No Deal" video game, and some random pics throughout the day. Enjoy!
Sunday, June 29, 2008
Day 4 in Pictures
Latter half of the week. We went to Broadway at the Beach, had our Sophomore princess and pirate, Emily Ross beat the "Deal or
No Deal" video game, and some random pics throughout the day. Enjoy!
No Deal" video game, and some random pics throughout the day. Enjoy!
Ciy Student Blogs Con't - Day 3 (Cecily McClear)
By this time we're all settled in and totally comfortable with our surroundings. I'm sure my blog won't be nearly as great as the others, but I'll try and show ya'll what this day was like. Day 3's sessions were themed on "community" and the importance of it in the church. This topic was really important to me because I personally feel the great need for a close community of Christians that grow together in Christ.
During D-groups we listed each person in the group's differences and how their differences help our community. In the morning session our speaker, Damien, taught us the importance of loving one another and encouraging each other. We also were challenged to sacrifice for one another. this really hit home for me because it made me realize how I was so unwilling to sacrifice for other people.
As part of growing as a community we participated in the "MOVE Experience." This was an activity in which all the churches were split up randomly into separate groups and completed tasks with other group members. The members consisted of people from many different churches.
After evening session we went to our youth group time. Honestly, this is my favorite part of the whole day. It's the best place to connect together as a community. Tonight's group time was exceptionally great. Brian lead us in worship with his acoustic guitar and despite the lack of loud speakers, we all got really into it and rocked out! We started dancing and singing, giving all our praised to God. Oh, and did I mention we were on the beach?! It was pretty awesome to be praising God out in His beautiful creation. At the end of the group time we played this game called "Bite the Bag." It was a fun game that tested everyone's flexibility. In my opinion, Wednesday was the best day. It's so cool to see what God does in our lives!
God Bless,
Cecily
During D-groups we listed each person in the group's differences and how their differences help our community. In the morning session our speaker, Damien, taught us the importance of loving one another and encouraging each other. We also were challenged to sacrifice for one another. this really hit home for me because it made me realize how I was so unwilling to sacrifice for other people.
As part of growing as a community we participated in the "MOVE Experience." This was an activity in which all the churches were split up randomly into separate groups and completed tasks with other group members. The members consisted of people from many different churches.
After evening session we went to our youth group time. Honestly, this is my favorite part of the whole day. It's the best place to connect together as a community. Tonight's group time was exceptionally great. Brian lead us in worship with his acoustic guitar and despite the lack of loud speakers, we all got really into it and rocked out! We started dancing and singing, giving all our praised to God. Oh, and did I mention we were on the beach?! It was pretty awesome to be praising God out in His beautiful creation. At the end of the group time we played this game called "Bite the Bag." It was a fun game that tested everyone's flexibility. In my opinion, Wednesday was the best day. It's so cool to see what God does in our lives!
God Bless,
Cecily
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Ciy Day 3 in Pictures
Some of our girls w/ Emily Pelsue, Dgroup, our Backstreet Boys at the Talent Show, freshmen superlatives, and worship. Enjoy!
A Note from Last Year's Party Princess - Day 2 (Taylor Williams)
The second day of CIY has always seemed to be the most eventful, mostly just because we are all just settling into our new routines. Ken Anthony Marshall was fittingly assigned to be the Party Princess for our day, with Emily Ross playing the part of the newly created Mrs. Sparrow. Everyone went to breakfast around 8:15, even though the hotel staff is very lenient and usually lets us get in a little bit early, or a little late for those guys who want to sleep in a bit (usually me). No one got a whole lot of sleep as most of us had some fun the night before, but we didn’t let that affect us. We went into the morning session with no one really understanding what to expect, but you could feel it in the air-SOMETHING had to happen to Ken. As luck would have it, Ken was randomly selected to compete in the craziest competition held during that service. Both Ken and another randomly selected insane person were forced to eat an entire can of sardines, and with their pride hanging in the balance, Ken and the girl were off. It was a nail biter, but in the end, the girl came away with the prize: a beautiful jester’s hat and bragging rights to be the craziest person at CIY for the day.
After all of that fun time, we got to have our first Encounter session of the camp. Encounter is a time when we all go off by ourselves for a short period of time, and we get to study our Bibles and our student handbooks by ourselves. I personally wanted to be near to the coffee shop, just because it smelled SO good that early in the morning. Anyways, after a little bit, I went and met up with the other 11th-12th grade guys for our D-Group. Mr. Jim Brown led us through a group discussion, where we got to ask some tough questions and left us thinking about the topic for the day, which happened to be the Holy Spirit and what it really is. After that, us guys were dismissed to lunch, even though we had a big chunk of time in between when we got out and when it was Crosspointe’s lunch time.
