Cool Video

Earth | Time Lapse View from Space, Fly Over | NASA, ISS from Michael König on Vimeo.

Mission Impossible!

Here is the promo video that I put together for our rally this weekend.  It is by far one of our most attended rallies.  I really appreciate the prayers for this event.  We are able to instill Biblical truths with a VERY popular game.  We have a worship band lined up and I will be giving the message.  The event is this Saturday from 7-9:30 PM.

HCY on the news!

http://titancast.titantv.com/p/wjfw/s/Update-on-Local-Groups-Trip-to-Joplin-MO/1ACA2LIM.aspx

Joplin Recap

So I fell behind on updating my blog after the first couple of days!  We were busy from 7:00 A.M. to 11:00 P.M. every day, so it made it hard to carve time out to update things.  I apologize for the length of this post, but there are so many things that I need to share that happened - things that God allowed us to experience!

Our Group before we left

I was unsure of what to expect going into this trip.  I knew that we would experience devastation, people rebuilding their lives, and despair.  I was not prepared for how MUCH God would use us and how much He would bless one person in particular through our efforts!

Our first curveball came when one of the parents that was signed up to join us on this trip called me as we were on our way.  Her daughter caught the flu bug the night before and was unable to attend, so the mom stayed behind as well.

Moving forward, I was excited about the diversity that we had on our trip.  Four adults and seven teens.  Six from Rhinelander, one from Tomahawk, one from Merrill, two from Hudson WI, and one from Farmington MN.

As I said before, I was unsure what we would experience on this trip.  The information coming from the church that we were working with was at best muddy!  So we walked in day one not knowing where we would work, or what we would be doing.

We went over to the Ellis home on Monday.  Their house was one of the many that was destroyed in the tornado.  They purchased a fixer-upper just outside of town.

We were able to help them out in a big way!  We did some framing and then sheetrock and mudding.  Part of our group jumped in and assembled and installed some cabinets for their kitchen.  The teens jumped in and painted three different rooms.  It was a full day and they were very appreciative of what we were able to do for them.

Each evening we had a Bible study on the book of James.  It was a great time for the teens to recap the day's events and see how to apply Biblical truth in their lives.

Tuesday was a day that we will all remember!  We were tasked with the house of a lady named Jan.  Jan's house was not affected by the tornado, but her life was turned upside down.  She lost her husband in the Tornado.  He was shopping at Wal-mart while the tornado ripped through Joplin.  Wal-mart was one of many businesses that was in the direct path of the F5 tornado, and his life was taken from him.  As I wrote in my last post, God pre-ordained our visit to Jan's house.  Because on this trip we had a Carpenter, a Woodsman, and an ex Insulator - just the very type of people that she needed at her house!!!

We walked in and saw immediately what the problem was with her garage.  Lines of water stains that were turning into mold indicated a severe lack of insulation and HVAC issues.  We started ripping down her ceiling and had to battle both the 114 degree weather and a TON of ants!  I was shocked to see the lack of insulation in the ceiling.  Very poor forethought proved to be the downfall in this area.  We were able to rip out the old sheetrock and insulation.



I can still remember meeting Jan at Lowe's that day!  I had talked to her on the phone and she was extremely excited that we were there and able to help her.  When she walked up to me, she gave me a huge bear hug!

The rest of our week consisted of working on the garage and one other project - cutting, splitting, and stacking wood.  There were so many trees down in her backyard!  Taking three and a half days of work to clear, we were able to cut, split and stack all the wood that was down in her back yard!

 As we came back everyday, we got to know Jan, her son Bobby, and her daughter better.  It turns out that she not only lost her husband in the tornado - she lost her first husband to a massive heart attack as well.  It was so sad to listen to her tell of her heartache - two times over.  It was amazing to me to see her strength as she told us the story of how her husband died and how she found out about it.  It was priceless for the teens to hear from her how this has STRENGTHENED her faith in God, not diminish it!  How she ran to God instead of running away from Him!

