MS Dolfin Cabin 09: Part 3

Our third entry on our middle school retreat last weekend. Scroll down to start at the beginning. You can checkout over 100 photos from the trip in the gallery to the right. Enjoy!


Saturday evening:
After dinner everyone geared up for one of our biggest and craziest games: the Alka Seltzer Water War. We split the group into two giant team, and gave each player a duct tape arm band with an alka seltzer tablet stuck in. Each team then received a whole bunch of small water guns and a tub of water balloons. The goal was two-fold: to get the other team's players out by making their tablets fizz, and to capture the other team's flag. This was all with the high schoolers and myself running around with some serious water guns getting out anyone we felt like. It was a fun and crazy game to be sure. After the water war we figured we had a pretty worn out group, so we gave everyone some free time to play board games, video games, and to just hangout. This also gave our worship team a chance to get very ready for our second worship session.


We opened our session with a little game of thaw out the T-shirt, which was dominated by the sixth graders (although the were accused of cheating, they did remain within the rules). Worship then opened with The Climb by Miley Cyrus before launching into our praise songs. Thanks to a lot of work by Todd and David we were able to have a full sound and lighting set-up this year, in addition to our screen and projector. This brought a whole new level of excitement to worship for our students. Our theme for this session was Made to be Sheep, and our "drama" was a crazy gameshow called That Makes me Smile, hosted by David and Erin. For this game different students came up and had to pick a number off the wall that corresponded to something they either had to do or would win. The first people had to do such things such as get covered in peanut butter and jelly, eat raw spam (which was sooooo nasty I almost lost it myself), and eat cold canned spinach (which I think was packaged like 9 years ago). The last person then had the help of a leader to pick, and successfully picked two good things (candy and a wal-mart gift card). The point of the drama was to show that while we might not want to be seen as sheep, wanting to be a cooler animal, being sheep means we don't have to go through life alone, but we have God through prayer and the Bible to help make good decisions for us. We then talked in the message about how God protects and guides his sheep with his staff (aka his giant big wacka-ma-jigy stick), is the good Shepperd willing to die on the cross for us, and will go after even one out of 100 who is lost. What a great thing that God made us to be his sheep!

Session 2 set list:
The Climb: Miley Cyrus
We Shine: Fee
Cartoon Song: Chris Rice
The Stand: Hillsong United
No Sacrifice: Jason Upton
With Everything: Hillsong United
Take it All: Hillsong United
After worship we had a camp fire and then headed in for our comedy coffee shop. We were blessed with the comedic stylings of Erin and David (who will ever forget the banana cream pie song), plus some great interactive improv showcasing some hilarious middle schoolers. We also pulled up the leaders and the Dolfin family to showcase their performance abilities. I laughed so hard the whole night, so thanks to everyone that was willing to have some great clean fun.

MS Dolfin Cabin: Part 2

Part 2 in our continuing series on our Dolfin Cabin retreat this past weekend

Saturday:
Sometimes you wonder if kids ever really follow your lead. Well, Saturday morning I woke up wide awake around 6:15 and figured I'd get up, shower, and start working on things for the day (even though breakfast was not until 9). Well, apparently my getting up woke up other boys, starting a chain reaction that had every boy up and ready by like 7am. The one time they follow my lead is in getting up early! Who knew they'd follow me anywhere. Anyway, the chain reaction followed to the girls, so for the first time in retreat history we actually moved breakfast FORWARD to accommodate our awakened party (I'm going to guess the lure of the lake probably had something to do with all this).

We started our morning with our small groups and then had a Bible scavenger hunt, in which groups looked up verses that would lead them to certain locations. Massive cheating occurred (kinda a tradition around here), leading to the famed phrase of the weekend "shenanigans by Jason." (all you need to know is Erin came up with that). Next we moved to our Made sand building competition. All the groups did a fantastic job showing our theme in the sand, but our winner was truly awesome (see above). You can see all the designs in the photo gallery to the right. Soon it was time for that which is looked forward to for a year: lake free time. Students were able to go jet skiing, use the paddle boat and canoe, jump on the water trampoline, swim, and tube behind the all new 350 horsepower boat. We had a little rain during this time, but it was tolerable. Following free time it was time for our biggest trick compeitions, which were absolutely dominated by Jesse and Jana's group. Jesse single handedly won 4 of 5 events, which was mega impressive!

