Tuesday, July 17, 2012

next after middle school camp

We are taking the students to the movies today at the Mall of GA to watch RIO. Students need to be dropped off inside the Food Court at 9:30 AM. They will need $10.00 and that will cover their movie and lunch. Pick up time is 1 PM from the Food Court. Hope everyone joins us!

Wednesday at Studio, we will have a POST CAMP PARTY! It will begin at 6:15 PM in Gym A. Free pizza for everyone! Join us afterwards in the Studio from 6:45-8:00 for a time of worship and to hear some of the stories of what God has done in the hearts of our student while at Camp. Parents are welcome to join us!

Flav and the HSM staff

Monday, July 16, 2012

Middle School Camp, Day #2

Sunday at Camp has been a huge day. Started off with an intense morning worship session with Tyler Gardner Band followed by teaching from our executive pastor, Derek Spain. 
Our students were taught on the value of healthy friendships by pointing back to the early church and the way Jesus' followers did life together. 
Right after the morning session we jumped back into breakouts. Then back to lunch, rec and ropes for the afternoon. We are indeed grateful to God for the amazing weather He gave us this weekend at camp. Students were able to enjoy low and high ropes and on the rec field, water games and team building games.

During the evening session, our students heard a message on courage to be all that God called them to be. The worship got extended after the message time. It was so powerful. To see our students and leaders fully free to worship, hands held high, singing to the top of their lungs "With Everything" ... words cannot describe the feeling in the room. 5 more students decided to follow Jesus by the end of the night. That brings us to 15 in total that said YES to Jesus this weekend. Big win! Amazing...

Students headed out to family group times and at 10:15 we were back for Hebron's Got Talent. Fun, fun times ... the two winning acts of the night were "So good to me" and "Mighty to Save." The night ended with a "treat" our fearless Tina Killian put together for our rec leaders. A dinner on the kids :) Props to our amazing rec team leaders who were great sports and finished strong each plate.

Sunday at camp was amazing. Students have asked if we could stay longer ... yet camp is wrapping up. One more morning session to go and we're off to Dacula, GA. Please pray for a safe ride for us as depart to Hebron today around 11.00 AM. We will be stopping for lunch and arriving to church somewhere before 4 PM. 
To God be the glory for the things HE HAS DONE!!!


Sunday, July 15, 2012

Middle School Camp, DAY #1


We started our Saturday with Breakfast and Quiet Time followed by morning worship. Our focus in the morning was on the importance of SPENDING QUALITY TIME in the Word. We used Romans 12:2 and Proverbs 3:5-6 to remind our students that if they believe God has the best for them, then quality time with Jesus is a must. Discovering God's perfect will for our lives and living inside of it has everything to do with carving TIME for the Lord in the Word. We talked about TIME, TRANSPARENCY and SUMBISSION. We were reminded one more time of the reason WE CAN TRUST God completely - His great love for us in Christ Jesus. Students responded in an unexpected way in worship by singing HOW HE LOVES along with our morning closing video. One student from our group received Jesus during the morning session.
Breakouts were next with topics on Purity, Relevance of the Bible today, sharing the Gospel and Rhythm, staying full on engaged to God during the Middle School years - with amazing breakout leaders like Lee Glover, and our very own pastors Derek Spain, Steve Browning and Rob Brooks.
Lunch followed and then REC & ROPES. Our students had a blast on the rec field & the high and low ropes course. At rec our teams competed against time on a fun obstacle course with games like Angry Birds, human peg jump, earth ball, magic carpet (to name just a few) plus tons of water games.
After dinner we headed back into our evening worship with a FULL ON worship session with our amazing Tyler Gardner band. Songs like Our God and With Everything captured the heart of our packed worship room. Dwayne Smith spoke on self-esteem and the Christian life, as being more than a decision at a place in point to being a LIFESTYLE to be embraced daily. He challenged our students to be willing to TAKE ON the opportunities God sets before them even now and NOT wait till later. At least 4 decisions were made for Jesus by the end of our night.
After family group times, our LATE NIGHT event was TOURNY's in the gym. With games like gotcha, four square & the awesome volleyball tournaments our night was a blast. The finalists in volleyball were Team Purple and Team Green, with Green winning as champions.
A great day yesterday!!! One more to go and tomorrow we'll be heading home. Please pray on this last day God does His great work in ALL of our students. Pray for God to continue to move as He has already. And if you prayed for us yesterday for good weather, thanks :) God indeed gave us an amazing weather and students were able to have fun in the sun!
Blessings to all from the Blue Ridge YMCA.
Flav & the HSM staff