An emotional time was had when Jan came out for a picture and carried her husband's picture with her.  It was then that the teens really understood the gravity of the situation that we were in.  How great the loss she suffered.

This trip went exceedingly well, and everyone was in awe of how God used us.  The church in Joplin has committed to helping out for three years.  As soon as we heard that, and their invitation to come down again - we all knew what we would be doing next summer!  A big part of our hearts are left in Joplin.  My heart ached we we had to leave, knowing all the work that still had to be done.  All the hurting people that were still there.  All the rebuilding that still needs to be done as well.  I pray that you will join me next summer as we go back down to Joplin to help share God's love and hope to the people of Joplin.  As we help rebuild their homes and community, that He would rebuild their hearts as well.  That they would experience a radical encounter with Him that would be even more life changing than this tornado was!

Thank you for all the prayers and encouragement!  They were both needed and appreciated!  I can't wait for next year!!!

Joplin, day 2

Day one was really great, but day two was awesome!  We were still battling the heat and humidity, but God really had us in the perfect place at the perfect time.

We went in to get our job for the day this morning.  We were told that we were going to a lady's house that wasn't affected by the tornado - but her life was.  Her husband was one of the people that was killed by the F5 twister a few months ago.

We went over to her place and we were supposed to rip her garage ceiling down and replace the sheetrock.  We pulled in and met her son Bobby.  He was still a bit choked up about losing his dad, especially when he started to pull his dad's boat out of the garage.

This garage is one that is part of the basement and under the main living area upstairs.  We quickly found out why there was water stains on the ceiling.  There was hardly any insulation in the ceiling and the cold air was blasting the heat ducts and forming condensation.  The water then dripped on the sheetrock and stained and was beginning to mold.

Jan is the name of the lady and she was floored when she found out that I've been in insulation a good part of my life.  We met her at Lowe's and as I reached my hand out to shake hers, she engulfed me with a bear hug!  With tears in her eyes, she thanked us for coming all the way down to help her.  I was a bit choked up as well, and also extremely grateful for being used by God to meet her needs.

We were able to rip all the sheetrock down and pull out the old R11 insulation.  I was also able to re-route some electrical wires that for some reason were just stapled on the outside of the sheetrock!  Tym Sauter, one of our leaders, was able to use his chain saw and help clear several trees that had fallen and needed to be cleaned up.

Our teens were amazing as well!  They put the heat aside and worked extremely hard today.  It was amazing to see them get rid of the sheetrock just as fast as we could pull it down!!!  They also went outside and helped Tym by splitting all the wood that he cut up!  All in 110 degree heat!!!

We had another great Bible study time tonight as well as we went through James 2.  We were able to look at the second main theme in that chapter - Faith and Works.  We were able to use that to help them understand why we are here.  Even more importantly, I impressed upon them to utilize this in their daily lives when they get home.

I honestly don't think that things could be going any better here!  God has blessed us and really opened our eyes to his provision and plan.  We were in the exactly perfect place at the exactly perfect time for the person who needed us the most.  I chose to believe in God's providence and provision, rather than to be stupid enough to believe in chance!  That is a lesson that I pray both the teens and myself won't ever forget.

Day 1 Joplin.

Our first full day here was a huge eye opener for all of us!  We all went to a family's house whose other house was destroyed by the tornado.  We helped insulate, sheetrock, mud, paint, and assemble and install cabinets.  We were blessed to be able to be in a house that had air conditioning, but it barely helped on a 111 degree day!  The heat was unbelievable!

After supper we went to the area that the tornado ripped through town.  We saw the high school that was a complete loss, businesses that were nothing but a slab, and an entire apartment complex that was destroyed.  While we were looking and marveling at the destruction, a man walked up to us and introduced himself.  He used to live in the apartment that we were standing in front of.  He told his story of how he survived the tornado.  We talked with him for a good 45 minutes. He was a Christian and was telling us how this ordeal has strengthened his faith.

