A Catch Up In The Life Of Park Hill Student Ministry

Where to begin with the past few weeks? They've been a whirlwind of greatness and activity! God has done such amazing things! My life has been a full order of youth with many spurts of friends and dashes of family.

VBS went off without a hitch. Not one. Best VBS that I've ever been a part of, I believe. We visited Egypt and Joseph while he was in prison and his trip to the palace and return of his family. The kids loved hearing his story and dressing up in costumes from what we tried to make as the time of Joseph. :)

It was great to see young children worship Jesus without reservation and completely in their element! I wish we could have that happen more often.

Nate played Joseph, and definitely got into the part...He shaved his head to become truly Egyptian-complete with a hieroglyphic Ictus (the Christian fish symbol) on the side of his head. :)

I really enjoyed watching out youth get involved with the young ones, and getting into the Egypt scene. We had a blast hanging out each night after all festivities! Sardines, Underground Church, and Minute-To-Win-It games all ensued!


One of my absolute favorite things so far this summer: The Mystery Adventure Trip.
Our Mystery Adventure Trip was a huge success! We had talked up the adventure for months, had made videos, and kept it all a secret. I didn't even know what we were doing until about a month ago, that's how much of a secret it was. :) So as the trip came around, packing lists were made and passed out, permission slips had been turned in, guesses were thrown out, and excitement hung in the air. We took 18 kids and loaded up in the van and my car with only us 3 leaders knowing what was going on. Mystery was the theme of the entire week. We headed out to Shady Lake to meet up with Dr. Jackson (a professor at OBU) and his crew who would be holding the camp all week. Dr. Jackson has a ministry that is really neat called Outdoor Discipleship Ministry, and they hold camps for groups and take them canoeing, rappelling, hiking, backpacking, etc. We met them at Shady Lake and had camp. It was just our youth group and the ODM team out in God's creation for an entire week! I loved every minute of it (minus the sleeping on rocks and coming home with around 300 mosquito/chigger bites). I think one of my favorite things was getting the kids out of the norm of Arkadelphia and away from distractions. I know it was good for me to do that as well. Another favorite from the trip was the third day that we were there. We had team building games/activities for the kids, and I was blessed with the opportunity to watch our youth perform different tasks. Most of the activities had to be done silently and it was amazing to watch how they worked together to get the task done and include everyone. Their personalities definitely came out and the kids shined at their different positions within a team. It's quite hard to explain, and I wish I had it on video. Awesome. :)

[Here's a few of the pictures from the week]

[team building]

[after rappelling]

[caught in a huge thunderstorm while canoeing; we stopped to let it pass, but it was absolutely awesome to see come in and be in the middle of]

I have too many pictures from the trip to put up, but to see full albums click here for VBS and here for Mystery Adventure Trip photos, or visit our Park Hill youth website. :)

So that's pretty much what is going on in the life of our youth group right now. We're starting a new Bible study on Monday nights, and are going to be going through a video series with Sean McDowell on Happiness. So if you could keep that in prayer, I'd be grateful! We also do a nursing home ministry on Thursdays, which is a huge stretch for me! If the kids didn't enjoy going, I might bail real fast on that one.

God is doing mighty things in our kids and in my life. We had a great couple of weeks at VBS and Camp, but things are still messed up in a lot of these kids' lives and some are hurting pretty bad and others making rough decisions. I pray that somehow I can be used by God to bless their lives and bring honor and glory to His name. I pray that these youth will be shown Christ and His love through me and the other youth workers.

[tomorrow i shall write a continuation post, just so we're clear that this one isn't done] :)