Friday, October 31, 2008
Dolfin Cabin video now up
David FINALLY posted the full Dolfin Cabin Retreat video from this summer to You Tube, so you can now find it to the right of this post. Check it out and relive that awesome weekend from this summer!
MS recap of Habits week one
We had an awesome middle school youth group this week, with 27 students packing the youth room (pretty cool since the church only has 19 middle schoolers). No one died during our fun and action packed game, although there were a few close calls. We kicked off our HABITS series by talking about the importance of regularly Hanging out with God by doing things such as praying, listening to music, and reading the Bible. Why should we hangout with God regularly? Because God wants us to constantly be growing so that we may have a life that is good for us, others, and serves God. If we stop growing (hanging out with God) we will never reach our full potential, which will be a bummer thing for us, others, and God. As an illustration I talked about the San Francisco Bush Man, a guy who all he does is hide behind bushes in San Francisco and scare people. Surprise surprise but I found the Bush Man on You Tube and have posted that for your enjoyment to the right of this post (is there anything not on Youtube?). Basically he decided at some point to stop growing and never reached his potential. Who knows what great things he could have done had he kept learning and growing. By spending time with God we grow in our abilities, our knowledge, and our faith, enabling us to do bigger and better things. So, my challenge to everyone is to spend some time every day to just hangout with God.
Monday, October 27, 2008
A weekend of service
One of the things we wanted to make a big priority this fall, especially after our big mission trip, was meeting the needs of people closer to home with the love of Christ. This weekend our students did just that in a couple of great ways.
On Saturday about 2/3 of our high schoolers got up about 4 hours earlier then normal (8:30am, and trust me certain ones of them named Becky and Kathryn complained about that over and over) to do yard work on 10 yards in our area. They picked up trash, trimmed bushes, raked up about 60 bags of leaves, piled fire wood, rode ATVS (surprise, that was Ben's group), and more. Everyone we helped would not have otherwise been able to do their fall yard cleaning, so this was a great help to them. Thanks so much to our students for working hard and giving up the chance to sleep in to help others.
On Sunday our middle schoolers headed to Iglesia Trinidad in Milwaukee to prepare and serve a meal and attend worship with the congregation. What a different experience then we normal have at HRC. Here they get the pitch forks out if everything isn't smooth and almost professional, and there they start the service by asking who wants to have certain parts in the service. Here we get on edge over certain praise band songs being to irreverant, and there they hand out instruments to anyone in the audience who would like to play along (our group liked having tambourines, maracas, shakers, and more, and actually kept pretty good beat). Here we would wonder what was happening if anyone responded to a question in the pastor's sermon, and there a dialogue is part of the plan. I personally thought that was pretty cool. The congregation and the pastor interacted throughout the sermon, making it really come alive and also helping the message be very tailor made to the congregation's specific questions/interests. The message was on loving one's neighbor, and one individual thought there should be a limit on that (he was not to keen on loving his sex offender neighbor). He and the pastor had a good exchange on what the Bible says, and you could tell it helped him wrestle with a tough question. A neat change of pace from the normal monologue sermon.
Thanks to all the parents who prepared food, and you can rest assured it was enjoyed and quickly eaten. This is a very poor congregation, and you could tell by the zeal they attacked the food (many filling 3 plates or more to the breaking point plus taking "to go" plates) that this was the first time they had eaten in a while, and perhaps the last time for awhile.
The whole weekend simply reminds us all what Jesus called the Greatest Commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. The word for neighbor in the original Greek is really universal, so Jesus is really telling us to love the world as ourselves. Its a tall order, but one that is so important to strive towards, especially in the tough times we are facing today. May God bless ya alls weeks!
On Saturday about 2/3 of our high schoolers got up about 4 hours earlier then normal (8:30am, and trust me certain ones of them named Becky and Kathryn complained about that over and over) to do yard work on 10 yards in our area. They picked up trash, trimmed bushes, raked up about 60 bags of leaves, piled fire wood, rode ATVS (surprise, that was Ben's group), and more. Everyone we helped would not have otherwise been able to do their fall yard cleaning, so this was a great help to them. Thanks so much to our students for working hard and giving up the chance to sleep in to help others.
