Take heed...

“Therefore let anyone who thinks that he stands take heed lest he fall."

I Corinthians 10:12

A stern statement from Paul to the church at Corinth. He speaks in relation to eating in the temples of idols, and warns believers there against any type of association with idols—they felt they had reached a level of maturity to participate in idol worship! During the exodus from Egypt, Yahweh (God) led His people out of captivity by miracle after miracle; using a pillar of cloud by day and a pillar of fire by night. Still, they became proud and buckled before temptation time and again. Paul pleads with the Corinthian believers to not allow pride in themselves to prevent a humble attitude towards their own sinful nature.

Peter told Jesus, "Lord, I am ready to go with you both to prison and to death" (Luke 22:33). Within hours, he denied even knowing Jesus to simple servant girl. How does this happen? How do we become so confident in our spirituality that we seemingly run in the midst of trial? It happens when we do not feast on scripture daily, and pray continually with the Father. I can soon forget that I am a great sinner, saved by a greater savior. I begin living this life as if it is my own and not as one eternally surrendered to Christ Jesus and His gospel. My life can very quickly become useless to the gospel if I refuse to take hold of the sustaining power given me.

Father, may we constantly be reminded of our sinful, weak state before you. Praise you for your great grace and love for us, your children. Never allow us to wander too far into temptation , discipline us and bring us back to following in the footsteps of Jesus. Humble us daily, lest we fall into sin against you.

The next step

Summer is over, staff meetings are drawing to a close and our moving process is finally wrapping up. We have only garage items yet to move and an entire apartment yet to organize. But the end is in sight and we are looking forward to some vacation, alone time and the Rocky Mountains. We are praying for spiritual focus even as our minds wind down from summer. Pray with us?

Pictures of our new place coming soon!

Moving, moving, moving

The days are passing quickly, and we begin our official move to the new apartment in five days. With only five boxes packed, the next few days will be nothing short of chaos. Our 18-hour days at Snowbird don't leave much room for compacting our personal belongings into cardboard and plastic. We have two days to move then on to a much-anticipated weeklong vacation. I am greatly looking forward to some quality time with my husband and to some much-needed rest!

We will hit the ground running again as soon as vacation is over with a men's group and two Christian school retreats, not to mention gearing up for our Honduras trip in December. We are so excited about everything that's coming up and we look forward to sharing it with you. Thanks for keeping up with us!

Brittany

Always faithful

Week 7 of summer camp has officially come and gone. It's hard to believe that we only have two more weeks of our intense summer program before we get a week's vacation and then the retreat season begins. God has been so faithful to provide for us, especially in the area of imaginary rest and energy. Just when we feel like we have nothing more to give, God pushes us through the week. It's such a blessing every time. And we are so unworthy. Though I cannot pretend I am not looking forward to the retreat season. It's such a wonderful time of investing in the SWO interns, spending time with local students and hanging out with my husband! We recently signed a lease on a new apartment that God graciously opened up to us. Rent is a bit higher than we are currently paying and we know God will continue to provide the funds for us to move into a larger, 2-bedroom space that will more than double the small garage apartment in which we currently reside. So needless to say, our August will begin in full-speed as we begin our move across town and head into retreats. Please continue to pray for us as we do so that we will be faithful to all God calls us to and that we will be able to continue to use our new home to bless and encourage the lives of those around us.
— Brittany Ragon

Mid-summer Energy

Our summer at Snowbird Outfitters runs for 9 weeks. Hard, tiring days of physical, spiritual and emotional outpouring. We are now in the middle of Week 6 and our 150-member staff has already ministered to approximately 2,500 middle and high school students. We've led recreation, taught small group studies, followed them around campus and built really awesome friendships. We've had students leave with transformed lives and we've had students walk away seemingly as dead as when they arrived.
But we take hope.
We know we aren't called to results or numbers or "the harvest." We are called to simple, faithful obedience to preach the gospel without "reserve, retreat or regret."
So now we're praying for extra energy to push through the last 3.5 weeks. But not just to get through the days. To thrive.
Thanks for partnering with us!