Alright, that's half of Saturday. I'll give you more later, but for now this picture can be a preview of what comes next:

MS Dolfin Cabin: Part 1

Wow! We survived our massive Dolfin Cabin retreat this past weekend. Well, except many of us definitely left our voices there (including yours truly). As is our tradition we'll spend the next few days walking you all through the many things that happened this weekend. We're also getting the first batch of 75 pictures up, and they'll be at the right shortly. Enjoy.

Friday: My day started waaay before it did for our middle schoolers, as myself and our crew of high school student leaders left HRC at 9am to begin setting up and starting rehearsals. This retreat has evolved to the point where we pretty much remodel the garage for the weekend, changing it into a sophisticated worship center, complete with full lighting and sound systems, an industrial smoke machine, a full themed set, a screen a projector, seating, various props, and more. Thanks to Todd and David much of the sound and lighting work was all done for us, we just had to finish it off and get our set already. Then it was time for several hours of rehearsals, fine tuning our worship songs, preparing dramas, and working out the details of all the electronics. By dinner time our team was able to head to Lakewood for a relaxing dinner, before heading back for our personal devotional time and final preparations. At 9:00pm the bus with all our middle schoolers and leaders arrived. God blessed us by giving us great unloading weather, with the sky opening up literally as soon as the last person got inside. As soon as we unloaded we had our first worship session. We opened with a skit explaining the rules of the weekend, and then had our opening song This is Me from the movie Camp Rock. We have recently made this move to opening with positive secular songs that go with the theme of the message because they resonate so well with non-church students. They may have never heard a praise song, but at least they'll have one song they know. These songs are only performed, with the audience not singing a long.

Our opening drama was entitled "I wanna be..." Our high schoolers went through a whole bunch of things teens want to be made into, from athletes, to brainiacs, to just being "normal." This set up our message perfectly, which was about what God made us to be. We talked about how God made everyone of us to be something special. Instead of constantly wanting to be want we want to be, we have to be willing to be who God made us to be. To do this we need to be MOLDABLE like CLAY, allowing God to use us in whatever way God needs to in order to make the world better. When everyone came in they were asked to fill out a nametag with something they want to be Made into. As the message finished we launched into With Everything, during which we encouraged the students to bring their nametags up as a symbol of giving up what they want to be moldable for God. We then covered them up with paint to show that we were truly willing for God to mold us. We then finished off our worship set with a couple of praise songs, before launching into our first game of the weekend.

We had one girl and one guy come up, and covered their face in peanut butter. Teams then had to best show the Made theme on their peanuty covered face using goldfish crackers. Congrats to the girls on winning, and earning first tubing rights for the weekend. After the game it was time for everyone to head to bed for a Saturday jam packed with exciting stuff.
Worship session 1 set:
Opener: This is Me: Demi Lovato and Joe Jonas (Camp Rock Soundtrack)
There is no One like you: David Crowder Band
We Shine: Fee
Automatic: Stellar Kart
Mighty to Save: Hillsong United
With Everything: Hillsong United
Take it All: Hillsong United

It's finally here!!!

After many months of planning and one re-schedule Middle School Dolfin's Cabin 2009 is finally here. Students are asked to be at HRC for a 6pm departure on Friday. We will be returning at 8pm on Sunday. The bus will then head straight to the cabin, so please have eaten before we leave (no food is allowed on the bus). The bus will be returning to HRC at 8pm on Sunday. We have tons of exciting games and activities planned, not to mention action packed worship experiences. Plus, there are all the fun water activities to choose from during your free time (tubing, jet ski's, row boats, canoes, swimming, the big giant inflatable thingy, and more). If you have not yet turned in the revised release form that was sent out two weeks ago please make sure to bring that with you on Friday. If you have misplaced it please either pick one up from the church office or come early on Friday with a parent to fill it out. Otherwise, look forward to seeing everyone on Friday night!

And we're done!

