Start to our High School Year

We had a great start to our fall high school season last night as we kicked of our Labels series and had a crazy mattress race. Teams of 6-7 students had to race about 2/3 of a mile away from the church wile carying mattresses AND being chased by one of our four hunters. The racers made mince meat of the hunters this year, but it was still a fun event.

When we returned to church we launched our Labels series with a great and hilarious video our team put together. You can find it on the video bar to the right of this post, or go here. We talked about the labeling we are constantly doing to people. We see or meet someone and right away we're slapping a label on them. Cool, fat, nerd, jock, etc. We may not know them at all, or only know them a little, but we make a total judgement call on who they really all based on very little. When we think of someone as simply a label we really miss who they truly all. This happens not only all the time in our schools, but in the church as well. A recent study showed that 88% of Americans view church as a judgmental place. 88%!!! Thats really sickening if you ask me. The institution founded by Jesus, who suffered and died on the cross so we would NOT have to be judged guilty of our sins, is roundly regarded as a place of judgment. Oh how far from the path of Christ we have wondered! We talked about how we know this to be the case even in our own church. Some in the older generation are quick to slap the label of "disrespectful" on the younger generation because of the way they dress and the type of worship music they prefer, while the younger generation is quick to reject all "old people" (they're term, not mine, so spare me the emails please!) as being outdated, out of touch, and not worth much. Both views are totally wrong, and are prime examples of labeling. We judge without really knowing someone's true heart. My favorite example of Jesus' rejection of labeling and judging comes from the Parable of the Good Samaritan, found in Luke 10. There Jesus is asked "who is my neighbor," which really meant "who do I have to treat with respect, and who can I just label as a sinner and treat like total garbage." To respond Jesus tells this story of how a Jewish man lay beaten on the side of the road and two Jewish religious leaders both walked by, saw him, and chose not to help him. However, a Samaritan man, chooses to go above and beyond to nurse the man to a health. Samaritans were the sworn enemy of the Jews, with Jews believing that even getting dust on your feet that had also touched a Samaritan was sinful, so deep was the hate. Jesus sums it all up by saying that everyone is our neighbor. No one deserves to simply be labeled, judged, and rejected, because we are all God's handywork. To simplify someone down to a label is really to say "oh great work on THAT person God! You really screwed that one up!" We wrapped up with a couple of video clips that taught us that we need to 1) stop the judging and 2) realize that all people are God's handywork.

Middle School Off and Running

Had a very awesome night with our middle school ministry this week. Opened with a couple of quick crazy games, before getting a couple of volunteers to lick peanut butter off Plexiglas. Opened our ReFuel series with a hilarious intro video we put together with the help of Kevin and David Dolfin. Sweet and funny stuff. You can find the video to the right of this post.

Our focus tonight was on explaining that a devotional life with God is not what you think. I spoke about how I personally am always trying to have caffeine fuel me. It works a lot of the time, but inevitably caffeine and sugar will take you from a really awesome high to a sudden and dramatic crash. Isn't the same way in life? We try to fill our lives with happiness through academic and athletic successes, material possessions, friendships, relationships, pride, etc. Those things fill us for awhile, but eventually we crash. The fuel we need to be constantly filling up with is God. Our series theme verse says this: May you experience the love of Christ, though it is too great to understand fully. Then you will be made complete with all the fullness of life and power that comes from God (Ephesians 3:19). What an awesome promise: a love so amazing that we can't even imagine that sort of awesomeness. That just blows me away. That's EXACTLY the sort of thing I want in my life!!!
The problem is that we think a devotional life with God has to be complicated. We have to spend like 2 hours reading scripture, read through the whole Bible in a year, memorize a million verses, etc. But thats not what it's about. ReFueling/connecting with God is about coming to God (Matthew 11:28-29), following God (John 8:12), and being with God (John 14:3). We come to God in prayer, follow God's Word (the Bible), and find some quite time in our crazy lives to just be in God's presence. It's not overly complicated, and it does not have to be. If we want to really live life on full, experiencing life in the most awesome way possible, we simply need to make little but powerful connections with God daily.

Fall is Almost Here!

