The rains came down, snow even fell from the sky - the weather was just plain nasty & I had no idea who would show up at club on Monday night. We had planned to do our annual body snatch scavenger hunt, but due to weather we postponed it until next week. I was ready to just hang-out with a few kids & maybe not even have club. God brought kids despite the weather, we had a pretty good crowd.
Club pretty much consisted of mostly games as we didn't really have much time to plan as we were planning on having the scavenger hunt. We did play one of my all time favorite YL games - apple on a string. In this game you hang an apple on a string & then have a couple try to eat the entire apple without using their hands, it is hilarious to watch!
At the end of club I talked about John 10. I was trying to talk about how Jesus is truly our good Shepherd, but our crowd was more chatty than ever. I think it was the weather or maybe all the games got them totally wound-up, but we could not get them to calm down for anything! Through all the talking I pray that our students got another clear picture of Jesus, the man who was willing to "lay down his life for the sheep" (John 10:15). I told them how he loves us so much, he is willing to die for us & then talked about what great love you have to have for someone to honestly say you would die for them. I pray that they saw how attractive Jesus is & that their hearts are getting ready to hear the story of the cross, that we will tell them in just a few weeks.
Thanks for your prayers for students. Please continue to pray as we get kids signed up for camp, it seems harder than ever this year as they are all staying so busy. I truly believe that for so many kids camp is life or death - they will have the chance to get away & focus on the one who offers us real life. Thanks!

A few pictures from last week:
Cody got to go visit his baby brother in Wyoming

I spent 3 days at Crooked Creek planning the first session of camp this summer, it will be here before we know it.

Nov. Club Updates

Turkey bowling anyone?? The club before Thanksgiving we did out traditional turkey bowling club. I don't really know how long they have been turkey bowling at this particular YL club, but I told everyone it was the 67th annual turkey bowling YL. As the kids were arriving at club, Cody began to drill 3 holes in each turkey so that the turkeys were as much like bowling balls as possible. Although most just threw the turkey down the "lane" instead of actually bowling it, it was still funny to watch. I was proud of our group that night as most all of the kids attempted to turkey bowl at least one time. I personally really love turkey bowling because it is one of those fun & crazy things that you don't normally do every Thanksgiving. I hope that it will be something that the kids will look back at & remember as a really fun night at YL.

Last nights' club was not as anticipated as our turkey bowling club, but it was still a great night. Our team found it hard to come up with ideas for club last night as many times when it nears the end of a semester we become fresh out of funny & crazy things to do - thankfully we still had a few things up our sleeves that worked out great.

Cody came out in the middle of club last night dressed as Bitter Buddy Elf. Bitter Buddy Elf was mad because everyone is getting all their toys on eBay this year, so Santa had to fire some elves because their wasn't enough work to do in the North Pole. Bitter Buddy came out to encourage everyone to come out to club next week & to start narrowing down contestants for our Mr. Christmas Tree contest. He led them in 2 different games, one of them was called e-bay guessing. We found the most random things you can find on eBay (like someones home made road kill stew - this was really on eBay!) and the contestants had to guess if the price we had on the screen was higher or lower & then they would guess the exact price - it was pretty funny as almost the whole crowd got into the game.

During our last part of club I got to stand up & talk to our friends about Jesus, who knows us intimately, but loves us deeply. I know we talk a lot about this, but I believe you can never hear this truth too much. I started out my talk with a clip from the movie "Hitch." This movie is basically all about guys hiring Will Smith to try & make them "look good" in front of girls so they can get a date. I then talked about all the things we do to get to know someone when we really like them. We will go to great lengths to know all the details of his or her lives just so they might like us, or just so they might give us a chance. What a relief that we don't have to do with Jesus!

I then began to talk about the encounter that Jesus had with the woman at the well from John 4. Jesus knew everything about this lady - the good, the bad, & the ugly, yet her loved her & offered her life. Her offered her life & love without this lady having to do anything. She didn't have to try & impress Jesus with her good looks or fancy cars, she didn't have to fake it at all - Jesus already knew everything, yet loved her.

I ended talking with simply telling our kids how thankful I am that I don't have to impress Jesus everyday. I am so thankful that I have a relationship with someone who knows every step I have taken & every step I will ever take & loves me deeply. I pray that kids will accept the one who knows us to the bone & loves us even more.

Recently one of my friends graduated from High School & I am so proud of her. Here is a picture of all of us at the graduation celebration - I know she can do great things!

It Snowed at YL!

Well, the snow didn't exactly fall from the sky, it really came in the back of two pick-up trucks. We wanted to push ski trip sign ups this week so we had a snow club! We got left over snow from the zamboni at our local ice rink. I was so excited about having it there for the kids, but they were not near as excited as I was. They just kept asking how we got it & then after club we had several snow ball fights. Along with having snow we played a game to see who could drink a slurpie fast enough without getting a brain freeze & we also had a couple girls stick their feet in a jello mold, surrounded by ice to dig out jellybeans & then feed them to a couple of brave guys. Needless to say, I hope we got the point across that we are really excited about ski trip this year & we want them all to go with us.

After all the fun in the snow & ice we talked about our separation from God because of sin & our need for a Savior. I always think these are some of the hardest talks to give, but I also have a firm belief that kids need to hear it. They need to know their need for a Savior. I gave the example of of 2 different branches fallen from a tree. One branch had green leaves on it, while the other had no leaves at all. I asked the kids which branch looked better. Obviously, they said the branch with the leaves looked better & more alive. We then talked about how both of these branches are dead, they have both been separated from their source of life & there is no way that on their own they can become alive again. So many of us are just walking around like the dead branch with leaves still on it. We look really alive, but this is only temporary, because we are cut off from our source of life. I ended with Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." There is life through Christ, he is our only way across this separation & I encouraged all to come back next week to hear more about this. Please pray that all our friends are able to understand & process this & that they would realize their need for our Savior.