Retreat Number 1

This weekend was, as the locals say, a wicked crazy weekend. On Friday, we began our trek to Camp Berea in Hebron, NH. We drove for a few hours when we stopped at McDonald's for Dinner. While there we lost the keys to one of the vehicles. So we looked for keys for around an hour, and we didn't find them. So we packed up the stuff in other vans and left the suburban there.

Eventaully, we wond up at Camp Berea (also after getting lost due to faulty directions). We had a great night there settled down and got ready for a crazy weekend.

The next morning was pretty normal. Actually, the morning itself was beautiful. There was a beautiful sunrise over the hills across the lake from where we were. We had a worship service and then a lesson time. I taught about the Bible and the reliability of the scriptures. The class went really well, even though I felt like I bored the kids to death, they seemed to enjoy it however.

That afternoon we did a challenge course.
It was a good time, the hardest part was trying to cross the tight rope wire. It took my group a while, but we had a great time doing the tight rope. We also did a thing where we balanced on a wooden raft thing, but that wasn't as hard as the wire.

It was a great time. That afternoon I played football with the guys and the missionary/speaker for the weekend proved to be a great quarterback. He lead us to victory.

We practiced for the worship service that night, I played drums that weekend. The worship service that night went really well. Afterwards, we had the first ever Fusion olympics. It was hilarious for most of it We had fencing with noodles, we had 3 legged races, discus throwing with their mouths, and weight lifting with chairs. It was a really great night. The only bad part was when one of the students tried to flip and gave himself a concussion on the concrete floor. That was a rough end of the night.

Luckly, the student was ok. The rest of the retreat was pretty uneventful. After getting back from the retreat, I had to lead middle school fusion. Which, even though I was tired, was fun. We played dodge ball for a while. Then Chris, one of the Seniors, gave a lesson and did a great job.

That was my wicked crazy weekend. Hopefully the next weekend (the middle school retreat) will be just as fun but with less complications.

It's about time for an update.

Well, here's the long and short of what's been happening:
Saturday, I enjoyed a nice day out. I went with two students out to a soccer game. We enjoyed beautiful day and some awesome scenery. The field overlooked the Back Cove, and on the other side of the cove was the city of Portland. It really was a great view.
We watch the two students from the youth ministry play soccer. Unfortunately, the game ended in a tie. It was a good day, nonetheless.
That evening, I helped take a group of middle school students down to a corn maze. Surprisingly enough, this was my first time in a corn maze. It was a great time, even though my group was lost for about 45 minutes. It was a fun time of walking around in circles.

Sunday was my second week in a row helping with e-kids. Children's ministry really is a different experience from youth ministry. We talked about Jonah (or as the New Englanders like to say it "Joner"). Then Sunday night was another great night in middle school fusion. For the first week, someone else gave the lesson, which was nice, I didn't have to prepare the lesson. I helped lead the games. Next week, however, I'm covering for Jared in High School Fusion. After fusion, we had a dodge ball for the high school guys. It was a great time that has still left me sore.

Monday, I celebrated Columbus day. It is a much bigger holiday out here in New England. Some students had a four day weekend because of the holiday. It's so big because it's the last chance that some people get to go camping. I went over to a friends for a cook out and for flag football.

It was a great holiday weekend. This weekend, however, I'm looking forward to a guest. Lindsay comes out this Saturday and I can't wait to see her.

because you know you want to know what interns do.

I am just about to rap up my first week of regularly scheduled ministry. I am sure that some of you want to know what I've been up to, so now is the time to find out.
Last weekend was awesome. It was one of the craziest weekends I have ever had. I went on a retreat with 6 awesome high school students and Jared (the youth minister) and Rachel (his wife). We went camping in Conway, NH in the shadow the white mountains. During the retreat Jared took us to Mt. Chocorua and we went on a hike up to the top. So far this is a pretty normal experience. I have been camping before. I haven't actually hiked a mountain, so that was a first, but I've seen mountains before. So mountains are not a new thing to me.

I didn't realize how hard it was really to hike up a mountain. I am certainly not in the type of shape that it requires to do that again. I need to work-out before I do that again. Eventually however, we made it to the top, and it was amazing.
The real adventure was on the way down. We began to come down, and the first hard part was finding the trail again in the fog (I say fog, but that far up it's really cloud). We found the trail and began to descend the mountain. Except, when we were about 1.4 mile from the top, we realized we took the wrong trail about 1 mile back. So we went back. It was either this or come down on the wrong side of the mountain. So we went back up and found the trail we were supposed to be on. On the way back up it began raining. This was TS Hanna coming to join the party. Hanna began pouring down on us like crazy. Long story short, we finally made it down, in the dark, in the rain, about 5.5 hours after we had started. It was quite the experience and I'm glad to have been apart of it. More Pictures from Elevate Retreat

The Sunday that we came back, Fusion started. Fusion is the Sunday night service for Middle School and High School. I am leading the Middle School this semester and they are a great group of kids. We played ping pool and the classic balloon stomp. Ping pool (blowing ping pong balls into cups taped to the table like pool pockets) turned into students dizzy from blowing so hard so fast. From there we gathered the students and Jared welcomed them to fusion and told them what it was all about. After Fusion, I took two students home and watched the Colts game with them. They had lived in Indy for a few years, and their dad had season tix to for the Colts while he lived there. We were all disappointed to watch the Colts lose to da bears. But I had a great time with the Rossiters and especially since their son Colton is in my d-group.

Wednesday, we had our first d-group. I was a expecting more than I got, but the group that I got was awesome. 3 really solid guys. They participated well and I enjoyed getting to know them and I am sure I will have lots of fun getting to know them and hang out with them in the future. We talked about what we need to do to "Shine the Light of Jesus." This is the first of the 5 different pieces of a Christian's identity that we will talk about.

That's all for now, I'll try to post regularly (at least once a week) so that those outside of Maine can know what's going on.