Alright, I can here the collective groan of most students with that comment, but the fact is school for most of our students starts next week, and many students have all ready been practicing for soccer (which already has like 6 games in), football, cross country, and volleyball. It seems weird to be going into "kick-off" season when we really did not take any sort of a ministry break this summer. I really had an awesome summer really getting to connect and hangout with our high school students, as well as teach through the Beatitudes in our Happy series. It was also great having Middle Schoolers over at our house all summer, and our Hot August Nights events have been a huge success (both in terms of numbers and the fun we have had). Nonetheless, it is time to return to our somewhat normally scheduled programming. Because of how full the youth room was getting last year, and the record numbers we have seen all summer, we are undergoing our second youth room remodel in as many years. Starting today we will be ripping out cabinets, moving the soda machine and fridge, and taking out the sink. In their place will be an additional two sections of stadium seating. This will allow us to seat 50 in seats and another 15 or so on the floor if needed. With the way our middle school attendance has been this is a very needed change.

If you have students in our ministry you will soon be receiving a packet with all the information you should need for the year, including your group's schedule. Schedules can also be found on this website to the right and on the HRC site. I am so excited about all of the things we have planned for this year. Because of weather and other things that tend to come up we did not post all of the games/activities for this year, except where necessary. We will still have all the fun stuff you know and love, you'll just have to wait tell you get there to discover what is up. I also feel we have some great things planned teaching wise for this fall, and honestly I'm kinda chomping at the bit to get started. So, don't get too depressed about school and we'll see you here real soon.

HS Retreats, pics, and updates

Wow! It's really been a crazy summer around here. I took some time this morning to put up some pictures from the MS and HS retreats to the Dolfin Cabin. Thanks to Miranda and Hailee for being the photographers for their respective groups.

We just got back from our HS retreat to Dolfin's Cabin yesterday. On my calendar I had written this down as a "mini-retreat," but we ended up having 26 students able to join us for a weekend on the lake. We did a ton of tubing, and let me tell you it was some intense stuff! Never seen so many people jumping all over the place. Also were able to do a lot of swimming, jet ski stuff, and more. Plus, there was plenty of time to just relax, hangout, and be goofs together. We also had three sessions this weekend on our theme of Crossroads, based on Jeremiah 6:16: This is what the Lord says: “Stand at the crossroads and look; ask for the ancient paths, ask where the good way is, and walk in it, and you will find rest for your souls”. We talked about how there are many times in our lives where we come to a Crossroads moment, a moment where we have to chose to either follow God's path or the world's. We often know that we are to follow God's ways, and indeed know what that way looks like (i.e. we know the difference btw. right and wrong), but we choose the wrong way because it is easier. This weekend we looked at why it is we chose the worlds' way so often at these crossroads. Often it is because of roadblocks that make it hard to follow God's path. We looked at three of these roadblocks: our past, our conflicts, and our fears, and talked about how we need to stop letting those stop us from living the life God wants us to live.

Just some quick summer updates

Hey, it's a busy week around here with over 125 kids in VBS, but I wanted to take a moment and just put some quick updates up about our summer.

Kentucky Pictures: In the next 24 hours a KY image gallery should appear to the right. To see full size images simply click on any picture. Pictures are hosted by Picasa, and they allow you to purchase pics from a number of vendors (including Walgreens, which will send them to a local store and thusly no shipping charge). BLAST does not endorse nor profit from any of these vendors, this is simply an option we are able to offer.

Lake Day: We had an amazing lake day for middle school and high school last Wednesday. Nearly 60 middle schoolers were able to participate (it was an outreach event for that ministry), as well as 20 high schoolers (we used it as a community building event for them). Special thanks to Damon Huibregtse for the use of his lake and waterslide, and to Greg Dirkse for the use of his amazing boat.

Middle School Dolfin's Cabin: We had nearly 40 students for an amazing weekend focused on building the Heart of a Champion. The weather really cooperated, meaning we were able to fit in all our great lake activities, including tubing, jet skiis, swimming, the water trampoline, and more. We also had some great activities, including our now famous Woodchipper game. God really moved over the course of the weekend, with 15 students accepting Christ for the first time and many more making some awesome new commitments. Thanks to Todd and Laura Dolfin, as well as our huge team of adult and high school volunteers, for making the weekend such a huge success.

Kentucky mission trip: Wed and Thr

God continues to do amazing things here in Jackson County. Our shed building team has everything all enclosed and is putting the finishing touches on as I write. We plan to hold a dedication in memory of Taylor VanderWeele later tonight. The poor team at the house continues to be plagued by difficulties. Yesterday they simply checked above the ceiling (they were told it was "all good," but thought smart to check anyway), and were summarily bathed in coal dust that had gathered up there from the coal burning stove days. They thusly worked overtime for the second straight day trying to get to a good place. While they may not make it to their goal they have been a massive help and have set the stage very well for the next work group. They have really dealt with some tough set backs and conditions, yet have stayed upbeat and positive because they know they are really making a difference. My hat is really off to that crew.

