Gotta Get Me Some of That!

This is just begging to be bought.
I don't know when Mike Eckenfels' birthday is, but I know this is now on his wish list!

Nuclear Grade Duct Tape

Summer Dates

Several of you have recently asked about summer camp dates.
Here they are:

Summit Middle School Camp--June 1-6

Falls Creek High School Camp--July 13-18

Summer Mission Trip to ? -- June 27-July 3
(we will announce the location next week!)

Sign ups will begin in March for Summit and the Mission Trip. and in April for Falls Creek.

If you need more info, please contact me.

Bro. Paul

Super Bowl Halftime Shows

Well, Super Bowl 43 is in the books. The Cards almost pulled it off, but the Steelers are true champions. Great game!
I hope your student was able to attend and enjoy the youth fellowships, we had great groups at both MS & HS events.
I have been hearing a lot of people say that Bruce Springsteen put on the best half-time show ever.
The Boss was good, maybe even great, but it was not the best ever.
Now, determining the "best ever" is a very subjective thing with everyone having their preferences. So here is my opinion on the best ever Super Bowl half-time show--the one by which all others should be compared.

Super Bowl 36 (2002) at the Superdome in New Orleans, LA.
The Band: U2
The context: The 9/11 terrorist attacks had happened less than 5 months before and the half-time show was a tribute to those who lost their lives. The stage is the shape of a large heart and U2 opens with their latest hit "Beautiful Day." As they begin the next song a large screen with the names of all the people who died on 9/11 begins to rise from the back of the stage and ascend to the top of the Super Dome. Before singing "Where the Streets Have No Name," you can hear Bono twice praying Psalm 51:15, "O LORD open my lips, that my mouth may show forth Thy praise." The Super Dome becomes a sanctuary with Bono leading us in worship and remembrance. I still get chills when I watch it.

The best Super Bowl half-time show ever.

Take some time to watch and listen to the second half of the show:

NO WEDNESDAY SERVICES

Just wanted to let you know that all services have been cancelled tonight (Wed. 1/28/2009).

We were supposed to have a parent/youth meeting for the Middle School Believe Conference.

We will reschedule that meeting for next Wednesday night at 8:15pm in the sanctuary.

There is still room for MS students to sign up to attend this conference. Contact me if you need more info.

While you have some extra time on you hands tonight, why not consider having a Bible reading/study/discussion with your teen. We are reading through Matthew 21 this week.

Matthew 21 (TNIV)

Matthew 21 (the Message)

You could read it together and then talk about it, sharing any themes or words or issues that stand out to you. Don't forget to close by praying together and for one another.

This brief time could do far more than anything I would have accomplished if we had met in youth group tonight.

I'll be praying for you.

Bro. Paul

Christmas Events

I wanted to give you a heads up on some events just around the corner.

Middle School Christmas Fellowship/Scavenger Hunt

Friday, December 19, 6:30-9:00pm @ the FBC gym

(youth will need to bring a $5 or less gift for Grand Theft Santa)

High School Christmas Fellowship/Progressive Dinner

Saturday, December 20, 5:00-8:00pm @ the FBC gym

(youth will need to bring a $5 or less gift for Grand Theft Santa)

1st Sunday Breakfast, Dec. 7 (on the first Sunday of each month one class from each department is responsible for providing breakfast)

High School: Mike Mullins' class provides breakfast

Middle School: Dugan/Tucker 7th & 8th grade boys provide breakfast

If your youth is in one of these classes, make sure they bring a breakfast food item. You can contact thier teacher for more info.

Middle School BELIEVE conference, February 6-7, 2009 @ Tulsa Convention Center.

We attended this last year and had a blast! Your middle school child will really enjoy it.

The cost is $50. You can sign up with full payment by Sunday, December 21. (Sounds like a good Christmas gift idea!) For more info you can click on the Believe Conference link on the right sidebar. You can also see promo videos on our youth website, Lovewins

Speaking of Christmas gift giving, I will be challenging the youth to ask for less this Christmas. I want to encourage thim to think more about giving Jesus gifts on His birthday. There are so many ways to do this, so I hope you will discuss this with your youth and brainstorm some gift ideas. 

Here are a few I will present to the youth:

Samaritan's Purse Gift Catalog

World Vision Gift Catalog

Nothing But Nets

Soles4Souls

These are just a few ideas. You can also participate as a family in our church's Christmas outreach on Sunday night, December 21.

Let's help our kids remember the reason for the season.

God bless,

Bro. Paul

Youthministry.com article on the "Twilight" books and upcoming movie

Are your kids reading this? I have heard about it but did not know much. I thought this article brought out some interesting things. You might want to discuss this with your teen.

Click on the link to read the article.


I'm in Love with a Vampire - The Subtle Messages of Twilight

What happens when a 17-year-old girl falls helplessly in love with the sexiest boy in the world... who's also a vampire?...Such is the pop culture phenomenon known as Twilight. Seventeen million copies of the books have been sold worldwide, and midnight showings for the upcoming movie are selling out.

Let's Try This Again!

I am going to renew my attempt to maintain this blog.
I want it to be a current source for information on what is happening in our youth ministry, as well as a place to provide you with resources of interest.

You will probably want to check out the youth ministry blog regularly as well. I will probably update it more frequently.

Love Wins

Thanks,

Paul

FALLS CREEK UPDATE

Greetings from Falls Creek.
It is Thursday and the forecast is still hot.
Despite the heat we are having a great week. Two youth in our group have been saved and several more have recommitted their life to Jesus. One has surrendered to ministry.
(applause and amens!)
Please keep praying as more decisions need to be made.
So far only one student sent to the hospital (Trevor Bond) but he is going to stick around camp, though he will be using crutches!

