May 2010

May 16th - Honor our Grads Sunday

Abiding Harvest in the Spring of 2010 had 13 youth that dominated high school and were stepping out to conquer the world. They worked hard, overcame more than we'll know and are very deserving of honors. I'd like to post their names and info here to remind us to keep them in prayer as they will be makeing some of the greatest decisions of their life beginning this summer and in the next few years.

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OUR GRADUATING SENIORS

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Aaron Jacobson
Graduating from Town and Country School with honors and is a member of the National Honor Society. While in high school he earned being an Eagle Scout and 6 palms. His plans are to attend the American Broadcast School.

Brittany Kunick
She has graduated in the top 10% of her class at Union High School. There she was very active in Volley-ball and also the drama department. She is planning on attending OSU and majoring in Elementary Education.

CJ Rojers
CJ has graduated Union High School where he was active in wrestling. He will be attending the Honor Academy at Teen Mania Ministries in Texas where he’ll be studying youth and pastoral ministry.

Creston Stophel
He is graduating from Augustine Christian Academy. This year he was chaplain of his School House Falcons and took on leading roles in all the musical productions. He will be attending ORU in the fall with a partial Whole Man Scholarship and will be majoring in Sports journalism and business.

Daniel Griffith
Has graduated from Union High School where he qualified for Regional Speech Competition 4 years and for State 3 years where he placed in the 4th in the State during his senior year. His college plans are undecided, but OSU and TCC are possibilities.

Holly Shirk
She graduated from Home School last December and is already a sophomore at Oral Roberts University. While at ORU she is majoring in journalism.

Jay Anderson
He is graduating Bixby High School where he is Valedictorian of his class. He is the recipient of the very prestigious Four Year Air Force ROTC Commanders Leadership Scholarchip for Detachment 670. He also excelled in soccer and this past fall in football. He will be attending the OSU College of Engineering, Architecture and Technology where he was honored with the Dean’s Academic Excellence Scholarship.

Justin Hiatt
He graduated Union High School where he was involved in wrestling and very involved in the worship team at AHYEAH. He will attend TCC for two years and transfer to ORU, where he plans on majoring in Worship.

Kameron Smith
He graduated from Union High School where he was very involved in the Drama/Music Department. He also participated in Jazz Choir and Advanced Theater and Repatory Theater. This summer he will be saving lives as a lifeguard and in the fall attending TCC.

Katherine Clain
She is graduating from Memorial High School where he was active in her swim team and won 2nd place in the 200 meter free style at the All Tulsa Schools Meet. She has also poured herself out in working with the Special Educations Disabilities students. She is planning on attending TCC and taking training classes at St. Frances.

Rachel McCulley
She is a graduate of Union High School. She is a member of the school's select Repertory Theater Group and its select Jazz Choir - The Union Avenue Singers. Rachel has earned a theater scholarship to Oklahoma State University.

Steven Grimm
Has graduated from Union High School where he was a member of Union Scottish Skins and played intramural sports. He will be attending OU and majoring in Aerospace Engineering.

Taylor Schuyler
He is graduating from Bixby High School. He will be attending the University of Central Arkansas in Conway on an Athletic Scholarship for football. H will be leaving in July to start summer classes and join the Bears for summer workouts.

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May 16th - A-TEAM

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Again, the youth prove themselves as a powerful force. Literally dozens of spiritual conversations were born of our youth engaging with their peers. One particular youth started a conversation with his whole lunch table about the orgin of man. Another initiated 6 different discussions all with different people. Wow!

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New Challenge - Have at least 3 God-times a week on your own. (ex. worship, bible study, time of prayer, taking a walk and praying, etc)

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May 19th - Bowling with Colton and Zara

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This was a night for remembrance. It was suppose to be Putt Putt with Colton and Zara. How small are our plans compared to God's (rhetorical question)? So, early that Wed the weather decided to be onry, so the overcomer overcame and was able to bargain us a deal at Broken Arrow Lanes to go bowling. Stormy weather + indoor activity = uneventful night . . . right? - No.

So, Colton and Zara and their band/family all arrive safely and we load up in the bus and chaperones vehicles and head over to the bowling alley.

