NOT SO FAST!!

I don't know about the rest of you, but I don't like how our culture seems to be "skipping" Thanksgiving again. Obviously we won't actually be skipping Thanksgiving, but for the past 3 weeks as I walk into stores I see lots of Christmas stuff everywhere. Christmas music playing on the radio, Christmas this and Christmas that.

Now, don't get me wrong...I really enjoy Christmas. I enjoy so many things about Christmas, but I don't like that Thanksgiving is being skipped over. I am sure this week we will hear a lot about how to prepare a Turkey and what football games are coming up and plenty of other stuff that our world has made Thanksgiving, but for us as believers Thanksgiving should be a great celebration of a much different focus.

Thanksgiving is not about having a few days off of school and a lot of food. Its roots are found in a feast that the Pilgrims and Native Americans gathered for in the fall of 1621, not quite a year after the Pilgrims arrived at Plymouth Rock, MA after a long and difficult journey across the Atlantic Ocean on the Mayflower. These Pilgrims came seeking religious freedom. Although they were English colonists, they had moved to Holland looking for religious freedom before they decided God's will was for them to move to America. Although Thanksgiving wasn't an official holiday at this feast, we trace the roots of this holiday to this early gathering. Their purpose was to thank the Lord for His provision and direction and for the freedom they now did have to worship the Lord.

I recently was listening to the daily broadcast of Family Life and heard that Barbara Rainey had written a book that has recently been released in an audio book format that reminds us of the story of the early Pilgrims. I would encourage you to go their audio website and listen to this production.

We too should be continually thanking the Lord for all of His provisions - not just materially by the way. I often think that our mind would be changed so much concerning what we are thankful for if we heard the thanksgivings offered by our persecuted brothers and sisters around the world who do not have many if any material possessions. And yet they have so much to be thankful to the Lord for.

So this Thanksgiving, and every day really, have an attitude of thankfulness to the Lord and focus on thanking Him simply for who He is. If everything was taken from us and all was wiped away, we could still be thankful for who God is and as believers for who we are in Christ.

Catching Up...

Okay, it has been a while - almost two months. It's not that things haven't been going on, I just haven't taken the time to blog about them.

So I thought I would catch you up on what has taken place since the end of September; not only in CBC life but making some comments about the life of our nation as well.

October was a busy, busy month. After a trip to MS to celebrate the 50th anniversary of FOA, we got back to IL and got to it. The fall is a very busy time for school events and sports - I went to football games, band performances, swim meets and volleyball games. We have lots of active kids in our group. They all did great at what they were doing. Here are a few pics from those different things:

Johnny in position on the football field

Jake jamming on the sax

Rachel ready to go on the clarinet - she is in the back in this pic

Jess (drum major) leading the Star Spangled Banner
Becca is out there too somewhere!

In case you didn't believe me - a little closer up

Amanda swimming - she did great - my first ever swim meet

Jenn serving it up

Katie (right side #11) going for the spike

So I had a great time at a lot of different activities. We also had the Awana Ministry Conference in October and a Trek activity that we planned for mini golf and go karts but due to the cold weather ended up being indoor mini golf and flashlight tag. None the less, really fun!!

November was also pretty busy. We started the month off on the 1st with a Fall Workday - we went to different folks homes from the church and helped with yardwork. Here are a few pics from that day:

Raking at Mr. Scharbert's farm

Hauling off branches

Bryan rocking with the rake!

Hmmm...yard waste with blue jeans and shoes...very interesting

Our workday group at the Jess' home

The following weekend we took our Sr. Highers to play paintball. This is the first time that we had done this and it was a really fun experience getting to shoot people with paintballs. It was a cold day, but we still had a lot of fun. I don't have any pictures of that - I was too focused on shooting kids!

Sprinkle in a couple of Sr. High afterglows and Worldview Nights for the whole church and that kind of sums up what we have been doing. It has been a great couple of months.

