Jim Lumpkin's blog

At the beginning of the fall Cassie and I sat down and discussed what we wanted to accomplish this year and how to do that.  Majority of my job is behind the scenes. meaning that it’s hard to explain to people and that I don’t get to be as hands on with the teenagers as I want to be. And to be honest with you it bothered me some this past year.  So we looked at ways to change that.  Another train of thought that kept coming up in our conversation is that a lot of Midland’s events haven’t been doing as well as we would hope.  Our numbers at our events have been dropping off slowly. And on further examination, we haven’t been adverting like we should be. 90% of our advertising has been from word of mouth only. So Cassie and I agreed that we need to help spread the word about Midland Ministries and what we are about and our monthly events.  to accomplish these 2 goals, we decided that it would be a good idea for me to visit various youth groups on Wednesday nights and build relationships with the teenagers in those youth groups and invite them to anything and everything Midland does. So far I am rotating between 2 different youth groups.  One of them is the one at my own church (we thought it would be wise to get to know the teenagers in my own church).  the 2nd is a local church called The Edge.  they have a great group of volunteers who run youth group on Wednesday nights.  And by great I mean AMAZINGLY AWESOME! They really do care about these teenagers and want to reach out to them.  I met with them a few weeks ago and explained to them that Midland Ministries is an evangelical ministry who’s goal is to reach teenagers with the Gospel and to help those teenagers grow by working side by side with the local churches.  I wanted to help them with their youth group any way that I can and invite them all to our monthly rallies, summer camp, and Bible Quizzing.  They loved the idea and asked if I wanted to help out by running youth group for a night? I agreed and last week was my week.  We played a couple of fun games including a variation of musical chairs.  Afterwards, I preached from I Kings 18 about Elijah and Mt. Carmel.  I had the teens act it out and pretend to be Elijah and the prophets of baal.  Being able to visualize the passage helped them to grasp it and what had happened.  I used that passage to explain to them that sometimes, as Christians it feels like we are all alone taking on over 450 people who are against us.  But just like Elijah, we are not alone! We have God with us and if we follow Him and obey Him, the odds are never against us and we can accomplish anything!

The highlight of the night wasn’t the games, or even the message, but the fact that I got to bring a Padawan with me (a Padawan is a nickname I have given to the guys I mentor and disciple in my Friday night Bible study group).  His name is Brent and he did a great job helping me wi the music and “being Elijah” in our impromptu play.  He did a great job and had a lot of fun too.

It was a great night.  I hadn’t run a youth group of any kind in over 5 years, but it was just like riding a bike.  I connected with several teenagers, and I look forward to going back there at the end of the month.  Please pray that I get to do this more often.  I am praying about several other youth groups that I want to connect with and see if I can help them in any way and of course build relationships.

thanks for reading my blog and for praying for my ministry.  I am truly blessed that I get to do God’s work.  And I cannot do it without your prayers and support.  thanks
-Jim L (Lumpy)

Luke 15:24 “For this son was dead and is alive again; he was lost and is found.”
One of the hardest things in youth ministry is seeing a teenager who you think gets it but then for one reason or another looses his focus and turns his back on God and goes in a completely different direction.  We call them the modern day Prodigal Son.  I have many stories of teenagers who were like this. They heard the Gospel and started to change but like the seeds planted in the thorns that started to grow but were choked by the thorns.  Every time that happens it hurts, deeply.  I want to question me and what I did or said. What did I do wrong, but God is good and kind and lets me know that any seed planted is not planted in vain, and that I did was I suppose to do, let Him take care of the rest.  And when I listen to Him, and trust Him to further the work in that young person’s life I know feel a lot better. But I feel even more better when I actually run into them again and find out that they are actually doing better and that, even though they chose a harder path, they did eventually turn back to God. And that warms my heart more then anything else. 
I say all of that to tell you a story similar to this one.  It all started a few years ago when God laid upon my heart to start disciple some teenage guys.  God showed me 4 who didn’t have a fatherly influence in their lives and who needed some extra… Attention.  I decided to put the descipling program into words the guys would understand and appreciate, so just like the Jedi in Star Wars, I took on my Padawans and trained them to be “Christian Jedi”.  And it worked! We met every Friday and they were learning a lot about God and about being a man and maturing. But over time they dropped off one by one, until all I had left was 1. And to be honest, it hurt, a lot.  But I kept teaching that one. And last year he graduated high school and is at college this year on a scholarship. He is involved in the local college outreach program and is still part of my Bible Study on Friday nights.  
But again those who stopped coming remained on my heart and in my prayers.  So a few weeks ago we started up again with our Friday Bible Study looking into the book of Acts.  And last Friday we added another teenager to our little group. And then out of the blue, one of the guys who was once lost came back!!! I was so excited! The only thing that kept going through my head was the feeling and emotion of the father in Luke chapter 15. I talked to this teenager and he genuinely wanted to come back and missed the group and missed God.  I told him how much I missed him and how excited I was that he had returned and that the only thing to do now is to move forward.  He is joining us again on Friday and will hopefully do the reading before hand.
I am so grateful that he has returned, but I know he still has a long ways to go. He is a senior this year and I want him to be prepared when he enters into the “world after high school”. Could you please pray with me for him? I don’t want to give you his name but please pray that he will continue to draw closer to God and that God will continue to work in his life.  Thanks.
-Jim

hello all,

I haven’t used this blog in so long… but it is time to bring it back to life! the goal for this blog now is to start using it as a mini ministry and family update.  I’ll make posts a personal view various events here at Midland including Bible Quizzing, Rallies, SQ 632, and more.  I making a post at least once a week and will even blog from my phone! (how cool is that?!?).  but for now be patient with me.  I don’t have a TON to say at the moment and I have been tweaking everything on this blog to make it work better.  in the mean time, click on the boxes on the right to follow my blog and get updates on it when I post something.

until then Ta Ta for now,

Lumpy

well I have been home for 2 full days now. It was good to see James again ad he is really happy we are home. Fri and Sat were pretty much travel days, with the exception of going to see some ruins just outside of Santa Cruz. it was interesting. then we went and did some shopping in another town (I forgot the name of it) I didn’t get anything but Cassie got a nice hand-made purse. it was really nice. after that (and the 8 hours in the bus) we got to the siminary where our translators went and we all went straight to bed. the next morning we had breakfast, toured the college and went to the airport. our 1st flight was almost an hour leaving so we got to Huston late! when we landed we had 15 min to get to our connecting flight!!! so we literally ran through customs (I think we set some sort of record there) and then through security and rechecked out baggage and ran to our connecting gate. apparently they held the plane for us (we made up about half the flight!) so we made it. but as we were running to it they were in the process of selling our seats to a few other people (who were a lot happier about us showing up then I would have been). so we made our flight and they even loaded out luggage for us. we did miss our window to take off and had to get in the end of the line to use the runway (twice) but we finally took off and got to Kansas City airport and home by 10:30. it was really nice to be home again. we were so tired! and we had to wait until the next morning to see James but he was very happy to see us. we went to church Sun morning and relaxed the rest of the day and Monday. now I am back to work and trying to get back in the swing of things… but I will never forget the people and experiences of Guatemala, and I can’t wait to go again!
thanks for reading this blog and for praying. come back and read my blog from time to time, I plan on keeping it going with updates of my ministry, family and anything else I feel like writing about. it’s the best way to keep informed of my day to day life (and of course seeing pics of James).
so until next time,
take care and God bless,
Lumpy