Numbers

Busy Month! Baby should be here soon, and that adds to the business. Two club stories to bring up. We did an event called bigger and better.This is where we drive students around in small groups 4-8, and barter with people in the various neighborhoods of the community. I gave each group a spinning top, worth 5cents, and they then must trade that for something bigger and better than the top. With each item traded the students proceed to another house and repeat the process. It teaches the kids a thing or two about value, the giving nature of human beings, and how to approach strangers. It is funny to watched the mixed groups, of guys and girls, as the guys figure out pretty quickly that the girls usually have a higher success rate when they are the ones doing the talking. Needless to say the group that returns with the biggest and best item is the winner.

The group I had ended up winning. What did all the trading produce? My group ended up with an old cell phone and a classic bicycle (worth well over a hundred dollars). Other groups produced a small flat of Gatorade, two video games, a inflatable queen mattress, and a book (this group got stuck with three trades that were all hats). I had each group pick another group besides themselves that they believed to be the winner. Imagine my shock when my group as winner had the opportunity to pick their prize and initially picked the Gatorade. Is your item really the biggest and best? They relented and took the bike.

The event proved to be some problem as we had enough car space for about 22 students which means of course 26 show up. Which means we do some delicate "recalculations" of vehicle seating capacity. This ofcourse makes it all the more amusing when your kids get a bike. "How are we going to get this back Skyeler?" My simple reply, Figure it out. The ride back to the highschool was interesting. This was a good bonding time for my volunteer staff and myself with the students.

Last weeks club I expected numbers to be down with football continuing (falcons in quarterfinals in State football) and basketball starting. 26 students showed up to club. I will upload pictures of this club in another post. The problem I need prayer for is volunteers. As numbers pick up the relational ministry of Jesus Christ through campus life becomes strained. We get too many students to keep up with. I love numbers and would rather have this problem than no students, but want to serve them the best we can. They get the gospel presented to them, but in order to discuss it with an adult or student leader there needs to be enough to go around.

Dodgeball is about to begin, and we had our first practice/tryout Tuesday. I may have 2-3 teams worth of students. I look forward to this opportunity to build relationships with these students through coaching.

Commandos and club

  The last two weeks has seen a considerable amount of new students to campus life. 45 participated in commandos (along with 8 adult volunteers). I had the venerable Ken Brougher drive bus for me at this event, and have had Sheila and Mike drive buses for me before. One we had the students on the bus we headed to Oak Island Park in Veneta. Commandos is a giant game of tag that takes place throughout the city. Students had to navigate themselves to Veneta Elementary without being caught. If you are wondering, yes I do notify law enforcement that a significant group of kids will be running from people with noodles in Veneta.
  Last years winner decided that he was bragging how he was going to win again. As soon as we dropped everyone off at the park I got off the bus a couple blocks down the street. This particular student happened to be the first to come around the corner. He saw me 3 feet from him and yelled an expletive. He proceeded to run down the sidewalk about a block before I overtook him. All in all he was public enemy number one, all my staff decided he needed some humbling. He had fun and ended up making it during our second round.
  We have many stories of adults jumping out of cars (not moving) and surprising students, and we had one adult riding on a bike. We made it supremely difficult for students to make it to the elementary school. The event was a ton of fun but also influenced the numbers at club the following week (yesterday). We had 18 students at club with many regulars missing due to sports and homework. So if you wonder why we do such crazy events it is to connect with the students and invite them to events where we can further share the gospel.
  I also happened to lose my wallet at the event, it fell out of my pocket. I was blessed by the fact that someone put it in a mailbox, albeit without the five dollar bill that was previously placed in the wallet. The postmaster gave it to Roger Soverns, owner of the Farmstore, who gave it back me. This was a huge blessing and answer to prayer. It made me praise God for many reasons, especially not having to go to the DMV.
  ---Also a quick note that Minute to Win It at lunch is going well. Had a few technical difficulties last week, but all should be good to go this week. Minute to Win It is a game-show on NBC and during lunch in the cafeteria I have students from the student body compete for prizes. I also show highlights of the previous weeks football game.---

What What What!

 Needless to say Rap/HipHop night was a blast. I went old school! We talked during the night about messages the world gives us. The kids did a Rap Off (take the mic and make up a rap to different beats with mostly comical lyrics) and we had a game where they choose to eat different desserts. Only one dessert was actually good, but didn't look appealing, while the other two looked okay but tasted like poo. I used their messages in rap and the food to show that sometimes we listen to things that have no value, but once we taste the truth we don't need to keep tasting or listening to false messages. I then pointed to several things we hear in the world and pointed to what God has to say about them in His Word.
Commandos is quickly approaching (an event that is like a massive game of tag). Take the kids on a bus and drop them off with instructions to get to a certain location without getting caught, usually has good numbers (pray for good weather).