The daycamp is getting close to wrapping as I write. Not only will we wrap our time with them at 3pm today, but it is also the last daycamp of the summer (many have come for three weeks now). Jackson County School District ended up with only around 30 some days of summer vacation this year due to having over 30 snow days this winter. So, JCM had to cram all their summer programs into one month (which is why there is not only our daycamp this week, but a horse camp, drama camp, and an evening VBS run by a group staying at JCM). There have been some awesome connections made between our students and the daycampers, and some hopefully eternal seeds have been planted in hearts.

Last night we got to hear from Denny Pehrman, the youth chaplain from JCM. He was INCREDIBLE! He shared stories of heartbreak and triumph. Jackson County Schools have had over 30 teen deaths related to drug overdoses and suicides over the past 8 years. In the midst of that Denny has probably saved many times that number of lives, as well as 100's of souls. He challenged out students to move from being believers to being disciples who really act on their faith. It starts simply by reaching out and seeing what needs you can meet at school, in your home, at work, etc. The students were really moved by his message and made some great commitments afterwards.

One of those commitments involved one of the students from the Barnabas Home for at risk youth located at JCM (some are there because they are at risk, some because they have committed crimes). Our students went from being scared of them, to cautiously playing hoops with them, to befriending them. One of the students from the home is moving back home to a tough situation today. Our students wrote him a letter they had the JCM staff deliver to him to offer him guidance, prayers, and encouragement. In fact a basketball game yesterday turned into simply sitting down and talking about life and God. It has been awesome seeing our once scared students MINISTERING to these other kids!

Tomorrow we will have a free day, which will include a trip to Cumberland Falls (the "Niagara of the South" and the original KFC. Should be a nice end to an amazing trip.

KY Mission Trip Day 3

Morning y'all!
WE continue to have an amazing experience here in Jackson County, KY. On Tuesday our daycamp kicked off, with around 50 students attending. We must have done well, because today they all came back and some even brought new friends! Melissa did such a wonderful job planning everything before we got here, and it has run really well. Our students have been awesome teachers, role models, pool toys, and jungle gyms! They are really making a positive impact on the young people here.

Work crew #1 is building a shed in honor of Taylor VanderWeele and, as I speak, are to the point of raising the roof. They should finish tommorrow. Their adults have been really impressed by their work ethic, and they are building a great structure. They did have the joy of raising truses in a mega downpour, but otherwise the rain has done well avoiding them. They are in for two days of scorching heat, so pray for breezes and good hydration as they roof in 100+ temps.

Work crew #2 is working on rehabing a house, with their project being the bathroom. The have torn out EVERYTHING, and are now putting in a new appliances, floording, finishings, walls, etc. They have had quite the experience owing to the lack of coding in KY, which led to poor Jacob going into a crawl space that ended up being where the kitchen and I believe a bathroom had been empting into for decades (he politely requested NEVER to go in there again). Some of the pipes just simply dump to the outside, including a bathroom into a creek. Scott has certainly had his hands full plumbing, but they are getting much done and VASTLY improving the living conditions for the family.

Our team continues to mesh amazingly. It's an amazing community of adults and young people. They are being so unselfish and getting along with everyone, which is really awesome to watch. I'm off to film a roof raising (yes, film, not participate in. The joys of being in charge!) We'll update you all again soon. Blessings!

KY Mission Trip Days 1 and 2

Howdy! We have now been in Annville, KY for two days, and I think I can speak for basically everyone here when I say we are having a great time. We had a great bus ride down Saturday that seemed like it went really fast, even though we were on the bus over 12 hours. I was so awesome to see so many of the school, group, and grade barriers break down almost right away as everyone moved around, sat with different people, and filled out many an "interesting" mad lib.

Once we pulled of the interstate in KY the scenery got absolutely amazing. So many tall tree filled hills, Mt. streams, and winding roads. It was simply a breathtaking drive from the interstate to Jackson Cty. Ministries. Once here we started getting acclimated to the really large campus they have. All of our students are housed in a 2 story dorm (that sadly lacks AC, but it has not been terrible). The accommodations are certainly good enough, and indeed a marked improvement from sleeping on a school floor as we did in LA 2 years ago. Saturday night and Sunday our students got a lot of free time to take advantage of all the recreational opportunities here, including swimming, basketball in the AIR CONDITIONED gym, canoing and paddle boating, and "fishing." I say "fishing" because it is not exactly sporting in their pond as the catfish are so clumped against the shoreline you could probably walk on them for awhile. Needless to say many fish were caught (it's catch and release here). \

Sunday we also attending worship at the RCA church on JCM's campus. WE probably trippled their congregation. Thanks to Dan, Mal, and Kathryn for leading the singing, Mal and Dan for singing a special music, and Kathryn for playing the offertory (we got pressed into service because their music director was gone and nothing quite got lined up in her absence). They had a substitute pastor, who had retired a few years ago after serving the area for about 40 years. He had known Nick and Kathryn's grandparnets, as well as Becky's mom's entire family, so it was cool for them to talk with him after worship. We also had time for our own devotions last night, which are focusing on the hard sayings of Jesus.