On Sunday our middle schoolers headed to Iglesia Trinidad in Milwaukee to prepare and serve a meal and attend worship with the congregation. What a different experience then we normal have at HRC. Here they get the pitch forks out if everything isn't smooth and almost professional, and there they start the service by asking who wants to have certain parts in the service. Here we get on edge over certain praise band songs being to irreverant, and there they hand out instruments to anyone in the audience who would like to play along (our group liked having tambourines, maracas, shakers, and more, and actually kept pretty good beat). Here we would wonder what was happening if anyone responded to a question in the pastor's sermon, and there a dialogue is part of the plan. I personally thought that was pretty cool. The congregation and the pastor interacted throughout the sermon, making it really come alive and also helping the message be very tailor made to the congregation's specific questions/interests. The message was on loving one's neighbor, and one individual thought there should be a limit on that (he was not to keen on loving his sex offender neighbor). He and the pastor had a good exchange on what the Bible says, and you could tell it helped him wrestle with a tough question. A neat change of pace from the normal monologue sermon.
Thanks to all the parents who prepared food, and you can rest assured it was enjoyed and quickly eaten. This is a very poor congregation, and you could tell by the zeal they attacked the food (many filling 3 plates or more to the breaking point plus taking "to go" plates) that this was the first time they had eaten in a while, and perhaps the last time for awhile.
The whole weekend simply reminds us all what Jesus called the Greatest Commandment: Love your neighbor as yourself. The word for neighbor in the original Greek is really universal, so Jesus is really telling us to love the world as ourselves. Its a tall order, but one that is so important to strive towards, especially in the tough times we are facing today. May God bless ya alls weeks!
Thursday, October 23, 2008
In case of rain Saturday...
Hopefully we will not experience rain on Saturday (there is currently a 30% chance though), but no matter what we would still like everyone planning on helping with our service project to head to meet at the church at 8:30 anyway. There are some projects around the church that can be done, and you never know when it is going to stop/start raining. If we are completely unable to get to the houses we might look at the possibility of one of the next two weekends, but we'll cross that bridge later.
Tuesday, October 21, 2008
Week of 10/20
We have some exciting stuff planned over the next week.
Wednesday night: MS youth group will be having a fun night after being great through our first two series of the year and the retreat. We will be doing a cool and exciting scavenger hunt thing, so be here ready to go outside and have some fun.
A Weekend of Service
Saturday: 8:30-noonish: Our high school ministry will be serving the community by cleaning up nine different yards of families who would otherwise struggle to do such work. Please show up promptly at 8:30 to meet your small group and head to your site. We will return before noon for a light lunch, then anyone who would likes is invited to the Baker Estate to enjoy the glorious new 52inch HD beauty for a Mario Kart Fest. We'd love to see many of you there.
Sunday: at 9:00am our middle schoolers who signed up will leave for Iglesia Trinidad in Milwaukee to worship with the congregation and serve them a meal. Please meet in the youth room at 8:50 for instructions. Normal church attire is fine, although remember we will be working in a kitchen (girls, pants instead of skirts/dresses would be a good thing).
HS Youth Group: Remember that this Sunday is our Cell Phone night. Please try to get here on time, dress to be outside a little, and bring a cell phone if you have one (although it is not required to bring one).
Wednesday night: MS youth group will be having a fun night after being great through our first two series of the year and the retreat. We will be doing a cool and exciting scavenger hunt thing, so be here ready to go outside and have some fun.
A Weekend of Service
Saturday: 8:30-noonish: Our high school ministry will be serving the community by cleaning up nine different yards of families who would otherwise struggle to do such work. Please show up promptly at 8:30 to meet your small group and head to your site. We will return before noon for a light lunch, then anyone who would likes is invited to the Baker Estate to enjoy the glorious new 52inch HD beauty for a Mario Kart Fest. We'd love to see many of you there.
Sunday: at 9:00am our middle schoolers who signed up will leave for Iglesia Trinidad in Milwaukee to worship with the congregation and serve them a meal. Please meet in the youth room at 8:50 for instructions. Normal church attire is fine, although remember we will be working in a kitchen (girls, pants instead of skirts/dresses would be a good thing).
