Off To Motion Conference

Im so pumped about this years student ministries conference in Alabama, but at the same time I am really sad because my wife Heather gets home from Africa on Friday and I will be gone until Sunday night. So this is Bitter sweet for me. It will be two whole weeks this sunday that we havent seen each other I am really missing my Love. But Motion is going to be amazing, Pastor Chris Hodges is an amazing man of God and there Church is doing amazing things in the kingdom. There will be tons of kids and crazy nights with no sleep, all for lives to be changed and Christ to be Glorified. It's gonna be amazing and seriously smelly all these little kids.
5 Things About Youth Camps everyone should Know
1.) If your gonna take a shower make sure your clothes are in the shower with you that way your friends dont run off with your clothes and leave just your socks.

2.)Make sure your the last one to sleep, you wont regret it I promise!!!!!

3.)Look for the guys who fell asleep first it's gonna be the so much fun as long as you have whip cream and duct tape.

4.)You have got to have a team song, Lunch lady land by Adam sandler is my fav.

5.)Make sure you find the secret bathrooms at camp sharing with 100's of students is the last thing you want to have to do, highschool boys hold nothing back!!! HAHA

Africa

We are having a great time here in Mozambique, we have been at the church for the last two days getting ready for VBS and hanging out with the kids. The team is really working good together, we all fit well with each other. Here are just a few pictures of here. the first is the hotel that we are staying at, the second is the church at an orphanage near our care point,the third is becky getting bombarded by kids cause they want stickers, and the last one is all the kids waiting to be feed their one meal for the day.

Safe in Mozambique

Hey everyone, It's Heather. We are finally done traveling and we are at our hotel in Maputo, Mozambique. I don't know how much I will be able to get on the computer but I will keep ya' ll updated as much as possible. We will be visiting the church tomorrow to hang out with the kids and just serve in any way that we can. Keep tuned in the hear more as it comes. Keep the prayers coming they are much needed for everything to continue moving smoothly.

ON THE PLANE

If you are reading this right now for the next 21 hours my wife will be on her way to Africa with a team from the Church for a missions trip, she will be gone for the next 12 days so please keep her in your prayers, I'll keep everyone updated and Heather will also post on my blog as well.

Funny thought:
The most memorable meal this year of my life this morning before dropping Heather off at the church, we ate at McDonalds I had a Chicken Bisquit and she had the pancakes with a little oj. Ahhh, the golden arches making memories it's a beautiful thing.

8 Days Till AFRICA

My Beautiful wife Heather leaves for Swaziland and Mozambique Africa in 8 days, it's a very different feeling to know that she will be all the way across the world without me for a period of two weeks, but also a great feeling to know that she will have one of the most amazing ministry opportunities she has ever experienced. VBS for the children, sharing the message of Christ with these precious children is one of the biggest blessings God has ever allowed me to be apart of and I'm extremely excited that she will be able to share in that blessing. When you go to Africa or an overseas mission trip you will always get so much more out of it than you give while you are there, it's not a self centered thing but something God does to shift your heart towards his perspective. You learn how blessed you are and how much God has given us. And you also learn how much God wants you to use your blessings to bless others less fortunate. These precious orphans have nothing but they have everything, alot of times in America we have so much but inside we have so little. As I get older I see constantly the effects of trying to gain material stuff and wealth here on earth, it all fades and never satisfies. There is nothing wrong with having stuff as long as the stuff does not have you. While she is gone in Africa I know that God will show her amazing things, reveal to her parts of her heart that she never knew could feel the way it will when she holds the children, sees the suffering and See's the joy. Laughs and Cry's all in the same moment. I did everyday I was there. Africa is such an amazing place it captured my heart. It's a neat thing to know that while I'm home my other half will be traveling all the way there having her heart captured as well. It's 8 days till Africa, if you read this post please keep Heather in your prayers and the team going, they are going to need all the prayer that can be lifted up. With Lot's of long hours and many days of pouring themselves out for the work there, God has to be the center of all that is done. While she is gone I will keep post coming of what is going on while she is away and what is happening while she is there. Again all the prayers and support are greatly appreciated.

IRONMAN FOR ORPHANS

This is gonna be awesome, for about a year now I have had a huge desire to do big fundraiser for the Orphans in Africa. After having the most amazing opportunity to go to Africa twice with Healing Place Church School of ministry and be apart of www.childrenscup.org International Relief program I have wanted to do so much more for the Children. Our Idea right now is to do a, wait you ready for it. 24 hour Bike, Run, Walk event to raise money for the children. I will be biking for the full 24 hrs straight, but anyone will be able to come and bike, walk, or run for however long they desire to help support and raise money for the Children. 100% of the proceeds will go directly towards the children. In the process of thinking about this event there were many questions of how will we do it, where will we do it, and how will we get sponsors and partners, alot of that is still in the works but for the most part the planing stages are wrapping up. But we did know that we wanted to go big, we wanted to do something that would really be challenging but also allow people that would like to come out with family and friends for a few hours or just to show support for a little while for the event to be apart. So the 24hr Idea came up. You can go solo, you can have teams and do relays, you can unicycle if you want we just want people to get involved. Until we get the date set and location of the event I would like to ask you to pray for us as we continue getting this event together.Our goal is to raise between 50 and 100,000 dollars for the children.In efforts to reach this goal we are going to contact as many businesses in Baton Rouge as we can possibly find and also house to house outreaches to raise support. So as we get to a point where we are ready to kick off the event we will keep updates posted on facebook.com under Barton pickens for time and location if you want to get involved. Thank you so much for all your prayers and support, we could not do this without you and the children could not do it with out us.