This am both of our work crews have already taken off. One is building a shed and canoe storage unit in memory of Taylor VanderWeele (the VanderWeele family has donated the money to JCM for the project). The other is doing a rather complete rehab of a house in the community, starting with totally overhauling a bathroom. We had a lot of fun learning about KY plumbing codes yesterday (translation: they don't really have those down here), and hearing that until 8 years ago you sewage could simply run into the nearest body of water to your house. Note: never swim in KY! Our daycamp team got a great start yesterday and will continue their prep work all day today. The campers start arriving at 9am tomorrow (Tues).

The students and leaders have been amazing so far, and I'm exciting to see what today holds. I HOPE to post daily and to get some pictures up, so stayed tuned! One prayer request we do have is that the forecasted rain showers don't affect our work projects and daycare too much. We're working on some adjustments, but no rain would be the best!

Awards Night and other happenings

First, sometime this week check-out all the Youth Sunday pictures that should be posted to the right of this article.

This past Sunday our high school ministry celebrated its annual Awards Night. Every student won some sort of fun award decided upon by the leaders (such as best pantser, least ladylike, best death glare, and "best" big sister), we awarded the BLAST awards to students judged by their peers to best live out the values of BLAST, and the senior wills. Our leaders did a terrific job organizing and hosting the event, so mega hats off to them. I walked away from the night really blown away by not only the giftedness of these students, but their willingness to put them into action. As I said that night, how many churches does the Youth Sunday sermon morph into an eight part sermon series by the senior pastor? My guess is not to many. I am certainly going to miss the highly talented group of seniors we currently have, but I also some great classes coming up that will certainly try their best to take over their leadership role.
2010 BLAST Awards:
Believing (evangelism): Kathryn VerVelde
Loving (fellowship): Sara Crynock
Adoring (worship): Stephanie DeGroff
Serving (service and mission): Vanessa VanderWeele
Teaching (discipleship): Becky Kappers

This Wednesday night our middle schoolers started the evening building Bible smuggling boats out of various materials. They will finish these off next week before racing them down the Mill Pond/Onion River. Gotta admit, I'm very excited to see how that goes. This goes along with our current series, Underground Reality: Vietnam, in which we are looking at the persecuted church in that communist country. This week was also had a worship night, and one of the things I was really struck by was the number of non-HRC students we had serving in worship. All three of our lighting techs and two of our singers were not from HRC, which is really encouraging to me. It shows me a couple of cool things. First, there really seems to be no barrier between HRC and non-HRC students (translation: those who parents are members here and those who are not). They attend, interact, and serve as one body at BLAST. Second, it shows me that our non-HRC member students are willing and able to serve Christ in numerous ways. In reality, it's probably not even fair to talk about non-member and member students any more. They are all really members: they all attend, worship, learn, and serve God according to the gifts they've been given. To me that is a really awesome thing.
Worship set:
Rise and Sing: Steve Fee
Take It All; Hillsong United
Dancing Generation: Brandon Grissom
Mighty to Save: Hillsong United

A Busy Spring

Some day I am going to discover a non-busy time of the youth ministry year, but it has not quite happened yet. We have been having a really exciting Spring around here, and I'm pretty excited for a couple of things we having coming up soon. This past Sunday we had a very powerful ending to our High School Scarred series when we welcomed special guests Jill Rauwerdink and Erin Huenink. Jill shared about dealing with the hurt of losing both of her parents as a child, and Erin spoke about many of the really hurtfull things that occurred during her teen years. We all shed many tears, but we also really saw that even in the most traumatic and hurtfull of circumstances God is there to pull you out, as long as you are willing to ask. Jill and Erin are two of the most amazing, happy, outgoing, and fun people I know, and to think they went through all of that hurt in their life and can be as amazing as they are is just mind blowing. It is all because of God's continued love and presence in their lives. When we deal with hurt in our life I hope we too can turn it over to God. In all of this I am reminded of the words of Jesus: Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world
(John 16:33)

This week our middle school ministry will be hosting a cool game night, with some sweet prizes I might add, as we continue our Underground Reality: Vietnam series. Our High Schoolers will come together Sunday night for our 2nd annual Awards Night. This year the theme is Hollywood and all students are encouraged to dress as a favorite celebrity. Everyone will be receiving some sort of award, and seniors will be handing out their wills. Hope everyone can make it. I, on the other hand, continue my impatient waiting for my little son to make his appearance. If I'm not at one of our ministry times this week that's probably where I am. Ryan will be handeling things in my stead.