Well we did it. An amazing week as PDYM has come to a conclusion, and it was nothing short of an amazing and inspiring week. Frankly, I'm too tired to write anything of great substance, plus I have the issue of a Sunday sermon to think about, but just know that we have all grow hugely from being out here and will have a ton to share in the coming weeks and months. Here's a nice group picture taken in front of one of the Saddleback youth building waterfalls. If you want to checkout more of the most ridiculous youth ministry building, the Refinery, you can go here. Thanks so much to everyone who has supported us with this trip, and we'll see some of you tomorrow when we get back to town.

Kingdom Assignment Project

Our Youth Ministry in California has been given a project to do something for other people. The money we make from this will go to help us buy Bibles for children. This is how it works. You can donate money by emailing andy Baker at andyhinghamrca@yahoo.com with the amount of money you wish to donate. If we raise $500 Andy baker will dye his hair pink. If we raise $600 David Dolfin will have his head shaved. If we raise $750 Jake Rauwerdink will shave his head. If we raise $800 Dan Oppeneer will shave his head. Brandon Jentink will have his head shaved at $1000. So you can e-mail Andy at andyhinghamrca@yahoo.com and tell him how much you wish to donate. Our students are also making bracelets for this projects this afternoon as well.

Live from Cali

Wow. I think that's the way to some out our experiences out here in California so far. The messages from Doug Field's have been fantastic, as well as very challenging. Doug started Tuesday evening by challenging everyone to let God surprise them with what he is calling them to do in their life. Wednesday he presented the five purposes of ministry to the students, which really got our students into some great conversation. He then expanded on the purposes of fellowship and discipleship in later sessions. In the afternoon students could choose from a bunch of different workshops, which I skipped to work on my sermon for Sunday (I'm horrible, I know).

Last night was also an amazing worship experience. The place was just electric. Students were just screaming their praises to God with all they had, and it almost literally started shaking the room. I hear so often about how this generation is going to be the end to the church. They don't care about God, don't know how to worship, don't have any passion, etc. In fact, our own denominational magazine (soon to be former) just said our denomination basically has no hope of survival. If you were in that room last night you would no that's all a bunch of hogwash. I heard and saw nearly 600 young people just pouring out their love. I've seen teenagers express over and over again their desire to make a huge difference for God's glory. The future of the church is more then fine, and indeed I see so many students already being the church (including those we have here).

Well, time to get going. I'll try to update you more later.

Yes, you are paying me for this!

Well, despite a tad bit of a scary situation the eight of us have arrived in the OC and are definitely enjoying the amazing weather out here. We were not exactly happy when we found out that one of our students had been bumped onto another flight leaving Milwaukee yesterday, but fortunately we were able to fight, kick, and scream enough to get them onboard (although it was a nerve racking few hours and we may have gotten the airline employee we talked into breaking the rules for us fired, but hey, it ended up fine for us!). After getting in last night our girls, who were mocked for this in my youth group message Sunday, HAD to go to Target to get beauty supplies. So, I was nice and ran them there right before it closed. However, in their combined blond wisdom they left their bag of goodies at the store, making me go back and retrieve it this morning. What a great start!

Today we took in the beauty of Laguna Beach, and the weather was PERFECT! It was great to take in the beach and just spend some time hanging with each other. Now we are getting ready to head to Saddleback Church for the beginning of the Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Student Leadership Conference. I am really excited to get going tonight, especially for the students to experience the worship and challenging messages I know are coming their way. Stay tuned for more updates throughout the week as we worship and grow together as God's disciples.

A great weekend and off we go

Wow! What a big weekend we just go through. On Saturday we hosted the Badgerland Show Ski team here in Hingham, with our California trip group heading up concessions and a brat fry for it. Since this was the first time we've done this we didn't know what to expect, but my goal was to make around $1,000 from the food. Well, three emergency trips to the store later we brought in nearly $2,800! This knocks of virtually all of our remaining California trip costs. Thanks to all those who worked hard on this, as well as everyone who attended and spread the word. I think the population of Hingham at least quadrupled Saturday, and all in all it was a fun day.