HS Youth Group: Remember that this Sunday is our Cell Phone night. Please try to get here on time, dress to be outside a little, and bring a cell phone if you have one (although it is not required to bring one).
Pigtastic weekend!
What a weekend! 14 middle school students and four old geezers (myself included) spent the weekend at Silver Birch Ranch with 200 other middle schoolers for a weekend of incredible fun and spiritual growth. Our theme for the weekend was PIG OUT!, and our large group games certainly fit that bill. My personal favorite was our own little rendition of steal the bacon, albeit it with a 15 pound raw ham laying on a massive tarp greased with 4 CASES of laundry detergent! By the end of the game the ham had basically disintegrated, and most of the kids smelled like pig. Pretty cool huh?
I also enjoyed a crazy take on capture the flag that had pigs (students with pig noses on) trying to capture little red ridding hood from the wolves (leaders with years of pent up anger against students). Needless to say the leaders cruised to a glorious (although ethically questionable) victory. Oh and the youth pastor pudding wrestling tournament was also a neat little plus.
The retreat was not all about fun and games though. The theme PIG OUT came from the story the three little pigs, which is crazily similar to the Bible story of the man who built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24-27). We learned that we need to have a strong foundation in our lives, which is God. We need to get to know God, believe in God, and accept Jesus Christ as our savior, asking for forgiveness for all the bad things we have done. That builds our foundation. If you want a life that has a firm foundation that will keep your life from being a total wreck in difficult times then you first need to take those very important steps. We then have to build on that foundation by doing things such as reading the Bible, praying, and asking for help/guidance from other Christians when times are tough. This keeps us living the life God wants us to live and helps us be extra strong when people try to tear down our beliefs.
Our students were simply amazing on this trip, and we had a blast worshiping together, hanging out for hours during free time (many of us became obsessed with the game Apples to Apples, especially when judged by the always zanny Holly TB). A big thanks to them for their awesome behavior, and also to our leaders (Dan, Diane, and Maureen) for taking a weekend away from their busy lives to be a part of these students' lives. Finally, big thanks to Bob Swart for driving bus for us this weekend.
I also enjoyed a crazy take on capture the flag that had pigs (students with pig noses on) trying to capture little red ridding hood from the wolves (leaders with years of pent up anger against students). Needless to say the leaders cruised to a glorious (although ethically questionable) victory. Oh and the youth pastor pudding wrestling tournament was also a neat little plus.
The retreat was not all about fun and games though. The theme PIG OUT came from the story the three little pigs, which is crazily similar to the Bible story of the man who built his house upon the rock (Matthew 7:24-27). We learned that we need to have a strong foundation in our lives, which is God. We need to get to know God, believe in God, and accept Jesus Christ as our savior, asking for forgiveness for all the bad things we have done. That builds our foundation. If you want a life that has a firm foundation that will keep your life from being a total wreck in difficult times then you first need to take those very important steps. We then have to build on that foundation by doing things such as reading the Bible, praying, and asking for help/guidance from other Christians when times are tough. This keeps us living the life God wants us to live and helps us be extra strong when people try to tear down our beliefs.
Our students were simply amazing on this trip, and we had a blast worshiping together, hanging out for hours during free time (many of us became obsessed with the game Apples to Apples, especially when judged by the always zanny Holly TB). A big thanks to them for their awesome behavior, and also to our leaders (Dan, Diane, and Maureen) for taking a weekend away from their busy lives to be a part of these students' lives. Finally, big thanks to Bob Swart for driving bus for us this weekend.
Thursday, October 16, 2008
Weekend info
Sorry, but bland "info only" post following.
Silver Birch Return: I am predicting that we will return to the HRC parking lot around 2:30pm on Sunday. We will call parents when we get a little north of Sheboygan. Also, remember we are meeting at HRC at 5:15 on Friday and will leave at 5:30. It should be an awesome, hyperactive weekend, so get some sleep tonight and get ready to go!
Praise band: Please remember we are practicing at 3:30 in the fellowship hall. Please be ready to go as we have to be done fairly early for the drama team to practice.
Growth Night: This Sunday is our Growth Night service. It will feature some hyper music, a funny video, a hilarious drama with Kathryn and Alyssa, and more. Should be a great time of praise, as well as a good night to connect with your small group. Middle schoolers, remember this is also very much for you.