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While at the bowling alley, one of the youth gave me the weather report that there were tornado watches for our area. That's exciting, but what am I suppose to do? . . . play on! Then my phone started blowing up with phone calls from rather concerned parents letting us know that the "watch" has now turned into a "warning," followed quickly by tornado alarms sounding outside of the building. The announcer came on, (muffled voice) "Would everyone please moving behind the railing until the siren has ended." So, we obeyed and minutes later the alarm ended. Multiple parents understandably wanted to pick up there youth pronto and were going to meet me at the church. Our game time was up and we quickly loaded everyone up into the bus for the 2.5 mile drive. By this time, I'm ready to load up Toto into the basket on my bicycle and ride home to Aunt Em. Without rain or wind, we hurried back to the church just in time for several of the parents.

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Since Colton and Zara were 3.5 hours from home and they had come to play I asked what they wanted to do. "Let's play," was the answer (I like them.) So we had the concert and slowly our group of 30 dwindled down until by 8:30 everyone had recieved fresh music and brownies and were on their way home. A wonderful ending to a great evening. Colton and Zara, their family and band, and Jacqui and I had the privaledge of watching the storm from the cafe' windows and then invited them over for bacon cheeseburgers. I love God's ever-exciting plans.

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May 22nd - First Pink Flamingoing of the Summer

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We loaded up 75 birds and 15 youth and headed out for an evening of pink sneakiness. We flamingoed two and a half yards and had alot of laughs (the blessing was bestowed on the Grays and the Juettes). I say two and a half because one house wasn't there. We drove 30 minutes to an address that didn't exist out in Coweta (which is somewhere next to Timbucktoo I'm sure.) LOL.

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May 29th - Pink Flamingoing starring the Flam-ninjas

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This evening worked out rather interesting. Our first 25 birds were actually borrowed from us from someone who will remain anonymous (sp) and placed in the yard of a Mrs. Ruth Cooper for her surprise birthday of 91 years (congratulations). Then under the cover of darkness 19 youth set out from Braums to reek pink on several unsuspecting victums. We love you guys Dayna and Paul Griffith and John and Dana Kunick.

Funny story: It was a first for us. Our first assignment was a home behind the impenetrable barrier of a gated community. Ah yes, between the target and the Flam-ninjas stood an iron gate and daunting brick wall. After much consideration, tactical brainstorming, and watching for a break in traffic, a commando team slipped under the ominous iron blockade and flamingoed Jericho.

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May 30th - AHYEAH

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Sunday morning:

On sunday morning 6 youth wore pink. Five of them ran around the building handing pink flamingoing slips to everyone they saw. Also, two or three stood at the Flamingoing booth, one playing bongos. These coupled with an announcment that morning raised awareness within our awesome church family. The congregation responded, and in that single morning we raised 240 dollars to send youth to camp!!!

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The A-TEAM:

The previous challenge truly proved challenging. Some had alot of trouble dealing with busy-ness, procrastination, or just plain forgetting. Others really took it to heart and had way more than the 3-per-week requirement. This was even a challenge for me personally and definitely made me reevaluate my priorities and time management.

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New Challenge - Promote the Out of School Bash. (ex. hand out fliers, hang up fliers in public places, create an event on Facebook.)

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AHYEAH:

Message topic - Nat led the message and discussed portions. David repeatedly worships the Lord saying that He is his portion. This theme is found throughout the bible. Then Nat showed where God calls us His portion. It would seem that with us inheriting GOD and He gets us, that He is getting the weak end of the deal. But, God in Ephesians calls us His glorious inheritance! God sees us as worth it and loves us unconditionally.

Youth - 25

Visitiors - 2

Leaders - 5

News - We have a new leader (glory to God)! Sunny Sheppard is 20 years old and has a history in youth leadership and a certification with DHS. She has an incredible heart for the youth and will be taking over our junior high girls small group.

Funny one-liner - "In worship we should give God a spiritual back massage." - anonymous high school girl

April 2010

April 3rd - Paintball

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Yes! We love paintball. We played most of the day using up all our cash on paint then took full advantage of CiCi's all you can eat buffet. Yum.

