Madison

Greetings from Madison all! Well, besides me almost becoming the hood ornament of a semi we had a good trip down today, and our guys held their own tonight. Lucas had a great match and is moving on with Pat tomorrow. Both have really great shots at placing at this point. Sadly, Jesse got a bad draw and had one of the state's best right away, and lost. He had an awesome career and will be missed big next year.
On another note, had to laugh like crazy getting off the bus onto the icy street as I saw six straight people step off, take two steps, and then fall. It was a hilarious pileup, like something out of a cartoon. Oh, and I think Zach B has farted something like 359 times so far (and how lovely that smell is).
Hope everyone is safe back home. Enjoy school and work tomorrow.

Schedule changes and such

Morning!
If you check out the schedules to the right you'll notice we've made some changes for the upcoming months. We'll get a paper copy in boxes at some point, but for now at least it's updated online (most of the changes are in May anyways).

Also, if you have not checked out the Silver Birch video to the right please do. It's a great reminder of the amazing experience that trip was. Do to some issues with Blogger (or perhaps with me not knowing how to use Blogger) there are a whole stream of videos to the right, but only the top one is from our group. HRC and me personally are therefore not responsible for the content of any of the other videos.

As a reminder, I will be gone Thursday-Sunday morning with the wrestlers for state in Madison. I will be back for youth group on Sunday evening. If you need anything of importance you can contact the church or send me an email (which I hope to be checking via WiFi). I will be at the school some tomorrow, for the wrestling assembly and perhaps popping in at some of the lunches.

Frisbees and other stuff

Happy Monday!

I'm actually excited this Monday morning because our new projector arrived in the mail today. A HUGE upgrade over our 10 year old one. It's going to be so great to have.

Coming up this week:
Wednesday night our middle schoolers will be playing some high energy games and talking about How NOT to be a Friend. It will be an exciting night, so see you there.
I've been asked to take a bunch of the wrestlers to state this weekend, so I will be gone Thursday-Sunday morning. We will still have youth group on Sunday night. If anyone needs to get in touch me call my cell or get in touch with the church office.

Last night we had a lot of fun around here, playing indoor Frisbee golf (and yes, no stain glass windows were broken in the process), and Frugbee, a combination rugby/Frisbee (and, to my knowledge, leaders sustained only soreness and bruises). The winners of Frisbee golf, by a long shot, were Jolene, Mal, Becca, and Anna (although the legitimacy of their victory has been called into question because of the cheating past of their "supervising leader" :) They got to split an entire case of candy bars, which they were pretty excited about. Our topic for the night was Baptism. We looked at what the Bible says about it and learned that Baptism is all about repentance and the forgiveness of sins. It is a sign, symbol, and promise of us asking forgiveness of all our sins, and God forgiving us by grace. Baptism in no way is about us, the church, or anyone. Baptism is all about God, because it is God alone who saves. We also talked about infant baptism, and that while all of us were baptized as infants, many churches out there do not baptize infants, and in fact may say that you need to be baptized again. We saw that scripture no where says you must be baptized as an adult, that Jesus is all about children having rights, and the parallel of circumcision. All in all I hope the night helped everyone have a deeper understanding and appreciation of the amazing gift of baptism.

Updates and Challenge Day

Hey all!
We had a fun Wednesday night, playing some crazy running around games (final falling down total: Jordan 4 Cody 3) and talking about friendship. And hey, any night I get to pick kids up and throw them to the ground its a good night to me!

Sunday high schoolers and going to play some active games and begin our What do we Believe series by talking about baptism. This would be a great time to do something with water, but after last time I'm not so sure (a certain individual ran into the tub of water and broke it open). Anyhow, it will be a great night so see you there.

I wanted to talk a little about Challenge Day, a program that myself and two of our middle school team got to participate in at Clintonville MS on Tuesday. Simply put, it was one of the most amazing days I have ever been a part of. Challenge day is a day long program held at a school that urges students to Be the Change it their community. They pick 100 that represent a cross section of the school to participate, as well as about 25 adult facilitators and 2 pro leaders from Challenge Day in CA. The first three hours focus mostly on high energy games and some short presentations, but it's after that point that things get real. The speakers told their life stories, revealing some pretty major pain in their lives. They told us that we hold all of our pain and seemingly "uncool" thoughts and dreams inside, keeping 90% of who we really are "below the waterline" (like an iceberg). The speakers' stories were really emotional, and they got everyone starting to think serious about what they have hidden from everyone. Then everyone got into small groups with an adult leader and took 2 mins to tell everyone "if you really knew me..." Students and adults were revealing tons of pain: being made fun of, suicidal thoughts, drug use, discrimination, relatives in jail, hating their own actions, etc. It was so powerful. Then, after lunch, another powerful event happened. Everyone lined up across the gym, with a blue tape line down the middle. The leader would read something like "if you have been made fun of because of your body, cross the line." Then she would talk about it and challenge those who had crossed to not have it hurt so much, and those who did not to stop taunting/causing problems. By the end of this activity EVERYONE it seemed was in tears (yes, myself included). It was crazy seeing so much pain coming out in that room as people finally let out what was REALLY going on in their life and stopped playing perfect. The results were amazing: bullies were BEGGING for the mic to apologize, former friends were making up, and everyone was ready to make big changes. While this may seem like a long post this hardly summarizes the day. I'll write more on this later, but in the meantime out the Challenge Day site. Just know it was amazing, and we'd love to see this event come to Oostburg someday.

