Serving Community and Serving Jesus

VBS rolled on Wednesday with 'Splash Day' and visit from Sherry McDonnell from Hill Country Community Ministries. She talked to the kids about serving the Community and the role HCCM plays in proving food, clothing and comfort to those in need in the hill country. Splash day was big hit with water balloons, water cannons and a slip and slide.

Thursday night was the last night of the full VBS program (crafts, music, recreation & bible story). At each stop the excitement was still there and the kids were eager to recall their stories and memories of serving family, neighbors, community and Jesus. They even tried their hand at acting. During the bible story time they acted out the story told in Acts 2:3-10. 'and the crowd went wild!!!'

We videoed a musical presentation of two of the VBS songs. Come to church this Sunday to see the kids in action.

john

Who is your neighbor?

Today the kids learned who is their neighbor through the story of the "Good Samaritan" told in Luke 10:25-37.

The recreation stop had the kids moving and smiling with a race to bandage the man hurt on the side of the road.

The music stop had the kids singing and dancing.

The kids in the "Snakes" group work together and focus at the craft stop.

Members of the "Crickets" group acting out their part of the bible story. Here are two robbers are hiding beside the roadside waiting for a man walking down the road.

The kids are having a blast in God's Big Back Yard. Check in tomorrow for splash day and a story about serving the community.

john

Vacation Bible School - God's Big Back Yard

This year's VBS is theme is God's Big Back Yard where kids have a blast learning how to serve. Each day there is food, an open and closing assembly, music, crafts, recreation, story time and lots of smiles.


Today's meal was a kid favorite! Corn dogs, chips, watermelon and lemonade. Yum!


Our bible story for the day comes from Mark 2:1-12 and the kids learned to serve friends and to treat others as themselves.



Toddlers the in the nursery get a great view of the older kids during recreation.

Pastor Bob and Cooper appear in the opening and closing assembly. The voice of Cooper is an interesting impersonation, like a southern Edward G. Robinson.

Check back in for Tuesday's post as the kids learn about serving your neighbor.

john

Written Connection and Thanks!

Mail bags at the Berryville Living Center.

Collected written notes of encouragement and congregational connection before the mission trip.

I just want to say a personal word of thanks to all those parents, youth and congregation members who wrote to the youth and adults this week on our mission trip. I requested notes and letters from almost everyone in the congregation to be given to youth mission trip participants throughout their week in Berryville, Arkansas. In typical Good News style, you all delivered and I was able to give "mail" each day to each participant. Special thanks to John McDaniel, GNUMC Lay Leader, for writing to each of the 15 people on the trip. This was a surprise to everyone on the trip and a meaningful part of their day before going to the worksite.

Each morning at 6 am I would take my full bag of mail to the fellowship hall and put correspondence in each Good News member's mail bag. They were all appreciative and this was a wonderful way to connect the congregation and mission trip team members to this important ministry. THANK YOU each and every one of you! You are the BEST!

Grace and peace,

Tim Lowke / Youth Leader

Mission Trip Saturday - Closing Worship

Bob and Judy at the Closing Worship Rally in Ft. Smith.

Toni, Tamara, Amanda and Katie participating in praise songs at the Closing Worship.

Youth praising God.

2000 youth and adults praising God and celebrating the close of our CTCYM mission experience.

Toni, Tamara, Amanda and Katie watching pictures of mission projects from across the CTCYM.

Richard, Stefanie, Judy and Bob lisening to the message at the Closing Worship.

Incredible is the only word that I can choose to describe the Closing Worship Rally for our CTCYM experience. We got up as usual in Berryville and after breakfast, began cleaning the church from top to bottom, readying the building for their Sunday worship and loading the last of our things in the trailer and vans. We then were each given our mission trip t-shirts which we changed into and got onto the road to Ft. Smith. This put us two hours closer to home.

When we arrived in Ft. Smith, we followed the steady stream of white vans to the Grand Avenue Baptist Church for the Closing Worship Rally. Entering the sanctuary, we were greeted by over a thousand youth and adults from across the conference fellowshipping and listening to praise music. It was loud. It was joyful. It was praise. It was an incredible sight!