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April 9th - Red Durango Worship

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I want to take advantage of this blog to brag on a few of our youth. Fired up, wanting to serve Christ and make an impact at school, Rachel, Justin, and CJ began meeting every Friday during their lunch break to have a worship session in the parking lot of their High School. They brainstormed and soon making it quite an ordeal. They handed out fliers, set up a tent, brought chairs and drinks, and played a guitar and bongos. They did this every Friday almost up to graduation. I'm very proud of them.

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April 11th - The A-Team kickoff

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Something huge that AHYEAH kicked off this month is the A-Team. This is a team of youth within AHYEAH who have committed themselves to taking action throughout the week outside of AHYEAH events (in schools, clubs, social hangouts, etc.). Every other week we have a meething where we give them a challenge for the following two weeks to be evangelistic, promote AHYEAH, or edify our spiritual lives. Should a youth miss two challenges they are off the team for two weeks and then can jump back in again. It's meant to be a challenging thing to be apart of it. Our heart is not for our youth group to become a social club, we as Christians are creating a movement!

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Challenge - Bring a friend to church.

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April 23rd - Brittany's Night

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Brittany Kunick, one of our seniors, is one of the most competitave young ladies I've ever met and this trait makes her very successful at every sport she goes out for. Anyway, on this Friday her team had a tournament and although they started kinda rough, they finished like champions!

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April 24th - Outreach Project

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This was an opportunity for us to get our minds off of ourselves and focus on our community and beyond. We met at the church and did some work projects around the church till 2 or 3 o'clock. We dug rubber mulch out of the playground so it could be sprayed with a preservative, vacuumed the children's area and youth room, washed all the windows in the childrens area, cleaned both of the bathrooms and did general cleaning back there. We also rearranged the youth room (better than ever) and disposed of one extremely smelly diaper (please dispose of the trash when your done using the nursery!!!. Then we followed up all of this the next day (Sunday) with bringing any extra lightly worn shoes that we had and donating them to Soles for Souls who would in turn ship them to Haiti. Also, on top of that we went shoeless all day that Sunday to empathize with and remember those in Haiti who we were praying for.

It went really well. Of everyone, I was one of the people who forgot and wore shoes to service. Then, right in the middle of the "9", someone said, "Hey, aren't we suppose to be shoeless?" It was hilarious, suddenly everyone was pulling and kicking their shoes off and the smell was . . .

We truly have a youth group that cares for people.

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By the way, we raised 109lbs of shoes to send to Haiti!!!

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April 25th - A-Team

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Wow, from that last challenge of bringing a friend to AHYEAH, we had 15 visitors in only two weeks!!! That is a huge testamony to our youth.

It was alot of fun debriefing about what it was like to invite people. Some found it very challening and awkward, but said that it got easier the more they did it. Others really had no problem. The other half of the challenge was as a youth group to make the visitors feel welcome, and boy did they. Every new youth was welcomed and instantly excepted. We have awesome youth!

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New Challenge - Start a spiritual conversation. (ex. What do you think about atheism? Why do bad things happen to good people? Do you believe in evolution? Do you think there is a higher power?)

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April 28th - Laser Tag

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This was truly an experience. So, laser tag was a huge hit. On Wednesday nights we ususally have 20-25 youth attend, but tonight we had 41! Everyone brought friends and we packed out the bus and every vehicle we access to. We arrived at Lazer Quest 10 minutes late and they dropped our reservation. So, we had to play our game 45 minutes later than expected, cutting our time from 2 games to 1 game. Then, they informed us that they can only serve 38 kids at a time. Awesome (sarcasm). So, all the leaders and the older youth sat out and let everyone else get signed in. The 38 youth went in and had a blast! They loved it!

