School has started...football season has begun...bands are marching - yep it's that time of year. September 8 is the first week back to our regular youth group schedule on Wednesday nights - we'll start @ 6:30 and finish @ 8pm. We'll be starting a new series entitled, "CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS." We are going to look at the lives of people that Jesus met and see what impact he had in their life. It is impossible to follow Jesus without him changing your life! We will look at what that real impact looks like! I look forward to seeing you there!
Saturday, September 4, 2010
Close Encounters with Jesus
School has started...football season has begun...bands are marching - yep it's that time of year. September 8 is the first week back to our regular youth group schedule on Wednesday nights - we'll start @ 6:30 and finish @ 8pm. We'll be starting a new series entitled, "CLOSE ENCOUNTERS WITH JESUS." We are going to look at the lives of people that Jesus met and see what impact he had in their life. It is impossible to follow Jesus without him changing your life! We will look at what that real impact looks like! I look forward to seeing you there!
Wednesday, September 1, 2010
Monday, August 16, 2010
Friday, July 16, 2010
We're done!
We finished our day of ministry with our guys getting a pie in the face. Every year P. Steve gets the great idea to motivate the kids to bring visitors to the VBS by having a pie in the face reward for the losing side (guys vs. girls). Well, girls rule and the guys were pelted with melted Cool Whip...it was great! :) We had a good number of kids at the VBS today and we finished the canvassing for the area we were assigned to work on. It was a great day! Our teens are feeling better and we are ready to ice skate at the Olympic Oval tonight...we'll let you know how well we do!
We fly out bright and early in the morning...sometime in the 9:00 am hour...we'll see you in Cleveland!
We fly out bright and early in the morning...sometime in the 9:00 am hour...we'll see you in Cleveland!
Thursday, July 15, 2010
Anoher day in Utah
The weather here has been beautiful! Sunny every day and hot but to our advantage, the church we minister with in the mornings is about 1,000 feet higher elevation than our hotel. We have been blessed with sunshine and weather 10 degrees cooler than Salt Lake, and believe me, it makes a huge difference!
We took the afternoon...and evening yesterday to hike in the mountains. Let me set the stage a little...one teen forgot sneakers (flip flops were all she had), a few of the teens have decided eating is not important so they have been nibbling at food and we were about to hike up a mountain Steve had done last time he was here. We started out driving up into the mountains on a drive that was like none I had ever been on before...God's creativity and beauty is breathtaking! We have been looking at these mountains all week admiring them but getting up close and personal is a whole different story! There were two trails to take and both ended at a lake in the mountains...unfortunately we think we took the longer of two trails by accident. The paths were rough and rocky and it was a real struggle for some of our girls. We pushed them so they would feel the victory of doing something they had never done before. Some wanted to give up after 30 minutes but we pushed them along trying to teach them how to breath in the mountains and how to focus on making it to the end. We passed brooks/streams in our paths where the water was cold and clear and tasted better than any bottled water you could buy. We made it up to an area where there was snow still present and the guys tried pelting us with snowballs. We got to a point where the sun was starting to set and we had been hiking for over 2 hours. We made the decision to turn back (mostly my choice) because I was fearful of being out there with no light...and believe me, those narrow paths had mountain on one side and drop offs on the other...not a place to be in the dark. Once we made it down we realized we hiked about 8 miles (4 up and 4 down) and I think the sense of accomplishment was felt. I can't even describe the beauty we saw...there were many times I had tears in my eyes and my camera up to my face in awe at the beauty of creation! We even had a deer stand within eyeshot and just look at us. One teen has been struggling since we got here with nausea and dizziness and the hike took a toll. Altitude sickness is common here and we think she may be struggling with that and a lack of good nourishment. Her and I are staying back at the hotel today to get her at a place feels rested and stronger...I am making her eat and sleep! Pray for the team as we finish out the week. They are being real troopers and working hard...I can't even tell you how proud we are of them and the work they have been doing. They are excited about talking with people and are being challenged by various religious viewpoints. When we hear how they respond to people with Biblical thoughts and verses we are speachless. God is certainly working!
After the Bible Club this morning we will head out to canvas right here in Sandy, UT this evening. Tomorrow will be canvassing and Bible Club in the mornning and then we are finished with the ministry part of our trip. We head out to the Olympic Oval tomorrow night for ice skating and Steve will be speaking to all our group as well as teens from Utah area churches. He found out about this just this week so pray that his message will be applicable for those in attendance...from what he's told me, it should be a message that could really stir hearts...pray that God would use it! I'm looking foward to getting home and telling you all in person our experiences and the teens are as well...see you soon! -Sarah
We took the afternoon...and evening yesterday to hike in the mountains. Let me set the stage a little...one teen forgot sneakers (flip flops were all she had), a few of the teens have decided eating is not important so they have been nibbling at food and we were about to hike up a mountain Steve had done last time he was here. We started out driving up into the mountains on a drive that was like none I had ever been on before...God's creativity and beauty is breathtaking! We have been looking at these mountains all week admiring them but getting up close and personal is a whole different story! There were two trails to take and both ended at a lake in the mountains...unfortunately we think we took the longer of two trails by accident. The paths were rough and rocky and it was a real struggle for some of our girls. We pushed them so they would feel the victory of doing something they had never done before. Some wanted to give up after 30 minutes but we pushed them along trying to teach them how to breath in the mountains and how to focus on making it to the end. We passed brooks/streams in our paths where the water was cold and clear and tasted better than any bottled water you could buy. We made it up to an area where there was snow still present and the guys tried pelting us with snowballs. We got to a point where the sun was starting to set and we had been hiking for over 2 hours. We made the decision to turn back (mostly my choice) because I was fearful of being out there with no light...and believe me, those narrow paths had mountain on one side and drop offs on the other...not a place to be in the dark. Once we made it down we realized we hiked about 8 miles (4 up and 4 down) and I think the sense of accomplishment was felt. I can't even describe the beauty we saw...there were many times I had tears in my eyes and my camera up to my face in awe at the beauty of creation! We even had a deer stand within eyeshot and just look at us. One teen has been struggling since we got here with nausea and dizziness and the hike took a toll. Altitude sickness is common here and we think she may be struggling with that and a lack of good nourishment. Her and I are staying back at the hotel today to get her at a place feels rested and stronger...I am making her eat and sleep! Pray for the team as we finish out the week. They are being real troopers and working hard...I can't even tell you how proud we are of them and the work they have been doing. They are excited about talking with people and are being challenged by various religious viewpoints. When we hear how they respond to people with Biblical thoughts and verses we are speachless. God is certainly working!