We found our assigned pews for the Berryville Living Center. The beginning of the service began with a powerpoint of images from all the living centers. It was AWESOME to see the work accomplished. Our youth participated in small work teams, then a larger living center all week and then with the Closing Worship Rally, they got to see the impact of over 2000 youth and adults could have in one week in Arkansas and Missouri!

The powerpoint was followed by praise music, a message from a college campus minister in North Texas and communion led by Bishop Chambliss. After the closing prayer, we went outside where we were given a Chick-Fil-A lunch. We loaded our vans and turned home to Central Texas. It took us over 9 hours, but we safely arrived at Holy Ground a little after midnight.

Mission Trip 2008 was an experience that our youth and adults will be able to take forward as one connection in their faith life with God. We found Jesus in many of the people we met, work we did and connections made. Thank you to our congregation and community for helping us in this important ministry. We begin in July working on fundraising etc.... for mission trip 2009. Stay tuned for details and thanks for reading about our experience!

Grace and peace,

The Good News Youth Mission Team / 2008

Mission Trip Friday

Tamara at Friday worksite with ramp construction.

Cooper painting at Friday worksite.

Carpenter Tim reworking an attic vent at Friday worksite.

Weeheee! We are done (sort of), we left one work team on a job-site to finish (they are returning at 8 pm without a shower - yuck!!!). Today we combined an number of teams on sites in order to finish work. Tricia's team with Katie and Cheyanne had a poision ivy incident----- luckily no Good Newers ended up with it. Tricia's team spent the day painting black trim on a house - this was a new Friday project. Bob and Maren's team finished painting their mobile home and everyone else converged on a 100 year-old farmhouse where we built a ramp, painted trim, took down a tree, replaced an attic vent, built a handrail system to the basement, painted the furnace, and much more. Tonight is Mexican food for dinner, showers and a final praise service with communion.

All in all, we have enjoyed our time in Arkansas serving others. I feel many of our youth have grown immensley from this experience and the adults have grown as well. We have all learned to live in a communal situation and have realized what it is to put other's needs ahead of ours. I hope all these youth and others will join us for the CTCYM 2009 to the Mississippi River (proposed)!

There will be no blog post tomorrow as we will be in cleaning the Berryville UMC before we leave, loading vans and the trailer and in transit to the rally and home. Watch this space Sunday for a post of our rally experience and trip home. Keep us all in your prayers as we travel home. Yeah, real beds!

Don't forget: Return trip home plans. The large rally with all 2000 conference mission trippers will be in Ft. Smith at 1:30 pm. We figure that by the time the rally is complete and we do dinner, bathroom stops etc... we should roll into Holy Ground at about 1 am. Kids will only off-load their bathroom bags, pillows and medicines. Plan to return to Holy Ground at 5 pm on Sunday for a trailer unloading party, pictures, etc...

Mission Trip Thursday - Late Night Report

Tamara at dinner.

Toni serving dinner.

Good News Youth Mission Team at the Passion Play with a head priest.


Maren, Richard, Cooper, Cheyanne and Tricia in front of Christ of the Ozarks.

Christ of the Ozarks.

We just got back from the Passion Play in Eureka Springs. It was pretty good and the youth enjoyed the performance. We got to see the actor Judy met at the Berryville Pool last night - he is the Friday night Jesus, but tonight he played Pilot. The setting for play was beautiful even though the actor's dialogue was recorded. Cooper found a name his future offspring within the performance this evening. At the moment, everyone is breaking out cold food (Bob is eating cold popcorn chicken) and eating before out lights out for tonight. Our youth are around Bob asking questions about the biblical references in the play. It was a nice evening. Check in on us tomorrow.

Grace and peace,

Tim-

Mission Trip Thursday - Early Report

Bob and Maren's team serving breakfast.

Cheyanne, Cooper, Tricia chilling before breakfast.

Our living center group before breakfast.

Judy preparing pictures to send for the rally on Saturday from the Berryville Living Center.

Tim and Cooper's team posing with their client as they finish their work with her home.

Early report from Berryville, Arkansas. 19 tubes of caulk, 6 gallons of white paint, a gallon of primer, a great amount of yard work and other tasks accomplished and our team finished with our client in Green Forest, Arkansas. The exterior of her home has been transformed and ready for her grandkids to visit next week. She joined us each day for lunch in her yard and our on-site devotional. Today's theme is on Perservence. Our group perservered and finished their work an hour before showers, so you are getting and early report and some pictures.