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Side story: So, Lazer Quest made me the deal to give each youth two games for $14 dollars, that's an entire dollar off for each kid, wow (more sarcasm). So, youth showed up with 10's, 5's, and 20's to pay me. Luckly, enough youth paid me with 1's that I only owed a couple that I needed to make change for. SO NOW, because we were 10 minutes late we lost the opportunity to play one of the games . . . now I owe everyone $7 (that's a 5 and two 1's, and all I have in my pocket are 20's, 10's, and no 1's, and I've never even met 8 of these youth before). So, problem solver that I am, I set out on a mission to make change before the kids are done with their game. Jacqui points and says, "Hey, there's a bill changer that accepts 20's!" It wasn't till after my 20 was slipping from my fingers that I realized . . . YES! I now have 20 dollars worth of quarters! So, now on to plan B, I am running, on foot, across the strip mall from store to store to gas station asking clerks to break 20's and 10's into 5's and 1's, meanwhile I am jingling with 5lbs of quarters weighing down my pants and causing attention. Well, this story concludes with a happy ending. I didn't get jumped, or accused of robbing a convenient store and by the time I made it back to the bus they were coming out of the building. I payed everyone back (though some left with 7 dollars of quarters, sorry), and all ended smoothly. :)

March 2010

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March 5th - Fire and a Movie

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Basically we drag a big screen outside, place a firepit a safe distance from the screen, surround that will chairs, offer s'mores and call it an event.

It was awesome. We had over 30 youth show up and watched "Holes" and played capture the flag. We had fun. :)

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March 12th - Basic Wilderness Skills Clinic

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For any youth that had not been camping, climbing, caving, or hiking before we offered a basic skills class. This covered how to set up a tent, tie knots, dig a cat hole and various other tricks of the trade.

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March 15th - 17th - Spring Break Camping

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This was a fabulous trip. Half of the youth attending had been the year before and loved reexploring the sights and reminiscing. They were able to help the other half who were new to the experience to have fun. On arrival to the first trail head, our trusty bus (Joan of AH) unexpectadly died. Since we had arrived, I sent off the gang, and kept Mitch with me to deal with whatever problems we might have to deal with with the bus. I learned that the trick was to keep power on the engine at all times. When the RPMs drop, the engine would die. Needless to say, Mitch and I drove the bus around to the other trail head and hiked in . . . and had a blast.

We were a little concerned about it raining on us, but by the middle of the first night the stars became very radiant. However it got cold. Luckly a wise parent advised us to bring hand warmers to throw into our sleeping bags. They worked for the most part, however most of the guys and all the girls found themselves cramming their sleeping bags around the fire. Side note: I am very proud of our guys. To be gentlemen they took turns staying up and stoking the fire to keep the AHYEAH ladies warm. Good job men.

On the second day, hiking out was challenging but fun. We got to the bus and headed to HCR (Horseshoe Canyon Ranch). After meeting our rock instructor, Harvey, we spent the rest of the evening rock climbing.

The second night was honestly not as bad, but still rather chilly. Early the next morning we got up, ate, and wrapped up camp. As the year before, we hiked into Eden Falls Cave and explored everything.

The drive home was a challenge with the quirky bus, but after refueling at Buffalo Wild Wings we pressed on and all arrived safely back at the church.

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March 19th - 21sth - Spring Break Camping 2

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So many youth signed up for camping that we had to take 2 trips! Where last year we had to scratch to get 10 to go, this year 20 jumped on board.

We headed out with a newly fixed bus (glory to God) with our new crew and fresh leaders. We arrived effortlessly and dropped off the crew at the first trailhead. The hiking was a little newer for them, but they emerged champions. Jacqui and I were able to teach them from scratch the way we had done last march with the first trip. Chopping wood, pumping water, digging catholes, staying dry, and stoking fires were all very new. We had fun.

Somewhere in the middle of the hike out of the next day, my cell phone caught reception and it blew up with text messages, missed calls, and incoming calls. We were fast alerted that we might get some rather tough weather (snow, ice, wind, not fun camping or driving weather). When we arrived at HCR, our climbing instructor had left to get out ahead of the storm. He had left a voicemail with me which I didn't recieve till 20 hours after the fact.

