few on Saturday.  we really love Eric and his ministry and what he does has impacted a lot of students in our ministry over the years.   for each session, eric had a different painting that represented the Messiah in a different way, and at the end, he put them all together and it was an awesome moment.

after saturday’s sessions were over, we had an epic SNOWBALL FIGHT in the parking lot.  it was crazy! Ashton got thrown in the mud and Danny took one in the face!  after that was over, we went back to the hotel, had our last small group sessions, and made way to the pool! they had a sweet indoor/outdoor pool, and outside there was snow one the ground, so our snowball fight picked back up, but in the pool this time, until security put an end to that one… ugh!  and then sunday morning we went to church at Willow Creek and then headed back home!

we had a great time! the snowball fights were a blast, but my favorite things about all the weekend was our small group times and the discussions we had there.  we talked about some pretty deep stuff and i know God was working on a lot of our hearts.  i hope that we all remember what God said to us last weekend and that we will live our lives different because of it

for theWell:hs we started something new this fall.  we are studying straight through books of the Bible.  it’s been amazing so far.  we are in Genesis right now and have been for months and are still only in chapter 24.  but it’s been really great.  for a while now we’ve been studying the life of Abraham, which has been real interesting.

Abraham and his family belong on Jerry Springer’s show.  This guy loves God and follows God, but repeatedly messes up.  He sleeps w/ the family maidservant Hagar (who ends up being the

SYATP @ PVHS (1of5 highs schools we have students attending)

grandmother of the Islam religion), and he essentially pimps out his wife, not once but TWICE!, b/c he was afraid for his own skin.  This guy has some trust issues.  Even after God time and time again promises that he’ll father many nations, Abraham asks God why Ishmael (the bastard child from Hagar) can’t be the fruit of that promise.  So ya… studying Abraham and his experiences with God has been real interesting.

@ Higher Grounds we’ve been going through this series titled ‘The Experience’ and it focuses on how we should experience a relationship with God.  Some of the topics we’ve discussed include Sovereignty, Truth, Justice, (and about 6 others).  This week we talk about Forgiveness, which is a perfect followup for Justice.

Other things that have gone on…

Had some hangout time after some of the local football games.  We were supposed to go down to the fire pit after the PV home games, but the rain would not cooperate with us.

SYATP happened a while ago.  hundreds of students in the QCA gathered around the flag poles at their schools to pray for their friends, teachers, schools, and nation.  It was really cool.

Our student ministry hosted a ‘Family Fun Night’ where we raised over $3,000 for Blood:Water Mission.  That’s enough to cover the complete cost of drilling a well for a community in Africa where fresh clean water is needed.  That was real awesome to see the students respond in such an impacting way.

And then our two jr high leaders got married… to each other!  Woo hoo!  Congrats again Todd and Emily!

We also have been able to celebrate the baptisms of Taylor, Emily, and Danny! I love it when people, especially students, fall in love with Jesus.  I’m proud of you guys!

So it’s been crazy, but crazy cool!  This fall has been a blast and it’s been really cool to see how God is working.  My prayer is that God continues to change lives in this place and that through everything, especially the hard times, that we would be obedient to Him and worship Him with all we have.

our core volunteer group praying before Blood:Water Mission event

Hey y’all! This is intern John, and Bryan told me to give blogging a shot.

So it is now August and looking forward, Rock the River is about to go down, school is about to start and my time in Iowa is growing short. Looking back, Summer in the Son, Jr. High Hot Summer Nights, QC Mission Trip, and the completely random things of life that happen when Christians are in fellowship with one another, have filled the last month and a half of summer with great memories and more importantly great things for Jesus.

Because I grew up in this church, I am a SITS veteran having spent a week in Kentucky more times than not in the past decade, both as a student and a sponsor. There was something different this year that was so different that I was a bit taken back. So often at big youth conference events you see students having these big “mountain top” experiences where they encounter God and you see wave after wave of students rededicating themselves to Christ, many of them have done the exact same thing the year before. I am quite familiar with this because through most of my time in high school I was that guy. I can’t even recall how many times I did it before Jesus gave me a new heart at SITS the summer before my senior year of high school. Yet, this time something was different and I had great difficultly figuring it out. Eventually, two things stuck out as being the difference.

