For the word of God is alive and powerful. It is sharper than the sharpest two-edged sword, cutting between soul and spirit, between joint and marrow. It exposes our innermost thoughts and desires. (Hebrews 4:12)
Simple idea. Strong implications.
This week our team was privileged to be a part of the National Wesleyan Bible Bowl. Church teams from several different states from all over the US came to compete. Personally, I have never before been a part of a Bible bowl or seen what happens there but it was sort of incredible to watch. Each year a book or several smaller books of the Bible are chosen to be the quiz material for the year. This year’s text was the book of John. The kids begin preparing early in the year and spent hours and hours learning and memorizing the text and big ideas. The Bible bowl is three days long and the kids are busy for most of it quizzing at different stations each day. Our team helped on panels in several of the quizzing venues by timing, score keeping and checking answers.
Here’s how quizzing works if you have no idea, like I hadn’t:
Two teams of four students each sit on ether side of the front of the room at long tables. Once quizzing begins, each quizzer sits locked and loaded with thumbs poised above their trigger anxious to buzz in. The quizmaster resides in front of the kids facing them while the panels sit behind him or her. Once the quizmaster begins reading the question the kids are allowed to buzz in, but once the sound is heard, the quizmaster will stop reading the question. Although it was crazy to see, we watched as many kids would hear the first 2-3 words of a question before they would buzz in, such as “In John 17…” BUZZZ! Then before twenty seconds elapsed the quizzer would recite every memory verse he or she knew from John 17 and hope that they recited the one that was going to be asked for. Most often the kids would get them right. The most amazing thing for me was to watch them literally recite 5-10 verses within twenty seconds. It was jaw dropping to say the least!
The National bowl is a competition for scholarship money for tuition at any of the five Wesleyan schools IWU is associated with.
Anyway, aside from helping judge on the panels, our team had the opportunity to play a concert and worship set one evening, play praise music for the morning devotions and play games in the evenings with the kids.
It was a nice way to end the summer, and an enormous reminder to me how possible and vital it is to keep Gods word hidden in hearts!
On Sunday we headed over to College Wesleyan church for the last time we would play together this summer and enjoyed the two services there. Debriefing on Monday went swimmingly as usually and by Monday afternoon, some of us were already off for home!
It all went so quickly and we learned so much. God truly blessed us greatly this summer in our travels and really in everything we did. It still amazes me how God so often uses imperfect people to work out His perfect will. I am already missing our team and I’m convinced some of our phrases and mannerisms as a team will always be with me from now on haha
Thank you all for your prayers and support. God used us as a ministry to people this summer in large part because of the support of all of you and we are very grateful!
Again, after another incredible summer I’m reminded; the ministry doesn’t end with College Wesleyan or the Bible Bowl. God calls us to be servant-minded men of God every day of our lives – not only when we have the opportunity to lead in worship or lead as counselors. The Spirit of God, like the Word of God, is living and active and ready to wreck our lives as people of this world and remake us into people that are truly alive. I saw it this summer and I have seen this happening every day since then.
PRAISE GOD for His faithfulness and power in our lives!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Wednesday, July 27, 2011
FCA
This week has been refreshing and rejuvenating after a very busy summer of traveling across the country. This is our last week of camps together and the beginning of the week has been spent working with the Fellowship of Christian Athletes Camp here on campus at IWU.
Being on campus has been a blessing for us as we have had the opportunity to see and spend time with friends who live on campus as well as enjoy the comfort of sleeping in our own beds. We have also enjoyed the opportunity to record some of our summer repertoire in our chapel auditorium, which has a stunningly high quality recording system. Andrew, our sound engineer, has been very instrumental in setting things up and is excited about the opportunity to learn about recording and producing. What we found through the experience is that recording isn’t as easy as it sounds, especially for a live band. Patience and endurance were certainly tested during the experience and will hopefully have some good results.
Last week we wrote a song, currently titled “The Holy Spirit Song”, which we were able to record for the first time ever in the chapel. Mike and Denny wrote most of it, and we then put it all together for the camp in PA. I won’t give away the PA camp awesomeness but the teaching of the week focused on the fruits of the Spirit. We were asked at the beginning of the summer to have a song for the camp that covered the fruits of the Spirit. So after thinking a little about it and realizing that there are no songs for the fruits of the spirit (other than VBS and Veggie Tails songs (excellent songs by the way)), we wrote a song for the family camp. Both the camp and our team really loved the song and the words written for it. Hopefully, once published, we will be able to post a recording on the blog.
Anyway, back to this week. The kids at FCA are incredible. The camp is very leadership oriented, teaching the kids through different activities and groups what it means to be a leader for Christ in the place where God has them – specifically on an athletic team. The kids seem eager to soak in the gospel message and are excited to get to work sharing back in their homes and on their teams. The staff at the camp is also an incredible team. Each huddle leader was handpicked for their exceptional athletic ability at their schools, their leadership presence on their teams, and finally, their commitment to Christ (a rare sort of individual to find in colleges today). One of the biggest reasons the camp is so successful is that the leadership team of the camp is strong, united, and committed to Christ. We had the opportunity to meet with Craig and Ty to plan the week on Sunday evening and talked about how the goals for the week were to give the campers significant knowledge about the gospel (know what you believe and why you believe it) as well as to provide an avenue for them to draw near to God. Our part this week is to play for the kids in the evenings, putting together worship music and a service that allows them to meet in a close way with their Creator. Tears have been a regular part of the evenings.