After we returned to our Church home, we did a Bible Study on the book of James chapter 1.  It was unbelievable how the words took on new meaning! "Consider it pure joy my brothers whenever you face trials of many kinds". That meant a whole lot more after we saw what we just did.  We had an awesome time in the Word and I know that it made an impact on their lives!

Here are some pictures from today.  I apologize for the long line of pics, but it's pretty hard to make it look good from my phone!

We've arrived!

After a very long day of driving (4:00 am to 7:00 pm!)  we arrived in Carthage MO.  We are staying at the First Baptist Church.  They have been kind enough to let us stay here for free.  This really helped us keep our costs down. 

They have a very nice facility and we enjoyed playing ultimate frisbee tonight!

We start our week of ministry tomorrow in Joplin.  I'm sure that there is no way that we will be able be prepared for what we will experience.  My heart goes out to these people and I haven't even met them!

Here are some pictures of our place.  Many more coming tomorrow!  Thank you for the prayers!!!

Trying something new!

Getting my phone synchronized with blogger so I will be able to update everyone while we are down in Joplin!

Joplin, MO video

My Annual Report

Here is the slideshow of some of the highlights from this school year's ministry.  Hope you enjoy!

80's Night Recap

We had an awesome time last night at our 80's night event!  The funny thing is that most of the kids that attend weren't even born then, but they did their best to make it work.  We had some 80's music playing in the background and did several events that were popular in the 80's.  We had a Rubik's cube battle (to finish one side!), a quick Tecmo Bowl game, and a Rock, Paper, Scissor tournament.

For our worship time, we did worship tunes from the 80's like "Lord I Lift Your Name on High", "Awesome God", and "As the Deer".

The message portion of the evening was handled by our intern, Justin Dietche.  I worked with him this week to help him develop this lesson.  We centered around the idea of "fads" and how the 80's were a very stylistic decade.  It was here and then gone before we know it (which is a good thing for a lot of what came from the 80's - mainly clothes and mullets!).

He set things up with that premise: the world around us is constantly changing, but God never will!  If we place our trust in things of this world, or try and please people in this world, we will always be coming up short.  But if we strive to serve a God who as in Hebrews 13:8 is the same yesterday, today, and forever we will not be let down!!!  Or in James 1:17 we are comforted in knowing that we serve a God that doesn't change like the shifting shadows!  Our God is unchangeable, and unmovable!  He will NEVER go out of style.  We will never look back and say, "What was I thinking???", with God.

The majority of his lesson was based on that thought.  He then wrapped things up with an analogy of God, us, and a car.  Many times Christians view God as an annoying "back seat driver", telling them what they can or cannot do.  Others might even put Him in the "trunk" of their lives and take Him out whenever they need him (like a spare tire).  Still others might have Him in the front seat with themselves and enjoy the company, but never truly give over complete control of their lives to Him.  What he encouraged the teens to do was to "pull over" and allow God to take the wheel of their lives and give Him control of where they would go.  To completely trust in the One who can see the end before the beginning!  The One who has a plan and purpose for their lives and loves them dearly.

The mental picture of us wearing completely outdated clothes, listening to old music, and playing old games, was a great help in having the teens see the difference between a fad (80's), and an unchanging loving God!

Battle of the Bands

What an awesome night of music and fellowship we had on March 5th!  Five bands from all around the region came together at Foursquare Church in Rhinelander to "Battle it out" for an opening spot in this week's concert.  I will post some of the bands here.  A big congrats goes out to End of December as they were victorious!  You can see them this Friday night at our Remedy Drive concert.

Purity Banquet

What a wonderful evening we had Saturday night!  30 guests and a handful of volunteers made this year's Purity Banquet a night to remember!!!

The evening began for most of our attendees with a limo ride through beautiful Rhinelander.  Then we had our resident photographer, Sarah Hall snap portraits of them so they could remember the evening for years to come.