First, the BCC crew that we took this year had quite a few students that had, in the last year, really engaged Jesus in their lives and while still working out their faith, they already had Jesus as the number one. The amazing consequence of this was that many took on the attitude instead of saying “Jesus, you need to be my number one,” said “Jesus, you are my number one, so what can I do for you now.” The second thing that really struck me was that the SITS team truly was very deliberate in the way they presented Jesus. While musical worship was as powerful as ever, it was clearly focused on the reality of Christ and the truth that he spoke rather than relying on a few exciting songs that pump people up the same way going to any rock concert would. Also, the two men that taught did a fantastic job of communicating what it means to follow Christ and did not merely declare “come to Jesus so you don’t go to hell.” This made it such a powerful week that our students came back from ready to boldly live out the gospel and be willing to deal with the messy for Jesus.

Speaking of dealing with the messy, one day after church a bunch of the students decided that the gospel at its root is Jesus taking on our crap and cleansing us, so they decided that cleaning peoples toilets would be a good illustration of this. Also they wanted be a blessing to the people who would otherwise have to do that. Lets just say that day, they found out what its like to deal with what the bible calls skuvbalon… (Philippians 3:8, oh and by the way, rubbish is MUCH! to tame of word to translate skuvbalon to. The church probably wouldn’t like it if I used the modern day equivalent on here…)

The High Schoolers didn’t get to have all of the fun this summer. For a week in July, our Jr. High students got to have a blast with “Hot Summer Nights.” For thi, students gathered to experience the awesomeness that is punk rock worship from a loud three-piece band (dubbed The Hooligans or Mitch 182…), learn what we do to grow closer with Jesus, (prayer, bible, and fellowship. Think a three-legged stool. If you take out one leg it collapses, as we found out when the band became the legs. If you take out the bible (Jacob) fellowship (Mitch) and prayer (Gavin) fall down (on top of each other, and prayer gets hurt…) Additionally, we all enjoyed bowling, movies, and putt putt. (I owned btw). But it was a great time of shenanigans and Jesus…

School starts soon and my time of employment is almost over. As I look at this group of students in particular and BSM as a whole, I can’t help but be excited for what God has in store. Rock the River has such great potential to raise the spiritual climate of our community and bring kids that don’t know Jesus to him. Additionally, when you look at how God has been teaching us about what it means to “Love God & Others,” I see such an opportunity within this student ministry. I have seen over the course of this summer eyes opened to the fact that messy people are in fact first and foremost people. People who hurt, (me too), people who screw up, (me too), and people who know that they’re a mess and don’t need another person to tell them that, (me too). People need to know that Jesus loves them and wants to reach down to the muck and mire that is their lives and take a hold of them and it is our job as the church to be the love of Christ.

So what does this look like? How will what was learned this summer translate into Higher Grounds this fall? The Well this fall? Our schools this fall? Our lives this fall? I haven’t the slightest clue to what exactly God wants to do in BSM this fall, but I know that God has given so many of us transformed hearts to love him and others. So what are we going to do about it? Are we willing to deal with skuvbalon for Jesus? Will we make BSM a place where people FEEL the love of Jesus?

It’s go time.

we had an interesting mix of kids with different backgrounds.  some came from homes centered around God with strong foundations, and some came from jacked up circumstances with crappy parents and home lives.  

some of the highlights… one day we did a high ropes course.  it was cool to see the kids root each other on.  there were a few kids that really struggled through the course, but no matter what, the students on the ground continually encouraged those going through the course.  for a few of the students, you could tell that completing that course was a huge victory.  they would hit the ground pumped and walking tall.  everyone who tried, was successful, but we did have a couple of kids who didn’t go through it.

we also spent a couple of nights playing capture the flag in the dark with glow sticks as flags.  that was fun and exhausting.

a couple of teaching highlights… one day i came out of our eating shelter to see a bunch of students gathered around where we met for some sessions.  and amongst them were some guys having their nails painted pink by a couple of the girls.  i was really thrown back initially.  then a couple of them started to mock gays and started sarcastically saying pro gay statements.  so this was a prime teaching opportunity.  in a nutshell… the girls said they lost respect for the guys with pink nails but they gained respect for the guys who would not let their nails be painted.  i also put a lot of emphasis how righteous, Godly men are supposed to conduct themselves, and within being manly, there is no room for painting our nails pink, and following it by mocking the gay community.

our campfire times were amazing too! every night we had great discussions on life, scripture, christianity, and things we were learning.  different emotions arose every night.  there were times of joy and times of sorrow.  a lot of laughing and a lot of crying.

the week was awesome.  at the end of the week we were all sad to leave each other.  but before leaving, a girl asked me to baptize her in the pool! that was awesome.  her mom came to pick her up and she was able see her daughter be baptized along with the rest of our crew from camp.  and going home… we had 6 more that were going home to be baptized! it’s awesome to see kids stand up in front of their peers and say they want to give Jesus everything they have and everything thing they are… that’s what it’s all about.