This evening we have our last service with the FCA camp at a banquet and then begin the National Bible Bowl camp. All in all, a great week so far, full of celebration and rest. A fitting beginning to a final week!
Praise God for all He is doing in our lives and how He is continually molding, pruning and shaping us so that we can bear fruit for His kingdom.
With gratitude for your support and prayers,
Revolution
PS Happy birthday Caleb Russell! My sister is making me an uncle today☺
pics on the way to FCA
Kane PA
Hello; Denny here.
Our last true camp was located in Kane, PA, far from the hustle and bustle of anything one could call a city. It was rustic, simple, and focused on the Lord.
We felt so loved by the people at this camp. They did so much for us. We had our own room, a place to retreat at the end of the day, and we had plenty of time to rehearse. One of the cooks took our laundry to her home and washed all of our clothes for us. God’s love shone through the servant attitudes of the adults at this camp.
God further blessed us with the opportunity to learn from Reverend Tim Bell. He led us and two other college students in a Bible study on Galatians 5. He had so much knowledge of the scripture, and it was wonderful to study God’s word as a team.
This was the first family camp for the AEC (Association of Evangelical churches) in 10 years. It was a landmark event, and we were glad to have some part in it. The campers and leadership focused their energy not on extra-curriculars, but on growing in Christ and growing as a body. The worship service was the central event of the day. They started out right, putting God at the center of their endeavors.
The camp leadership asked us to choose a theme song for the week that focused on the Holy Spirit. We brainstormed, and—since we could not come up with anything other than VBS songs—we wrote and arranged our own song. Currently it still exists under the acting title “Holy Spirit Song.” I hope that that will change. A recording may be posted in the near future! Keep checking!
God worked so much this week at refining us. We learned and we grew as a team and as individuals. It was a great week at camp!
Our last true camp was located in Kane, PA, far from the hustle and bustle of anything one could call a city. It was rustic, simple, and focused on the Lord.
We felt so loved by the people at this camp. They did so much for us. We had our own room, a place to retreat at the end of the day, and we had plenty of time to rehearse. One of the cooks took our laundry to her home and washed all of our clothes for us. God’s love shone through the servant attitudes of the adults at this camp.
God further blessed us with the opportunity to learn from Reverend Tim Bell. He led us and two other college students in a Bible study on Galatians 5. He had so much knowledge of the scripture, and it was wonderful to study God’s word as a team.
This was the first family camp for the AEC (Association of Evangelical churches) in 10 years. It was a landmark event, and we were glad to have some part in it. The campers and leadership focused their energy not on extra-curriculars, but on growing in Christ and growing as a body. The worship service was the central event of the day. They started out right, putting God at the center of their endeavors.
The camp leadership asked us to choose a theme song for the week that focused on the Holy Spirit. We brainstormed, and—since we could not come up with anything other than VBS songs—we wrote and arranged our own song. Currently it still exists under the acting title “Holy Spirit Song.” I hope that that will change. A recording may be posted in the near future! Keep checking!
God worked so much this week at refining us. We learned and we grew as a team and as individuals. It was a great week at camp!
Monday, July 25, 2011
Bay Shore
Hello from IWU!
It seems to have gone too fast to be true but we are beginning our final camp week today with FCA. Later this week we will be serving at the National Bible Bowl, which is also held on campus. Our last engagement together is this coming Sunday morning at College Wesleyan Church here in Marion where we have the opportunity to lead Sunday morning praise and worship music.
Unfortunately as you may have noticed, “blogging” this summer has been a bit of a challenge for us since we have very inconsistent Internet access/time to blog. However, now at IWU, we will be able to catch up within the week!
In other news, so far we have a green light to record our music in the new chapel at IWU, a multimillion-dollar facility with cutting edge sound system and recording equipment. With that in mind, we will do our best to keep you updated about that and hopefully get some our music to you that is quite a bit more quality than the last two rough live recordings we posted.
So finally, after all of the catch up and introduction, I would like to tell you all about our week at Bay Shore camp (now two weeks ago).
We arrived at Bay Shore and were happy to be reunited with our friends from last year. Kent Fishel was again the speaker for the camp and many of the counselors returned, some of whom we have kept in contact with fore the entire year. Monday morning we lead in worship for the counselors and staff and went around the room sharing Scriptures and areas of our lives where we had seen God working over the past year. The maturity and spiritual adeptness of the counselors at Bay Shore is a rare and beautiful thing to be see and was a privilege to be a part of. The strength of the staff was revealed during the week, and is a big part of why I believe we saw such spiritual growth in the kids at the camp this year and last year. Godly examples speaking hope and truth to people brings change!
Our team made up a big part of the male counselor team. Michael and myself were with the juniors, Aaron with seniors, Denny with sophomores and Chris and Andrew with freshmen. During our cabin time this week we were all able to witness young men open up their lives in ways that some of them had never done before. We were able to speak truth, challenge and encouragement into their lives and watch them grow tremendously from day one to our goodbyes.
