This past week we were fortunate enough to have groups from Beulah Baptist Church in South Carolina and Old Town Baptist Church in North Carolina come and work with us.

Pastors Ken Addision and Jason Leford both brought their youth groups to come to Nashville to engage students in church planting and evangelism by participating in PowerPlant Nashville.

This year we had three projects going on simultaneously.

One group of students went door-to-door to pray for, invite people to Matthew’s Table, and collect can goods for the Crossville Mission.

Another went to the local park and passed out water bottles, did face painting on the children present, prayed for people, and engaged them in spiritual conversations.

And a third group did a car wash in order to take donations for our mission trip to Rome this fall, pass out invitations to Matthew’s Table, and to pray for those who stopped.

This is the second year Ken and his group of students from Beulah Baptist Church joined us. We are thankful for their continued support of us.

We are also grateful for Jason and his crew from Old Town Baptist Church. We enjoyed connecting with them and their diverse group of students.

Both of these groups jumped right in and were eager to serve Lebanon. And through these very ordinary projects, God has moved in the lives of people in some extraordinary ways albeit mostly unknown to us.

I am thankful for youth pastors like Ken and Jason who are more concerned with forming students rather than forming youth ministries. Youth pastors, like all the ones who participated in PowerPlant this year, who are all about instilling God’s mission in the DNA of their ministries are a rare bread indeed.