So a decision had to be made. Skip to exploring the caves and grab a hotel for the night and return tomorrow, or return right away and take them indoor rock climbing tommorow in Tulsa. I left the decision up to them and they voted to get home. It would be an understatement to say that driving home was a challenge. We had sleet and snow and rain and snow on top of rain and wind and whatever else you could throw in there. Once again, we stopped for dinner to go at Buffalo Wild Wings and made it home safe. It was a trip none of us will forget.

The following day we took almost everyone to New Heights Rock Gym in Tulsa and got our rock climbing fix. :)

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March 22nd - Wayne Kerr Concert

Wayne Kerr (Terri's brother) is a stinking talented musician who was passing through on a unique tour. We was recording his doing worship from dozens of churches of different nationalities, cities, and denominations and was then going to overlay them together as 'One Voice' worshiping God. He did an excellent job and the Holy Spirit came and was powerful.

February 2010

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February 4th - Beauty and the Beast Play

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Many of our youth starred in this. Bijan danced and twirled a girl, Brittany had a double role as a wolf and town's woman, Kameron also was able to sing and dance, and Rachel was one of Geston's three admiring ladies. We brough a bus load of youth there and many of them had not seen the cartoon so it was a first time for them.

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February 5th - Sonic and Braums (3rd Place - Jesus Freaks)

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What is there really to say? We can make anything a blast. We love Sonic, and we love Braums!

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February 6th - Indoor Rock Climbing (4th Place - Awesomenaphobia)

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This was a great experience. This team was an all girls team and they had a blast rock climbing. Here's a video for ya!

February 10th - To Save A Life Movie Night

Jacqui and I heard many great things about this movie, and also had been dealing with multiple cases of suicide attempts and deep considerations. God put it on our hearts to take the message series a new direction and to kick it off with this movie. Beginning on Sunday, Feb 14 we began "Reasons to Live" where we discussed suicide and God's purpose for our lives.

The movie was EXCELLENT!!! Several of the youth responded creating very powerful conversations. All of the youth loved it and wanted to see it again! So, before we left that night I challenged everyone to think of one person that they feel should see the movie and bring them the following Wed. to go and see it again.

February 12th - Erica's Night ("Tell Me You Love Me Junie Moon")

This was a great play. It didn't have as much comedy as her prevous play, but it was gripping emotionally. As always, she did a great job and it was a smashing hit.

February 17th - To Save A Life Movie Night 2

Many of the youth took last week's challenge very serously and brought friends. The movie was just as good the second time as it was the first and still very powerful. If you havn't seen it, I strongly recommend it.

February 24th - Colton and Zara

As always they did fantastic. They brought several new songs and more than 30 youth showed up. Everyone danced and sang and got autographs. :)

January 2010

December 31st - January 1st - New Years Eve Party

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Ah, what a wonderful memory for us at AHYEAH. Our schedule began at 9:30PM Dec. 31st and we had continuous games and activities right to 8AM Jan. 1st. We had 31 youth attend! The evening began with pizza and we had a snack bar so people could munch anytime they wanted all night. We broke into 5 teams which competed against each other for the duration of the evening (Hillsong Baptist Priests, Boomer Bandits, Jesus Freaks, Awesomenaphobia, and Pink Power). With each activity and game they would earn hundreds or thousands of points. Instead of the prizes being something immediate and shallow (gift cards, mountain bike, or whatever. Not that there's anything wrong with these kinds of gifts), they were future events just for their team. We had a list of event prizes (Hibachi Grill Dinner, Dinner and a Movie, Sonic and Braums, Indoor Rock Climbing, and an Incredible Pizza Party) and the 1st prize winnner would be able to pick first and 2nd place second and so on. This gave the new comers a reason to come back and also placed Jacqui and I in a more personal small group setting with our youth and their newly brought friends.

At 11Pm we had a worship service and devotional which kicked off a new message series based on Michael Jackson's song . . . "Man In The Mirror." The previous series (The Sequal) was very evangelistic and outward. Man in the Mirrow would deal with personal house cleaning, working on ourselves and our spiritual disciplines. The devo concluded with each of the youth writing a letter to themselves discussing where they want to be by 2011. They turned them in and I'll be sending them back to them at the beginning of school this August as a "hey-how-are-you-doing-with-that" reminder. We then ushered in the new year with lots and lots of noise. (Note to self: will not hand out noise makers next time.)

