The last few days...make yourself heard!

The last few days around here have certainly be a whirl wind. A lot of what has happened is very unfortunate, but I believe God always has a plan. I'm starting to believe that some really good things may even come out of this. There are a lot of rumors going around, and many are simply that. The reality is that no final decescion has been made by us or the consistory at this point. For the moment we are all kinda in limbo.

I do want to thank everyone for all the love and support that has been poured out the last 48 hours. Between phone calls, emails, and knocks on our door (not to mention the display outside my office) well over 100 people have very vocally expressed their support for our ministry. We have felt so loved, and realize that God has used us to make a real difference here. We know there is a huge amount of support for the youth ministry at HRC, and that makes us excited for the future of this congregation. A lot of people have asked "what can we do?" One place to start is to leave comments here about how the youth ministry (not me, but our ministry) has positively impacted you and/or your family. I think that will help people to see that what we are doing here is really making a difference. Thanks again for the love and kindness you have and continue to show our family. It has meant so much.

This week at BLAST

Hopefully I'll have a chance to do some more indepth blogging later, but for now you'll have to settle for this.

Wednesday: Our middle school ministry will be hosting Senior Appreciation night from 6-8pm in the sanctuary. Please be on time and bring your dish. 6th graders are asked to bring a main course, 7th graders a side dish, and 8th graders a dessert. We would love if each dish could serve 8-12 people. This is a very fun night and a great way to give back to our congregation's seniors.

Saturday: Will be our high school service day in Sheboygan. We will be partnering with other groups to help rehab a house. If you have signed up we need you to meet at church at 7:30am. We will return at 4pm.

Sunday: High school youth group will be starting a series on inequality called The World I Never Knew and playing a couple of high energy games. Hope to see you there.

Next Saturday, May 2nd: We will have a high school work group working on two homes of members of our congregation. We will meet at church at 9am and be back by 1pm.

Schedule junk and a story

It is really WAY to nice to be stuck in my office, so I'm about to head out and enjoy the amazing day. I hope this stuff is pretty much here to stay. I also added a link below for Support God Ministries, a ministry started by some students at Oostburg High School. It's awesome to see young people being very proactive about expressing their faith to others. A few quick things for today.

Schedule stuff:

High School PLEASE check your calendars for Saturday April 25th and Saturday May 3rd before coming to church Sunday night. We have the Rebuilding Together workday in Sheboygan April 25th and a possible mission opportunity here in town on May 3rd, and we really need to see what kind of groups we would have.

Middle School: Reminder that next Wednesday, April 22nd, you are hosting Senior Appreciation Night, and will be meeting from 6:00-8:00 in the fellowship hall. To help us provide a nice meal cheaply we are asking 6th graders to bring a main course, 7th graders a side dish, and 8th graders a dessert. If you cannot be there that night we would still really appreciate your food. We need each dish to serve 8-12 people and they need to arrive no later then 6:00pm to the kitchen.

I totally had one of those "we're not in Kansas anymore" moments last night. We're in a series called Old School Good Guys, and we're looking at different people from the Old Testament that we can learn practical things about how to live a life of God from. Last night we talked about Abraham, and looked at his willingness to sacrifice Issac (who he had waited until age 100 to have) for God. Now, I pretty much took for granted the audience had heard the story before, so I didn't feel the need to warn them that the outcome was good in the end (as Moses does in writing the story). Well, I of course forgot that about 1/2 our crowd is un-churched, and the looks of horror of their faces were priceless. I think they really though God was going to have Abraham kill his little son. It was just a cool sight to see students engaging in a Bible story for the first time, and really getting something out of it.

Easter at HRC

We are in Easter gear right now at HRC (and we're all surprisingly ready for it). Our day starts at 7:00am with our sunrise service, which is hosted and led by our youth ministry. It will feature a blend of contemporary and traditional music and a special message from Scot Dykstra. Scot grew up at HRC and is currently in college, where he is active in campus ministry and had the opportunity to do mission work in Brazil this past summer. Scot is a great and moving speaker and I am very excited to hear his Easter thoughts. Everyone is invited and encouraged to attend. A great (and free!) breakfast will be served immediately following the service. At 9:00am we will have our big worship service in the sanctuary, featuring lots of great music, a guest testimonial speaker, and Pastor Steve bringing the message. We hope everyone, whether you attend here every week or you're just part of our youth ministry, will join with us on Sunday as we celebrate the resurrection.

Awards Night 2009

We had a really fun night last night as we celebrated our first ever High School Youth Ministry Awards Night. Thanks to everybody for making it such an awesome night. We laughed a lot and heard many a crazy story. I also hope everyone felt very appreciated by us as a staff, because you really are. We love all the students in our ministry and are constantly impressed by your love and passion for God. I huge thanks to the leaders for designing and pulling off this night. They did basically everything on their own and did an amazing job.
Since so many awards were inside jokes that would take years to explain here the only award winners I'll put up are those of our BLAST awards (who received the most annoyingly loud BLAST noise makers, which I'm sure will appear on every youth trip from now on). These awards were voted on by the students, who took their role seriously. They were given to the individuals who the students believed best lived out the five purposes of our ministry.

Believing (evangelism): Erin Huenink
Loving (fellowship): Alyssa Crynock
Adoring (worshp): Robbie DeGroff and Erin Huenink
Serving (serving/ministry): Vanessa VanderWeele, Jake Rauwerdink, Jolene Mentink, and Kathryn Ver Velde
Teaching: Becky Kappers

Awards Night and Holy Week Happenings

This Sunday starting at 5:00pm in the fellowship hall will be our first ever high school youth ministry Awards Night. This should be a very fun night in which we will give out awards running the gamut from incredibly off the wall to important and serious. We will also be honoring our seniors and giving them a very VERY special gift brought all the way back from my California. We encourage everyone to dress in the style of their favorite decade (excluding our current one). However, we value you being here more then dressing up, so if dressing up is not your think wear whatever and be here. A bunch of munchies and the like will be served.

There will be a lot of special things going on at our church this coming week as we celebrate Easter. Of particular note is that our middle school ministry will meet as normal, 6:30-8:00 on Wednesday night. On Sunday morning at 7:00am our high school ministry will host the annual Sunrise Service in the fellowship hall, to which our entire community is invited. The service will feature a blend of contemporary and traditional Easter songs led by our students, a message from Scot Dykstra, and a complimentary breakfast served afterwards. We would like as many high school students to be there as possible to help serve and such.