Bay Shore stands out for many things, one of them being “Puttin on the Hits”, an event where the kids perform songs of their choice, acting them out or dancing to the songs. The performances are judged and the winner decided. This years winning group performed Lay ‘em Down by Need to Breathe and may have possibly been my group ;) The song pictured an impassable river, which lead to a church and place of hope, demonstrated with a preacher and gospel choir. On the other side of the bridge, weary travelers approached the bridge (a sizable piece of plywood balanced on 4 cinder blocks set across a giant blue tarp fore a river) attempting to get across. However with each try the audience realized that the reason they cannot cross the bridge was the packs on their backs label with things like fear, lust, anger etc. Once the travelers chose to lay down their burdens, they are able to cross the bridge with ease. It is a powerful song that speaks to the bondage of sin and the freedom of life in Christ. The songs are a blast for the kids to perform as they use their imaginations and creativity to come up with something beautiful (another one of the performed songs). Each of the songs were done incredibly and were powerful reminders of our life in Christ.
The week was full to the brim and close to every minute was scheduled for us so we nearly always had somewhere to be. However, our team really enjoyed the week and the intentionality the camp put into each moment of the day. We went to the beach of lake Huron, witnessed the baptism of several campers, went to a pool, taught skills classes (ie car care, worship team, creative writing, self defense, soccer etc), enjoyed the snack shack, participated in morning teaching classes as well a did a ton of other things.
Camp fire Praise and Worship
One of the most special things we did all week was taking communion with the group. We listened that night as 15-20 different kids stood up and gave a testimony to what God was doing in their lives that week. We saw real change begin to occur in the kids lives from past sins, struggles, and doubts as they turned their gaze to the Glorious One who saves and redeems. Taking communion with one another was a great reminder of what Christ did for us as individuals as well as for us as the Body. The love and forgiveness of God is a sweet sweet thing to people with broken and hurting lives. The grace of God is great and we saw its evidences this week!
God has been blessing us and watching over us this entire summer and we are excited to have one more week to minister to kids with the team. Please continue to pray and lift up our team, that we have strength and motivation to pursue holiness and faith so that as Christ fills us up, we can then pour out into the kids lives. Pray for the kids that their hearts are open and that God does a great transforming work in every one of our lives!
Sincerely,
Revolution
It seems to have gone too fast to be true but we are beginning our final camp week today with FCA. Later this week we will be serving at the National Bible Bowl, which is also held on campus. Our last engagement together is this coming Sunday morning at College Wesleyan Church here in Marion where we have the opportunity to lead Sunday morning praise and worship music.
Unfortunately as you may have noticed, “blogging” this summer has been a bit of a challenge for us since we have very inconsistent Internet access/time to blog. However, now at IWU, we will be able to catch up within the week!
In other news, so far we have a green light to record our music in the new chapel at IWU, a multimillion-dollar facility with cutting edge sound system and recording equipment. With that in mind, we will do our best to keep you updated about that and hopefully get some our music to you that is quite a bit more quality than the last two rough live recordings we posted.
So finally, after all of the catch up and introduction, I would like to tell you all about our week at Bay Shore camp (now two weeks ago).
We arrived at Bay Shore and were happy to be reunited with our friends from last year. Kent Fishel was again the speaker for the camp and many of the counselors returned, some of whom we have kept in contact with fore the entire year. Monday morning we lead in worship for the counselors and staff and went around the room sharing Scriptures and areas of our lives where we had seen God working over the past year. The maturity and spiritual adeptness of the counselors at Bay Shore is a rare and beautiful thing to be see and was a privilege to be a part of. The strength of the staff was revealed during the week, and is a big part of why I believe we saw such spiritual growth in the kids at the camp this year and last year. Godly examples speaking hope and truth to people brings change!
Our team made up a big part of the male counselor team. Michael and myself were with the juniors, Aaron with seniors, Denny with sophomores and Chris and Andrew with freshmen. During our cabin time this week we were all able to witness young men open up their lives in ways that some of them had never done before. We were able to speak truth, challenge and encouragement into their lives and watch them grow tremendously from day one to our goodbyes.
Bay Shore stands out for many things, one of them being “Puttin on the Hits”, an event where the kids perform songs of their choice, acting them out or dancing to the songs. The performances are judged and the winner decided. This years winning group performed Lay ‘em Down by Need to Breathe and may have possibly been my group ;) The song pictured an impassable river, which lead to a church and place of hope, demonstrated with a preacher and gospel choir. On the other side of the bridge, weary travelers approached the bridge (a sizable piece of plywood balanced on 4 cinder blocks set across a giant blue tarp fore a river) attempting to get across. However with each try the audience realized that the reason they cannot cross the bridge was the packs on their backs label with things like fear, lust, anger etc. Once the travelers chose to lay down their burdens, they are able to cross the bridge with ease. It is a powerful song that speaks to the bondage of sin and the freedom of life in Christ. The songs are a blast for the kids to perform as they use their imaginations and creativity to come up with something beautiful (another one of the performed songs). Each of the songs were done incredibly and were powerful reminders of our life in Christ.
The week was full to the brim and close to every minute was scheduled for us so we nearly always had somewhere to be. However, our team really enjoyed the week and the intentionality the camp put into each moment of the day. We went to the beach of lake Huron, witnessed the baptism of several campers, went to a pool, taught skills classes (ie car care, worship team, creative writing, self defense, soccer etc), enjoyed the snack shack, participated in morning teaching classes as well a did a ton of other things.
Camp fire Praise and Worship
One of the most special things we did all week was taking communion with the group. We listened that night as 15-20 different kids stood up and gave a testimony to what God was doing in their lives that week. We saw real change begin to occur in the kids lives from past sins, struggles, and doubts as they turned their gaze to the Glorious One who saves and redeems. Taking communion with one another was a great reminder of what Christ did for us as individuals as well as for us as the Body. The love and forgiveness of God is a sweet sweet thing to people with broken and hurting lives. The grace of God is great and we saw its evidences this week!