The entire night was back to back, no breathing room games and activities. We went from a Scavenger Hunt to a Hot Dog Eating contest (Adam ate 8 to win!), to The Maze, and Big Ball, Limping Zombies, Dodge Ball (normal and 4-way), Find the Skittle in the Pie, Face Creation, a Skit Competition, and Human Farkle. It was a barage of games.

Then we wound down, and as delerium set in we turned on a funny movie. Good ol' Paul Blart Mall Cop. Needless to say, half of the youth were asleep by the time 8 rolled around.

It was a total success and opened doors to 5 more events but with groups of 4-6 and much more personal.

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January 9th - Prize: Hibachi Grill Dinner (1st prize - Hillsong Baptist Priests)

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First place at the New Years Eve party chose the Hibachi Grill Dinner. Several of the new youth came with us and we all had a blast at Tokyo Garden where they cook the food in front of you and light things on fire and throw things at your face; it's just a good time. We didn't know any Japanese so we just yelled Um' Pa! whenever our cook would do a trick. I think it caught on. :)

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January 15th - Prize: Incredible Pizza Party (5th place - Pink Power)

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For this prize we hauled over to Incredible Pizza and gave each youth $10 of game money. We chowed hearty on their endless buffet and played tons of video games. One youth won more than 1100 ticktes! It was alot of fun and we all walked away with trinkets.

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January 23rd - Prize: Dinner and a Movie (2nd place - Boomer Bandits)

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These fine youth held a crushing, far advanced first place through all of the new year's eve party until the very end. It was a moment when they were surpassed by the Hillsong Baptist Priests. Anyway, we also had a blast at their prize party. We went and ate at Chili's, grabbed ice-cream at Chic-fil-a and went to see "The Tooth Fairy" with The Rock. It was a great evening.

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January 30th - Dinner with the Worship Team

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This was a really fun evening. Jacqui had been wanting to do something special with/for the worship team for months so we finally took them all out to the Hibachi Grill and fed them like kings. Big Fire = Awesome

December 2009

December 11th - 12th - Revolve Tour

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This year we drove to Norman, OK for the Revolve (for ladies only). It was awesome being able to use the bus this year and a ton of fun. We had 50% more girls go than last year and they ALL had fun. This year they had awesome bands like Stellar Kart and Group 1 Crew and super-sweet speakers like Chad Eastham and Jenna Lucado, and of course jam packed with dramas and concerts. And of course we had IHOP the first night out of tradition. :)

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December 19th - Scarfapolooza

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O yes. Scarfapolooza is back. This year we again had the scarf competition accompanied by a catwalk and poem. The poem, contrary to last year (a poem written to one's scarf), was a poem written by your scarf to YOU!

We had a game of Dirty Santa where we lucked out with gifts like Duct Tape, perfume, ornaments, and single sticks of gum. yea! We then hopped on the bus and headed over to Oilers Skate Rink and skated for a couple hours ending with delicious hot chocolate. double yum!

November 2009

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November 4th - Colton and Zara Concert

Through divine ordinance, God had a sweet couple playing live music at a restaraunt where Jacqui were having a date night. There music was super catchy, fun, of quality, and all around awesome. We had the pleasure of meeting and having dinner with them. Deciding to keep in touch, we had them come and play a song of there's (Sleepy Head City) for AHYEAH and lead a devotional on it. The youth fell in love with them immediately.

After the great response by the youth for only one song, we had them come and hold a mini-concert for us. For this Wed. night we ordered a 12' Subway, set them up in the cafe', made a horseshoe out of the tables and had a blast. They performed amazingly, the youth ate, danced, and sang, and we all had fun.

During intermission (where Colton and Zara can socialize and get some food), we had the apple eating race joke. We two contestants (Adam and CJ) who were both hard-nosed to win the apple eating contest. We blindfolded them both and yelled "Go!". After both begin chowing down, we unblindfolded Adam and slipped all of his apple slices into CJ's plate, mean while everyone continues to root for both of them. Everyone watched and laughed as CJ packed his face as he was competing against . . . no one. Eventually, we pulled his blindfold off and he was a great sport about it. Love ya CJ, you rock!

