Capture the Flag & Captured

My goodness!!! I am back!

Well, Sunday night we had our annual capture the flag event and it was awesome!!! We had 125+ students from 6 different youth groups there connecting together. Cory Joy did an awesome job putting it all together and planning the event that reached across county lines and many churches. The heart behind it was to get the students ready for, "See You At The Pole" Wednesday morning. We wanted to rally the students together and encourage them to take a stand at their flagpoles tomorrow morning! It was a great event that really went well.

I am here in the office going at it getting things created, planned, organized, scheduled & more! We are super busy up here at the church moving forward and doing the things God is calling us to do. Wednesday nights have been going great here @ HHC. We are growing and adding new students weekly. We are starting a new series tomorrow night called, "Captured" We will be talking about what we are captured by and how God captures us.

Whew!!!

WOW! Time is going too fast. It has been forever since I last blogged (sorry). Anyway, we have been super busy with great things going on here! The youth are doing great here @ HHC and things are getting better and better each week. We had our Back to school Bash a few weeks ago and had about 50 students (which is a great turnout). We had a fun, awesome time! Then on Thursday nights we have started a youth ministry called 4Twelve for the Salvation Army in Brown County. We go over there once a week to help them out. My dad is pastoring there since the spring time this year. They started with about 8 people and have grown to around 70+ in a matter of months. Erin and I helped start the youth ministry for 7th - 12th grade and it is going great. We started with about 3 students and are running about 15-20 on Thursday nights. Things are going great there. So between the two we keep pretty busy with ministry and events. We love being a part of the local church impacting others for Christ, so it is more of an opportunity than anything.

Last weekend we went to Holiday World with Erin's family and had a BLAST! I rode the best roller coaster of my life called the, Voyage or Voyager. Anyway, absolutely amazing to say the least! Zion had a great time there as well with all the kiddy rides and games! It is so great to be with family and spending time together!!! I love my family and doing life together with them!!!

Well, we got lots and lots to do today so I need to get at it. I will try to blog more (famous last words I guess). God bless!!!

Student Leadership Team & The Park

Well, Sunday we had our 1st student leadership team meeting. This team is for students who want to step up and be the core of the core in our youth group. We meet outside the church right after the baptisms after service. Which I might add Erin got to baptize a girl in our youth group already! How cool is that! What a great opportunity! Anyway, we had some pizza for the student leadership team and hung out and talked about what the students want the youth group to be like in one word. Some of the things were: Helpful, fun, Spirit-Filled (wow), amazing, spiritual, super-duper, different, welcoming, etc... It was a great time of talking and getting to know these students a little deeper in a laid back environment. We have a great group of student to work with here!

On a personal note, this last weekend Erin, Zion, Allie & I went to the park and hung out playing. Allie got some shades and was style'n. We had a great time outside! Zion LOVES going to the park and swinging!

Fair, Salvation Army & Date Nights

Yesterday my whole family went to the Indiana State Fair! We had a great time eating, looking, riding rides, eating, listening to some bands, playing in the kids areas, did I mention eating? Anyway, it was a lot of fun! We left right after church and didn't get home until 10:30 or so. It was a long day but always good going to the fair.

Saturday we went down to the Salvation Army where my parents are pastoring in Brown County and hung out for a bit while they had a School Supply Drive. People were donating school supplies and money for supplies as they set up in town and gave away free hot dogs and drinks. We had Zion ring the bell and get some training for the Salvation Army. She did a great job. It was a biker drive so there were a bunch of bikers there donating and helping out so Allie got to sit on her first (and I might add last) motorcycle. Then Erin and I got to go out on a date night while my family watched the girls. We had a great time going out to eat and shopping. Those do not come as often as they should but we are working on it. It is so wierd to be out in public and actually walk around with having to keep an eye out on the girls and have them with us. It still seems wierd whenever we do go out but date nights are VERY important to us!!!

Thoughts

Isn't God so AWESOME? He is always there, always comes through, always protects, always loves, always equips, always provides, always is moving, always is working. He gave His life on the cross for such a sinner like me and everyone else. Without Him we have nothing, do nothing, hope for nothing, feel nothing, work for nothing, live for NOTHING! But in Him we live, move and have our being!!! Sometimes I think we forget the power that God has given us through the Holy Spirit to accomplish the great tasks He has for us and others. We get to caught up with the immediate, the status quo, the average, the money, the fear, that we live not jumping over the edge but living on the ledge watching and wondering what it would be like if we truly had the faith to be ALL that we want to be for Christ. We dream of the day when we will be everything we want to be but why not just become who we are? We wait for the day that we will arrive but maybe life is more about the journey than it is the destination. Because when we arrive it will be the end of this life and the beginning of eternity within the safety and comfort of our Almighty God!!! Myabe life is about growing and becoming rather than arriving and being. Not that we don't be who God wants us to be but maybe being is becoming. Or let me rephrase and say that maybe life is ALL about the process rather than the event. Because when we finally start being there is a whole new level of becoming again. So maybe instead of beating ourselves up for not being who we want to be we just start embracing who we are becoming by the grace of God. Life is a journey and it begins with the 1st step and continues with step 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, etc...

Just some thoughts.

It's Been Too Long

Wow! Time is flyin' bye lately! It has been forever since I last blogged. Things are going great here and we are keeping busy for sure! Last Wednesday we had our 1st overnight called, "AllNight" we had 35 students come to service then stay all night at the church. We had a great service, played some crazy games like Kenjavi Can-Can, ate pizza, had a choclate fountain, rock climbed, had Halo tournaments, facials for girls, movies, sumo wrestling & more! It was a blast staying up all night well until about 4 then it was zombie time! We have such an awesome youth group and things are only going to get better and better.

We are doing a series right now called "buildIt" we are talking abut building an awesome youth group and what it is going to take. We gave all the students nails last week and told them you are like a nail that God wants to use to build this youth group, "so get hammered for Jesus". It was a good start to building this youth group! We have some strong leaders in our youth that we are going to challenge to step out for the things of God!

Grandma

Yesterday we had my Grandma Barrett's funeral. She passed away last Saturday night. The service was great my dad directed it. It was great to see all the family again. Some of them I haven't seen for 20+ years. After the service we went to Golden Corral and had lunch. My grandma was a great lady that loved the Lord. I remember going to her house and playing as a little kid. I also remember living with her for a summer in high school while I worked at a carpet warehouse. I had super long hair and one day decided to cut it all off and bleach it. I never told her so when I got home and knocked on the door she would not let me in. She said she didn't know who I was even though I was trying to tell her. Finally I convinced her it was me and she let me in. She is now with the Lord in heaven having the time of her life in God's amazing presence.