After the Bible Club this morning we will head out to canvas right here in Sandy, UT this evening. Tomorrow will be canvassing and Bible Club in the mornning and then we are finished with the ministry part of our trip. We head out to the Olympic Oval tomorrow night for ice skating and Steve will be speaking to all our group as well as teens from Utah area churches. He found out about this just this week so pray that his message will be applicable for those in attendance...from what he's told me, it should be a message that could really stir hearts...pray that God would use it! I'm looking foward to getting home and telling you all in person our experiences and the teens are as well...see you soon! -Sarah
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Whew!...
What do you do when you're thrown a curve ball? Truth of the matter, I complained. Truth of the matter, your kids did not. Lesson learned, sometimes teenagers act more grown up than the grown up.
We found out late last night that due to a scheduling schnafoo the church we serve with in the mornings would not have anyone coming to help them out with canvassing in the evenings. The biggest problem was they had worked really hard to provide meals for the groups coming out at night and had spent a good deal of money doing so. So, we were asked to serve there in the morning and stay through the afternoon and evening in order to canvas and allow them to serve us dinner. I know this doesn't sound too bad but we are tired...still not caught up from late night every day and no free time to catch a nap. So, the idea of leaving early and working all through the afternoon while all the other groups were back at the hotel for free time didn't sound too great to me. Our teens however had a great attitude about it and were fine with it...and they worked hard today too! God did a great work today and in that I am so thankful! You don't know how fun it is to see the teens going door-to-door, engaging people in great conversation and walking away "totally pumped" and so eager to tell us about it. They had some great conversations today and I'm sure they want to tell you about them too! Steve and I are finding that people are more apt to talk to the teens than us...our groups hit 15-20 homes and most people simply told us they weren't interested in talking to us. God know what He's doing and He is really doing a great thing in the lives of these teens! Pray for us as we continue tomorrow...were going to get to bed "early" and try to make up for lost sleep...we'll see if it works!
We found out late last night that due to a scheduling schnafoo the church we serve with in the mornings would not have anyone coming to help them out with canvassing in the evenings. The biggest problem was they had worked really hard to provide meals for the groups coming out at night and had spent a good deal of money doing so. So, we were asked to serve there in the morning and stay through the afternoon and evening in order to canvas and allow them to serve us dinner. I know this doesn't sound too bad but we are tired...still not caught up from late night every day and no free time to catch a nap. So, the idea of leaving early and working all through the afternoon while all the other groups were back at the hotel for free time didn't sound too great to me. Our teens however had a great attitude about it and were fine with it...and they worked hard today too! God did a great work today and in that I am so thankful! You don't know how fun it is to see the teens going door-to-door, engaging people in great conversation and walking away "totally pumped" and so eager to tell us about it. They had some great conversations today and I'm sure they want to tell you about them too! Steve and I are finding that people are more apt to talk to the teens than us...our groups hit 15-20 homes and most people simply told us they weren't interested in talking to us. God know what He's doing and He is really doing a great thing in the lives of these teens! Pray for us as we continue tomorrow...were going to get to bed "early" and try to make up for lost sleep...we'll see if it works!
Monday, July 12, 2010
From my perspective...
Where to begin?...We have sat through countless hours of training, preparing us for today and the start of our ministry week. We have been lectured through LDS doctrine comparing it with Biblical doctrine and in all honesty, our brains are so full they hurt! Up to today, we have been excited about the trip and anticipating all the different facets. After filling our brains with so much information I think many of us walked away afraid of what today would hold. We spent some time last night in prayer for the things we were most nervous about for today and it was funny that half of us were nervous about the Kids Bible Club and the other half were nervous about the door-to-door ministry. It felt good to get out and actually start what we had been trained to do...after the first door, my fears subsided and for the rest, finishing our first morning brought a confidence and excitement about the rest of the week. Tonight we head out to another local church to continue door-to-door work and sharing the Bridge tract as we have opportunity. Many homes are polite and kind to allow us to ask our 4 or 5 questions but do not really want to be bothered with any thing else we want to share about what we believe. Keep us in prayer as we have just begun and many of us are tired from little sleep the first day that we have not been able to make up. Oh, by the way, if you kids come home with stories about me, don't believe anything they say! :)Sarah
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