God has been blessing us and watching over us this entire summer and we are excited to have one more week to minister to kids with the team. Please continue to pray and lift up our team, that we have strength and motivation to pursue holiness and faith so that as Christ fills us up, we can then pour out into the kids lives. Pray for the kids that their hearts are open and that God does a great transforming work in every one of our lives!
Sincerely,
Revolution
Wednesday, July 20, 2011
Beulah Beach
Matt here,
This blog was written last weekend, but without the Internet at Bay Shore or here in Pennsylvania it is not being posted until today. It will always be amystery how we are posting from PA. Thank you all for your patience and prayers!
We just finished our week at Beulah Beach family camps and are on our way to Sebawaing Michigan for some time with Kent Fishel at Bay Shore camp. This is actually one of the camps we went to last year, and as you can probably tell from the blog post from last year, we are exited to return!
This past week was a mid summer chance for our team to take a breath as our responsibilities at family camp were not impossible by any means. Waking up in the morning to one of the great lakes spreading out before you was a feeling we could have all gotten used to. The fact that we could see Cedar point from our place on the coast was another key to the view. We will save our trip there for next weekend however. Let us know if you’d like to meet upJ
We had the opportunity to participate in two different family camps this week, one that started the day before we arrived, and the second, which will end tomorrow. We were able to play with the two different worship leaders the camp had in morning and evening sessions, as well as play a song that was just led by our team. Several of us also had the opportunity to help out with some of the kid’s classes during the services. We were also able to work occasionally alongside the camp staff, working the waterslides, jet-skis, and craft area. Some of the guys worked on a building a deck as well as Denny had the chance to work more one on one with a little kid named Justin this week. Justin was a winner!
In our free time, some of us were able to get personal work done like applications and phone calls, as well as work on important life skills like napping and jet-skiing. Our team also discovered the joys of Spicy Uno this week – an interesting variation of the game of Uno, which involves slapping the table, trading hands, asking for cards from other players, and the victor signing the winning card! Thank you Bethany for your generosity!
We also had time to connect with another ministry team from IWU this week, Veritas, who is a permanent team at Beulah Beach this summer. The guys were great and Wes was gracious enough to take us on a late night boat ride on the fourth as well as get us jet-ski access for an afternoon.
Car we saw in Crackertown:
This week was an excellent time for our team to regroup, regain our health and reorient our heads and hearts. We had the opportunity to minster to families and are continuing to realize more and more each week just how the institution of the family is critical to the health of young people and our society. God has been doing amazing things in lives this summer however as we have seen the seeds of forgiveness and hope in kids hearts.
We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beautiful summer days wherever you are.
2 tidbits of truth for you today:
First, all truth is God’s truth. Second, God’s cell number is Jeremiah 33:3. Thank you second and third grade class!
Thank you for all of your prayers and love!
Love always,
Revolution
PS - Check out the band Seeds family worship for some excellent songs straight from scripture!
This blog was written last weekend, but without the Internet at Bay Shore or here in Pennsylvania it is not being posted until today. It will always be amystery how we are posting from PA. Thank you all for your patience and prayers!
We just finished our week at Beulah Beach family camps and are on our way to Sebawaing Michigan for some time with Kent Fishel at Bay Shore camp. This is actually one of the camps we went to last year, and as you can probably tell from the blog post from last year, we are exited to return!
This past week was a mid summer chance for our team to take a breath as our responsibilities at family camp were not impossible by any means. Waking up in the morning to one of the great lakes spreading out before you was a feeling we could have all gotten used to. The fact that we could see Cedar point from our place on the coast was another key to the view. We will save our trip there for next weekend however. Let us know if you’d like to meet upJ
We had the opportunity to participate in two different family camps this week, one that started the day before we arrived, and the second, which will end tomorrow. We were able to play with the two different worship leaders the camp had in morning and evening sessions, as well as play a song that was just led by our team. Several of us also had the opportunity to help out with some of the kid’s classes during the services. We were also able to work occasionally alongside the camp staff, working the waterslides, jet-skis, and craft area. Some of the guys worked on a building a deck as well as Denny had the chance to work more one on one with a little kid named Justin this week. Justin was a winner!
In our free time, some of us were able to get personal work done like applications and phone calls, as well as work on important life skills like napping and jet-skiing. Our team also discovered the joys of Spicy Uno this week – an interesting variation of the game of Uno, which involves slapping the table, trading hands, asking for cards from other players, and the victor signing the winning card! Thank you Bethany for your generosity!
We also had time to connect with another ministry team from IWU this week, Veritas, who is a permanent team at Beulah Beach this summer. The guys were great and Wes was gracious enough to take us on a late night boat ride on the fourth as well as get us jet-ski access for an afternoon.
Car we saw in Crackertown:
This week was an excellent time for our team to regroup, regain our health and reorient our heads and hearts. We had the opportunity to minster to families and are continuing to realize more and more each week just how the institution of the family is critical to the health of young people and our society. God has been doing amazing things in lives this summer however as we have seen the seeds of forgiveness and hope in kids hearts.
We hope you are all doing well and enjoying the beautiful summer days wherever you are.
2 tidbits of truth for you today:
First, all truth is God’s truth. Second, God’s cell number is Jeremiah 33:3. Thank you second and third grade class!