Tonight we attend the Passion Play in Eureka Springs, Arkansas. It will be a late night of fellowship, but we will have a great time. We are all tired, but tomorrow will be the push - all work must be completed before dinner tomorrow night which means all team will converged on the remaing jobsites and blitz for them to get done. I will work to update later this evening if there is time. Keep commenting.

On another note, here is what is up for the return trip home. The large rally with all 2000 conference mission trippers will be in Ft. Smith at 1:30 pm. We figure that by the time the rally is complete and we do dinner, bathroom stops etc... we should roll into Holy Ground at about 1 am. Kids will only off-load their bathroom bags, pillows and medicines. Plan to return to Holy Ground at 5 pm on Sunday for a trailer unloading party, pictures, etc... Everybody sends their prayers and love. Gotta go shower and rinse the layers of white paint and dirt off.

Grace and peace,

Tim-

Mission Trip Wednesday - Halfway there!

Maren painting steps and railing.

Katie mowing at her client's home.

Tricia, Katie and Cheyanne in their van going to the jobsite.

Pool Party.

Our group in Berryville continues to have a wonderful time and a meaningful experience. We rose early this morning and went about our morning routine of breakfast, devotional, lunch-making and loading the van for the day. Each project continues to progress with Pastor Bob's team moving onto client number three today. They are working on many differnt smaller projects for people in need while teams like mine, continue on our original client.

Tonight after our showers, we went across to the Berryville Community Center for a swim and pizza party. Everybody got time to socialize, play games, swim, and use the facilities. Midway through the evening, we had a pizza party in the community center's outside pavilion. Homemade rice crispie treats were for dessert! Yum!!!!

We now have an hour for free-time before we go to worship for the evening. Our theme for today was Jumping the Hurdles --- the hills and valleys in our faith life. Read Matthew 11:28-30 and John 14:27 and ask yourself what are some of the valleys you have been in life? Jesus promises us rest and peace. How can we take Jesus up on his offer?

Here are some images from today - enjoy, we are learning to serve. Remember, the mission trip is not about our needs, but the needs of others. We are having the opportunity to live both our church mission and the mission of our Lord.

Remember to comment - I am trying to share them with the rest of our group.

Grace and peace,


The Good News Youth Mission Team

Mission Trip Tuesday

Sir Richard getting marshmallws shot at him on his 16th birthday.

Cool Lane is a skit with elements of our day.

Cheyanne shooting marshmallows.

Tuesday has been a busy day, which began very early as Richard and comapny got up for a run around Berryville on his 16th birthday! We have formed a routine already of breakfast, lunch making and getting off to job sites in our work clothes. After a day of work and shower, I asked about their day, our Good News Mission Team members said the following:

“I was never good with Tinker Toys.” Elizabeth – (She is having to put together an outdoor canopy without any instructions.)

“It’s very encouraging to see a kid lead the lunch devotional with sincerity.” Judy – Our theme today was nourishment and the story of Jesus going to the well.

“We got a lot done at our site.” & “ Yay Sonic!” Cheyanne

“We painted and got pumpkin pie.” Cooper – Tim and Cooper’s team client baked the group pumpkin pies in an unaircondidtioned house and she is partially blind.

“I dug through lots of rock…. But I loved it!” Richard – His team is installing a ramp to a client’s house.

“Black oil-based paint doesn’t come off easy. I am still scraping after three hours.” Katie

“Great.” Maren – She had a rough start to the trip having to stay behind on Monday morning because she was throwing up, but by lunch she was at a job site working hard, Bob reports.