Silver Birch Video, Growth Night, and Meat on a Stick

Morning everyone!
We finally have the Silver Birch video up, and you can find it to the right here. I'm have trouble getting just it and not a stream up, so the only video that is our retreat is the top one. If you want to see a ton of new videos go here.
We had a great Growth Night last night, talking about busyness, singing some great songs, and the high schoolers I know had some good discussion in their small groups on dating. One of the highlights for me was that our decade old projector, which I was planning on begging consistory to be replaced TONIGHT, officially died last night. Hopefully that means they will certainly let us get a new one, and soon.
Here are the songs from last night (since I always get asked)
Not to Us: Chris Tomlin
Blessed Be The Name: Matt Redman
Days of Elijah: Robin Mark
Mighty to Save: Hillsong United
Automatic: Stellar Kart
I am Free: Newsboys (but that's when the projector died)

And now to meat on a stick. The HS leaders and myself enjoyed an amazing (and manly) dinner at Sabor on Friday night. I mean, what could be better then eating meat off a giant sword! Well, eating BACON wrapped meat of a giant sword (oh wait, they had that too!). Did I mention this was manly? How it works is you get a two sided card (red/green), and when you flip it to green guys with giant pieces of meat on a saber (12 types in all) come to your table and give you as much as you want. Steak (like 5-6 cuts), chicken, lamb and pork. The garlic steak was the best, although the fillet mignon (I think Ben had 12), were quite good. Not only was it great food, but a fun time of fellowship as well.

Stellar Kart: May 1st

I'm excited that on Friday, May 1st the band Stellar Kart will be performing in Green Bay. Stellar Kart has been one of my favorite Christian bands for a few years, and I've had the joy of seeing them in concert multiple times, and they are simply crazy live. If your wondering "who in the world is Stellar Kart" well, among their many songs is a little song called Automatic, which many of you have come to be obsessed with (it was the Silver Birch theme song this year). I would love if we could take a group to their concert, so save the date and be waiting for more info.

Youth Sunday 09: You did it!!!

Wow! That's about all I have to say. We asked a ton of you all today. We basically laid out a "mega church" type service, and expected a bunch of middle schoolers and high schoolers to do it, do it right, and lead a service full of meaning. The videos, orchestra, messages, readings, prayers, songs, junior choir, everything was just so well done. Not only that, this service didn't commit the traditional youth service crime of turning into a talent show. It was truly a worship service, focused on praising God, learning from scripture, and being charged up to serve God in our daily life.

And my hat totally off to our junior class for crafting such a great, scripturally based, easily understandable yet deep, relevant, and applicable message. I'm not kidding when I say it was seminary quality work, and that's amazing to say about high school juniors.

So, thank you to all the students who put in ridiculous amounts of hours to make this such a wonderful service. Big, mega, massive thanks to the adults who made this all possible, especially Julie Ver Velde (orchestra conductor), Dan Oppeneer (vocal leader), Roland Schwarz (lead guitar), Kelly Lee (Piano), Shelly Kaat (junior choir), Todd Dolfin (sound), Matt Lee (media), Ben Dolfin (greeters), and Mel Ten Pas (logistics). And, of course, all the leaders and parents who encouraged us all in this endeavor. Again, thanks to everyone for using their God given talents to be such a blessing to our congregation this morning.

Youth Sunday Set List
Jesus Messiah Chris Tomlin
Days of Elijah Robin Mark
Automatic Stellar Kart
Mighty to Save Hillsong United

T-shirts

The new Youth Ministry shirts have arrived! If you go to Oostburg you probably have received yours by now. For everyone else they have been put in either your or your parents' box at church. If you still want a shirt we are currently sold out, but have an emergency shipment flying in on Friday. For the two of you who have not received yours, but ordered them on time, you will receive yours through the re-order by Friday. They will be placed in your box when I get them. If all goes as promised everyone will have their shirts on Sunday.

For more info on Youth Sunday please scroll down to the previous entry.

Super Bowl and other stuff

I have to say that was actually a perfect Super Bowl on Sunday. 3 1/2 quarters of absolutely boring football, allowing everyone to talk, watch commercials, and have fun, followed by about 6 minutes of the most intense and awesome football I've ever seen, which is about my attention span so it was perfect. Despite the loss I think Kurt Warner (Northern Iowa grad baby!) had such a great game leading his team from behind and putting up huge numbers that his spot in the Hall of Fame is basically assured. I mean come on, the guy took the Rams AND the Cardinals to Super Bowls. That's gotta be enough.
We had a great HS party at our house, with over 30 kids taking over. When people ask me how the party went I've pretty much been responding: "well, my wife is currently formulating house rules that will now be posted all over." Apparently she didn't appreciate the indoor snow ball fight (who would have thought?). Overall, minimal damage done to the house (a chair was sacrificed, but that's a normal Super Bowl part happening) and a lot of fun had by all.

Otherwise, just a boring week around here. Wish I had something to do.... Oh that's right, it's Youth Sunday week! Well, we're actually pretty set to go, believe it or not. Here are some Youth Sunday reminders. This info was sent home with the students on Sunday on a pink sheet, so you should have it.
Sunday practice/arrival times:
Orchestra and vocalists: be ready to go at 7:45 Julie VV Atomic Clock time in the sanctuary.
Junior class (speakers and message givers): Be in sanctuary by 8:15 for mic checks.
Worship leaders (Erin and Alyssa): Sanctuary at 8:30, and try to be happy about it!
Ushers (Tony, Robby, and Brandon): Meet Ben in Narthex at 8:30
Greeters (Hailee, Sara, Erin, and Alyssa): Meet Andy in Narthex at 8:30
Junior choir (middle schoolers): Meet in OLD choir room at 8:40