Thank you for all of your prayers and love!
Love always,
Revolution
PS - Check out the band Seeds family worship for some excellent songs straight from scripture!
Sunday, July 17, 2011
Live Music!
http://www.reverbnation.com/tunepak/3382867
Both the songs Christ is Risen and Hosanna can be accessed through the address! Enjoy!
Both the songs Christ is Risen and Hosanna can be accessed through the address! Enjoy!
Monday, July 4, 2011
Summit Base Camp
Hello All! This is Denny. I write to you from the grounds of Shiloh Park Campground. This week we played music and counseled for the district United Methodist camp. God moved this week in so many ways—when I say that I am not simply trying to fill space. God moved at this camp in a way that I haven’t seen in my two and a half summers of camp ministry.
This camp was covered in prayer. The counselors and directors came ready to listen to the spirit’s leading. By Tuesday, around fifteen kids had accepted Christ and many more had made commitments. The speakers (there was a morning and an evening speaker—both worked very hard and gave a lot to these kids) then had the great opportunity to speak into the lives of these kids for four more days, explaining to them how to move forward from this camp and live in Christ regardless of their circumstances. The morning speaker spoke from Revelation 2-3, the exhortations to the churches, helping the kids to apply the history of the New Testament and Christ’s call to those churches to their own lives. This produced some remarkably informative and practical lessons for kids to take home. The evening speaker focused mainly on IICor. 2, talking about saying yes to God’s leading. He continued then to explain spiritual gifts and to help kids discover where God was calling them. The campers responded remarkably.
This was one of the best groups of kids I have seen. They challenged my spiritual life, rising early to read and pray, and preparing their hearts for God to speak to them. They were focused on God’s ministry, and it showed.
The focus of this camp was completely on God. Every day it seemed we simply waited for the doors to the chapel to open so that we could praise and worship God through prayer, music, and through learning about His ways. Worship was the focus.
Around all this there was a great air of fun. The camp had a rock wall, a zip line, and a waterslide, as well as kayaks. The band got in trouble for leading a game of kayak-pirate-capture-the-flag (sorry Gale). We had a wonderful time and felt that we were able to pour into the lives of the kids on and off the stage.
This camp gave us the chance to work. My head cabin counselor allowed me to lead devotions one evening, and each of us had the opportunity to co-lead a morning Bible teaching-time. We had many opportunities to speak God’s truth into the lives of kids.
We grew as a band this week. Early on we sat down and did some work defining our purpose as a musical group. We came to the consensus that we need to first and foremost lift up the name of the Lord and help the kids to do likewise. If anything we do comes in the way of that goal, we don’t want to do it. Kids get excited about our music; we seek to get out of the way so that their worship will not be focused on us, but on God. This is a process in which we are proceeding not perfectly, but progressively. Pray for us as we continue on this journey!
This camp was covered in prayer. The counselors and directors came ready to listen to the spirit’s leading. By Tuesday, around fifteen kids had accepted Christ and many more had made commitments. The speakers (there was a morning and an evening speaker—both worked very hard and gave a lot to these kids) then had the great opportunity to speak into the lives of these kids for four more days, explaining to them how to move forward from this camp and live in Christ regardless of their circumstances. The morning speaker spoke from Revelation 2-3, the exhortations to the churches, helping the kids to apply the history of the New Testament and Christ’s call to those churches to their own lives. This produced some remarkably informative and practical lessons for kids to take home. The evening speaker focused mainly on IICor. 2, talking about saying yes to God’s leading. He continued then to explain spiritual gifts and to help kids discover where God was calling them. The campers responded remarkably.
This was one of the best groups of kids I have seen. They challenged my spiritual life, rising early to read and pray, and preparing their hearts for God to speak to them. They were focused on God’s ministry, and it showed.
The focus of this camp was completely on God. Every day it seemed we simply waited for the doors to the chapel to open so that we could praise and worship God through prayer, music, and through learning about His ways. Worship was the focus.
Around all this there was a great air of fun. The camp had a rock wall, a zip line, and a waterslide, as well as kayaks. The band got in trouble for leading a game of kayak-pirate-capture-the-flag (sorry Gale). We had a wonderful time and felt that we were able to pour into the lives of the kids on and off the stage.
This camp gave us the chance to work. My head cabin counselor allowed me to lead devotions one evening, and each of us had the opportunity to co-lead a morning Bible teaching-time. We had many opportunities to speak God’s truth into the lives of kids.
We grew as a band this week. Early on we sat down and did some work defining our purpose as a musical group. We came to the consensus that we need to first and foremost lift up the name of the Lord and help the kids to do likewise. If anything we do comes in the way of that goal, we don’t want to do it. Kids get excited about our music; we seek to get out of the way so that their worship will not be focused on us, but on God. This is a process in which we are proceeding not perfectly, but progressively. Pray for us as we continue on this journey!
Sky Ranch
'Ello everyone, this is Aaron. I decided to write this blog a little late because I thought “hey, being fashionably late is classy.” Right? No, actually I just forgot about it until now. Sorry everyone, my bad.
So Sky Ranch was a great camp. When we arrived it was pretty stinkin' hot, and it basically stayed that way throughout the time we were there. There's just something about the Oklahoma sun that's a little more harsh than the mid-west where the majority of us are from.