On the national scene, obviously a lot has happened. The economy is sputtering, many people have lost jobs and money, we have had an election for president as well as many other positions in our local, state, and national government, and there is a lot of uncertainty of the future. Let me simply encourage you as believers to be in prayer for our nation and our leaders, and don't lose sight of the FACT that God is Sovereign and in control of what is taking place. As believers our ultimate hope and trust is in Him, not in mankind and not in our economy. I would encourage you to be faithful to Him who called you!

Hopefully it won't be so long until the next post, but until then keep our eyes fixed on Jesus Christ and grow in your relationship with Him through His Word!

Sr. High Mini Golf and Go Karts

A week and a half ago, we took our Sr. High group to the Aurora Sports Zone for our monthly activity. After chowing down on some pizza and pop and hopping on the bus, we arrived at the Sports Zone ready to go.

The weather was perfect - which meant many other people wanted to play mini golf and ride go karts. But even though it was crowded and we had to wait a long time in line for go karts, we still had a great time- and of course waiting around simply meant more opportunities to talk, which most of our group would rather do than anything else.

Here are some pictures from the night:

Our fearless leaders

Kathleen taking a different approach to the hole

Ryan talking to his pink ball - it wasn't listening

Interesting stance Ben!

The following pictures are of people picking their ball
up after hitting it off the "course".

In the grass...

in the bushes...

even in the water!

Embarassing enough to try and keep your picture from being taken

Like I said - we had a lot of time to kill in line for go karts

So overall, we had a great trip and a great time. As you saw, there were no professional golfers on hand, but lots of fun - that's for sure!!

Youth Room Renovations

Sorry for taking so long to put up a new post. Things have been very busy lately and one reason is because we have been trying to finish up renovations with the youth room. We are almost completely finished now. We just need to touch up a few things and over the next few months we will do a little here and there to finish it up. So here are some recent photos from the youth room renovation:

Scraping up the old tile

Tile Scraping group with their "weapons"

Starting painting - Green wall

Painting the rest of the walls - Brown Bread

We were going for the splotchy look - not really

Arielle and Andrew painting

Liz painting the trim

Rachel rolling the wall

Rachel trying to roll Becca's face

Walls are finished - some of the tile down

Walls and tile finished

Another angle

So, a lot of work has been done and finished and there is still some to do. Thanks to everyone who has helped with the work. Thanks to Mrs. Sheehan for helping with all the color schemes. Thanks to Dave and Jim who laid the tile and put in the base boards - and Dave did a lot of other stuff too.

Now we get to enjoy it!!

Six Flags Great America

On Saturday, July 26th we took our Sr. High group to Great America. This year we had the
largest group we have ever taken - 26 people (leaders and kids). We also must have gone on the busiest day of the year because I don't think I have ever seen so many people in one place in my life.

After waiting in line for almost an hour just to park (and talking to each other from car to car while we waited), we ate lunch at our cars and

ventured into the park where we found more lines to stand in as we waited to get on different rides. The lines were so long that I think we only rode 6-7 rides all day. We were there for 6 hours.

Even though the lines were long we still had a great day. One thing about long lines is you have plenty of time to talk to each other - and our group never is at a loss for words - kind of like their youth pastor. For a few people this was their first time on the big roller coasters and so of course we used peer pressure to help them overcome their fears. After rides like Batman, Raging Bull (one of the best rides there in my opinion), the Eagle, the Demon, and the Viper you either get over your fear or you get sick to your stomach. Thankfully we didn't have the latter.

Unfortunately we didn't get to ride what I think is the greatest ride at Great America - the Giant Drop. The wait was 1 and half hours. So we opted out, especially since only about 6-7 were going to ride it.

After the day at the park we stopped at McD's on the way home for dinner and then drove home while receiving prank calls from some crazy girls (I won't mention any names). Overall, a long and tiring day of waiting in lines, but a fun day of being together. Next year - we will pick a rainy day. :) Here are some pics of the day.

Our group

Eating lunch in the car

Batman: Those are some our group's feet in the front

Coming down the roaring rapids

More roaring rapids

They survived; although much more wet than when they started.

Ben was also a little wet and not too thrilled about it

What a nice looking group of young people

The O's: 2 of our fearless leaders

The Raging Bull

The Viper: Some of our group is on this one, but I don't know where