Jr. High Swim Party

Hey Jr. Highers, don't forget about the swim/pool party at the Schmidt's home tomorrow night, July 1st. We will meet at 4 pm at the Schmidts and be finished around 8 pm.

We will also have some outside of the pool games and we will have dinner there. Hope you can come. And hopefully the weather will cooperate with us. See you there.

Worldview Night...

Tonight is our monthly Sr. High/Jr. High Worldview Night. Parents are also invited to attend.

Tonight we will begin a new video series by Ravi Zacharias, an internationally well known Christian apologists whom God has gifted in a miraculous way to defend the Christian faith. Many times he makes hard questions seem so simple, and he shows the consequences that take place when you take a thought to its logical conclusion.

The video series is entitled, "Deliver Us From Evil; Restoring the Soul in a Disintegrating Culture". This series is made up of 13 sessions. We will view 4 sessions tonight, 4 next month, and the final 5 in September. Although this is an older video series (1997), it still contains a lot of applicable discussion for today. I think the Lord can use this series in a great way as we continue to focus on this subject of worldviews.

After the video sessions we will probably play a few games and have some snacks. Hope you can make it and make sure you don't check your brain at the door. Your definitely going to need it tonight!

Jr. High VBS...

Last week was VBS. And this year we decided to do something a little different. We decided to do a "special" VBS for our Jr. High group (6th-8th) grade.

While we still had singing, crafts, games, verses, and Bible lessons; they were a little more tailored to the Jr. High mind and a little bit olderish.

So we had a great week. Mr. Wick and Mr. DeVries did a great job leading us in songs every morning. We had a great opportunity to bring visitors to fill up our 3 gallon water pot in order to earn a pizza party on Friday (by the way, over half of it was full after Monday). We also raised just over $40 for the orphanage in Russia. And adding that to what the rest of the VBS groups brought in, we will be able to give a gift of close to $300 to them. Praise the Lord.

And we had more friends come than I expected (by the way, Becca won the prize for bringing the most friends). One day we had 20 Jr. Highers crammed into our youth room. It was great.

Each day we memorized verses focused on a different aspect of our lessons. Throughout the week we focused on God's love.

Monday - God's love is giving. - we saw this in the fact that He sent Jesus Christ into this world as a baby to pay the price for our sins.

Tuesday - God's love is kind. - we saw this in the way Jesus dealt with Jairus, whose daughter was very sick and then died, and the way He dealt with the lady with a bleeding problem she had for 12 years.

Wednesday - God's love is caring - we saw this in the way Jesus dealt with the Samaritan woman.

Thursday - God's love is forgiving - Jesus forgave Zacchaeus

Friday - God's love is forever - Jesus is alive today after being raised from the dead

We had some good Bible study time and some good questions throughout the time.

Thanks also to Mrs. Sadler and Mrs. Schmidt who cam up with some great crafts for us. And Mr. Rios and Jakob who had some good games for us (we won't mention anything about water balloons). We also had a couple of hunts. On Thursday we had a treasure hunt around the church property. There were 16 clues that had to be solved to find the treasure. Congrats to Kathleen, Elisa, Josh, and Alonte on finding the treasure. And then on Friday we had a photo scavenger hunt where we travelled around Aurora and had to take pictures of signs that had anything to do with our theme SonTreasure Island. The kids did a great job with that. Congrats to Alonte, Amonte, Brandon, Elisa, and Liz on barely winning that hunt.

So thanks to all who came and brought friends and thanks to all who helped (especially Mr. and Mrs. DeVries and Mr. Wick). Maybe we can do it again next year.

Camping Trip Report...

Well, the Sr. High camping trip went very well, despite some bad weather.

We had a great time hanging out through a long weekend and doing all sorts of things like swimming, playing games, making smores, and eating good; and of course playing some practical jokes. (I don't know who that person is wrapping up the tent).

And the Lord was watching over us as always. Friday morning the hostess of the campground told us that a big storm was supposed to be coming in that night. They allowed us to stay in the cabins that night for the same price as tent camping just so we could be safe. That was wonderfully nice of them and it kept us much drier because it rained all night. And about 3 a.m. or so a huge tree fell down just behind our cabins. It woke us up, but thankfully it didn't do any damage.

And we came back a little earlier than we expected on Saturday due to the dreary weather. But we had a great time (at least I think everyone had a great time) and it was fun to spend a couple of days together as a group in the "wild". (Not too wild, they did have nice bathrooms).

Sr. High Camping

Sr. Highers, our camping trip is coming up next week - June 8th-10th. If you are going and haven't let me know yet, please do so ASAP.

We are heading 2 hourse northwest of Aurora to Lena, IL. We will be staying at a KOA campground there. This campground has basketball, volleyball, swimming, a rec room with pool, ping pong, and darts. They also have hot showers. The campground is only 7 miles from Lake Le-Aqua-Na state park which provides opportunities for hiking, canoeing, and paddle boating. There is also a mini golf course close to the campground. So we have plenty of options of fun stuff to do. It should be a fun few days to just hang out, relax, and have some fun together.

You will need to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, camping chair, clothes and toiletries (obviously), probably a towel, swimming clothes, $10, and extra spending money if you want. You may also want to bring some sunscreen. If you have your own small tent and want to bring it that is fine, but otherwise we will be staying in six man tents - boys in one, girls in the other. Food and drinks will be provided as well as some snack food - if your a big snacker you may want to bring some of your own snacks. AND BRING YOUR BIBLES!

And don't forget...yes...that's right...you will need a dreaded medical release form. Please see me for a medical release form and a camping checklist if you didn't get one yet.

We will meet at CBC at 3:30 p.m. on Thursday afternoon and be back at 4:30 p.m. Saturday afternoon. Don't be late. See you then.