Bill Hebner

In horticulture, thatch is a tightly bound layer of dead grass, including leaves, stems, and roots, that builds up on the soil surface at the base of the living grass of a lawn. Though we never see it, it is the difference between life and death, drought and famine, quietly going about its business protecting the surface from erosion, maintaining water and nutrients, and ultimately giving life. You can farm for a while, years even, by tilling away the thatch to expose the soil as a commodity, but like the dustbowls of the 1920’s you can only exploit the land for a while before it’s absence becomes painfully evident. On my recent trip to Canada, I discovered ‘SPIRITUAL THATCH’ I had never noticed it before, I guess I never needed it before as we were harvesting spiritual fruit in the Okanagan valley while working with YL in Canada. But time moves on and it is now the collection of relationships past that have gone on to grow spiritually years after the initial seeds of experien

It has been years since I have been involved in YL staff conferences, and just like waiting for a bus, when one comes, they all seem to come. January /February this year has not been any different with the International Staff Conference in Florida followed by the Ireland, Scandinavian and UK Staff conference this week in Kidderminster. As of you know I am not a conference sort of person. I feel that there is too much to be done to stop and pat ourselves on the back. Besides others don’t get these luxuries, so why should I. But I must admit it was good to get perspective back.... Orlando saw over 4500 staff from 75 countries lift up the cross of Jesus Christ together, unitied in the belief that it is a sin to bore a kids with the gospel of Christ, and that every youth has the right to hear the good news in a manner they can understand.... Fantastic time to get perspective that yes.... God is moving, moving more than most us realize as we often endure routine church and long for more

By the time you get this blog, we will be in the final stages of preparing to take 100 young people to Africa to build a school in 11 days. I have mentioned this trip before, and I am confident that the team we are taking are capable of building such a structure in the time allotted. However, we are still short about $20,000.00 on the cost of building materials. The young people have raised $160,000.00 for the project, but we are still short on building materials.   If you have capacity to help this project it would be greatly appreciated. This will be a school for 300+ youth affected by the AIDS virus, with some care givers as young as 12. We covet your prayers on this as it is a Young Life outreach trip as well, but we also cherish your support.