Fired Up!

This past weekend we hosted an Afterglow at our home. This was a pretty typical afterglow with pizza, video games (the guys brought their system with them), and fellowship. The only thing different at this one was the bond fire we had. I had been collecting up yard debris for several weeks and had a pretty big pile waiting. I was not expecting it to take off quite like it did. Within a matter of seconds we had flames shooting up near the tops of the trees. It really was pretty impressive! I have to admit that I was getting a little nervous about it at one point, and Tracy said she looked out and almost panickedI really expected the neighbors to call the fire department at any minute but they were all really good about it and I never even heard a complaint. We will have to do this again soon but next time I promise to make some time for capture the flag or something!

Making an IMPACT!

This past Sunday WBC was high attnedance day in our Sunday School ministry at Woolsey Baptist Church. We had called this event IMPACT SUNDAY. The idea was that we would try to impact our community by inviting people to our Sunday School ministry. Even though we did not quite meet our total church goal of 400, we had a great turn out in the youth department. Our goal was to have 50 at the Youth Annex and we actually had 55! What an awesome turnout. Of those 55 we actually had 7 visitors with us! Praise the Lord!
We have also just started a new series in BNX. After finishing a great series on Spiritual Disciplines, last night we dove into a new series on Worldviews. This is a term that it seems is being used more and more often. We are going to take the next several weeks to look at many of the worldviews that are popular in our culture today so that we can have a better understanding of how to describe and defend our own biblical worldview. I am very excited about this series and would encourage you not to miss out! Come and join us each Wednesday @ 6:30 to get in on this.

All Dressed Up!

This past weekend was homecoming weekend for Whitewater and Starr's Mill High School. This was actually Whitewater's first true homecoming to welcome graduates back to. Both school's football teams started the weekend off with great wins! Whitewater beat Banneker 20-12 and Starr's Mill crushed McIntosh 27-0. The only thing that would have made things even better is if Brittany or Melanie would have won their homecoming crowns. They didn't unfortunately but they both looked very beautiful and presented themselves, their families, their churches, and the Lord very well!

Saturday night Tracy and I were invited to attend the Whitewater High School Homecoming Dance. We were very hesitant but reluctantly decided that we would go. I had never attended a homecoming dance before. When I was in school it was just not the "cool" thing to go to. Boy have things changed! There were tons of students at this thing. They had a live DJ, great food and impressive decorations. I even saw a couple of Starr's Mill students their. Tracy and I kept our distance from the dance floor (we didn't want to make any of the students look bad of course) but we had a good time watching peopole and we got some great pictures. I hope we get invited back next year!

Workin It!

This past Saturday we had another ARK Project for our students to participate in. For those of you that missed out...sorry...it was truly a GREAT day. We had planned to work at our church annex building. For those that don't know, this is our old church building. And when I say "old" church building...old is certainly an understatement. This old building has been a bit neglected recently and is really showing it's age. Some people might say that this makes for less than an ideal building for youth ministry purposes. We are really working hard to breathe some life back into this place and this weekend I feel like I really saw it take in a huge breath of fresh air. First of all we had a great turn out of both students and adults to help out. People were buzzing all over the place. One group was painting in the hallway connecting the sanctuary and the fellowship hall. Another group had the daunting task of going into the quarantined sanctuary to do some general cleaning and organizing. A third group took on the sign area at the front of the building. I was amazed at the progress that was made. The sanctuary was totally cleaned out and reorganized. The front sign area was dramatically torn out, replanted, and given new life! And the painting in the hallway was nearly completed. These three projects were completed so quickly and effeciently that some people were even able to move on and begin cleaning out some of the other flower beds out front. As if this was not enough to make for a great day, most of our students then went to the Schwartings house for a mexican meal, some video games, and a really intense game of capture the flag. This was a day that certainly demonstarted that service is anything but a burden when it is done for the Lord. We not only accomplished a great deal of work, we had some great fun and laughs along the way, we were able to encourage numerous people throughout our church and community, and we were able to share the sweet fragrance of Christ with each other and people around us. I would dare say that a day of play at the park could not have matched up to the fun and excitement of our "work-day"!

The new sign and new plants out front.

An upclose shot of the new sign.

I am pretty sure that this sanctuary has not been this clean in years!

This is all the...stuff that came out of the sanctuary.

This is the hallway that was desperately in need of a coat of paint.

Looking much better now.

And I just could not resist showing this to everyone. This is Landon's "Head Stand". I was pretty impressed. Anyone want to try and top him?