Christian Friendliness is a ministry outreach for young girls.  our girls spent time hanging out with the girls that came for the activities.  some played games with them and some made crafts, but everyone had a good time.  the young girls clung to our girls and it was awesome for our girls to see how much these little girls just wanted attention and affection.  now, it was an experience getting there.  the directions were not thorough and we got lost a couple of times.  it was frustrating, but we made it and were only 30 minutes late.  after dropping off the girls, i went back to bettendorf to pick up pizza while hannah stayed with the girls in Moline.  

so i picked up pizza and got that started and when john and the guys got back from King’s Harvest, john took his car over to moline to pick up the girls.  once back, we enjoyed some pizza together and then took some time to debrief the week and what happened.

it was awesome to hear some of the stories and interactions and experiences that our students had this week, that have impacted their lives.  a lot of them felt convicted about so many people being in need in our own area, and they haven’t been taking the time to help out.  and through the skate ministry, we interacted with kids who need to hear about Jesus and it was awesome to see our students move out of their comfort zones and hand out gatorades to the kids at the skatepark and talk to them.  one of the other highlight experiences of the week was the group that was able to go to some fast food places and pay for random people’s food.  some people were resistant and asking “what’s the catch?” or “why do you want to do this?”  these questions provided awesome opportunity for us to be real and tell them why we were doing it and it’s all because we love Jesus and we wanted to reach out and show God’s love.  when some were resistant, our students would say something like, “when’s the next time someone’s going to offer to pay for your food?”  people were quick to let them buy after that realization.  during the week, the students were opened to ways they can serve our city and were convicted to take on that challenge to be active within our city and point to God within the city.

the goal… to love our city.  to serve our city.  to share God with our city.  in the bible, Nehemiah had such a passion for his hometown of Jerusalem, that his heart broke for the city and all he wanted to do was go back and rebuild the city.  this passion and heartache drove Nehemiah to do some amazing things.  read his story in the book of Nehemiah and see what it looks like to have a passion for your city and understand what extremes Nehemiah went to to serve his city.  

it’s my hope, that we as Christians claim our city and go to every extreme to point God out to the people in our city.  the Christians should be a city within the city.  we need to live in community and everything we say and do needs to point to God. let’s be the city within the Quad Cities, that points to the God of the city.

thanks for checking this out while on this trip.  please subscribe to our blog so you can get updates when new blog posts are written, and please drop us a comment.  thanks so much!

-bryan

we started out by going to a house to paint it for a lady.  at first we were really worried about getting it done, but everyone worked really hard and we were able to finish after staying a little longer than planned.  the house really did need a paint job badly and it was an awesome project and everyone worked hard and seemed to have a lot of fun.

from there, my group left and went to King’s Harvest.  there we served around 170 people.  it was really cool.  we interacted a lot more with this crowd than we were able to at the Salvation Army.  it seems that a lot of our students liked serving at King’s Harvest and it’s something that they seem to want to do on their own now.  while there, we met a guy named Russell.  he was alright.  i was kinda freaked out because after we were done serving, i saw him talking to the girls in our group.  so i got over there real quick because i didn’t know what was going on.  we actually had a really gooddiscussion with him.  he made a pretty bold challenge to our students.  in a nutshell… he asked “what are you willing to do to make a difference?  how far are you really willing to go?  yea… it’s nice that you came down here and put some food on my plate, but how is that going to change my circumstances?”  his challenge was clear.  while our sacrifice was nice and somewhat helpful, is it enough?  as we were having this conversation, my thoughts revolved around the guy that comes to Jesus asking how to inherit eternal live.  he tells Jesus that he’s kept the commandments since he was a child.  so Jesus responds by telling him to sell everything he has and give the sales money to the needy.  he walked away said because he had many things and didn’t want to give them up.  it is so easy to be selfish and horde our ‘things,’ but what are we willing to give up for Jesus.  this interaction impacted a lot of our students.

after serving and cleaning up, our crew went back to the house where we helped finish the paint job.  1 group then went out and bought more meals for people at fast food joints and the other 2 groups went to Aldi’s and bought some gatorade type drink, threw them in a cooler, and headed back to the skate park.  we spent the next hour handing out drinks and hanging with kids at the skatepark.  we ran into a guy out there that is friends with someone in our ministry.  it was cool for him to see us out there and to see what we are doing.  the guy we saw out there is actually going to Summer In The Son with us because his friend invited him.  so that’s cool.

