Family Outing

We recently went as a family to Bradley Park in Tomahawk. I know, WOW hugh? The cool thing is that ministry has been so busy and we needed a little family time together. It was a beautiful fall day and we went for a long walk out to the point. On our way back I used the opportunity to teach my daughters about creation vs. evolution. We had a time of prayer and the girls really enjoyed the discussion.

Fear Factor Nights in Rhinelander and Crandon

Always a crowd pleaser, our annual gross out night known as Fear Factor was just held last week. The first event is the Happy Meal Smoothie! Trust me it's as gross as it sounds! I have two volunteers come forward for the seemingly harmless task of eating a happy meal. Putting out the fries, cheeseburger, apple dippers, and drink (no I didn't make them eat the toy) they were still feeling pretty good - until I brought out the blender! Everything, except the toy, was thrown into the jar and I hit "frappe"! I've had this before, but the thing that made it so gross this time was actually the apples! They didn't blend up all that great and were pretty chunky!!!

After that we had our food relay. We had 13 different items in paper bags ranging from pretty good to down right disgusting. The teens had to run up and grab the bag closest to them and then eat/drink whatever was in the bag! The good consisted of jello snack packs, bottle of coke, and chocolate. The bad consisted of SPAM, oysters, beets, artichoke hearts, and baby food. Not really gross but extremely hard to get down was peanut butter (chunky of course), frosting, and a whole lot of crackers.

The games are always fun, but we also had an awesome time of worship and learning last night. My message topic was on Faith and I used Abraham as my example. When God called him to sacrifice his son Isaac, Abraham had so much faith that God would provide. I used that passage to give a good example of faith. Then in Mark 6 the people's lack of faith in Jesus resulted in Him not performing major miracles or amazing teaching. We looked at how we need to "rest" in the grace of God and trust Him to do what He says He will do. We ended the night with an invitation for the teens to let go of their fears that have been holding them back. We did the trust fall - where you stand on an object, cross your arms and fall straight back. Before and during their fall I instructed them to think about where their faith was weak and give that over to God. Three teens came forward and did the exercise and it was pretty powerful.

Lock-in

On the 19th and 20th we held our annual lock-in. 121 teens attended and more importantly, there were 27 teens who came forward and made salvation decisions!!! Another eight teens rededicated their lives to God as well. One other highlight is when we had volunteers come forward and pull nylons over their head. After that we had their partners attempt to shove a banana through the nylon! I think the grossest part of the whole activity is when I walked around from team to team and heard the loud sucking sounds as they tried to liquefy the banana to allow it to go through the nylon! We had the usual events such as bowling, basketball, volleyball, swimming, video games, and sumo suits. We also had a local band play for part of the night. It took a couple of days to recover from this event but praise God for the results!!!

Kayla's First Haircut!

After two and a half years, Kayla finally had the experience of her first haircut! We did the annoying parent thing and cried and said, "Oh this is our last first haircut".

Flag Football

Our flag football season is all wrapped up for another year. We had five teams competing for the prize of supreme domination - which of course didn't go to my team!!! After a plethora of groin pulls, blown out calves, achy joints, and extremely bruised ego's - one team was left standing. Congrats to Vineyard as they now have won back to back championships. Can you say dynasty????

Cow Tongue Football!!!

You haven't lived until you have played "Cow Tongue Football"! We had a blast with the teens in Rhinelander. It's amazing how something that is as rough as sandpaper can slip right through your hands! The grossest part of the night is when the tongue was thrown high into the air and one of our Jr. High girls let it go right through her hands and wrapped around her face!!!

Rhinelander Bible Club

Things are going great in Rhinelander! We're averaging around 11 teens a night and growing. God is definately being preached and the teens are growing in their knowledge of Him.

Hello to all!

Hi everyone,
Here is my first attempt to do this Blog thing. We will be posting as much as possible, or as often as I remember to do so! Check back again and see the pics of our youth ministries and hear what God is doing in our lives!