After arrival and set up we had a little bit of time to find our accommodations for the week. We ended up staying in a very nice house on the camp ground...but we were in a basement with no beds and about 18 other kids. On top of that there were only 2 showers to share between all of us including another group of kids and youth leaders on the other side of the house. It was interesting, but actually pretty great. It made for a good time of getting to know some of the kids and be able to interact with them even though we weren't counselors of the purest sense, and we didn't stay in the cabin/dorm areas with them.
Our role at this camp was primarily as the band during the worship services. Personally, being able to play worship music and hearing the congregation sing along in praise to Christ is quite rewarding, but we had extra opportunities this week. Not only were we able to lead the praise music for the worship times with another camp (Elementary school camp) parallel to this one, but we were also placed in teams with the campers from the senior high camp to participate in many of the camp activities with them. Of course we have the obligatory goofy names of these teams. After much deliberation, and a distinct affinity for the color green my team decided to go by the name “Green Goblins.” If you ask the rest of the Revolution, our team cheer was something legends are made of. That's all there is to say about that.
The teams Revolution were a part of included: “The Winners” with Matt, “The Outlaws” with Andrew at the helm, “The Spicy People” with Chris as one of the leaders, and “The Crazin' (Crazy?) Blazin' Caucasians” with Mike in their midst. Denny was a part of “The Thundercats” for all of you products of the 90's out there. Some of the other team names included “The Mighty Moo Cows” and “The Zebra-corns”. All you parents out there can be quite sure that your children's creative minds are definitely being stretched at these camps.
In these groups, I personally had the opportunity to bond with and encourage a lot of the campers. It was great by the end to be able to call each one of them by name, knowing that the attention and worth us as leaders put into getting to know the kids showed at least one facet of the love of Christ. I'm sure the other band members feel similarly, as we recognize the importance of relationships in this ministry.
Speaking of relationships, during the services our worship was lead by a man named Jeremy from California. He brought the preaching for the week and spurned the campers, counselors, and staff toward living out our relationship with Christ in the way we practice our relationships with people. As he explained the way the different aspects of this can play out, many campers decided to make commitments toward Christ whether for the first time to trust in him, or to re-commit to living out their faith in Christ in the way they treat others. Please pray that these commitments made both at this camp and other camps are lasting beyond this summer!
I'd like to thank you for reading this entry despite it's late arrival. Please keep following us for the remaining weeks of this summer! Peace y'all!
-Aaron Tuscherer
So Sky Ranch was a great camp. When we arrived it was pretty stinkin' hot, and it basically stayed that way throughout the time we were there. There's just something about the Oklahoma sun that's a little more harsh than the mid-west where the majority of us are from.
After arrival and set up we had a little bit of time to find our accommodations for the week. We ended up staying in a very nice house on the camp ground...but we were in a basement with no beds and about 18 other kids. On top of that there were only 2 showers to share between all of us including another group of kids and youth leaders on the other side of the house. It was interesting, but actually pretty great. It made for a good time of getting to know some of the kids and be able to interact with them even though we weren't counselors of the purest sense, and we didn't stay in the cabin/dorm areas with them.
Our role at this camp was primarily as the band during the worship services. Personally, being able to play worship music and hearing the congregation sing along in praise to Christ is quite rewarding, but we had extra opportunities this week. Not only were we able to lead the praise music for the worship times with another camp (Elementary school camp) parallel to this one, but we were also placed in teams with the campers from the senior high camp to participate in many of the camp activities with them. Of course we have the obligatory goofy names of these teams. After much deliberation, and a distinct affinity for the color green my team decided to go by the name “Green Goblins.” If you ask the rest of the Revolution, our team cheer was something legends are made of. That's all there is to say about that.
The teams Revolution were a part of included: “The Winners” with Matt, “The Outlaws” with Andrew at the helm, “The Spicy People” with Chris as one of the leaders, and “The Crazin' (Crazy?) Blazin' Caucasians” with Mike in their midst. Denny was a part of “The Thundercats” for all of you products of the 90's out there. Some of the other team names included “The Mighty Moo Cows” and “The Zebra-corns”. All you parents out there can be quite sure that your children's creative minds are definitely being stretched at these camps.
In these groups, I personally had the opportunity to bond with and encourage a lot of the campers. It was great by the end to be able to call each one of them by name, knowing that the attention and worth us as leaders put into getting to know the kids showed at least one facet of the love of Christ. I'm sure the other band members feel similarly, as we recognize the importance of relationships in this ministry.
Speaking of relationships, during the services our worship was lead by a man named Jeremy from California. He brought the preaching for the week and spurned the campers, counselors, and staff toward living out our relationship with Christ in the way we practice our relationships with people. As he explained the way the different aspects of this can play out, many campers decided to make commitments toward Christ whether for the first time to trust in him, or to re-commit to living out their faith in Christ in the way they treat others. Please pray that these commitments made both at this camp and other camps are lasting beyond this summer!
I'd like to thank you for reading this entry despite it's late arrival. Please keep following us for the remaining weeks of this summer! Peace y'all!
-Aaron Tuscherer
Monday, June 20, 2011
Cypress and Ohio District Youth Camp
Hello everyone!! I hope this blog finds you well and filled with the Spirit of Christ! We are enjoying the summer thus far and Denny wanted to write this week and tell you all about what last week was like. We will likely be taking turns writing for you this summer. Enjoy!
Welcome one and all. This is Denny, writing to you from the van on the way to OK. God has kept us safe thus far, and we thank youfor your prayers.