Have a very blessed week all!

What's happened/happening around here

First, it should NEVER snow on April 8th. EVER!

A big thank you to everyone who helped with our Easter Sunrise Service. We had well over 100 people in attendance for the service and breakfast. I pray everyone was moved to think about why it is that Easter Matters. Easter matters everyday because the empty tomb proves Jesus was exactly who he said he was, and who the scriptures had said was coming for 1,000 years: The Messiah, the savior of the world. Easter matters because the empty tomb shows Jesus' power. Only Jesus can die, descend into hell, conquer death and hell, and be resurrected to live eternally at the right of the Father. Easter matters because the empty tomb is permanent. No one needs to keep suffering and dying for us to receive eternal life, Jesus took care of it once and for all by suffering, dying, descending to hell, conquering death and hell, and rising again.
Special thanks to Tyler Bruggink for leading worship. Tyler is simply an amazingly gifted teen and I'm so thankful God has placed him here. I've had a few people ask for songs from the service, so here they are:
All of Creation: Mercy Me
Mighty to Save: Hillsong United
Trading My Sorrows: Darrell Evans
Yell: Tyler Bruggink
In Christ Alone

This week our Middle Schoolers enjoyed the Night of a Million Nuts, which made the youth room look worse then Texas Road House (say it with me: we love you Tammy!). Actually, Ryan and I did our share of cleaning up your mess too. We also kicked of our Underground Reality: Vietnam series. We are learning about the Christians in Vietnam, a nation where Christianity is more or less outlawed (Bibles are illegal in many of the native languages and pastors are routinely jailed). It's a moving series that I hope makes us all own our faith more then ever.

For High School this week we'll be having a big scavenger hunt deal, eating pizza, and continuing our Scarred series. This is perhaps the most excited I've ever been about a series as I really think its super important, relevant, and Biblical stuff to talk about. It also happens to make me think of many Monty Python clips, which I may continue to share with you all.

Alright, enjoy your weekend everyone!

Easter Sunrise Service 2010

First, I sincerly hope everyone is having a wonderful Spring Break (that is unless you went somewhere tropical and did'nt invite me, then I hope it rains every minute! Just kidding, enjoy the tropics while I actually enjoy good WI weather). This Sunday we celebrate Jesus' victory over sin and death FOR US ALL. We will be having two services Sunday, one at the normal 9am time and a Sunrise Service at 7:00am, which is hosted by BLAST. Because of the closeness to Youth Sunday and Spring Break we are trying to run this service with as few students as possible. Tyler Bruggink will be leading worship and I will be giving a message entitled Why Easter Matters. The biggest thing we could really use is for as many families to come out and worship with us. We will worship in the sanctuary and then move into the fellowship hall for a complimentary breakfast afterwards (you can consider this payment for getting up so early!). If you would like to help in another way we could still use a couple of parents to help make egg dishes, and a couple of students to help in the kitchen. Talk to Pastor Andy you can help. Again, the biggest thing is to come and discover why Easter should matter to you each and every day.

Youth Sunday 2010

A big thank you to everyone who helped make Youth Sunday 2010 a morning where God was praised, the Word was wonderfully proclaimed, and people were able to grow closer to God. A ton of pictures, including the big group pics, will be posted sometime soon. Despite a less then good rehearsal, all the music ended up sounding amazing (and that rehearsal will provide a wonderful illustration for my MS message this week, which is on worry). The orchestra, praise band, vocalists, and Junior Choir all really did a fantastic job. Thanks so much to Dan, Julie, Kurt, and Shelly for their great leadership of all the music groups. It was simply awesome seeing so many students (around 100 for Amazing Grace) on stage using their musical gifts for God.

I was also really proud of all those who helped deliver the message, based on 1 Peter 4:7-11. The content was deep, Biblical, and relevant, and it was obvious the students really put the time in to let God's Word be their guide. I've heard a lot of congregation members (of all ages) already expressing that the message really challenged them, so extremely great work.

