Youth Work Day

20 teens and 5 leaders from our youth ministry showed up to serve today. We had a productive morning spreading gravel, stacking wood, washing windows, cleaning gutters and raking leaves. (I believe the final count in the leaf raking was 363,274 leaves.)

It was a beautiful day to be outside and wonderful to have the opportunity to help others! We had a great time working together and had a little time to play too!

Thanks for all the willing hearts and great attitudes.

(Jake and Zach excited about finishing the leaf count.)

Gull Lake - Biblical Worldview Retreat

We made it back safe and sound from Gull Lake this afternoon. 27 teens and 7 adult leaders made the trip up to Michigan this weekend. It was a tremendous blessing to get away and spend some quality time with the teens learning about a Biblical Worldview and building relationships.

We learned a lot over the course of the time there. Some of the things we learned are that we need to have a Worldview that matches up with God's Word and the only way to know what that is is to be in the Word. We need to be studying the Bible in order to know what it says so we can know how to respond to situations in life. The Bible is the mind of Christ and we need to have the mind of Christ. The answer to all of life's questions can be found in the Bible.

Everyone has a worldview, it's either God-centered or Self-centered. What's yours?

Pictures from the weekend below:

UPCOMING: Biblical Worldview Retreat

October 23-25 is our retreat to Gull Lake Ministries in Hickory Corners, MI. We are planning to leave at 1:00 pm CST on Friday 10/23 and return around 2:00 pm CST on Sunday. The cost for the weekend is $50 per person. Teens need to have a permission form completed as well.

We'll be staying in dorms so plan to bring your own linens, bedding and pillow. Also make sure to bring your Bible and a notebook.

The purpose of this retreat is to impress upon our teens the importance of thinking biblically in EVERY decision with which they are faced. Every person has a “worldview”, and that worldview affects the way we think, thus affecting our behavior. PJ will present five teaching/discussion sessions challenging our teens to filter all decisions and actions through the grid of Scripture for God-honoring results. Your teen will be stretched and challenged to THINK. The best $50 you could ever spend on your teen.

Parents Seminar - Coming Soon!

We will be having a Parents Seminar on Saturday, September 26 at the church from 1-4 CST. We'll talk about how you (the parents) can partner with us (the youth leaders) in discipling and ministering to your kids. YOU are invited whether you're a new parent or are a grandparent. The more that come the more we can learn from each other.

Jim LeFever, our Area WOL Missionary will be sharing with us as will Phil Conrad, TCBC Youth Leader. In addition to the speaking sessions, we'll have a session of sharing parenting tips with each other in regards to what has worked and what hasn't worked in teaching, disciplining and raising our children.

We will provide babysitting for those that need it. Please RSVP to the church via email or phone (866-0432).

I hope to see you there!

Paint Job

Tonight was our first club meeting in the repainted room. All that hard work paid off! We spent a week in August sanding, priming and painting. It looks great and it's nice to have a new paint job.

Kickoff

Wednesday night was our opening night "Kickoff" event for WOL. We had a fun Amazing Race activity. A combined twelve teams participated. Each team had about four teens. The challenges included a "Tow" or "Show", where teams had to go around a course in a wagon or perform a skit, a Doghouse challenge, where teams got to share a meal at Devon's Doghouse, and a frisbee game where they had to toss a frisbee from one cone to another cone without it touching the ground, similar to Ultimate Frisbee.

Many parents served as taxi drivers and at the end, we all met back at church for a nacho bar.

The winning Sr. High team:

The winning Jr. High Team:
(real men look at the camera!)

Home from Camp

We made it home safely from camp yesterday at 11:30 am. It was a great week of getting into God's word and growing in Christ. We all had something to take from camp and we all have things in our life we want to change. The challenge now is to effect that change for God's glory.

Below are a few more pics from the week.