Saturday, July 14, 2012

Middle School Camp, 1st night


So we have arrived at the Blue Ridge Assembly last night around 4 PM. students did great on the ride up, with only one stop for lunch. we got situated into our rooms, had our 1st rec group meeting and headed to dinner. The excitement was big. The doors opened for our 1st night session at 7:25. We are literally jam packed in the Chapel. God has really taken us by surprise with the amount of student that joined us at camp this year. Over 40 more compared to last year!!! Being in a room that seats 200 with almost 200 people here feels amazing.
We started off with some weird game time followed by some super
worship brought to us by the Tyler Gardner Band. The kids jumped right in and the atmosphere was electric. Songs like Go, Take it All, Came to my rescue and Your Love never fails brought our students and leaders fully in. Some of us sang so hard, our voices are kinda gone :)
Pastor Dwayne smith brought a message on the CHOICES made in Middle School and challenged our student to choose Christ, as the only and the best choice. Our students were invited into a life of UNASHAMED WORSHIP to the One who died and rose again for us - JESUS CHRIST. By the end of the night 8 students made decisions for Christ. God is moving big already in our group and we are only one night in.
Worship was followed by family group times where students got to share what God has spoken into their hearts and where He is at work in them right now.
At 10 PM it was our LATE NIGHT event. We were going to take students on a walk to the lake where s'mores by the bonfire were going to be on the menu. The rain came down pretty strong starting at 10:00, the fire would not catch… So we had a choice to make, WE HAD TO have the s'mores, so we asked the YMCA staff if we could use their fireplace in the lobby. It was done. We stayed in and enjoyed some yummy s'mores. Closed the night with a cute little line some of our leaders made: “come get your s'more then get in groups of three or more, head out to your room and snore.”
11:30 PM, our students went to their rooms and we called it a night. A great sweet and awesome night. I imagine everyone is asleep right now and soon will be waking up and head to breakfast.
Pray with me for our group this weekend. Pray for a great day today and tomorrow. Pray for good weather as they had rain here this week. Kids are having fun and loving it here already. Pray above all that God continues to open hearts and change lives more and more as we go thru our camp.
I can't wait to see what happens today!
Blessings,
Flav and the HSM staff

Thursday, July 12, 2012

MS 2012 SUMMER CAMP REC TEAMS


RedPurple
FLIP JOHNSONBRIAN METZDORF
AhernKatelynSeagravesValerie
BridgerSara TidwellKayla
BrownAbbyWhitwellRiley
CookseyMary KatherineMoyeJonathan
BennettSophieSammonsNick
BradberryMaciSpainAndy
CoffieldNoahNortonMarshall
EdwardsMarkOluwadareTope
BaileyJessePritchettTyler
BrumbelowBradyRodriguezJordan
BullockNashRogersJamie
BeasleyAlexStokesGraham


DavlinLauren
NajjarSarahWesley Smith

Pink


White 
JAKE GLOVERMIKE DICKINSON
DonatucciAshleyTurnerHallie
EversAmyVandeRachael
DickinsonLillyStricklandAllen
DillsJodiStricklandLuke
BrisbyMorganThompsonDavid
CoffieldSarahValenzuelaFabio
FabricantWyattVanceChristian
GedgoudasJohnWhiteJoel
CharronCalebWalkerNicholas
DuboseJakeBirkbeckCole
DickinsonJacob  StewartDavid
ForresterCalebGoldenJohn
Brandon Pedraza  Raphael Latimore                           
Dajuste    Rebecca