After we had some deliciously undercooked burgers, we had our free time. Free time is just a space from right after lunch through to dinner where students get to go out and have some fun. The three choices for the day were that we could either go to the beach, go the nasty, over-chlorinated pool, or just hang out in the lobby and do whatever. Most of us went to the beach, where a couple of us got burnt. Of course, I personally will never get a tan before getting a really bad burn, but that doesn’t stop me from trying…
Once we were done there, we went to go eat at a personal favorite of mine, Golden Corral. We had a nice time, and then we got back to the hotel in time to get to the amazing worship service. The Aaron Pelsue Band was incredible as usual, and the energy was just filling up the room as the night went on. The speaker had a very moving sermon, encouraging all of us students to move to where the Holy Spirit would guide us. It was the best experience of the day, just to feel that power flowing through the whole building. Afterwards, there was a surprise for us. The leaders took us to our evening devotional time, but instead of heading to the same spot as the night before, we were led to the beach! It was so beautiful and so serene, except for a couple more students from another church who were enjoying themselves, and it really helped set the mood for our time as a church. A lot of people spoke up and let the rest of us know what was on their hearts, which surprised and really encouraged me personally. After we left the beach and made our ways back to our rooms, everyone was winding down and getting some excess energy off on the walk home. I really enjoyed my bed that night, that’s for sure! It was a draining day to be sure, but I cant wait to see what else is going to happen in each and every person here.
With love,
Taylor
After all of that fun time, we got to have our first Encounter session of the camp. Encounter is a time when we all go off by ourselves for a short period of time, and we get to study our Bibles and our student handbooks by ourselves. I personally wanted to be near to the coffee shop, just because it smelled SO good that early in the morning. Anyways, after a little bit, I went and met up with the other 11th-12th grade guys for our D-Group. Mr. Jim Brown led us through a group discussion, where we got to ask some tough questions and left us thinking about the topic for the day, which happened to be the Holy Spirit and what it really is. After that, us guys were dismissed to lunch, even though we had a big chunk of time in between when we got out and when it was Crosspointe’s lunch time.
After we had some deliciously undercooked burgers, we had our free time. Free time is just a space from right after lunch through to dinner where students get to go out and have some fun. The three choices for the day were that we could either go to the beach, go the nasty, over-chlorinated pool, or just hang out in the lobby and do whatever. Most of us went to the beach, where a couple of us got burnt. Of course, I personally will never get a tan before getting a really bad burn, but that doesn’t stop me from trying…
Once we were done there, we went to go eat at a personal favorite of mine, Golden Corral. We had a nice time, and then we got back to the hotel in time to get to the amazing worship service. The Aaron Pelsue Band was incredible as usual, and the energy was just filling up the room as the night went on. The speaker had a very moving sermon, encouraging all of us students to move to where the Holy Spirit would guide us. It was the best experience of the day, just to feel that power flowing through the whole building. Afterwards, there was a surprise for us. The leaders took us to our evening devotional time, but instead of heading to the same spot as the night before, we were led to the beach! It was so beautiful and so serene, except for a couple more students from another church who were enjoying themselves, and it really helped set the mood for our time as a church. A lot of people spoke up and let the rest of us know what was on their hearts, which surprised and really encouraged me personally. After we left the beach and made our ways back to our rooms, everyone was winding down and getting some excess energy off on the walk home. I really enjoyed my bed that night, that’s for sure! It was a draining day to be sure, but I cant wait to see what else is going to happen in each and every person here.
With love,
Taylor
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
Ciy Day 2 in Pictures
Here are some pictures of our Party Princess on stage, our day at the beach, me being buried and made into a mermaid, worship, and our group time. Enjoy!