So there we were, driving away from Cypress Wesleyan Church, on our way to West Harrison in Southern IN, all packed and ready for our first camp. Five miles down the road Matt (the driver at the time), voiced concern that the trailer was pulling strangely. We stopped at a gas station, and sure enough, one of the wheel bearings on the trailer was much hotter than the other three. We then called our facilities director, who told us that our trailer needed help.
Essentially, the trailer was not drivable. We ended up loading the essentials (amps and instruments) in the van and driving down that evening with three people (Chris, Andrew, and myself.) We arrived at the camp at 5:30am. Matt, Aaron, and Mike stayed in a hotel that evening and rode down the next morning with the worship leader from Cypress Wesleyan, who would be our worship leader for the week. By 10am on Monday morning we were ready to begin our first camp. We left the trailer at the church to be loo
ked over at a nearby trailer shop.
This week we had the great pleasure of working with a very experienced and professional soundman Rick May (drummer of DC Talk), and with Mark Wilson, worship leader at Cypress Wesleyan and an IWU alum and veteran of ministry teams. There was also a Southern Wesleyan ministry team working as counselors. The week went very well and we learned a lot.
We were further blessed by some of the best camp accommodations I have seen in three summers. The food was also very well prepared.
Though we were not counselors as such, we did get to spend a lot of time with the campers. Some of the guys were approached after a set and told by two campers that because of the services, “They knew who to live for.” I had the opportunity to help lead a small group. God showed up there as well. One evening my junior high campers asked questions about the Old Testament for an hour. They ranged from “why did the Jews give sacrifices,” to “how does the God of the Old Testament match up to the God of the New Testament.” Thank you for your prayers! God did some amazing things!
As we finished the week we received our trailer back from the shop, and they claimed that there was nothing wrong with it. When we took it home to facilities however, they agreed that there was something wrong and gave us a new trailer. They are fixing it right now. The saga of the trailer lives on…
I finish writing this at a table in a hotel on the way to our next camp in Oklahoma. Pray for opportunities this week as we step into a new world. Pray God would open doors to impact kids for Christ. Thank you all! See you next week!
Welcome one and all. This is Denny, writing to you from the van on the way to OK. God has kept us safe thus far, and we thank youfor your prayers.
So there we were, driving away from Cypress Wesleyan Church, on our way to West Harrison in Southern IN, all packed and ready for our first camp. Five miles down the road Matt (the driver at the time), voiced concern that the trailer was pulling strangely. We stopped at a gas station, and sure enough, one of the wheel bearings on the trailer was much hotter than the other three. We then called our facilities director, who told us that our trailer needed help.
Essentially, the trailer was not drivable. We ended up loading the essentials (amps and instruments) in the van and driving down that evening with three people (Chris, Andrew, and myself.) We arrived at the camp at 5:30am. Matt, Aaron, and Mike stayed in a hotel that evening and rode down the next morning with the worship leader from Cypress Wesleyan, who would be our worship leader for the week. By 10am on Monday morning we were ready to begin our first camp. We left the trailer at the church to be loo
ked over at a nearby trailer shop.
This week we had the great pleasure of working with a very experienced and professional soundman Rick May (drummer of DC Talk), and with Mark Wilson, worship leader at Cypress Wesleyan and an IWU alum and veteran of ministry teams. There was also a Southern Wesleyan ministry team working as counselors. The week went very well and we learned a lot.
We were further blessed by some of the best camp accommodations I have seen in three summers. The food was also very well prepared.
Though we were not counselors as such, we did get to spend a lot of time with the campers. Some of the guys were approached after a set and told by two campers that because of the services, “They knew who to live for.” I had the opportunity to help lead a small group. God showed up there as well. One evening my junior high campers asked questions about the Old Testament for an hour. They ranged from “why did the Jews give sacrifices,” to “how does the God of the Old Testament match up to the God of the New Testament.” Thank you for your prayers! God did some amazing things!
As we finished the week we received our trailer back from the shop, and they claimed that there was nothing wrong with it. When we took it home to facilities however, they agreed that there was something wrong and gave us a new trailer. They are fixing it right now. The saga of the trailer lives on…
I finish writing this at a table in a hotel on the way to our next camp in Oklahoma. Pray for opportunities this week as we step into a new world. Pray God would open doors to impact kids for Christ. Thank you all! See you next week!
Monday, June 13, 2011
Training Week
We are finally on our way!
I write this morning in the back of Sheila, our fantastic 15 passenger IWU van, with trailer in tow and our team stoked to finally be on the road. This past week of training was just what we needed to get the summer off to an excellent start! Our days have involved a healthy dose of Baldwin, TAWG (time alone with God), listening to Reverend Atkinson speak from 1 Corinthians 16:13-14 about standing firm in faith, team time and devos, random housekeeping chores like trailer, admissions and treasury training etc and many well spent hours of practice. We will be studying the book of John as a team this summer as well as going through a book called The Imitation of Christ by Thomas A’ Kempis.
Some of our favorite songs from the week include Christ is Risen (Matt Maher), Joyful (Brenton Brown), Salvation Is Here (Hillsong), Hosanna (Paul Baloche), The Lord Reigns (Gateway Worship), and Build me up Buttercup! We have really enjoyed putting the music together and are anticipating worshiping with the kids this summer as well as getting a chance to enjoy our new freedom to dance as IWU students.