Six Flags was a success and was great for building relationships with the seven students that came on the trip. Found out about a couple students who have some serious issues they deal with at home so please be praying.

Numbers

If we go by the numbers the last couple weeks have been amazing. 44 middle schoolers showed up from the Fern Ridge area for the all nighter. Besides getting to present the gospel message to them, I get a kickback for the club account so I can spend money back on the students. It is a win win win. I had 25 students attend Club last week for fear factor. While the numbers can waiver for club, my contacts with students on campus is 4x that amount. I talk to more than a 100 students, but only keep up with about that many. I depend on my volunteers to make some out of school contact. I have 7 students scheduled to go to six flags, of which, only one has been to a club on a Monday. Each event draws a different kind of student/kid and I am grateful for the diversity in events Campus Life can offer.

Below is a picture from the middle school all nighter, where we had around 1100 middle school students total. We seperate them into three groups and rotate them between three locations (First Baptist, YMCA, and Skateworld).

 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Above, a couple pictures from fear factor club are displayed. We have for the last couple clubs talked about our fears and the things we carry around in our lives (hurts, anger, un-forgiveness). I have been taking advantage of a couple videos, since we have use of the YFC projector, and hope to continue to get these students to open up. One of my students said "forgiving others isn't hard, forgiving yourself is." I hope they all engage the content on that level.

Club Kickoff

Just had the first Club of the year and it was a bit a of a rough day. Club was great and I loved meeting the parents that showed up. Even got a parent involved in a game and he lead the teens to victory. I had pastor Larry help on the BBQ, and again the way this guy supports me is enough encouragement to overcome any rough spots in the day. My staff is a gift from God. They have really stepped up as we enter the school year, and are reaching out and making connections with the students, I wish I could give each one of them a million dollars.

11 students showed up to club, and it was a bit of a busy Monday for several others who informed me that they were most likely to make the fear factor club next week. Two new students to club!

While club numbers are a bit below expectation, I believe they will improve. The connections I have made on campus have been amazing this week. I no longer am required to carry a guest pass on campus, I am volunteering a bit with three different teachers and will be working with youth after school at homework club. I pray that God just continues to plug me in where I am needed and that I can be available to support students spiritually and be a light on the campus. Times the 11 students at club by ten and that is about how many students I have had more than a simple sentence conversation with. Pray that God keeps opening doors and that these students find or go deeper in relationship with Jesus and experience his saving grace.

The rough spots include not being able to find my electronic cables before club in the box I had specifically put them in. I guess I couldn't find the cables, upon further review of that last sentence, because I couldn't find the box either. So I was off to Bi-Mart to buy some cheap cables, which put me a bit behind schedule, So I didn't have the forms to put on the entry table to give students information for facebook or Breakfast Club. I went to plug in my mic to the sound system to discover that someone had crushed the mic, and the back up mic, and the XLR cord was missing. These small things however were just small inconveniences. They did not stop me from telling the students that we are there to share what Jesus has done in our (myself +volunteers) lives and help them discover what He can do in theirs.


Here is the flier of events that the students receive.

Camp revisited

Camp has been over for a while, but we just reunited some of our campers before school started and played a slideshow of their exploits with over 500 photos to choose from. Whether it was the lemonade relay, steal the bacon, noodle wars, canoeing, capture the flag, ultimate Frisbee in the dark, water wars, worship, or whatever; camp was a huge success. Not only did these kids get a chance to have fun, but they got a chance to let their guard down and connect with myself and my staff. They had an opportunity to see what it looks like when people care, to experience how Jesus cares for them, and also to hear the gospel.

I have been planning my butt off for this upcoming school year. I am planning on gathering the communities middle school students for the all nighter that campus life does for them. With no middle school director or program in Elmira it may be difficult, but these kids need the same opportunities to hear the gospel. I pray that someone would step up to run a program at the middle school. As I always pray for more volunteers to also help with the high school program.

Some of the added events will be retreats this coming winter. One for the girls with my female volunteer staff. More than one dodgeball team from Elmira. A highschool all nighter and an Amtrak train trip to go shopping before Christmas. These are some of the relationship building events we are adding.

Camp

We had an amazing camp experience! I took four kids (3 girls 1 boy) from Campus Life and mixed them with 31 kids from my church and a church in Salem. I was in charge of games and my staffers Dennis and Aleck were counselors for two cabins. I will attach more pictures when I get them., especially the dumping of the slime (a mixture of vegetable juice, whipped cream, oats, water, and jello powder). The losers of one of the games got dumped on, plus a few select campers. The stuff smelled nasty!
We have a couple cabin shots, a game of steal the bacon (the one where everyone is in a pile), and Michelle and Gabi trying to get over the wall in the three legged race.