We Have Come Here to MOVE - Day 1 (Lucy Moore)
We arrived in Myrtle Beach, South Carolina around 5:30 (in the afternoon, of course) and checked into our hotel around 5:40. After many bus parties by Kenneth Anthony Marshall (Ken), our team was worn out by the time we arrived at the hotel. After we all settled in with our roommates (I was lucky to have Chelsea Williams, Rachel Brown, and Sherri Dill!), we went to dinner at Fudruckers. I got the chicken. Mmm… After a quick but yummy dinner, we headed off to our first session of the week. It was really exciting for me, being a senior now (woop woop!), to see the freshmen and newcomers going to their first session. They grow up so fast, don’t they? We started off with some great music from the worship band, Aaron Pelsue (the back-up singer is AMAZING!). We sang songs like “I am Free” and “Dance in the River.” Next we had a funny video about the guidelines. You know, no alcohol, drugs, boys in girls’ rooms, girls in boys’ rooms, the usual. They then got serious about it and let us know how important it is to follow the rules. You know me- (or maybe you don’t) I’m such a rule breaker. After prayer, we heard more from the Aaron Pelsue Band with songs like “Mighty to Save” (one of my favorites) and “All we need is You.”
We then saw a very eye-opening video on what Christians think about Christianity. Boy, did they get it wrong! A pretty cool speaker came out next to talk about what Christianity (at least from his perspective) is really about. His name was Eric. Eric talked about getting as close to God as you can. So close you touch him. He talked about how we tend to look down on others to make ourselves feel better. He talked about finding out what things make you closer to God. Hold onto those things! Embrace them! After one more set of songs from Aaron Pelsue including “Jesus Paid it All”, “At the Cross” and “Marvelous Light”, (sin has lost it’s power!) we wrapped up the session. Ahh, it was good. I didn’t cry though! That’s impressive for me. Actually maybe I did cry... Anywho, next we had our big group time. I guess that’s what it’s called. We just all got together in a quiet hallway and sang a few songs with Brian Furdon on guitar. We talked about highlights and things we were excited about for the upcoming week here at CIY: Move.
To carry on the tradition of crowning a Party Princess (uh, it’s a CIY thing,) we crowned Ken Marshall as the official PP (haha.) We added a new embarrassing costume by crowning Emily Ross as Jack Sparrow. ArrrGUH! I do have to say, they did a great job (they even called Ken on stage!.. to eat sardines..) Taylor Williams closed our Youth Group time with a prayer, and we all went off to bed. A great first day, or should I say half-day, at CIY!
- Lucy
We then saw a very eye-opening video on what Christians think about Christianity. Boy, did they get it wrong! A pretty cool speaker came out next to talk about what Christianity (at least from his perspective) is really about. His name was Eric. Eric talked about getting as close to God as you can. So close you touch him. He talked about how we tend to look down on others to make ourselves feel better. He talked about finding out what things make you closer to God. Hold onto those things! Embrace them! After one more set of songs from Aaron Pelsue including “Jesus Paid it All”, “At the Cross” and “Marvelous Light”, (sin has lost it’s power!) we wrapped up the session. Ahh, it was good. I didn’t cry though! That’s impressive for me. Actually maybe I did cry... Anywho, next we had our big group time. I guess that’s what it’s called. We just all got together in a quiet hallway and sang a few songs with Brian Furdon on guitar. We talked about highlights and things we were excited about for the upcoming week here at CIY: Move.
To carry on the tradition of crowning a Party Princess (uh, it’s a CIY thing,) we crowned Ken Marshall as the official PP (haha.) We added a new embarrassing costume by crowning Emily Ross as Jack Sparrow. ArrrGUH! I do have to say, they did a great job (they even called Ken on stage!.. to eat sardines..) Taylor Williams closed our Youth Group time with a prayer, and we all went off to bed. A great first day, or should I say half-day, at CIY!
- Lucy
Monday, June 23, 2008
Let's MOVE
Today is the first day of Ciy MOVE in Myrtle Beach, SC and we brought 60+ students for a jammed pack week of connecting with God and with one another. We arrived here safe around 3pm (bad traffic) and then ate dinner at Fudruckers! We had our first session tonight and it's theme was on rediscovering who Jesus is. Afterward we had our Group Time together and it was by far the highlight of my day. We talked, laughed, and had most of all had fun together as a group.
The wireless internet cuts on and off every 5 seconds so it's incredibly annoying and frustrating. So if the internet holds up, I have asked a few students to be guest bloggers and will give you the updates of how our week is going throughout the week. So stay tuned tomorrow for our first student blog!
I can't wait to see how God is going to MOVE in our students this week and I'm excited for the relationships that are being formed as I type! Here are a few quick pictures that I snapped of what worship looked tonight!
The wireless internet cuts on and off every 5 seconds so it's incredibly annoying and frustrating. So if the internet holds up, I have asked a few students to be guest bloggers and will give you the updates of how our week is going throughout the week. So stay tuned tomorrow for our first student blog!
