New Youth Blog!

Check out the new youth blog with mission trip photos!


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Thursday

Today's morning glow was led by Holly, Aaron, Ashlen - they had us write letters to our younger selves.  Our work teams for the day included Matthew 25, Rosmary's House, Living Waters, and a group of us chaperoned a trip for the Rochester Hills community to the zoo.  It was a great day of working together.  We ended with taco night and a wonderful devotion as well as our senior time.

Wednesday

Today was our fun day!

This morning's morning glow was led by Chloe, Camille, Alexis, and Patrick.  They talked to us about Flat Jesus started by our children's ministry and reminded us that Jesus is with us everywhere we go.  We have a big flat Jesus who traveled with us for the day and we all got our own flat Jesus to keep.
We left for Indianapolis at 8 am and most of us slept all the way there.

 Our first stop was the 9/11 memorial.  One of the founding members of Project 9/11 (which set up the memorial) was on one of the first FEMA teams to arrive in New York. They had 2 of the beams from the trade center moved to Indianapolis.  It was a very special time we spent together as a group.

Our next stop was at the Indianapolis Motor Speedway  -  we got to explore the Hall of Fame and Museum as well as look at the track - because of the upcoming race - we were unable to take a lap around the track which was disappointing.

We then had lunch and went to the NCAA Hall of Champions - it was pretty neat.

We then got some different choices - we could go shopping at Center City Mall, check out the Rhythm! Discovery Center, or tour Lucas Oil Stadium

We closed out our day with dinner at the Hard Rock Cafe.

We wrapped up by playing some games back at the church (it didn't rain!!) and then closed with devotion:  Who is helping you hold your rope?

Tuesday Night

Today was a busy day!  We woke up bright and early and were lead in morning glow by Madison, Drew, and Elliott.  We got to wake up by doing the Cupid Shuffle as a reminder that whether we go to the right or to the left, God is with us wherever we go.

We split up and went to our worksites - Matthew 25, the mobile home park, Living Waters, and Ronald McDonald House.   Each group worked very hard all day.  

We grabbed dinner and then headed out to the Cincinnati Reds baseball game.  It was a lot of fun and tied when we left at the seventh inning!

We finished with devotion.  Starting with watching the espy award given to Devon Still of the Cincinnati Bengals.  You can watch his story here.

You can't spell CHALLENGE without CHANGE

We are ready to crash to prepare for our fun day in Indianapolis tomorrow!

Monday

Today we started bright and early to begin our week of mission.  We had breakfast and a quick morning glow led by Maggie, Emily, and Simon.  What will you do with the time you have?

We then split up into our work teams and went to our sites.  We are working at:

Matthew 25 Ministries - refurbishing old paint to send out to paint and decorate rebuilt homes following disasters.

Ronald McDonald House - feeding the families housed there.

Our Daily Bread - a soup kitchen in downtown Cincinnati

Hamilton Living Water - helping lead a day camp for at-risk children, youth and families within Hamilton's inner city.

Doing odd jobs and meeting with the people at a local mobile home park. 

After showers, we went to a Mexican restaurant for dinner and enjoyed fellowship together. 

We closed the night with a debrief of the day, meeting our new work teams for tomorrow, and journaling/reflection time.   We are ready to get some sleep to prepare for tomorrow.  

Sunday

Today was pretty crazy!  We got up bright and early for breakfast and went to the 9:15 worship service.  The pastor talked about being at a crossroads and we sang an awesome song
"Set a fire down in my soul
that I can't contain, that I can't control
I want more of you God, I want more of you God"

After worship we went to The Beach Waterpark. It rained.

We came back to a wonderful dinner of Spaghetti and Salad prepared by Bruce, Carol, Madison, Chelsea, Joe, Sam, and Jacob H. - Shout out to the parents who helped with that meal!

We learned a cool new game called GaGa that the church has a court for.  It rained on us then too.

We then met in our work teams and created prayers over maps of Cincinnati and listened to our theme song of the week "Do Something" by Matthew West.  You can check out the song here.

We had ice cream sundaes for National Ice Cream day and sang happy birthday to Jimbo - we miss you!

We hope you are following along with the prayer guide and keep checking the blog every day for updates!

Mission Trip 2015 Saturday

Well!  After an 11 hour drive (with stops) we are here!  Special thanks to CornerStone church for hosting us - their youth building is amazing!  After getting settled into our rooms - we went to Chick - Fil - A for dinner and were treated to ice cream at Graeters by Susanne Albright - Thanks Susanne!
We are back at the church enjoying a little free time before devotions and bed.

Saturday

Today we started our morning with a great breakfast of eggs, bacon, and tater tots.  Our morning session started with playing games including spike ball, corn hole, Kan Jam, and blanket volleyball.  We moved our session inside and talked about our stressors, stressed is desserts spelled backwards.  What are our high and lows in our personal lives? What aspects of our lives cause us the most stress?
We made sheets that listed our highs and our lows during prayer cups that fit in a travel mug.  Then we cover it up with a sheet with our theme for the week reminding us that God is greater than all of those things.  After lunch, we visited downtown Boone which was crowded in preparation for their home game.  We played some games before dinner and then enjoyed Lasagna and some really good Fried Zucchini! The evening started with the senior skit and our annual broom hockey game followed by a discussion about what we can do to be leaders in our community, how can we turn a low into a high?  We closed the evening with Senior Spotlight and some late night games.

Friday Night Pictures

Senior High Friday Night

Tonight we rolled in a little later after rain slowed us down on the way up.  Once we got settled in we began with a game of musical chairs with a twist.  Next Luke led us in the inaugural Valle Crucis decathlon.  Games included mini putt-putt, war, nerf darts, marshmallow building competitions, and basketball.  Group Four one with 20 points total.  We then introduced our theme God is Greater than the Highs and Lows using Romans 8:39 "Neither height nor depths shall separate us from the love of God".  We then picked from an assortment of coffee cups our favorites and discussed why we picked them and highs and lows of the week.  Laura showed us a video "Life is Like a Cup of Coffee"  - you can watch it Here . We talked about how we should always savor the coffee and not worry so much about the cup it is in.  We ended the night with coffee and dessert.  

Valle Crucis - Saturday Afternoon & Evening

We finished our previous post before we headed to the waterfall. Everyone hiked up the mountain to the waterfall, and some youth (and adults) polar-plunged. It's always a fun activity for everyone, and is a beautiful place. After the trip to the waterfall, we all got changed into dry clothes and headed up for dinner. After dinner, we started our evening session off with some music, including a rousing rendition of "This Little Light of Mine" to the beat of the cup song from "Pitch Perfect". Next, we played some games in the dark, including a game in the dark where we all had balloons tied to our ankles and were trying to pop other people's balloons while protecting our own, all illuminated by a strobe light. Then, we put on blindfolds and created a Lego version of something that reminds us of the light in small groups. Then, we talked about the darkness in our lives, and how sometimes we need the darkness in order to be able to see the light of Christ. We talked about situations that might put out the light of others, and how we can act in those situations to make sure that we keep the light of Christ shining. Then, we turned out the lights and did our traditional zilch prayer, which was amazing as always, and had impeccable timing with the song that we listened to, "Learning to be the Light" (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqs24i1RBQo). Then, we had the 8th grade spotlight, where we highlighted each of the 8th graders for their faithfulness and the special qualities that they each bring to the youth group. After the spotlight, we had a snack break, and then took a group up to the graveyard for spooky stories. :) Now, we're heading to bed since we've got an early morning tomorrow of breakfast, clean up, worship, and heading down the mountain for home.