Thanks to Kim and Ann Prom, we had a wonderful three course dinner that included Chicken Cordon Bleu.

The message portion of the evening centered around, "Getting to the Root of the Problem".  We were able to deal with all aspects of purity in a very "PG" way!  The object lesson was a tree that I made to illustrate that very point.  Many times in our lives we try and "pluck" the "bad fruit" from our "trees", only to see them grow back days, weeks, or months later.  What we tried to get across is that by dealing with the root issues of sin, that would take care of the fruit problem.  Not only in the short term - but the long term as well!

We had a teenage couple share their testimony of how accountability counseling with Kim and I has really allowed them to remain pure.  We are greatful that God is using us in their lives and that HE is the one allowing them to stick to their pledge of purity!!!

We closed the evening off with a pledge of purity.  It was a five point pledge that was based off of Ephesians 5:3-4 and the points were:

1. To keep my body pure in every way.
2. To be in God's Word daily.
3. To be committed to my prayer life.
4. To deal with the root issues in my life, not just pluck to fruit off and move on.
5. To be aware of EVERY word coming out of my mouth.  I commit to building others up - not tearing them down.

Once again, it was an amazing evening and we pray that the Holy Spirit will guard and enable the people that attended to stick to their commitments.  That they would be able to live a life of purity!!!

Love (Monday night recap)

Well, Valentine's day was on Monday this year so the logical thing to talk about at Youth Group was "Love"!

We started by talking about what most people are thinking about when they think of Valentine's day.  Cards, Chocolate, Flowers, and being romantic.

An interesting thing that we did before my message was play a game of charades.  We took the candy hearts and the teens had to act out the words on the hearts (don't worry, we took out the bad ones!).  But before the game began, we had them each act out an emotion.  They were: Bored, Anger, Love, and Pride.  The interesting thing was that if the people didn't cheat and "draw" a heart, acting out Love was by far the hardest emotion to portray.  That led nicely into my lesson for the night!

I asked the question, "What does love look like?".  Does it look like the picture to the left?  That's what most Sr. High students equate with the word love!

I also asked "How can we see love?", and, "How do we find love?".

Of course, I had to bring my lovely wife Kim up front and share about our love for each other!  (I also presented her with her flowers and chocolate - score one for Chris!)  But seriously, I touched on several different points about our relationship and they were:

1. After 14 years of marriage, I'm still madly in love with my bride!
2. She makes me a better person!
3. She accepts me for who I am, and as I am!
4. She knows ALL my weaknesses, faults, and imperfections and she STILL loves me!

Kim & I in 50 years!!!

We then looked at our main portion of Scripture - 1 John 4:7-16.  The main verse that I looked at was verse 10, "This is love: not that we loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as an atoning sacrifice for our sins.".

This passage in 1 John answered all the questions that I posed before!  We find love and see love in the God that IS love!!!  God in His very being IS love (1 John 4:8).  When we realize how much God loved and loves us it is truly humbling!  Because all four of the statements that I made about Kim, are true about God as well.

1. After 17 years of being a Christian, I am still madly in love with my Savior!
2. God definitely makes me a better person!
3. God accepts me for who I am, and as I am! (no perfection needed to be accepted)
4. Most importantly, He knows all my past, current, and future sins - AND YET HE STILL LOVES ME!!!

That, my friends is love.  When we become a Christ follower and allow Him to flow through us, we will show to this world such radical love that they won't know what hit them!  They will have to stop and wonder why we would love the way that we did!

But why isn't that happening?  I think we all know that answer.  It isn't happening because all of us, myself included, DON'T love consistently like God does!  Probably because we CAN'T love like God does.  My challenge was and is that we would allow God to flow through us.  That we wouldn't keep a record of wrongs.  That we would turn the other cheek.  That we would love sacrificially the way that God did and does.

We can see love!  We can define love!  It is all wrapped up in one picture...