Aside from nailing down 30 excellent songs this week we were able to also enjoy Circle K breadsticks, movie nights with the other ministry teams, a bowling night and a pool party with the teams. We have pictures from bowling - feel free to enjoy! Andrew surprised us earlier that day with not only our new and ridiculously awesome jerseys, but also headbands to match and further increase style points for the team. Kathy (Denny’s girlfriend) joined us and turned out to be one of our best players. Most of the pictures we have were courtesy of her as well. She was also awarded the “team’s favorite girlfriend of the week” award after baking Denny/us a box of fresh chocolate chip cookies. The bowling was a bit weak the first game and so after a very inspirational halftime speech (by me), we boosted our next game average by 4 points! Our team average after two games was a 107 – a pleasing score indubitably.
Long story short, good week of orientation, excellent instruction and Spiritual renewal and a fun way to get started! We are on our way to Cypress Wesleyan Church for the weekend and then on to the Greater Ohio Youth Camp for the week. Thank you all for your prayers, God is teaching us a lot and we are looking forward to an incredible summer!
Love you all!
Revolution
Thursday, June 2, 2011
Revolution: Round 2
Hello there!
It has certainly been awhile since my last blogging experience, but I am so excited about this summer with Revolution that I figured I'd better write it down again! Not only for our own memories' sake, but also so you can keep us in your prayers this summer!
It’s hard to believe, but training begins on Monday! We have a great schedule to look forward to with some camps we have the opportunity to return to, plus several new camps that we are all totally stoked for, to say the least. We will be returning to Sky Ranch (OK), Bay Shore (MI), and FCA (IN) which is beyond fantastic, since those camps were incredible last year. If you’re interested, the posts from last year’s camps are still on the blog - so feel free to go back and recap on some of the camps as a refresher to how incredibly epic we anticipate this summer to be after a summer like the last one!
Sadly, we will not be traveling with Seth, Anthony and Chris K. this summer. They all died in a terrible car accident on the way to Guitar Center in Indianapolis last month... just kidding hahaha (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Seth is actually interning as a worship pastor at his home church in Ohio, Anthony is going into youth ministry and getting married this summer, and Chris will be working near Indianapolis all summer! All safe and sound! :) I already miss them, but I am unbelievably excited to have Denny and Chris H. returning with me as well as several newbies to Revolution:
Andrew Ketcham is our sound technician, Aaron Tuscherer is our electric guitar player and one of the vocalists, and Mike Conner will be taking good care of the bass for Revolution this summer. I deeply respect each of these guys, and am psyched out of my mind to get to know and chill with them! They are each excellent at what they do and will be a privilege to work with. For a refresher, Denny is the team leader and our keyboard player well as a vocalist, Chris H. is our drummer and does an excellent job of singing harmony from his throne in the back, and yours truly - acoustic and vocals. It’s a team. And an excellent one at that! Praise God!!
Again, I should be able to post about once a week during the summer, and I will fill you in on where we are and what we’re involved in, the highlights and the lowlights, plus exceptional pictures and video footage. Most importantly, I'll keep you posted on the impact Christ will have on the kids and our team through the faithful service of His body and the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit!
Please remember us in your prayers as we work diligently to be faithful & pure vessels that overflow with the abundance of the love and life of Jesus Christ!
It has certainly been awhile since my last blogging experience, but I am so excited about this summer with Revolution that I figured I'd better write it down again! Not only for our own memories' sake, but also so you can keep us in your prayers this summer!
It’s hard to believe, but training begins on Monday! We have a great schedule to look forward to with some camps we have the opportunity to return to, plus several new camps that we are all totally stoked for, to say the least. We will be returning to Sky Ranch (OK), Bay Shore (MI), and FCA (IN) which is beyond fantastic, since those camps were incredible last year. If you’re interested, the posts from last year’s camps are still on the blog - so feel free to go back and recap on some of the camps as a refresher to how incredibly epic we anticipate this summer to be after a summer like the last one!
Sadly, we will not be traveling with Seth, Anthony and Chris K. this summer. They all died in a terrible car accident on the way to Guitar Center in Indianapolis last month... just kidding hahaha (sorry, I couldn’t resist). Seth is actually interning as a worship pastor at his home church in Ohio, Anthony is going into youth ministry and getting married this summer, and Chris will be working near Indianapolis all summer! All safe and sound! :) I already miss them, but I am unbelievably excited to have Denny and Chris H. returning with me as well as several newbies to Revolution:
Andrew Ketcham is our sound technician, Aaron Tuscherer is our electric guitar player and one of the vocalists, and Mike Conner will be taking good care of the bass for Revolution this summer. I deeply respect each of these guys, and am psyched out of my mind to get to know and chill with them! They are each excellent at what they do and will be a privilege to work with. For a refresher, Denny is the team leader and our keyboard player well as a vocalist, Chris H. is our drummer and does an excellent job of singing harmony from his throne in the back, and yours truly - acoustic and vocals. It’s a team. And an excellent one at that! Praise God!!
Again, I should be able to post about once a week during the summer, and I will fill you in on where we are and what we’re involved in, the highlights and the lowlights, plus exceptional pictures and video footage. Most importantly, I'll keep you posted on the impact Christ will have on the kids and our team through the faithful service of His body and the guidance and help of the Holy Spirit!
Please remember us in your prayers as we work diligently to be faithful & pure vessels that overflow with the abundance of the love and life of Jesus Christ!
Subscribe to:
Comments (Atom)