Many people have asked about the song Prayer for Taylor. It was written by Michael W. Smith and performed with the Irish Film Orchestra on his album Freedom. It is available on ITunes and in many Christian bookstores and websites. With its soaring melody it really serves as a reminder that God desires to have us soar to be with Him in heaven, that death is not a sad end, but the beginning of an eternity with our Lord.

Youth Sunday Set-list
Days of Elijah: Robin Mark
Sing Sing Sing: Chris Tomlin
Inside Out: Hillsong United
Take It All: Hillsong United
Prayer for Taylor: Michael W. Smith
Amazing Grace/My Chains Are Gone: Chris Tomlin (arrangement Sunday by Michael W. Smith)

Youth Sunday and such

Its been a really bust time around our ministry, so busy that I have not been able to get on here as much as I would like. Fortunately, busy also = excitement around here. We continue to smash attendence and involvement records with our middle school ministry, and are busy trying to brainstorm ideas for how to handle our ever growing group (so, if you have a large building in the Hingham area you would love to give away, or an extra say $250,000 lying around, we would love to take them off your hands!). For the first time since I've been in ministry it seems we have actually stuck to our message schedule this year, and we've been able to have some great Bible based conversations about things that are very relevant to our students.

Tonight 13 students and three adults get to attend the Rock and Worship Roadshow in Madison, featuring bands like David Crowder, Mercy Me, Fee, and Family Force 5. Should be an awesome show. Sunday is the monster event known as Youth Sunday, and I'm just crazy thrilled and the number of students who are going to be serving God through their various gifts that morning. Our students praise band, singers, orchestra, and junior choir will all be leading worship, and our junior class will be presenting a message called Discover Your Shape, based on 1 Peter 4:7-11. Should be a really exciting morning. Below are the times we need people to arrive on Youth Sunday.
Tech people: before 7:45am
Orchestra: 7:38 for tuning, rehersal begins right at 7:45am
Singers: 8:00am
Praise band: 8am
Speaking parts: 8:20am
Greeters/ushers: 8:35am
Everyone needs to be in the choir room at 8:50 to walk in.

Sectional Champs!!!

I normally try to refrain from lauding the sports achievements of a specific school (since we have a number of different schools represented in our ministry), but I really want to congratulate the OHS Wrestling team on their first ever sectional title and berth to team state. The entire team wrestled awesome last night, and I was bursting with joy as our BLAST students went a combined 6-0 with 6 pins. The whole night was such a testament to the hard work of the team and the physical gifts God has entrusted to these guys. I would be remiss if I also didn't congratulate Coach Rogers on an amazing season and a well deserved title. Steve is not only an amazing coach, but a tremendous role model and mentor to these kids. This past year has included not only the normal ups and downs that come with sports (wins, loses, injuries, etc.), but the death of a team member and of a parent of both a team member and assistant coach. Through it all Coach Rogers has been so much more then a coach, and as a pastor and part of the Oostburg community I am so grateful for all he does. Great job everyone, and good luck at individual sectionals, individual state, and team state!

Rock and Worship Roadshow and More

We are very excited that an awesome event, the Rock and Worship Road Show, is coming to Madison on Friday, March 19th. We would love to take an entire bus full to this concert if possible. Groups include David Crowder, Mercy Me, Fee, Family Force 5, and more. We've done a lot of worship music from these group and they will all be fantastic. Cost is only $15 and includes transportation and your ticket. We will leave HRC at 3:30pm that night and return sometime after midnight. Talk to Andy with any questions.

We have a great week planned here at BLAST. Our middle schoolers have some exciting games in store on Wednesday, and we will be continuing our Untouchables series by talking about death. We will also welcome a guest speaker, Vanessa VanderWeele, who will share on the experience of losing her brother this summer. Should be a fun, challenging, and moving night.


On Sunday our high schoolers will meet for some food, beverage, games, and the continuation of our HABITS series. Ryan will be talking about the importance of giving back to God. I have quite a bit of food left over from my last COSTCO run, so join us for a great night.

Super Bowl Party Tonight

Tonight is our annual Super Bowl party, which will feature tons of food, beverage, and the game on multiple HD TV's. The festivities will start at the Baker house at 5:00pm and go until the end of the game. If you would like to bring something please consult your newsletter for what we are asking each grade to bring (although I assure you there will be tons of stuff). Hope to see you for a great night of football, food, fellowship, and of course commercials!

Silver Birch 2010: Part 2

It's been a busy season around our ministry, so it's been hard to update much about Silver Birch X. Here is the second installment about what went down during our awesome January retreat.

