Kaylee Howell won the contest.  Congrats, Kaylee!  Everybody else, be checking back often for others. 

-Mike

I've recently been planning summertime events for Summer '07.  It's not the easiest thing to do.  Besides the yearly summer camp at Tanglewood and Six Flags trips, I feel we really need to do both a mission trip and some type of wilderness trip.  To better expose our students to different types of trips, we've decided not to do either the Mexico Mission Trip (that we did in '04 and '06) or Wilderness Trek ('05).  We're looking at several options like Group Workcamps or maybe a wilderness trip with Noah's Ark.  After a lot of prayer, that's where I'm leaning right now, anyway.  Those are both relatively inexpensive and yet entirely planned out.  It helps when they're already planned by the sponsoring organization because we as leaders can focus on creating/fostering relationships with students instead of running around worrying about logistical stuff (food, lodging, contacts, etc.). 

Just in case anybody wants to know, this planning isn't just a "that looks cool so let's do it" kind of process.  We try to be as purpose-driven as possible when doing this.  It all goes back to why we exist as a youth ministry.  For example, if we go with the events we're planning now, here's how each event fits with each purpose:

     Tanglewood Camp - discipleship (grow)

     Mission Trip - ministry (give)

     Wilderness Trip - fellowship (connect)

     Six Flags - evangelism (share)

Of course, other purposes are hit at each event, but the ones listed above are the primary purposes for the event.  It may or may not be obvious, but it works.  And if anybody's wondering, the Worship purpose gets hit several other times throughout the year. 

So please start praying for Summer '07!  Have a great Wednesday!

-Mike

Super-Duper Online Contest:  The first high school student that calls me at 731-0064 can bring themselves and 3 other friends over to our house Saturday night to cook out over an open fire.  S'mores are inlcuded. 

The Advance is just over a week away.  I've been talking to our speakers who are coming and going over what's going to happen.  It's gonna be an awesome weekend.  I encourage everybody to make sure you're there.  Be praying for the weekend!!

-Mike

Up to now, I've been worried that Primal Quest was going to have weather that was too hot...we'd all be miserable.  But no worries about that now...looks like we're gonna have some really cool weather this weekend...and maybe some rain!  While that will make for a crazy (and messy) weekend, it will be very memorable!  :-)   

I'd like to go into details about what Kyle and I have been talking about...but it's all a big secret at this point.  All I can say is...it's gonna be a fun weekend and I'm really looking forward to what happens.  I'll be sure to post more after the weekend's over. 

Operation Christmas Child is going on right now.  How cool is it that you can give a kid around the world an awesome present for only $7 and the cost of the stuff to fill it?!  Every single person at HighPoint (both young and old) should be filling up at least one shoebox.  That's my prayer, anyway. 

-Mike 

Sunday night's worship night really was a sign of things to come.  The leaders did awesome, Caleb had an excellent testimony that caused plenty of discussion, and everybody felt free enough to be truly involved in worshipping our Awesome God.  Very cool.  Thanks to all who helped with both the preparation and the execution of this night! 

I say it's a sign of things to come in that the students were the ones who pulled it off.  And when youth are the ones planning a worship night for other youth, life is good. 

I've got a lot of random thoughts today.  Here's a sampling:

• Primal Quest is getting here fast...and it's gonna be cool.
• The Advance is getting here fast...and it's gonna be cool.
• Operation Christmas Child is already here...I hope everybody fills up a shoebox!
• Helping people in real need is an awesome thing.
• Texas plays OU this weekend...I don't think it'll be 45-12 again this year.
• The Area Youth Pastor's meeting is this Saturday at HPF...that's really taking off.
• Melissa is getting really good at soccer...it's hard to steal the ball from her now.
• I really need to get on my bike.
• Jeanne-Mari is doing the lesson this Sunday night so I bet it's good.
• My good friend Nathan Allan is on a Walk to Emmaus this weekend...it should rock his world.
• I've been extremely pumped up by how our students are moving from being 'attenders' to being 'leaders.'
• God is good, all the time.

Enough of that.  It's a busy time of year and getting busier.  Just gotta make sure to keep taking that individual God-time...it's amazing how that makes the everyday load lighter!  Have a great day,

-Mike