What we do!

We are a non-denominational, para-church ministry based in Rhinelander - but ministering to youth and family throughout the Northwoods, and the world! We have many existing and future programs and services all designed to assist the family unit and the local church as well.

Some of our "youth only" programs and services include: Lock-in's, Winter Retreats, Bible Studies, Rallies (Mission Impossible, "NO-fear factor", etc.), Mission Trips, Bible Quizzing, Individual and "couples" mentoring and counseling.

Our "youth and family" programs include: Worship University (training for worship leaders and worship teams), Concerts (Pillar, Fireflight, Stellar Kart, John Reuben), Sports Leagues (Flag Football and Softball), Financial Seminar, Father/son camping trip.

We also have services that we offer to the local and international churches including: Youth Group speaker, Youth Group Leader (where we come into a church and help run the youth group while at the same time train the volunteers to run the ministry after we leave), Leadership Training, International Leadership Training/Missions (through WILD), Worship Team training (through Worship University).

So you can see a wide variety of programs and services are both offered and available to the local community and the churches. Our desire and mission at HCY is to build up the body, not to compete with it. With the local churches limitations, we strive to offer cost friendly, non competitive ways for both Christians and Non-Christians to to experience the life that God would have for them. We are an evangelistic organization, but we also offer many opportunities for spiritual growth as well.

That is HCY in a nutshell! Myself being the director, I am involved in all of these programs in all areas from conception to implementation. Kim and I feel blessed to be used by God to affect the lives of people here in the Northwoods.

Yeah, I'm hip!

Day 3

Another full day of ministry here today.

VBS went well again, nothing really new to add!!! The teens are doing a great job of filling in the holes that are here. Our puppet team needs a little help, but other than that everything is doing fine.

Work projects went well today. We had three teams go out to different locations. A group of five went to another elderly ladies home and washed windows and mirrors. They also did weed wacking and some gardening.

I took one other person and went back and finished the deck that we started yesterday.

The rest of our group went over to the Thomas' and the parsonage and did a lot of work including: painting, transplanting trees, and washing the house.

Things are going great here!!! Thanks for reading and praying for us. Another busy day tomorrow!!!

Day 2

Today was the first day of VBS. There was a great turnout of around 40 kids. Our teens helped out in a bunch of different ways. Some did the puppets, others helped out with registration, others were running the obstacle course, others were helping out with crafts. The teens were great and jumped right in and didn't question anything, just wanted to help out.

Today was also our first workday. We split up and a group of guys went with me and pressure washed decks and mowed grass.

The other group went and washed windows and did garden upkeep for two elderly families.

We were treated to an evening at the lake as a relative of the Thomas' invited us out to their cabin!!! The teens loved the lake and we had a cookout and ate VERY well!

Nicette gave the lesson tonight and did a fabulous job. She encouraged the teens to not leave any sin unconfessed and to get things right with God. It had a great impact on two teens in particular.

Tomorrow is another busy day with another round of VBS in the morning and then more work projects in the afternoon.

We have received MANY compliments regarding the teens and the job that they are doing. We are really filling a void this week and meeting the needs of the people here in New Richmond. The teens were really amazed that the people were SO blessed by them doing something relatively easy. Several comments tonight were, "I can't believe they were so grateful for that! I felt like I should have done more". Then they realized that God can use even the small things that we do for His glory. They don't have to build a house or something to that scale, the simple act of washing someone's windows who can't is sufficient.

Once again we have an awesome group of teens. There is absolutely NO issues or problems with behavior. Everyone is getting along extremely well and it is an absolute joy to work with these teens!

Until tomorrow,,,

First Day Recap

Hello once again,

We had a great first "day" here in New Richmond. As I said earlier, we rolled in around 3:30 this afternoon.

We then went over to the Kelly's house for supper. Tim and Bridgette were helpers in our youth group here at First Baptist when I was on staff. We had a great time and it was quite a spread they set before us.

Matt Chojnacki and I took on Adam (Youth Pastor) and Jerod (Tim & Bridgette's son) in a wicked game of basketball. In the mid 80's with almost 100% humidity along with my out-of-shapeness, I don't think that I've EVER sweat as much as I did! We ended up losing by two, and I immediately drank a 1/2 gallon of lemonade and sat in front of the AC register.

They converted their garage into a game room with the Wii, so a bunch of the teens were playing bowling and golf. We had a great time hanging out and were very appreciative of the Kelly's hospitality.

When we came back to the church I led the teens in a study of James 2:14-26 and we looked at the topic of our faith and works. We studied the three examples that James gave us in meeting the physical needs of people (15-16), Sacrificial works (21-22), and Showing kindness and helping others (25). We talked about how we can use all three of these during our time here in New Richmond. We also talked about, more importantly, how we can use these examples in our everyday life.

Tomorrow we start our work. Our schedule for the morning/afternoon goes like this:

9:00-12:00 VBS

lunch

1:00-4:30 Work projects

We don't know what exactly we are doing yet for VBS, so we will have to be flexible and go wherever they need us to. We are going to be pressure washing two decks tomorrow to prep them for staining later in the week. We are also going over to several elderly houses to wash windows. I challenged the teens tonight to spend time after they got done washing to interact with the people. Please be praying that we meet more than just the physical need for getting the windows done, and that we would be there to listen and minister to them as well.

It's been a great day and it's a privilege to work with these quality teens!

Look forward to an awesome day tomorrow!!!

We Made It!!!

Hi everyone, we arrived in New Richmond around 3:30 this afternoon. We are in the middle of a Bible Study and I'll get some pics and describe the first day when we are done.

Thanks for checking in and continue to pray for an amazing week!!!

January Update

Thank you for all your prayers over the last month! God has been moving in our ministry and it has been awesome to be a part of it!
On the 16th through the 18th I was blessed to be the speaker at a local camp’s Sr. High Winter Camp. There were about 40 teens that attended the weekend event. I shared my testimony and gave a salvation invitation on Friday night and six teens accepted Christ as their Lord and Savior. I spoke twice on Saturday and once again on Sunday morning. On Sunday, I spoke on Psalm 63 and asked the question, “Do we earnestly seek God, or just go through the motions?”. There was a great response and another teen accepted Christ that morning as well. I got to know several of the teens and adults pretty well and we are still in contact with each other!
Last weekend we had our annual Winter Teen Convention in Rhinelander. 27 teens and six adults attended this year’s event. We had a great time swimming, tubing, goofing off, worshiping, and learning more about God. Our theme for this year was Bible Study and Prayer. We gave the teens very practical tools and insight on Bible Study, allowed them to actually see and use those tools, and also develop their prayer life as well. This year it was even more special for me because 14 of the teens came from my youth group that I’ve been running on Wednesday nights. I was able to really deepen my relationship with those teens.
Speaking of Youth Group, God has really been moving there as well. We have seen four teens accept Christ in the past two weeks! We have been averaging around 40 teens a night and there is a lot of excitement each and every night! A real neat tie in to the Teen Convention was in the area of prayer. One of the teens was praying for her sister to accept Christ. Just a few days later, her sister did just that! What a neat example for her to see how God answers prayers when we pray in line with His will!
The youth group at Northland Bible Church is up and running. This is the church that HCY is helping to start a youth ministry at on Tuesday nights. We are seeing growth numerically, but also a real hunger for God’s Word. I’m excited to be working with these teens and helping out the adults as well.
Thank you once again for all your prayers and support!!! Please continue to pray for our ministry that it would continue to be as effective as it was in January. I can’t tell you how awesome this month has been for me personally - to see all the changes in the youth. We desperately need your prayer support going into February.