Awesome VBS

Just had an amazing partnership opportunity last week to help out with VBS at Olivet Baptist Church in Veneta. Got to work alongside some pretty amazing high school students as well. I can see these students making an impact on their highschool campus next fall! Was just thinking about it this week and getting excited!

On a side note my wife is doing well with her pregnancy. She is starting to show, and this excites a couple of my students enough to prompt the warning from Tracy 'no touching'.
I also ran into Eilidh, the Veneta United Methodist pastor and her family at the gym. Completely random side notes but this is Elmira Campus Life and 'Stuff'.

Kickball/Vacation

  Kickball had a low turnout and was rained out last week. I mean seriously a rain-out? Turnout was low because many of my students are traveling. From Washington, South Carolina, England, and to Germany, they have literally scattered to the corners of our planet. Pray for safety and a fun interchange of stories for these kiddos when they return.

  I enjoyed my mini vacation. I drove to Seattle for a long awaited X-Mas present. I got to watch the Seattle Sounders take on the New York Red Bulls. I was slightly disappointed because the best player on the Red Bulls was out of the game for a red card in the prior match, but Seattle made up for that dissappointment by winning a thrilling game 4-2. I then drove from Seattle to Bend for a Bachelor party and wedding of my friend Keith.
  I just finished a week of VBS at Olivet Baptist Church and am looking forward to paintballing and kickball in the next couple weeks.

It is about time for kickball

  Kickball begins tomorrow and I am excited for the first activity of the summer season. I am coming off some recent frustration because the fax machine is not faxing my insurance documents for upcoming paintball sessions and I broke one of our hideous cutting boards trying to make coupon booklets.I hope they don't dock my paycheck for doing them a favor!

  Yesterday I had a lovely time presenting the vision for Campus Life for Elmira in Veneta at the United Methodist Chruch. I was also blessed to present the sermon on ministering in the spirit.  It was also the first time I have ever been called reverend. I have been called Pastor, Minister, Crazy, Rabbi, and a few different expletives while driving but this was the first for being called reverend. 
  It is a privledge to go to the churches that support me. I have spoken at Fern Ridge Christian Church (where breakfast club is hosted) and have a true partner in Larry Gaskin, have given the Baccalaureate for Crow before Pastor Scott too his sabbatical, and I will be volunteering at VBS with Olivet Baptist next week. I still need to get over to Veneta Alliance, Fern Ridge Faith Center, and Open Bible. I am truely blessed by the support the aforementioned churches and look forward to our summer season together.

Events that are being promoted for summer!

Pray for camp and the myriad of events I have planned for Summer. I am planning Kickball right now, which some students are excited about. A few students think it is lame, but most of those see the baseball diamond and state that hate baseball. I enjoy asking what does the big red ball have to do with baseball, to which they ask if we are playing dodge-base-ball. Though the students have been receptive it is hard to tell how they will respond once summer hits.

Brock and I have made some progress towards a paintball area at the Fox's home in Noti. I am glad they are willing to host us and glad that I can benefit another campus life program as well as my own. I have collected names at the high school for paintballing, but Kickball is open field. I also have a last day bash at Dairy Queen. We will see how many students show up and if I can completely drain my club account. I will keep you up to date on how these events shape up.

You can see by the above picture not a lot is up.

New Blog

Welcome to what I hope will be a more inclusive way to connect with supporters of the Campus Life ministry at Elmira High School. The monthly news letters don't afford me the adequate space to communicate the less pressing information that I also find relevant to the ears of my supporters.

For instance when my volunteer Aleck Thompson broke his arm while running down the street chasing a kid for a game, that news simple ends up in the prayer column because I have more pressing information. With this blog I have enough time to explain the whole story and the blessing God has bestowed through the accident. I came around the corner to witness the same student who was running stop and help Aleck. I was impressed with the good heart of this student to stop and help (also to let the game come second). The student finished second in the game and believes he would have finished first, however in my mind he finished first. Aleck broke his radius and twisted all the ligiments in his left arm. He was in severe pain and we rushed him to the ER.

God has blessed Aleck with good insurance (and we would reimburse whatever his insurance didn't cover). The encouraging part comes with the bond and "street cred" this gives Aleck with the students. They love him and the student he was chasing keeps apologizing, though he did nothing wrong. Aleck has continued with his job virtually unimpeeded. Though he elected to have the screw taken out of his arm without medication. Imagine a doctor pulling out pliers and yanking with all he has to pull a screw out of bone. Not only that but the doctor got tired and had to rest half-way through.

I plan to share stories like this and provide more in depth detail from stories in the newsletter so keep posted.