Many of you know Brandon Benson, he was in our youth group in Minnesota.  This is his team in NZ and he is in the back row second one from the left with the black hair.  Just this weekend we recieved an update from him and wanted to share it with all of you.  God is using Brandon is such amazing ways and it is great to see the growth and the changes in Brandon's life.

Brandon's Report's:  On Thursday our team went to the Nicky Cruz crusade, which turned out to be a pretty powerful night and a few hundred people got saved. I brought my friend Nathan along, who was in my small group last year. As it turned out, Nathan had whooping cough for a little over a month already. Whooping cough is where you cough so much until you vomit and then your throat muscles swell up, making it extremely hard to get air back into your lungs. During the service, Nathan had a coughing fit and started vomiting and gasping for breath. I took him back to the paramedics, and they just suggested that he stay warm, so I gave him my shirt and we sat back down. A few moments later, he had another attack and we had to get up again and leave. I ended up having to call his parents to have them pick Nathan up. At first Iwas pretty bummed that he had to leave because Nicky's messege I think would have really hit home with Nathan. But I got to thinking about the night and really felt that it wasn't a total loss because I really got a chance to show this kid that I actually care a lot about him. Enough to stick by his side while he's puking his guts out in front of 10,000 people. Enough to walk with him through the crowd, even while people were laughing at him, acusing him of being drunk. I think overall, that meant a lot to him, and I think God used that bad situation and turned it around to make it good.