I have tried to load a few pics from Monday. You can find them on this site under the Falls Creek folder. Falls Creek pics

We are planningn to be home around 2:30pm, Saturday. Your student will call when we are an hour out.
Don't forget the share service on Sunday night at 6:15pm.

See you soon,

Bro. Paul

Mission Trip update

Hello from New Orleans!!!!
It is Wednesday afternoon and we are having a blast! It has been a great trip.
Just wanted to let you all know that things were going well. We have 12 youth and adults who have been doing construction all day each day and are getting alot accomplished. The other 26 youth and adults have been leading VBS each morning and then various light construction/clean up projects around the church during the afternoon. On Monday and Tuesday several youth went out visiting kids and inviting them to VBS. You would have been so proud of them, I know I was. They went out with joy and excitement and really had an impact on the children in the community.
Today at VBS we saw 4 children trust Christ as their Savior and Lord! Several more need follow up and we hope to see them saved tomorrow. Keep us and them in your prayers.
Tonight we will dine and worship with Edgewater Baptist Church. They have really been a blessing to us.

One more day to go! Our plans are still to leave out Friday by 7am and arrive in Skiatook around 9 or 10 pm. (hopefully withouth getting stuck in the parking lot ditch!)

I have posted some VBS pics on our church's Flickr site, so you can view them now.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/fbcskiatook/sets/72157605941978324/

I will post the rest of the pics when we get back.

Don't forget the Mission Trip share service Sunday night at 6pm. It will be an awesome service.

Love Wins.

Paul

GREAT TRIP! NOW TAKE ME HOME.

This has indeed been one of the best ski trips ever. Three days of powder skiing plus a great group of adults and teens equals a spring break to remember.
And Praise the Lord, no trips to the hospital!

We will be loading and leaving in the morning (Tuesday) around 6:30am (MT). This should put us in Skiatook by 10:00pm.

Just a cool note: our lodge has a housekeeper named 'Donna'. The Lord put her on Kelly Zodrow's heart last night, so Kelly engaged her in conversation today. Kelly had an opportunity to witness to Donna. She is attending a baptist bible study, but has a lot of pain in her life. Kelly told her our group would pray for her, and she was deeply moved by the gesture. Donna commented that our group has been one of the best behaved this winter.

I am proud of our teens and adults, and you should be as well. Feel free to brag on them.

See you Tuesday night.

Bro. Paul

Let It Snow!

Wow!! Two fantastic days of skiing in a row. (and no injuries!PTL)

Today was truly an awesome day and all the kids have had a great time.
I have loaded some more pictures taken by the Taylors and Matt Pryor.
You can see them here.

You may have heard the weather report--we are under a major winter storm watch through Monday afternoon. It is snowing right now and has been since around 2pm.
In light of the storm we have slightly changed our trip plans which should work out for the better anyway. We will not be leaving Monday evening to go to Limon. Instead we will stay in our lodge one more night, and then plan to leave out early Tuesday morning and drive straight home. This will put us in a little bit later on Tuesday evening (probably around 10pm).

We will let you know when we leave.

God bless,

Bro. Paul

Thank You, Lord, for Ibuprofen!

We have finished our first day of skiing...and no trips to the hospital!!!
We do have some sunburns, a few cases of altitude sickness, burning thighs, sore muscles, and a couple of sore knees, ankles, and feet.
And just think, we paid for this!

It was an incredibly beautiful day for skiing on the mountains with blue skies, fresh powder, and it was cold enough to not sweat too much.

We are worn out but having a great time.

I told the students to be sure and call home today. Hopefully that has happened.

They are predicting some strong snow storms for the next two days, so keep us in your prayers (especially that we won't be stranded Monday!)

I'll try to have another post tomorrow.

God bless,

Bro. Paul

SKI TRIP UPDATE: WE MADE IT!!!

Well we made great time and arrived in Silverthorne today at 3:30pm, Mountain Time. Everyone was worn out but they all did great. We then loaded up to go get fitted for our skis at the Copper Mountain base. Copper Mountain is 11 miles west of our lodge, right on Interstate 70. We entered the highway, it was wet and lightly snowing. Within a mile, the road was covered in ice and the three lanes were bumper to bumper. The rental shop closed at 5:30pm, and there was no way we were going to make it! So we exited and came back to our lodge.
So much for everything going smooth!

All will be well.
The kids get more relaxation time tonight, and we will get up early Saturday and go get our skis and enjoy a day of adventure in the mountains.

Check out these pictures from today

Keep us in your prayers.

Bro. Paul

SKI TRIP INFO

We are ready to go to Copper Mountain! We will be taking two large vans, plus the vehicles driven by the Taylors and Mike Eckenfels (Williams and Yaugers are traveling separately). One van will be cleared out to carry our food, luggage, and skis. This means we should have plenty of room for luggage.

FUEL SURCHARGE
From the beginning we had planned on the riders in each vehicle to split the cost for gas.
In order to make this fair, we are asking each adult and youth to pay $30 to Bro. Paul before we leave Thursday night. This will help cover the cost of fuel. (This does not apply to the Williams or Yaugers)

Keep watching the weather. It looks cold and snowy!!!f

Call me if you need more info.

Bro. Paul

New Study on Teen Car Crashes

I found this USA Today article interesting. I know that many of you, like me, are a parent of a teen driver. Plus our younger teens often ride with teen drivers. This article provides some facts and helpful guidelines.

Click on the title link above to access it.

Paul