I can't wait to see how God is going to MOVE in our students this week and I'm excited for the relationships that are being formed as I type! Here are a few quick pictures that I snapped of what worship looked tonight!
Saturday, June 21, 2008
It feels good when...
...you could wail a rubber spherical object at the head of an unsuspecting middle school kid and get paid for it! This past Friday night we had our first of three middle school game nights and it was a BLAST! We had a good group of students and parents play dodgeball, spoons, and relay races. I love these middle schoolers and I can't wait till they can throw dodgeballs like me! HAHA JK! I love my job!
Monday, June 16, 2008
It's In the Name
So as many of you know we own two lil miniature dachshunds and we named them after everyone's favorite Disney movie, "Lilo & Stitch." OK, so maybe it's far from a favorite out of the many classic Disney films but the names were a cute combination. Lilo (brown) is our little sweetheart of a girl and is almost three and Stitch (gray) just turned one on Mother's Day.
Well if you're familiar at all with the Disney movie, the character Stitch is this lil punk alien monster that reeks havoc on everything he touches, but at the same time cute and adorable and in the end is a great lil guy. Well we never thought that our lil guy would be just like this character. I'm not going list all the items that our Stitch has destroyed in the past, but last week he hit an all time high or low, whichever way you look at it, and he destroyed Tracy's new cell phone. The thing that really stinks about the whole situation is that since we got the phone less than a year ago, we are not eligible for an upgrade and don't have the finances to pay retail for any phone out there! So as of right now Tracy is dealing with a phone that barely works!
But not only did he destroy Trace's phone, last week while we were getting ready to grill out, Stitch had something in his mouth that looked a lil different. Come to find out as Tracy went to grab him that he had a Rabbit's head in his mouth.....I'm serious. It had to be one of the sickest things I've ever seen. You should've seen me chase him around our backyard with a broom in hand trying to knock the decapitated head out of his jaws. That was a fun-filled evening let me tell ya. All this to say that our lil punk is a monster just like the cartoon Stitch, but is so adorable that we love him anyways!
Well if you're familiar at all with the Disney movie, the character Stitch is this lil punk alien monster that reeks havoc on everything he touches, but at the same time cute and adorable and in the end is a great lil guy. Well we never thought that our lil guy would be just like this character. I'm not going list all the items that our Stitch has destroyed in the past, but last week he hit an all time high or low, whichever way you look at it, and he destroyed Tracy's new cell phone. The thing that really stinks about the whole situation is that since we got the phone less than a year ago, we are not eligible for an upgrade and don't have the finances to pay retail for any phone out there! So as of right now Tracy is dealing with a phone that barely works!
But not only did he destroy Trace's phone, last week while we were getting ready to grill out, Stitch had something in his mouth that looked a lil different. Come to find out as Tracy went to grab him that he had a Rabbit's head in his mouth.....I'm serious. It had to be one of the sickest things I've ever seen. You should've seen me chase him around our backyard with a broom in hand trying to knock the decapitated head out of his jaws. That was a fun-filled evening let me tell ya. All this to say that our lil punk is a monster just like the cartoon Stitch, but is so adorable that we love him anyways!
Sunday, June 15, 2008
I Love Our Church!
Just a quick note - mad props to God and our community at Crosspointe to do something so huge together! I am so honored to be a part of community that has the faith to step into the impossible. Just in one week Crosspointe rasied over 400k to help the Haitian's Children's Home (a ministry we partner with and where we'll be leading 16 of our high schoolers to in August) to purchase the land that was promised to them years ago! To see the whole story check out Bow's Blog. This definitely has to be one of the top 3 things I've ever seen while doing ministry! God is AWESOME!
Monday, June 9, 2008
Promised Pictures late!
I know TWO WEEKS AGO I said I'd post some pictures of what we did around the house during the time my in-laws were in town. I just didn't figure I'd get so caught up in other things to forget about it. Just to recap we painted shutters, took down a tree, planted some plants in the back, made the mailbox look nice, and replaced the lights outside of the garage. In all it just looks better. So better late than never!
BEFORE (Take into account that this is the only before picture we have although it was when we were purchasing the house over a year ago and the grass still looked good....)
AFTER
Maybe one day we'll show you the dramatic difference we did painting the inside! I'll catch ya up with life stuff here soon!
BEFORE (Take into account that this is the only before picture we have although it was when we were purchasing the house over a year ago and the grass still looked good....)
AFTER
Maybe one day we'll show you the dramatic difference we did painting the inside! I'll catch ya up with life stuff here soon!
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