Saturday morning started off with breakfast, featuring perhaps the most disgusting sausage ever. I've eaten raw SPAM, and I will tell you it may have tasted better then this. After breakfast we headed for our second worship session. Despite the early morning time students still worshiped with really glad hearts and enjoyed the spectacle of our opening game Cereal Killer. I say enjoyed the spectacle because the cereal was quite disgusting and about half the teams quit right away, despite a cash prize on the line (in hind sight I should have known that a whole box of cereal for a $1 probably was not going to be very tasty.). We also gave cash away in our Diving For Dollars game, in which contestants had to dunk into a cold tank of water to retrieve money and gift cards. For the second message on our theme of temptation Ryan laid his personal story on the line for all to hear. He spoke of his struggles with temptation, how he gave into it and how God helped pull him back. It was really moving stuff and really served as a wake-up call for all of us.
Worship session 2 set-list:
We Shine: Fee
Take It All: Hillsong United
Dancing Generation: Brandon Grissom
The Stand: Hillsong United
Inside Out: Hillsong United

The rest of the morning featured our high schoolers heading to the broom ball court for the annual melee, while our middle schoolers headed to the tubing hills. The runs were really fast this year, which resulted in some bloodshed and injuries, but fortunately everyone ended up ok in the end. The afternoon was filled with tons of fun free time options. Many students took advantage of the SBR climbing center, which not only has a climbing wall but a new "leap of faith" feature. Students also enjoyed skiing, horseback riding, tubing, power tubing, and just hanging out with friends for snacks, drinks, board games, and conversation in the canteen area. It was so cool to see students hanging out so well together. We have a very diverse group in terms of schools and personalities, yet they mesh so well together. It was a fun, but exhausting afternoon for all.

Quick Updates

I promise to post some more about our great Silver Birch retreat, but I've been so busy with other things in the life of our ministry. I'm feeling on such a God high lately as I have conversations with students, staff, church members, and parents. It seems God is really working in a lot of people in huge ways right now, and nothing could excite me more. We continue to have record numbers of students attending our middle school ministry, and have added some great new regulars recently. We're talking about some things I feel are very relevant to teen life, and I keep praying God uses as much of what we're doing as possible. I also just have to say I have such a great job: I get to love and hang with students all the time, and I can't imagine anything better.

Our middle schoolers just finished up a series called Exposed: The Naked Truth About Sex. In a way it was an easy series to teach because the Bible lays out such a specific plan for sex and marriage, and is quite forthright on the lies the world trys to tell us (its amazing how little has changed on this topic in human culture over 2000 years). In another respect it was quite a challenge to make sure we did'nt create tons of awkward tension or weird middle school girly giggling. Our students did a great job taking it seriously and I pray they got a clear vision of what God's intent and plan is and that they are committed to waiting. It was also really fun getting to cover two of our students in make-up this week (currently I feel nice and am not posting pictures, but I have a feeling they will soon start leaking on Facebook).

Our High Schoolers just started a series entitled HABITS, and we're looking at ways to make meaningful connections with God regularly. We started by talking about the benefits of connecting with God, and this week we're going to talk about how important it is to have people in your life that can help hold you accountable as you live your life with and for God.

Silver Birch X: Part 1

This is the first installment on our 20X retreat to Silver Birch Ranch, January 8th-10th.

On Friday night at 5:00pm dozens of students and their human sized luggage began arriving at Hingham Reformed Church. By 5:30 two buses were filled to absolute capacity and on their way to Silver Birch Ranch, a huge and fantastic camp on Sawyer Lake in the north woods of Wisconsin. Once we arrived students were able to take advantage of late night broomball, tubing, and hanging out in the great canteen/snack bar/coffee bar area. Students also got checked into their cabins (which were really nice this year I might add).

We kicked off our first worship session with Coldplay's Viva la Vida then launched into a couple of games based on our theme, How NOT to Get Caught. Our leaders came out arms a blazing with dodgeballs as students tried Not to Get Caught and earn themselves $20 to Target. Of course enough cheated that we could not claim a winner. We then gave away $25 in canteen money to the small group who did best in our Famous Faces: Getting Caught edition game (we put up pictures of celebs getting caught in bad situations).

Here is the list of worship songs for our first worship time.
Take it All (Hillsong United)
Dancing Generation (Brandon Grissom)
Automatic (Stellar Kart)
The Stand (Hillsong United)
With Everything (Hillsong United)

Our first message focused on how not fun it is to get caught doing something wrong. I talked about some of the pranks I've been involved in or witnessed (including letting chicken loose in our high school) and while they are fun to pull, getting caught doing them can be bad. That's where the problem of temptation is. Temptation is doing something wrong in order to get something we want. It may be cheating on a test in order to get a good grade without studying, drinking to impress our friends, or causing trouble just to get a laugh. In any case we do what we know is wrong to get something we want. While we may get what we want we go against God to do it. The result is that far too many of us tend to disappear from following God because we are so caught up in temptation.