Silver Birch Return: I am predicting that we will return to the HRC parking lot around 2:30pm on Sunday. We will call parents when we get a little north of Sheboygan. Also, remember we are meeting at HRC at 5:15 on Friday and will leave at 5:30. It should be an awesome, hyperactive weekend, so get some sleep tonight and get ready to go!
Praise band: Please remember we are practicing at 3:30 in the fellowship hall. Please be ready to go as we have to be done fairly early for the drama team to practice.
Growth Night: This Sunday is our Growth Night service. It will feature some hyper music, a funny video, a hilarious drama with Kathryn and Alyssa, and more. Should be a great time of praise, as well as a good night to connect with your small group. Middle schoolers, remember this is also very much for you.
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
My Precious and other news
Hey all.
I am finally discovering that life can sometimes make it hard to post too regularly, but I have not forgotten about it entirely. We are having a beautiful fall in Wisconsin, with the trees looking so amazing right now and the temperatures holding pretty steady at this point. While it would be nice if I were still attentively watching baseball right now, I guess I'll just have to wait for next year and Mark Cuban's takeover of the Cubbies to make things right in the universe.
In other news...
My Precious: The 12 inch TV in my basement, which used to be in my room in HIGH SCHOOL, has now been replaced with a 52 inch HD beast with DOLBY digital sound. EXCELLENT!!! Even better yet for all you Hollanders out there is I got it as a floor model for only $350, which makes me even more pumped. We will be trying to have many of you over to enjoy it in the near future.
This Past Sunday: I got to pull double duty this past Sunday, delivering messages for big church and high school. In big church we looked at Paul's conversion (Acts 26:9-18) and talked about how Paul went from being out of control in his life (persecuting and even killing Christians) to being out of this world for God (telling everyone he could about Christ, even traveling to the ends of the known Earth to do so). Using my snazy pink vacuum with the clear container we talked about how easily our life can vear out of control, filling with sin, but that God can transform all that because if God could transform Paul God can transform all. One point I'd really like to make about Paul is that his transformation by God is fairly tantamount today to Osama Bin Laden all of a sudden become a Christian televangelist. That's how against Christianity, and even perhaps how violent (although we can't be entirely sure how personally violent Paul was, but his actions did lead to Christians being killed), Paul was in his own day. Yet God transformed him, which God can do for any of us.
This week: this is another big one around here. Wednesday night middle school will finish our series on the End times, and then Friday through Sunday middle schoolers will head to Silver Birch Ranch with about 400 other middle schoolers for a denominational retreat. On Sunday we will have our second Growth Night service, with a great set list of worship songs, a fun drama, a silly video, and my yapping about something. Hope to see a ton of people there. For now, I'm off to school.
I am finally discovering that life can sometimes make it hard to post too regularly, but I have not forgotten about it entirely. We are having a beautiful fall in Wisconsin, with the trees looking so amazing right now and the temperatures holding pretty steady at this point. While it would be nice if I were still attentively watching baseball right now, I guess I'll just have to wait for next year and Mark Cuban's takeover of the Cubbies to make things right in the universe.
In other news...
My Precious: The 12 inch TV in my basement, which used to be in my room in HIGH SCHOOL, has now been replaced with a 52 inch HD beast with DOLBY digital sound. EXCELLENT!!! Even better yet for all you Hollanders out there is I got it as a floor model for only $350, which makes me even more pumped. We will be trying to have many of you over to enjoy it in the near future.
This Past Sunday: I got to pull double duty this past Sunday, delivering messages for big church and high school. In big church we looked at Paul's conversion (Acts 26:9-18) and talked about how Paul went from being out of control in his life (persecuting and even killing Christians) to being out of this world for God (telling everyone he could about Christ, even traveling to the ends of the known Earth to do so). Using my snazy pink vacuum with the clear container we talked about how easily our life can vear out of control, filling with sin, but that God can transform all that because if God could transform Paul God can transform all. One point I'd really like to make about Paul is that his transformation by God is fairly tantamount today to Osama Bin Laden all of a sudden become a Christian televangelist. That's how against Christianity, and even perhaps how violent (although we can't be entirely sure how personally violent Paul was, but his actions did lead to Christians being killed), Paul was in his own day. Yet God transformed him, which God can do for any of us.
