Flyin' High

Well since this took place at the end of September, I should have posted about this quite a while back, but I failed to....so, now I am going to try and make up for the lost time as best I can. Prepare yourself...this is a doozy!

Some of you are familiar with the fact that Answers in Genesis, headed up by the familiar name of Ken Ham, has recently built a museum in Kentucky - the Creation Museum. If you want more information about Answers in Genesis or the Creation Museum visit their websites by clicking on their names.

So I had been thinking that taking our youth to this museum would be a great trip. But with the museum being about a 6 hour drive, this would have to be a weekend trip...or would it? While the thought of this trip had crossed my mind, it was not anywhere in my mind that Sunday morning in August when Mr. Scharbert (affectionately known by some as "Poppi Don") approached me at church with a great surprise. He wanted to take the youth to the Creation Museum...and he wanted to take them via a private jet. WHAT!? Are you kidding me!? Are you serious!? (These statements of course didn't come out of my mouth, but they were taking place in my mind). Of course the answer would be YES!, but first we had to work out the logistics.

The plane only held 9 people...our group consists of a few more than 9. How would we narrow this down in a fair way? Well, for the past year and a half now we have been having what we call "Worldview Nights" at CBC. At times (and currently) we have used DVD curriculum from Answers in Genesis for these worldview nights. So, we thought it would be good to use this trip as a reward for those who had been attending worldview nights - since this was kind of a worldview trip. So we looked at our Sr. High group (which we had already decided this trip would be for) and saw that we had 11 Sr. Highers who had been coming to Worldview Nights. But we also found out that 4 of these kids were going to be in Cincinnati (very close to the museum) at the end of September with their families for the season ending Cub series against the Reds. So after some planning, we worked it out so that we would be going on this trip that same weekend. The remaining 7 plus Mr. Scharbert and I made the the number on the plane 9.

Our Falcon!

All smiles and ready to fly!

Our 9 on the plane met up with the other 4 and their families at the museum and we all went through together. That Saturday, the museum was packed!

After watching the opening film, we headed off through the museum. The museuem covers the 7 C's of History - Creation, Corruption, Catastrophe, Confusion, Christ, Cross, and Consummation. The museum does a great job showing how the Biblical interpretation of science is supported by the evidence, and how we can trust the Bible in often debated issues such as what is says concerning the creation of the earth and a global flood. The museum walks us through the Biblical account of Genesis 1-11 with great life like looking figures and animatronics. But the great focus of Answers in Genesis and the museum is that when individuals come to realize the Bible can be trusted in areas like a literal 6 day creation and a real global catastrophic flood, it can also be trusted when it says that all men are sinners and that Jesus Christ died for our sins. It can be trusted when it says that salvation comes by grace through faith.

Today the authority of the Word of God is being attacked. A huge part of this attack is undermining the history of the Bible. Many today laugh at those who believe the earth is only 6-10,000 years old. Many laugh at those who believe God created everything out of nothing by speaking everything into existence. What about the dinosaurs? What about the Grand Canyon? How do you explain this or that? This museum helps to give solid answers to many of these questions and therefore helps equip believers to defend their faith as well as giving answers to unbelievers to show them the truth of the Bible. The musuem doesn't just deal with Genesis but also gives a clear gospel presentation explaining to each visitor their need for a Savior.

Methuselah - the oldest man to ever live - 969!
And boy does he look it!

A model of the ark

The sign Jess is touching reads, "Thou Shalt Not Touch".
Hmmm...I wonder if Rachel read that sign?

Obviously not...wherever do these kids learn to act like this?

Never mind!!

There was a lot of walking and reading involved...but it was great. We also got to visit the planetarium at the museum which was also phenomenal. I think our teens had a great time visiting the museum and being spoiled with the private jet ride. I would definitely recommend the museum to everyone and encourage you to try and go. I would like to get back myself.

Tired after a long day!

Thanks, Mr. Scharbert for an unforgettable day!

Encouraging Thought

Because of our position in Christ, we can never gain any more acceptance by God than we already have. We are accepted now as much as we can ever be.

"But how can this be when I sin?", we might ask. Because our acceptance is not based in ourselves but in Christ. We are not more accepted by God when we obey Him and less accepted when we disobey. If that was the case, then our acceptance would be based on our works. BUT IT IS NOT!! It is based on the finished redemptive work of Christ - something I cannot add to nor take from.

As humans this is hard to understand because our acceptance of others IS often based upon their works (deeds and actions). People ARE more accepted or LESS accepted in our sight based upon what they do. However, we cannot allow human ways to minimize God's ways and to cause us to have doubts that this is indeed our position in Christ - a position which does not change.

Stand firm on the truth of God's Word and KNOW that you are fully accepted in the sight of God if you are a believer!

Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, to the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the beloved. Ephesians 1:5-6 (KJV)

After its Kind...

This Friday night, November 16th at 6:30 p.m. we will continue with our worldview nights at Central Bible Church.

We are continuing our curriculum called Answers Academy from Answers in Genesis Ministries. This month we will watch a two part DVD series entitled, "After Its Kind: The Truth About Natural Selection". The teaching is done by Ken Ham.

