A Dumpster Christmas

Last night we did something we've never done within the Middle School Ministry here at Fox River. We did an experiential service. We choose to keep it hush hush. Which was it's own challenge. Because we also did it off-site. So we need parental waivers signed and we had little information to give out telling parents what we were up to.

I am so thankful for a Church family that trusts and supports the Student Ministry. We had a great turn out! 2 buses packed full!

We left the Church and drove a few miles to a nearby hotel...where we were "turned away," we then went around back to the garbage dumpster.

We held a little service there at the dumpster, hence the name of the event (A Dumpster Christmas).

We sang a few Christmas carols (Away in a Manger and Silent Night), lit some candles, read the Christmas story from Luke, read some other passages, participated in a responsive reading and reflected deeply on the fact that Jesus' parents were turned away from the hotel they tried to stay at and ended up in a smelly stable fit for animals not the King of Kings! We too got turned away and remembered Christ's birth beside a dumpster...

I think it was pretty impacting to those who attended. I'm praying it will change how they look at Christmas from this point forward...I know it will for me.

Challenge 3 & 4

Last week at the freeway we hit the third in our series "The Challenge" and it was great! We talked about Jesus' Life specifically His interaction with Nicodemus. Jesus life was all about giving away new life to everyone!

Last night, we talked about Jesus' Miracles. We told three stores (as narratives - thanks Michael N.) And interacted with the stories with lots of questions...

It was a great night.

This series is a ton of fun, we are seeing lots of friends being invited, lots of scripture verses being memorized and the weekly games are a riot. Week 3 was all about flying paper airplanes and last bight we did the balloon stomp game - too fun!

We also had a record breaking night for attendance! Can't wait for the Dumpster Service next week - bring your waivers, dress weather appropriate and bring your friends!

my other blog...

i wanted to let those of you in on this blog that we updated our other blog today...http://www.krejzolfaith.com

enjoy!

My deepest apologies...

I am sorry I haven't posted in a while...life has gotten a bit crazy with a number of things that have taken me away from the blogosphere.

We started a bathroom remodeling project in early October and are about one week from completion, our Student Ministry website went down two weeks ago and it's been a daily small chore of keeping the ball rolling to get it back up and running. Lora and I went to Missionary Training last week and it took a lot of work to get ready to go away for a week, and almost as much work to get caught back up again. And the soccer team I've been coaching has just wrapped up...

All that be said, I have thoroughly enjoyed everything and the Middle School Ministry is doing well, we launched our new series called "The Challenge" and it's going great. This series is about reading the entire New Testament in 10 weeks as well as memorize a bunch of scripture and reaching out to our peers and inviting them to the freeway. At the end f the Challenge the winning small group will have a night out on the town, as they party like rock stars!

Thanks for being patient - I hope to add more posts, to catch up and to write more often...

Do Something Hard 5 - Standtall

Life being busy right now is an understatement!

Last week we wrapped up our Do Something Hard series with a talk called Standtall.

We challenged the students to carry on from this series and to Do Something Hard for God!

The talk was short and sweet so we could prepare the launch of the next series called the Challenge!

Attendance: was high, almost the same as KICKOFF!

Volunteer Involvement: average, the leaders always do their part when it comes to small groups, I need to involve them more in the up front elements too.

Fun Factor: We put a sample challenge together as a forecast to the Challenge Series...so one member form each small group competed against each other in the Finger Sword Fight Challenge...the winning group wasn't award points yet...that starts this week! We also showed "Cletus take the Reel" by Tim Hawkins always a laugh maker!

Can't wait for Challenge Week 1!

KICKOFF!

The last Wednesday of September we had our Middle School KICKOFF, and it was awesome!

A BBQ, A Band (Green Means Go) and a Great talk about dating called "I love You...But..."

The big idea we wrapped up with was, it's great to date, but worth the wait.

Attendance was way down compared to last years kickoff, we're not exactly sure, maybe having 5 Wednesday's in September has something to do with it? Maybe we didn't promote it well enough...the first few weeks ramped up quickly and maybe this is where God has us this year?

I am excited for what is happening regardless to how many kids came out...can't wait to wrap up Do Something Hard and start the Challenge!

MESS FEST 2009 Highlight Video!