Sunday I continued our Simplify Your Life series in Big Church, which is a series that if it is challenging no one else it is certainly challenging me. We have been looking at how we can start rooting out the chaos and clutter of our life to make room for God to make us great. This week we talked about the importance of a devotional life. If we believe that God created the heaven and Earth in all their majesty, rescued the Israelites from captivity by parting the waters, helped a little shepherd boy defeat a giant, repeatedly won unwinanble battles, and came to earth to save us from our sins. With that resume isn't it at least worth consider the path for living God lays out for us in scripture? Don't you think there is a pretty good chance that God's path for life is just a tad bit better to follow then our human ones? We then talked about the importance of humility, prayer, rooting ourselves in scripture, and allowing God to use us to our fullest.


Sunday night we continued our God's Extreme Make-Over series with a drama in which we made Dan and Matt look real pretty. We talked about how God's Extreme Makeover is an inside job: God wants to change our hearts and minds so that what we do externally makes a difference in the world. We then headed out to the monster slip and slide at the Mullikin's for a fun night in which I finally did not run into that tree! Pictures of the night can be found to the right.

Today I leave with Dan and six upperclassmen for the Purpose Driven Student Leadership Conference at Saddleback Church in Lake Forest, CA. I really hope this is a week that our students not only have fun, but are really trained, pushed, and challenged to come home and do ministry with their lives. Please pray for our group this week as we encounter God through this conference.

What's all coming up...

While I think it's pretty traditional to really scale back your youth ministry during the summer that's not really the case around here. And over the next week we have sooooo much stuff for everyone to get involved with.

The middle school Bible study has already met this week, and today we continue our Jesus by the Water series from 1-2:30 at the Baker's. We will be talking of Jesus filling the Disciples nets and what that means for us. We're also going to play a couple of wild and crazy outside games, as well as just having some time to hangout and enjoy the Wii and all the indoor games we have. On Thursday we have a group of Middle Schoolers that will be heading to Six Flags for the day, which I know I am very excited about. We will be meeting at church at 7:00am and returning around 10pm.

On Saturday we have teamed up with the Badgerland Show Ski Team to offer a night of great entertainment. Starting at 5:30 we will be selling brats and other items at the Hingham ballpark and at the end of Lake Dr., which will be the main viewing area for the show. Then at 6:30 this award winning ski team will be performing. The cost of the show is free and all proceeds from the brat fry go to benefit students from our youth ministry that will be attending the Student Leadership Conference at Saddleback Church in California next week. The only youth that need to help with this are those going on that trip. We do encourage everyone else to come out as it should be a very great night of entertainment.

On Monday myself, Dan O, and six students will board an airplane for California to participate in the annual Purpose Driven Youth Ministry Student Leadership Conference at Saddleback Church. Students were selected via an admissions because this is not for everyone. This conference is designed to take those who already have a saving relationship with Christ, a solid Biblical knowledge, and a strong devotional life to the next level: being leaders for Christ. I know this conference will really stretch our students and pray that God does some amazing things in them throughout the week. You can checkout the conference here.

Thanks for last week, and looking forward

First, thanks to everybody for how much you rallied around everyone last week. I've heard so many stories of students being their for each other, for the family, and just the whole community, and I am so proud of everyone. We had a great turnout for our special youth service Sunday night (I won't say a number as it probably hugely violated fire code)and everyone's sharing was very appreciated. Taylor obviously had a major impact on many of your lives in a good way. Some of the maturity that came through in the sharing just made me cry, and I'm pretty sure I'll never forget Justin Mentink getting up and sharing scripture with us (I'm pretty sure he could take over my job tomorrow!). There is just simply a lot of deep Christian love in this group, and for that I could not be more thankful.

We are on a bit of a youth ministry hiatus this week because of celebrating the Fourth. If you're looking for some spiritual nourishment on this holiday weekend I look forward to seeing you Sunday morning in "Big Church." I will be starting a 3 week series, Simplify Life, in which we're looking at how we can handle all the busyness of our lives (pretty relevant for all teens and parents of teens if you ask me).
We will be fully back in action next week as the special middle school Bible study meets Tuesday at 1pm at Diane's, MS Jesus by the Water meets at my house at 1pm on Wednesday, and those Middle schoolers who signed up go to Six Flags on Thursday. For High School, we will be having our annual Slip and Slide on Sunday, July 12th. We will meet and return to the church (5:30-7:00).