This week: this is another big one around here. Wednesday night middle school will finish our series on the End times, and then Friday through Sunday middle schoolers will head to Silver Birch Ranch with about 400 other middle schoolers for a denominational retreat. On Sunday we will have our second Growth Night service, with a great set list of worship songs, a fun drama, a silly video, and my yapping about something. Hope to see a ton of people there. For now, I'm off to school.
Sunday, October 5, 2008
Bad goat!
Well, surprise surprise. Despite the best record in the league, amazing pitching, the best run producing line-up in baseball, yada yada yada, the Cubs looked like a Hingham Softball league team (and I don't mean to be THAT mean to those squads). After game 2 you had to wonder about the curse (by the way, there is no such thing as curses, the Cubs have simply bought into this dumb thing, especially so this year). Just appalling how the Cubby bears played. So Cub like really. Oh well, at least Brewer fans will now have to be quite as the Crew is getting hammered by the Phils.
Anyway, I'm off to get ready for youth group tonight. We're talking about Peter's jail break and playing a number of pretty good games, so hopefully it will be a good night. It will also be a busy week in our area as Oostburg celebrates homecoming with a ton of exciting and crazy activities leading to the game at the new stadium on Friday.
Anyway, I'm off to get ready for youth group tonight. We're talking about Peter's jail break and playing a number of pretty good games, so hopefully it will be a good night. It will also be a busy week in our area as Oostburg celebrates homecoming with a ton of exciting and crazy activities leading to the game at the new stadium on Friday.
Thursday, October 2, 2008
Seriosuly, stay away goats!
Well, It's October alright. Ryan Dempster, automatic all season, becomes a walk machine last night, then gives up a lovely grand slam and the Cubs get smoked 7-2. In fact, Dempster walked more last night then he did in the entire MONTH of September. The goat also decided to appear in my life today while visited Oostburg High School as two workmen carrying a mirror dropped it directly ahead of me, shattering it into many pieces (I can't make stuff like this up). If the Cubs lose tonight I'm blaming it on the mirror. Seriously Cubs, get it together behind Big Z tonight and pull this thing even.
Schedule change: Please note for High Schoolers that we are flipping our plans for Oct. 12th and Oct. 26th around to accommodate a Church musical event being held that evening. Please bring your cell phones and be ready to go outside for a fun and zanny night on the 26th. The schedule on this site has been updated for this change.
Middle School: Last night we started our serious called It's the End of the World as We Know It. We also got to hit celebrities over the head with noodles, which was pretty fun to watch. We're going to be looking at the End Times for a few weeks, and we started by looking at the many places scripture tells us that the World will end. The world, with it's good things (Cold Stone Creamery, Wii, me) and bad things (The Yankees, death, hunger, etc.) is going to be replaced by a perfect heaven on Earth when Jesus comes back someday. We don't know when this is going to be, but someday it will happen. This is something we should be excited about, because we will be brought back to life in perfect new bodies to live in a perfect world forever. Next week we'll continue our series by looking at the issue of the Rapture, which was made very famous by the Left Behind books.
Schedule change: Please note for High Schoolers that we are flipping our plans for Oct. 12th and Oct. 26th around to accommodate a Church musical event being held that evening. Please bring your cell phones and be ready to go outside for a fun and zanny night on the 26th. The schedule on this site has been updated for this change.
Middle School: Last night we started our serious called It's the End of the World as We Know It. We also got to hit celebrities over the head with noodles, which was pretty fun to watch. We're going to be looking at the End Times for a few weeks, and we started by looking at the many places scripture tells us that the World will end. The world, with it's good things (Cold Stone Creamery, Wii, me) and bad things (The Yankees, death, hunger, etc.) is going to be replaced by a perfect heaven on Earth when Jesus comes back someday. We don't know when this is going to be, but someday it will happen. This is something we should be excited about, because we will be brought back to life in perfect new bodies to live in a perfect world forever. Next week we'll continue our series by looking at the issue of the Rapture, which was made very famous by the Left Behind books.