Monday message recap

Well, I'm a little behind in posting this as my normal day of posting was interrupted by the celebration at Lambeau Field!!! Here I am standing on the front steps right before we went inside and saw the Packers return from Texas with the Lombardi trophy. The reason that I bring that up is because that is what my message was about on Monday - The Packers!!!

Now, it wasn't a review of the play-by-play from Sunday night as the Pack won their 4th Super Bowl. It was just an illustration for the point that I was trying to make.

That point being, even through devastating injury after injury (14 on IR, three during the game) the Packers pulled through and played at a very high level. It was a testament to the management of the team to have the right guys on the team. It was also a testament to the "back up" players that were there who stepped in and carried the load. Many of which no one other than extremely die hard stat guys would even know their names.

We looked at the Biblical account of Moses and Joshua. We picked up the story with one of the first times we see who Joshua is in Exodus 17 where Moses tells Joshua to fight the Amelekites. This is the cool story (and another completely different message!) where Moses held out his hands and while he did so, the Israelites would be winning. Whenever he dropped them, they would begin to lose.

Another example was when Moses was going up to get the 10 Commandments, we see that Joshua is his aide. This idea was what I was trying to get across to the teens - Joshua had a mentor and it was Moses.

You see at the time Moses was the rock star! God used him in unbelievable ways, from the plagues to the crossing of the Red Sea. The people ALL knew who Moses was, not so much with Joshua. But Joshua was learning, growing, and gaining trust with both Moses and God! He was being prepared to be the next leader!

Then in Numbers 27 we see that Moses and God both make his transition official. Moses lays his hands on Joshua and commissions him.

Well, we all know what happens next, Joshua found favor with the Lord as one of the two spies that gave a good report of the Promised Land. He was the leader who walked THROUGH the Jordan. He was in charge as the Israelites conquered the land.

We saw the effects of a man who was willing to be used by God. A man who was prepared when his time came. A man who affected an entire nation, a nation that followed his example and worshiped God.

Perhaps one of the greatest final words ever in the Bible is found in Joshua 24 where he is addressing the nation. He challenges them to "Pick a team!" and then lays it all on the line - "But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord".

It goes on to say that the nation continued to serve the Lord after his death. He left a legacy.

So going back to the opening illustration, when one player would get hurt - another would be ready to take his place on the team. Not only taking his place, but performing just as well if not better than the person before him. Performing well enough to win the Super Bowl.

So the question that I left the teens, and now leave with you is two fold: who's your Moses, and who's your Joshua? Who is pouring into your life? Who is holding you accountable and building you up in the Lord? Also, who are you pouring yourself into? Who are you grooming to be the next spiritual leader?

We need to be prepared to do battle. We can't leave all the work for our Pastors and "Church People". Are you ready to "get in the game" if your name is called? Or are you hoping that someone else will do it? Let's all be ready, prepared, and chomping at the bit to affect this world for Jesus!!!

Testing, testing, 1-2-3!

Just giving the whole webcam/mic a run through here!

Faith

So I'm starting a new thing here on my blog. I'm going to share with everyone what my lessons were the night before. I hope to start some discussion and allow the teens (and adults) that hear my messages to sound off and give their opinions on what they learned.

Last night we talked about faith. What it is and what God says about it. We started with an illustration of a chair. I can stand 10 feet away and say to that chair, "I have faith in you to hold me up". But I really don't have complete faith in that chair because I'm not sitting in it. I went through several different examples without sitting in the chair. They all demonstrated one point - if I'm not sitting in it, I don't fully have faith in it!

It's not until we get to the tipping point and fall back into that chair that we have complete faith in it!!!

Probably the most known Bible passage on the subject of faith is found in Hebrews 11:1 where it says, "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." That is from the NIV, one that most of us "Old people" will remember is from the King James version and it says, "Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen".

We talked about how we put our faith in many things everyday without even thinking about it! Things like a car, an airplane pilot, doctors, and our parents. But ultimately they all end up letting us down. We can put our faith in God who will "Never leave us or forsake us", and "Has a plan and purpose for our lives".