Remember that afterwards, we will have a time of snacks and fellowship together. So if you can bring a snack to share that would be great. We will be finished with everything at 9:00 p.m.

I hope you can join us for this important time.

Sr. High Laser Tag

This coming Friday, November 9th, the Sr. High group will be going to Luigi's for a fun night of laser tag.

We will meet at CBC at 5:30 and eat dinner first thing. After that we will head to Luigi's for our check in, briefing, and one hour laser tag session. After we are done shooting each other with lasers, we will head back to CBC for some time in the Word of God. If we have time after all of this we may play some CTF (Capture the Flag) or FT (Flashlight Tag).

The cost is $6/person and medical release forms are required. Let me know if you are coming and if you are bringing any friends.

Hope to see you there!

Mississippi Monday

Wow, where have I been? Let's see we went to MS in July and now it is...NOVEMBER! Maybe I'm just a bit behind. So let's try and catch up a bit!

Monday started our real work week at FOA. Up to this point we had been seeing the sights and having fun with the RBC youth. Now it was time to work.

Breakfast for the guys (who chose not to sleep in) was at 6:30 a.m. At 7:30 a.m. on Monday-Friday we had class. Class? you may ask. Oh yeah! We had a Bible class from 7:30ish-9 or 9:30 every morning studying Basic Bible Doctrine by R.C. Barth. The guys at FOA study this during the two month program there. We were there for study 6: Basic Truths of the Faith - Grace, Faith, Justification, Assurance, Rewards. This was great week of study. We also had homework each day and a test at the end of the week. Thankfully, everyone passed and we didn't have to leave anyone there.

After our Bible study, we went to work. Monday's morning work - picking vegetables in the garden. Due to all the rain we experienced, it was rather muddy. However, we still managed to pick corn and peas. Rusty was our "work superintendent" for the week. He did a great job of keeping us busy and exposing our northern group to some good ole southern work. Thankfully for our group it was a rather cool (temperature) week.

Rusty in his pick em' up truck

Hollywood meets corn field

Practicing to take Vanna White's job

Pea Picking

The Kelly Dance

Kelly eating some really fresh corn

After working in the garden we got cleaned up for lunch and after that got back to work processing the corn. The good stuff went to the kitchen or the freezer; the bad corn went to the pigs. So we also got to go down and feed the pigs some of the corn.

The piggies eating corn

Kelly fearlessly feeding the pigs

After this we had a break for 15 minutes and the option to go to the store. Many in our group had their first taste of Blue Bell ice cream (how could you have survived so long without it?). During our breaks, usually a couple of the guys were on the porch playing guitar and singing and sometimes our group joined them or watched.

After break we headed out to the wood pile and moved it over about 10 feet and stacked it nicer while trying to dodge red wasps. This wasn't just something for us to do - the point of this was to make more room for the wood we would be chopping on Tuesday.

Wood pile after lots of work

After this Andrew and Jakob went and helped clean the pool while the rest of our group went back to our rooms to get cleaned up for dinner. Every weeknight at 5:30 we had dinner with the guys. And of course we had corn on Monday night. Monday night we went to Question and Answer from 7-8 p.m. This is a class for the guys to ask questions about the Bible and have them answered.

Dinner Time

Luke really liked corn on the cob!

After class, some headed to their rooms to "sleep" (a.k.a talk) while others went to continue their week long game of Risk. Lights out at 10:30 p.m. to get ready for another hard day of work on Tuesday.

A great Monday at FOA. See you tomorrow (of course that could be a few weeks or months away :)

Golf, Go Karts, and Go Cubs...

Last Saturday we went out to the Aurora Sports Zone (you know, the big white bubble) for a Sr. High activity.

This was no ordinary Saturday night activity though. Why you may ask. Because the Cubs were playing game 3 of the opening round playoff series against the Diamondbacks...and they were down 2 games to none. Basically, this could be the Cubs last game of the year. Now most of you know that within our group we have some Cubs fans and some Sox fans. And then we have some really hard core Cubs fans - like Melinda and Brad. Yes, I know there are others but these individuals took strides to listen to the game on the radio while eating, in the car ride and at the mini golf place (they actually had a TV going with the game on). And yet while these Cub fans could have stayed at home, they came anyway. I'm glad they did!

So we started the night with subs, chips, and pop. Then we headed straight for the "bubble". We started out with a round of golf. Some were serious, others not so much, but that was fine. We did have some nice swarms of gnats to greet us.

After 18 holes of golf we headed for the go karts. The thing about the go karts is that some are faster than others. The one I was in, not so fast. In fact I got passed by a few people including Jess who started behind me and Dan who started way in front of me. Basically Rick and I had slower carts and just "brother in lawed" it the whole way.

The ligthouse

Hey, how did your ball get in the grass

After go karts we headed back to the church for some ice cream (thanks Mr. Sadler) and a devotion on some of the Proverbs. After the devo we had just enough time for a game of flashlight freeze tag before heading home.

We had a great time (I think and hope)...but, the Cubs lost. So as hard as we were pulling for them, they could not pull it out and to that we can only say..."There's always next year".