In modern folklore we have the Bermuda Triangle/Devil's Triangle. This is an area of the ocean where planes and boats seem to disappear without a trace at a way higher then average level. Theories abound for why that is (including alien spaceships hovering overhead kidnapping people), but the point is seemingly good people vanish without a trace. In the Bible there is a passage that outlines it's own Devil's Triangle: 1 John 2:15-17 (The Message)
Don't love the world's ways. Don't love the world's goods. Love of the world squeezes out love for the Father. Practically everything that goes on in the world—wanting your own way, wanting everything for yourself, wanting to appear important—has nothing to do with the Father. It just isolates you from him. The world and all its wanting, wanting, wanting is on the way out—but whoever does what God wants is set for eternity.
So often the world's three monster temptations, what the world offers, what the world does, and what the world thinks. We seem to want all of these things, and they tempt us so much that we tend to far too often go against God to get them. That leads to a big question: whose opinion really matters more to you: God's or your friends? God's or a celeb on TV? God or the popular kids in school? If we are to avoid getting caught up in negative situations we need to remember to trust God with all our heart, soul, and mind. With our WHOLE life.

Ok, mega long post. I'll fill you into some of our Saturday adventures later.

Awesome weekend and pictures are here

Well, I can honestly say that was an amazing weekend. We had a ton of fun as a group, and I feel we also grew closer to God in the process. I intend to write a lot more about the weekend over the next few days, but did want to let you know we have put over 130 pictures on this website already. You can find them to the right. Click on it to bring up the whole gallery and to see bigger pictures. Checkout just some of the awesome experiences our students had this weekend, and stay tuned for more stories about our experience.

Also, I have a personal aversion to Microsoft products and made this page not using them, but instead a great template found online. I was surprised to find when I use Explorer the page does not look nearly as cool. If you have the ability to use Firefox, Chrome, or Safari they will show the site better. I'm going to see what I can do to maximize it to MS Explorer this week.

Are you ready???

We're just hours away from over 70 of us taking of for Silver Birch Ranch and one amazing weekend. NOTHING has changed for us departure wise despite the weather. This system did not hit up north and the roads in our area are already getting pretty cleared and should be quite good by tonight. We still meet at 5:00, with plans to pull out at 5:15. See you tonight!!!

Silver Birch X is almost here!!!

The countdown to Silver Birch X is almost down to zero, and I know many of you are excited for it. The snow conditions at Silver Birch Ranch are the best they have been in years, so expect some great runs for tubing, powertubing, and cross country skiing. I've stocked up on Advil, Bengay, and have my post-Silver Birch chiropractic appointments all made, so I think I'm ready for the broomball courts. I'm also really excited for all the things are team has cooked up for our worship sessions. They really look like they will be fun AND help everyone wrestle with the topic of temptation as we focus on our theme How Not to Get Caught.

Below are all the instructions you should need for the trip, taken directly from our newsletter. If you have any other questions about the retreat please don't hesitate to ask. See you on Friday!

What to Bring
It will be cold and we will be outside A LOT. Please bring plenty of warm clothes (layering is always a good idea), a good winter coat, boots, snowpants, stocking cap, gloves, and whatever you need to be outside. Normal overnight items such as a pillow, sleeping bag, bath towel, toothbrush/paste, deodorant, and shampoo are good. If you have medications you need to take please have them in the original prescription container and check them in with a leader before we leave. Limit yourself to ONE suitcase and ONE bus carry-on. No drink allowed on the bus in anyway, shape, or form. Water, coffee, and hot chocolate are always available at SBR free of charge. If you must bring snacks please bring enough to share with your whole cabin and be responsible for any garbage or mess you create. Other snacks and drinks are available for purchase at the canteen. The only money you NEED is for one fast food meal on our return trip.

Departure and return
Please arrive at HRC on Friday, January 8th at 5:00pm. Please eat BEFORE you come as food is not allowed on the bus and we will not be stopping. We want to leave as close to 5:15pm as possible. Please check your luggage in at the northeast door (parking lot side). Please avoid the main entryway as there is a wedding rehearsal that night. After checking in head to the youth room for final instructions. At this point the traveling forecast is great, but if that changes check the youth website (http://hinghamyouth.blogspot.com) for updates. We will return to HRC at 3:00pm on Sunday.