“I was on the roof and it was AMAZING!” Amanda

“In my day, I saw God everywhere.” Lane

“My day was fun with the painting and building stuff.” Tamara

“The people on my team are fun!” Toni

“We have a GREAT team that’s working really hard with an outstanding attitude!” Tricia

“It was GREAT!” Bob

“Well, today when I was digging a hole, I found the sixth water line pipe….. not good. Later, I stepped into a hole of cement. Opps!” Stefanie

For me, I am seeing great things happen with all our youth. They are mixing with the other 40 or so kids, making friendships, having fun, playing games and worshipping God. Today's theme and message was on nourshiment. We explored the story of Jesus at the well and druing our evening service, it was Bob's turn to share the message. He spoke about how God nourishes each of us with the living water if we let him. He used a can of Dr. Pepper, a bottle of Gatorade, a bottled water and one of our CTCYM water bottles to discuss how each can nourish, but how some can have undesirable effects on each of us. That's what is happening this week, each of us is being nourished as we reach out and helps those that in the case of my client simply can no longer do for herself. As Lane said, we get to see God everywhere. I personally am SO proud of our youth, adults and our pastor for choosing this experience.

On a couple of other notes, we played some AWESOME games tonight that the kids loved. Judy is a wonderful program director. Check out the pictures of the marshmallow guns. I scored a prototype so we can build some to play in youth this summer! We also did a skit tonight that plays on quotes and things from our Tuesday ala American Idol with Berryville based judges. Finally, we celebrated Richard's birthday with 70 of his now close friends (remember we are eating, sleeping, showering and working in very close quarters) with cake and ice cream after games tonight. Check out our pics.

Tomorrow night we go to the local pool for a swim and picnic. Know that posts are late in the evening (yes, I am breaking curfew at the moment to blog to you folks) because there is little to no free time. Hey, we're with 50 kids, teenagers no less. Read on Wednesday and please comment!

The Good News Youth Mission Team

Mission Trip Monday

Richard spelling words with his feet.

Tim and Cooper's Team at snack

Today is our first day of work. Lane has been our videographer today and Katie is our guest blogger. Here is what Katie has to say about her time so far:

Mission trip with the church conference, how was it so far? I have enjoyed this trip more than the others that I have been on. Packing the night before the trip and stopping at the gas station every 2 hours made the road trip go by fast. Of course, riding with Lane, Cooper, and Rich was probably not the best thing to happen to me, but whatever, they had fun. It was funny when we were about 20 minutes away from Berryville ----- Rich was literally upside down (in his seat belt) in the van wanting to get out and walk the rest of the way. I guess that was from him being so tall and sitting in a small place. When we arrived to our extravagant resort (Berryville UMC), we were the first ones to arrive, and most of the other churches passed us on the way up to Arkansas and were two hours ahead of us ---- what’s with that? While we were playing catch phrase at the folding tables in the dining room, all the others arrived in the wet, rainy weather. After helping the other church groups unload their vans, we got into our work teams and played team bonding games. Team 3 (my team) is made up of 5 enthusiastic youths Jake, Emily, Blair, Cheyanne, and me as well as hard 2 working adults Bobby and Tricia. Sunday night we went to bed at midnight and woke up at 5:45 the next morning. Every one got dressed, ate breakfast, made lunches, and went to work. Our client is in a wheelchair and my group is building a ramp. After we tore out the old ramp, we had some trouble because we ran out of wood, but that’s alright, we will finish it tomorrow. When we came back at the end of the day to take showers, Judy’s group came back infested in ticks and fleas. It was a good thing that I was not on that team. So far, I have had the best time on this trip ---- better than I had thought.

Katie Schmidt

Katie's Team building towers.

Maren and Bob's Team building towers.

All the groups are having a great time. Tonight, Tim and Judy led games. Tim did a teambuilding activity having the youth and adults build newspaper towers and Judy did a game where the youth had letters drawn on their feet and had to rearrange themselves to spell words. Enjoy our pics. Join us for day two tomorrow!

Grace and peace,

Good News Youth Mission Team

Arrived in Berryville

We arrived in Berryville without any problems. Trip up went smoothly --- took us about 12 hours with meals and gas/bathroom breaks. Arkansas is pretty. Everyone is fine and we are now waiting for the other groups to arrive. Watch later for pics and commentary. Pray for the mission trip team!

Packing Party

Good News Youth Mission Team 2008

Tonight we met at Holy Ground and brought everything need for our mission trip to Arkansas. 15 people bring alot of stuff as you can see from the photos. After we loaded the trailer, we gathered in a circle, joined hands and prayed for our trip, our time together in mission and for those that we will be ministering to in Arkansas.

Loading all that "stuff" in our trailer.

Check back each day to see what is happening this week in the mission trip life of our youth.