Let's try this again...

Ok, so I know that some people come and check in at this blog to see if anything is updated and has been said as of late. Obviously you all know that as of late - ok for a long time now (like the end of August) this blog has not been updated.

I have a lot to catch up on, but rather than try to catch up on it all at once and miss out on new stuff going on, I am going to try to intermingle some posts. So you may see a MS trip post intermingled with October stuff and so forth.

Please forgive me for my unfaithfulness to my blog...I will try to continue to post some new stuff.

Last Summer Wednesday

Well, our summer Wednesday night Bible study is over. We will take next week off before beginning Awana on September 12th.

We had a great summer filled with many fun times and I hope for you a profitable Bible study in the book of Colossians (even though we barely made it into chapter 2). I hope you also enjoyed the times of prayer we had together each night through the year. I cannot stress enough how important prayer and Bible study are for our individual lives; not just for a Wednesday night Bible study.

I thought I would include a video clip of our last night playing volleyball for you all to enjoy.

Our last night just happened to also be Jess' 16th birthday. So we made a cake to celebrate our summer and her birthday (and many other birthdays too). We had made a car cake for Luke's 1st birthday since he likes cars so much, so we thought we could put it to good use for Jess too concerning a certain phrase about cars that she likes so much. Thanks a ton to Brittany for making the cake! Here are some pics.

Yeah, so the last one was due to a little cupcake in the face after Bible study. Jess will be smelling funfetti for the next few days.

Anyway, thanks for coming to Bible study throughout the summer. Hope you enjoyed it!

CBC Kids Karnival

We had a really great day on Saturday at Kids Karnival and we were thankful to the Lord for the nice weather he gave us.

Since blogger now provides opportunities to upload video clips...and since I took some, I thought I would share them with you. I'll try to post more pics later.

Here is Jess getting dunked by Brad. Ha Ha!

Ok, I guess I'll include this one too!

The Big TeePee!

Well, Sunday didn't take as long to get to in real life on our trip as it did in this post, but it is finally here!

On Sunday we attended Riverwood Bible Church for Sunday School and the Morning Worship service. Some of the members of our group (Alyson, Jess, Jakob, Liz, Rachel, Kathleen, and Elisa) had the opportunity to do special music at Riverwood. They played and sang "Grace Alone". And they did a really good job!

It is hard to see everyone, but this is our group performing at Riverwood.

We also had the opportunity to hear Pastor Jerry Clark continue his study on prayer, which I enjoyed very much as I always enjoy listening to Pastor Clark teach.

At the end of the service we stood in the back of the church and folks greeted us as they walked out. Some of our group got hugs and the "arm grab". I think some people were a little taken back by those arm grabs. But Riverwood is a touchy type of church and in the South sometimes are a little different anyway. There is lots of hugging (appropriately) and stuff amongst friends and in the body of Christ. And the girls met Mrs. Scarbrough (Mr. Michael Scarbrough's (from CBC) mom).

After church we went back to FOA changed clothes and went to Big D's BBQ for lunch. Big D's is just a couple miles from FOA and not too far from our Catfish Haven stop on Saturday. Big D's is located next to a railroad track and has the slogan "Good Enough to Stop the Train" and apparently it has before as the engineers stop the train on the tracks and go in for a bite to eat. On the day we were there, however, a few trains went by without stopping.

Big D's does have good BBQ, but one of the interesting parts about the place is that the dining room is the inside of a TeePee. Now this is no regular TeePee made from animal skins or what have you. This one is made from a much harder material the thing is big enough to hold like 40-50 people. There are many Native American flags hanging from the ceiling and cool things painted on the walls. So it was pretty fun and good tasting. And they had pretty good pie too.

The TeePee doesn't look that big from outside but inside...

...it actually is quite large and includes many Native American flags

and a chandalier made out of antlers.

I just thought this was a cool picture.

After lunch we headed back to FOA to just hang out until the evening service at Berean. A few of the girls went to my sister's (Amy) house for a makeover. Amy is a Mary Kay makeup person and she was "practicing" on the girls. Sounds scary but the makeovers turned out good. Some of the others went swimming and others did, well, "other stuff".

I guess this is some "copycat" picture of the JB's that UI did after their makovers.

On Sunday night, we had the evening service at Berean. We sang some worship choruses that Jess played for. We also had some special music by Elisa and Kathleen and Liz. Warren did some magic for the guys and used it to present the gospel and talk about the Christian life. I gave a short (ok, we know that's not true) lesson from part of our study in Colossians on Wednesday nights (so obviously it was from chapter 1). We had a really good time doing all of that.

Elisa played "Amazing Grace".

After church, we headed back to the Philemon house for pizza and "coke". Then we played capture the flag outside until 10 p.m. Matt Sprayberry (my really good friend) came out and joined us. He was on the team with many of the crazy girls so they called themselves - Team ADHD. That is an understatement. No one won, we ran out of time. It was pretty hard in the dark with unfamiliar territory for most people playing.



After that we went in, got cleaned up, and headed to bed. We had to get up early in the morning to start the week!

Another fun day had passed; many more to come.