Blue Teal
CHRIS HOLLANDJIM PEEVY
FoskeyAveryWoodwardGrace
FancziSarahMcDanielJ. Connor
GoodmanRebeccaReidGabrielle
GroveBrooklynSaundersJordan
CrabtreeBrooklynTaylorMiranda
FoskeyLaurenTerryJessica
GloverJoeProvenceJohn
GutierrezMiguelRiddettJackson
EtheridgeElijahMcGeeChase
EvansEliMikleChase
GloverBenWhiteJacob (Jake)
HendersonNashWiggsTaylor
MaxwellLawsonRankAndrew
Pedro Monterosa
GreenYellow
DEREK SPAINKARL RIDDETT
GedgoudasMaddySammonsMadison
HendersonLaurenWilliamsVirginia
HowardLaurenMoyeRebecca
KorbienJasminPalmerJillian
GibsonAlyssaMezzlesHannah
HavertyKaitlynProvenceMary Rose
HutchisonChristopherPalmerBryant
HymesJoePeevyCarter
FabricantMarshallJohnsonSutton
FranklinJosephLawsonDaniel
HubbardJosephPennLeo
KellumWillTaffarSilas
VargasMateoBaileyAnderson
Cassidy IrizarryJennifer Lopez
Black Orange 
JOHN MCGEEJIM GLOVER
HollandOliviaOluwadareYetunde
KingEmilyRodriguezJackie
MartinezAylinMillerBecca
MerrillBrittanyMillsSamantha
HeadleyMeredithKillianJena
Holland CarsonManusJordan
KennedyLoganMoyersMichael
MetzdorfTrevorOliverDaniel 
GoodmanDanielHollidayRyan
HedgepethAndrewJohnsonSlone
McDanielAustinMcMannNick
McMannJ.C.Oliver Drew
DajusteKetsia                 Clayton Hopkins
Ally Findlay

Middle School Camp 2012 is tomorrow!!!


It's packing time!!! :) Camp is here. Tomorrow morning, over 180 of us are heading to the YMCA Blue Ridge Assemby in Black Mountain, North Carolina for the #WeirdMSCamp2012. Check in will be in the Hebron Chapel at 10:30 AM. Can't wait to see everyone in the morning! :)

Wednesday, July 11, 2012

UK Mission Update 7 (the last one...)

Howdy!
(apparently this is how all English students think Americans say hello...)

We've had a great final day here in Middlesbrough, UK! We were back at The King's Academy bright and early this morning. Today we had years 10 and 12 in a morning assembly. The message was the same as yesterday, "Aim Higher" from Isaiah 40. After the assembly we rushed into our second day of classes.

Teams presented to a wide range of ages. Some classes were with 12 and 13 year olds. Others were 17 and 18 year olds. These were a separate set of students from those who we presented to yesterday. Students hit our team with a lot of tough questions today. Some examples include:

Why do Christians believe in a six-day creation given the scientific evidence to suggest otherwise?

Do you have to do certain things and live in a certain way to be a Christian?

Who or what is the Anti-Christ?

Do Christians believe Jesus is coming back? When?

Why did God command the killing of people in the Old Teatament?

Do you have to be baptized to receive salvation in the Christian faith?

(and soooo many more)

Our teams did great under pressure and gave a reasoned and scriptural answer to the questions presented. In total, through these presentations we have been able to share the Gospel with hundreds of students. The vast majority are not believers. On fact, as our team totaled up the number of Christian students we encountered during our time here, the number must be less than 10 (excluding those we met at church on Sundy). Hopefully God will take the seeds we have planted and draw these students to Himself!

Afterward class time, we ate lunch in the cafeteria and hung out at the play yard with the students during free time. Our accents and life in another country make us a spectacle. We were swarmed by students. They asked us dozens of questions and wanted us to repeat words in our accents. Taylor even took song requests... Look for the video on Facebook soon.

We left The King's Academy and headed back to downtown Middlesbrough. We were scheduled to help with some games in the park, but we got rained out this afternoon. Instead, we went to Starbucks (we needed some America in our lives) and did a team debrief. It was incredible to hear our team talk about serving God in this difficult environment and all that God had taught them through it. I know they can't wait to tell you all about it when they get home!

Speaking of home, we are coming back to Atlanta, USA tomorrow! While everyone on the team agrees the trip should be a couple of days longer next year, they are looking forward to getting back tomorrow. We'll make sure to call once we get to Boston if we hit any delays along the way.

Pray for safe travels as we return. Pray for Middlesbrough and the whole Teeside region of England. Pray that God would draw these people and this nation to Himself. Pray for the students we have shared the Gospel with. Pray that God would radically save them and change their lives.

See y'all soon!

Steve