we then headed to the church and grabbed some swim gear to head to the Morrison’s.  they opened their pool for us and heated up the grill.  it was a fun and relaxing evening.  we then showered and came back to the church where we debriefed from the day and then spent some time hanging out.  we spontaneously started to praise God for awhile, which was really cool, then we watched a couple of funny Benny Hinn videos on youtube that led to some cool discussion.

tomorrow is our last day, but it’s been an awesome week.  it’s opened our eyes to the needs in the Quad Cities.  hopefully we can now become a city within the city, that lives to reach out to the city.

this morning was especially hard.  myself, jacob, and hannah, decided to be nice and sacrificial and we woke up early to make eggs, bacon, and pancakes for everyone.  i was really close to deciding that everyone didn’t need that nice of a breakfast, but… i arose, after 2 snooze button hits, but i still got up.  the church smelled amazing.  the aroma of bacon and pancake batter, with slight hint of fresh coffee in the background.  it was nice and everyone enjoyed a breakfast away from the norm of pop tarts and mini donuts.  jacob and i cranked out the eggs and pancakes.  my hannah did the bacon, and hannah t did the pancake batter.  it was delicious and well worth it.

after breakfast, we loaded up and went to a nursing home in bettendorf, on crow creek.  the residents were so excited as soon as we walked in the door.  we took a crew of them outside and we all planted some plants in little pots.  i think they were planting herbs such as parsley and things of that sort.  during that time, jacob busted out his guitar and started strumming.  once the planting was done, we started singing as jacob played and their faces lit up.  it was awesome.  one guy there named Guss was hilarious.  he laughed at everything and had a great personality.  mitch seemed to bond with a lady that he spent most of the time with.  guss’ friend dickey really got into singing with us.  that was a good start to the day.  the residents there just love the company and it was cool to see the joy on their faces as we spent that time with them.

after that we went to The Center on Brady over in Davenport.  The Center is a ministry that was birthed out of St. John’s Methodist Church across the alley from The Center.  it used to be a carpet or furniture store and is now a building that has an inside skate park (this is where Skate Church takes place), a cafe that serves food and coffee drinks, and a education program for teenagers.  they also host a lot of different events put on by the Quad City Prayer Center.  originally while with The Center, we were going to take a grill and some hot dogs to a corner in downtown (supposedly the corner with the most police calls in the last year) and hand out food.  evidently they had some drama last week with the people there and decided to put that on hold for a couple of weeks to let things cool down.  so instead we walked the area and picked up trash and prayed for the community.  one of the things we continue to pray regularly for is the Aug 8th event ‘Rock the River.’

after The Center, our groups disbanded again.  one went to ‘Hand in Hand’, one went to get started on the house we’ll hopefully finish painting tomorrow, and my group went to the Salvation Army shelter to serve meals.  that was awkward at times.  at first, it seemed like we were more of a complication to their process than a help.  we got there to setup and then had 2 hours to blow before serving the meal.  so we went to the outdoor skate park in davenport (i’ll come back to that experience in a sec).  once we returned to the Salvation Army, we did the final prep and set the food out.  we then prayed and then served the food to the families staying there.  it wasn’t quite what we expected.  we served about 15-20 people.  they were nice and polite and somewhat thankful, but it was really hard to have a conversation with them.  they just kept to a distance.  but it was ok.  we then cleaned up, did some dishes, took out the trash, and headed back to the church to eat and finish out the night.

now back to our skate park experience… we went to the skatepark in downtown davenport during some of our free time.  immediately we ran into a couple who does homeless ministry in davenport.  they were there handing out gatorades to the kids there.  they invited us to take some of their gatorades and hand them out with them.  if i knew we were going to have that much time, i would have loaded a cooler with gatorades and waters, but i’ll use that idea next time.  so we just walked around with these gatorades and talked to kids we handed them out to.  at the time there were about 50 or so people at the park.  some were elementary age, junior high, or high school, or older.  but it was really cool to just hang out with them and talk.  these kids were so ready for someone to just hang out with them and ask them questions that showed that someone else cared about them.  it was a cool experience and i’m definitely looking forward to going back with a cooler of drinks and just hanging out with them.  these kids at the skatepark are so open and easy to engage.  what they need is someone to come along side of them, show them they care.  these kids would definitely be open to Jesus… someone’s just got to tell them about him.

talk to you tomorrow.