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Do you remember that scene in the first Airplane movie where the African American passenger is sick but the stewardess can't understand what he is saying. Fortunately, an elderly white woman offers to translate because "she speaks jive".

How often in church do we speak in a language that the un-churched can't understand? We've all got our own religious language, or "God-speak", that only other Christian's (and sometimes only our church) understands. Do the un-churched in your service need a translator to understand what's going on?

I catch myself saying things like "give glory to his name" or "let's give him an offering of praise". While meaningful to those of us who have been in the church for awhile, imagine hearing these phrases for the first time!

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Summer means amazing days and, as in the case of last week, teenagers. Lots and lots of teenagers! But one student who did not make it to the conference I was speaking for in Daytona Beach sent this letter, instead. Granted, it’s long, so if you don’t think you’re up for it just wait and another post will appear soon. But if you have a minute, or several, here goes. And thank you J. in advance for letting me post this for all to see!

Mr. Giglio, [love it!]

Every other summer the kids in my youth group go on missions trips. This summer the Lord opened up three opportunities. One to Brazil for two weeks, one to England for two weeks and one to China for five weeks. I tried going on the one to Brazil…but by the time I signed up it was already full. I was pretty bummed. I thought about the other two trips, but the trip to England didn’t really appeal to me and China seemed too long. I wanted to do missions over the summer, but it seemed like nothing was coming into play and I kinda pushed it to the side hoping something would come up. Something definitely came up.

The first time I heard you speak live was when my awesome youth pastor took all the seniors to Passion D.C.. That weekend was way awesome. On Friday night after you spoke you asked the crowd to be still and quiet and to simply seek out the Lord’s voice. So there we were, all 3,000 of us seeking out the Lord’s voice in that huge arena. As I was sitting there I was praying, “Lord speak to me.” After a few moments, He spoke. That still, small voice in my head said one thing, “J., you are going to China.” I didn’t really like this so I just tried to forget about it. The next day was awesome. I got to hear you speak along with Francis Chan the funny Asian man. He was cool and we got to worship the Lord with Chris Tomlin leading us. During the last session God did something crazy. A young lady from China came up and shared her testimony with all of us. I don’t remember everything she said, but at the end she prayed. She prayed that God would speak to some of us in the crowd and send us to her country to do the Lord’s work. I could hardly believe what I was hearing. Then God did another crazy thing. You came back up and said, “Ya know if maybe you’ve been sensing the Lord calling you to China but needed some verbal confirmation, I think that was it right there.” Then you asked everyone who had sensed the Lord calling them to go to raise their hands. I raised my hand cuz at that point I was definitely being called. So I told my youth pastor and he was all excited for me and he contacted the organization and let them know I was going. Then I had to bring in the money which was almost $5,000 and I was thinking, ” I dunno God, that’s a lot of money and I only have like a month and a half left.” But God is always bigger than I think He is and He had the first check I received be from a lady I didn’t even know for $2000. So it was like Him confirming to me again that I was going.

So anyways, as you read this I’m in China witnessing to high school students and although I was super bummer that I’d be missing out on this camp that you’re at, I know I am where the Lord wants me. …Anyways, I write all this to simply thank you because the Lord used you in my life in a big way to communicate to me where He wanted me this summer.

[a few paragraphs that are personal]

…Well, Mr Giglio, this is definitely the longest letter I’ve ever written. …Keep it up and know He’ll keep using you in awesome ways. Also, if Chris is there with you tell him that even though everyone makes fun of his height, he really doesn’t look that short, especially on stage.

Well, I know you’re a super busy man but if you’d remember to pray for me that’d be cool. I’m here in China for five weeks, so even if you forget for two weeks and then you remember, you’re still good. Hopefully, I’ll see you again in the future. God bless,
J.

PS- I broke my ankle last week when me and a buddy were free running, so I’ll be on crutches or in a wheel chair pretty much the whole time so that’s one thing you can pray for, thanks.

________
Thank you Jesus…the ripples continue.
Thank you Sam Lu.
Daytona ROCKED!!
J., God is doing huge things in and through you in China! So glad you’re there.
Free running = excitement and broken bones!

LG

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WorshipTogether made its debut at the Cornerstone Festival last week. For those of you who have never attended this event, it's hard to describe. There are several groups of believers who make up this unique Christian stew.

There are the older Jesus hippies. These are people from the Jesus movement that happened in 70's who now are grandparents. They are of the 77's and DeGarmo & Key era.

Next is the modern day Jesus hippies. These people set up camps that looked like the Bonanza ranch. They took the idea of "car camping" to the next level. They brought everything but the kitchen sink, but no change of clothes. To my knowledge, none of these people ever attended the concerts. I think they were just happy for the community with other hippies.

Next is the scream-o kids. There were several thousand teens and early twenties who spent most of their festival at the generator stages (anyone who wants to set up a PA and play can) and the Tooth & Nail stages. I can only take scream rock for about 15 minutes, but these guys and girls got 5 days worth!

Then there were the families and youth groups. This was the only group that came to see David Crowder, Leeland, or Robbie Seay. And only 30 of them came to our New Song Cafe seminars.

In the end, my kids loved it and my wife vowed never to return. There was a Dairy Queen close by in town which made everyone happy.

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