Your Favorites

All right, so I have recently added some music to this blog for you to enjoy while you read about what is going on. I have included about 30 songs so far; I can include up to 100 - not that I will, but I could. These 30 (besides Toby Mac and Switchfoot - those are two I know the youth like) are songs I enjoy. I realize that not everyone likes the same music as me - surprise, surprise.

So if you come to this blog and have a favorite Christian song or two that you would like me to include in the playlist, leave me a comment, and if they have it available I will add it. Then when you come here you can go to the bottom of the page and click on the song you like.

By the way, this is a free playlist. If any of you are interested in making one and adding it to your blog or facebook or something, just follow the link off the bottom of the playlist and get started. It is pretty cool.

Enjoy!

SHEETROCK!!

The renovations continue and now the sheetrock is up. Its up, its taped, and its floated. The process continues... Here are some pics:

Stay tuned for more updates.

Youth Tshirts

A few weeks ago, Elisa approached me about having a CBC youth Tshirt. I told her that I would consider it if she made it. So she wasted no time. She took a youth brochure home and the very next day at VBS came up to me with her ideas.

The theme for the youth ministry is "Building a Framework on the Foundation of Christ". One of the verses in the brochure is Colossians 2:6-7: "So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in Him, ROOTED and BUILT UP in Him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." (NIV).

So Elisa came up with the thought for the shirt to be "Rooted in Christ; Growing in Him" for the youth. I must say that I loved it. She wanted to use a tree with some cool roots for the image, but also a tree that was full of life representing that fruit was being produced. So she set out to draw that tree herself and did a great job.

After a couple of weeks of her working on the designs and fonts on a really cool website, and going back and forth with her on ideas, we narrowed it down to two designs and colors and took a vote last night at Bible study.

Here is design 1:

Front: Tree graphic with the verse

Back: Well, I won't insult your reading ability by typing it out

Here is design 2:

Front: Tree graphic with the motto

Back: Verse and "Central Bible Church Youth"

And these are the 2 colors to choose from. After a poll of quite a few people it seems that design 2 is leading the voting and that the grayish color is also leading. We still haven't polled everyone, so we'll have to wait and see.

Thanks Elisa for a great idea and a great job with all the work. And she has gotten it here in about 2 weeks. We'll let you know what the final decision is.

Renovation Update

Okay, work has resumed on the youth room.

The walls have been cleaned to get rid of the mold that was growing in some areas. They have also been painted in those areas that had a problem with a paint that is supposed to prevent future molding - hopefully it works.

In addition the studs have been put up over the existing block walls as we will be sheet rocking those walls - that will definitely make it easier to hang things.

So here are some more pictures of the latest work:

I'll try to keep you posted on further advancements in the process.

Honoring our High School Graduates

On Sunday, June 8th, we had the opportunity to honor our 3 high school graduates - Melinda Hernandez, Brad Mulligan and Matt Stelter. These are 3 great kids...uhmm..excuse me...young adults. I am very thankful for their focus as they are graduating - each of them is looking the Lord for guidance and wisdom. As far as colleges are concerned, Melinda will be doing Moody Correspondence courses, Brad will be going to Emmaus Bible College in Iowa, and Matt will be attending Waubonsee for a year before deciding what to do next.

We had the opportunity to give them some Bible study books as a graduation gift for them. Hopefully these will prove helpful for them as they continue to study God's Word. Studying God's Word is key for us to know God and cultivate a personal relationship with Him that in turns produces fruit in our lives that honors Him.

To celebrate, we let the seniors decide where they wanted to go for lunch and the whole Sr. High group went with them and their families. This year they decided on Famous Daves. Since they had just built one in Oswego, this worked out great. I had never been to Famous Daves before, but I thought the had really good food. So we had a great time there.

Now I know that a really good youth pastor would have a picture of the three seniors together; but alas, what can I say - I don't! I wish I did but I don't. I don't even have a good picture of each of them throughout this special day. So I am sorry for that. But here are a few pictures that we did have.

Matt - obviously bewildered or concerned about something

Sorry guys - I caught Brad with a mouth full; and Jess looks grouchy

It's not that funny Mr. Mulligan

This was our awesome waitress - 1 waitress for 23 people -
no mistakes and full glasses consistently - AWESOME!