The second passage that we looked at was from James 2 where he was talking about the action that needs to go along with our faith. The example that was given was that of a brother or sister that was naked and hungry. The pat answer that we so many times give is "Well, I'll pray for you"! That was the response given in this passage. "I wish you well, be warm and well fed!!!"

James finishes off the passage with a stern warning in verse 26, "As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead".

We then tried to illustrate that point by doing the "Trust Walk". One young lady was blindfolded, and then led around the room by listening to an adult voice. The rest of us, along with some chairs and various other obstacles, tried to distract and disorient her. The goal was to make it through the course by listening to the adult voice and not listening to everyone else. The application is easy here, the young lady = us, adult voice = God, journey = our lives, everyone else = the distractions of this world.

We were able to illustrate the need to block out all voices except God's as we go through life's journey. It also illustrated the need to actually TAKE THE JOURNEY!!! She wouldn't have reached her destination had she just stood there!

What is your faith like? Is it evidenced by your actions, or is it all talk? Just like last night, I want to make sure that you understand that I'm not preaching salvation through works! Far from it! I believe in salvation by grace through faith. But as James said, "Show me your faith without deeds, and I will show you my faith by what I do".

What will you do after reading this? Will we continue to give pat answers and be non effective for Christ? Or will we fully lean back and trust God to carry out His promises? Will we allow the Holy Spirit to work through us and help a lost and dying world? I pray that we will see this as a call to action, a proverbial "kick in the backside"!

Your thoughts????

Guys Sleepover

Well, I just got done with a sleepover this morning. We had a lot of fun with 11 guys and 2 adults. We started last night at 7:00 and things wrapped up this morning at 9:00. We had a blast pretty much all night (till 3:00 am!). We played some video games, went through some team building activities, and had a really awesome time in the Word.

I was blown away by the honesty of the guys during our lesson time! We were able to talk about "guy stuff" that we normally don't discus during a normal youth group time. It was a total God thing because I asked the teens to give me some things that they struggle with and almost every one of them lined up with our passage! We looked at Ephesians 4 & 5. We camped out on 4:29 where it talks about not letting any unwholesome talk come out your lips, but rather build each other up.

We were able to encourage and convict them to follow through with that command. And once again, it was a very powerful moment!

I forgot to take pictures, so sorry that I can't share that with you - but it was an excellent time! Now, I'm going to take a nap!!!!

Here is a great video that my good friend Jack Hager sent to me. It is so true and makes me glad that we are a part of Bible Quizzing!

I'm Back!

After talking with some teens the other day, I was reminded that I have a blog! I will do my best to try and keep this a little more up to date! If you happen to read this would you kindly let me know that you are? That would be a great encouragement to me and keep me plugging away at this!!!

2010/2011 school year has been an amazing ride! God has blessed HCY so much this year! We have seen growth in every aspect of our ministry!!! I will be giving you recaps after all of the major events happen the rest of the year.

We just held our Minute to Win it rally on the 22nd. We had 45 students attend and around 15 adults. It was our first rally since Mission Impossible way back in September. You can read the recap that I wrote on the page. It was a huge success and everyone enjoyed themselves.

I had the blessing of speaking at our Crandon club last night! I was able to take our new intern - Justin Dietche along with. He started my lesson out by giving his testimony. He did a wonderful job and I was very proud of him. I then gave a salvation message and praise God, two teens accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior!!!

This is the first year that we have had Bible Clubs up and running since 2008. It was a very dry season in that aspect of our ministry. We are overjoyed to have them back up and running - and doing extremely well!

I'm looking forward to this weekend as we are having another Guy's Sleepover here in Rhinelander. We hang out, play video games, have a cookout (at midnight), do some team building activities, Bible study, and top it all off with a McDonald's breakfast! I've been blessed with some awesome young men in my Bible Club and this is a very good way to deepen our relationships together!