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!

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,,,