Let's see, what to say, what to say -
are we really surprised with this picture?

Sorry, I couldn't resist putting in a picture of my son -
he's a cutie! (I mean manly)

So congratulations seniors! We will miss you, but you won't be too far away - and we'll make sure to keep in touch with you. And of course, we will be praying for you.

Awana Awards Night

So since no new work has been done on the youth room to report today, I thought I would once again go back a little ways and update you on the things that I failed to update you on previously.

Our Awana Awards Night was held on May 7th. While there were many awards given out that night I am mainly going to focus on the Trek (Jr. High) and Journey (Sr. High) awards since this is the YOUTH Blog.

The Meritorious Award is given to an individual who has completed 6 handbooks (4 TnT, and 2 Trek in our case). This year we had 5 recipients of the Meritorious Award - Becca Arnold, Katie D'Argento, Jenn D'Argento, Johnny DeVries, and Ryan Stelter. They did a lot of hard work to earn this award and have memorized many verses. Congratulations to them on a great job.

Katie receiving her Meritorious Award

The Citation Award is the "granddaddy of them all". This award is given to an individual who has completed 10 handbooks (4 TnT, 2 JV [now called Trek], and 4 Journey books in our case).

The Citation is the final award in Awana and few continue on this far to receive this award. The recipients of the Citation Award have put in a lot of hard work. This award also signifies responsibility and dedication. The real reward is not the plaque that is received (although it is certainly nice) but the growth in God's Word and the commitment of God's Word to memory. For the Citation Award, we ask the parents to present this award to the kids. It is very special for them to do that. Not only have the recipients of this award put in a lot of hard work, but so have their parents who have helped and encouraged them along the way to achieve this goal.

This year we had 2 seniors who received this Award - Melinda Hernandez and Brad Mulligan. They were the first group to achieve this award who were in Cubbies through Journey at CBC. Great job guys!!

Brad and Melinda with their parents

Melinda with her Citation Award

Brad with his Citation Award

Congratulations to all who worked hard in Awana last year. See you next year!

4th of July Church Picnic

We had a great church picnic on July 4th at Don Scharbert's farm in Oswego. It was a full afternoon and night of fun.

There were games to play - football, volleyball, soccer, frisbee, bean bag toss, washer toss, wiffle ball and other games. Tom Schmidt brought out some of his rockets and launched them - that kept many busy finding the rockets in the corn fields.

There was great food. Fay's BBQ catered the event for us and provided some great BBQ.

There was also some great entertainment and speaking. We had a man playing the accordion for us throughout the evening, the DeVries provided some great music, Warren provided a great magic act for us, and Steve provided some fun Independence Day trivia. Marv also gave us an ecnouraging word from the Word of God.

Here are some pictures from the day.

Now that's a grill!

Serving up some BBQ

Breaking in the new fireplace and patio

I think this was the kids' table

Those kids look kinda big to be in the moonwalk

The accordion player playing on the porch

The Kaboda - our ride from our parked cars

Some football in the big yard

Rachel in the corn - kind of like Field of Dreams for volleyball

Preparing the rockets

Laurel, Grace and Chelsea sporting their patriotic colors

Jess' mullberry foot - yuck!

Thanks Mr. Scharbert for a great Independence Day!

Aaahhhh, FREEDOM!

Hope you have a great celebration on this 4th of July as we celebrate our country's independence. Remember it did not come without a cost. Many men and women have sacrificed their lives for our nation and many continue to do so. I am thankful for our freedom in this country and especially as it relates to our religious freedom.

As we think about freedom, we can also think of our freedom in Christ. We have been freed from the slavery of sin. Sin no longer is our master. We have a new master if we have placed our faith in Christ. Some would say that if I have a master that is not freedom. However, we will always have a master as Romans 6 tells us. We are either a slave to God or a slave to ourselves. Being a slave to God and obeying Him is true freedom. Being a slave to self is bondage in sin.

Have a great day celebrating your freedom as an American and your freedom as a believer.

Day 2 of Youth Room Renovations

The rest of the original wall is gone and the new wall is framed. Here are some pictures.

Stay tuned for more updates!