Novemeber 6th - Tailgating at Broken Arrow High School

Continuing out tailgating events to bring awareness about AHYEAH, led us to BA this week. We got an awesome spot. We perched our set up on a grassy corner that was half way to the stadium and could be seen from everywhere in the parking lot. Plus, we had a field to play in behind us. Also there was another fundraiser there which attracted people, but to get to us, they had to walk past us. God is cool.

We had a greater number of raffle tickets filled out with every tailgating party. More and more youth were coming out and we were getting more and more attention. God did good. (The spray painted AHYEAH shirts are still being seen as of 5/12/10 at multiple schools and at the mall to this day.)

November 13th - Tailgating at Jenks High School

It was amazing. We had to strategically choose games so that we could fit in the four major schools in four weeks, and it worked. Not only did it work, but we made it to one of each school's most crucial games. For Jenks, this was their most anticipated play-off game. And again, God parks us in the best spot. We had to park across the street from the game in a post office parking lot, BUT again everyone going to the game had to pass us! Again, we racked up even more raffle tickets than at any other school, and we even handed out stuff and collected raffle tickets from the opposing school! Two for one!

People would pass by see that we were giving away Monsters and shirts and run and bring back a whole group of friends. God did awesome as always.

November 14th - Paintball

This was a paintball experience to remember. On the third game of the day, Dave (who is one of the best in AHYEAH) tripped on a root and fell into a tree breaking two ribs. The first to the scene were Carlos, Josh and a referee. Josh immediately started praying for him right infront of the soon growing crowed of refs and players.

Dave was carted off the field and taken care of by Nat, but the testimony left behind in the ref's heart's of the support of prayer and real "Christians" will be unparralleled. Amen

November 21st - Service Project at Exodus House

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Exodus house is one one of the ministries that Abiding Harvest supports. They are a place for people who have been incarcerated and would probably be stuck in half-way houses. This ministry opens the door for them to stay in an apartment type facility and have their families move in with them so they can be together. It is a powerful and effective ministry.

While Dave went to help build some fencing, we helped through cleaning there busses and vans. They treated us to doughnuts and after doing a great job we took the youth to Coney Islander. yum.

We are blessed to have youth that love to serve!

October 2009

Wanna put stress on your marriage? Put 9 events in one month.

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October 2nd - Homecoming Afterparty

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This provided a hang-out for youth after the Homecoming Game as a substitute for afterparties. We had a campfire with S'mores, capture the flag, and other games. We actually had a pretty sweet turn-out, many of the youth came!

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October 7th - Fair Night

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As a change of pace from the typical Fantastic Friday on Wednesday, we hopped in the bus and headed to the Tulsa State Fair. We covered quite a bit of ground and ate quite a bit of food. Then when the youth returned to the bus, they each found themselves with a bag of cotten candy. It was a really fun evening.

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October 8th - Erica's Night

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We attended her play "It Happens Every Summer" at B.A. and she did a fabulous job. Honestly, she may have had the funniest line in the whole drama, "Anyone want some cookies?." (You had to be there.)

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October 10th - Jake's Night

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We went to Jake's football game, then treated him out to the quickly becoming traditional Buffalo Wild Wings.

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October 23rd - Tailgating at Bixby High School

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So, the AMAZING Events team and I got together to brainstorm a major event for the fall which would produce alot of momentum and interest in AHYEAH in one of the schools. Because the majority of our youth are in Union we had the huge/exhausting/expensive event at the IHigh last year. Along with being limited to one school, it was also extremely difficult to promote.

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In the midst of our brainstorming, Sarah Thompson (you rock) had the idea of hitting all the major schools by having the youth group tailgate at one of their major football games. What an idea! This would widen our horizon, take alot less grunt work, and be where the students already are!!! Sarah, Barry, and myself got on set-up, Deb jumped on food, and Brian took on fliers, banners, and give-aways. It all fell together beautifully, and the youth loved the idea and came out to support it!

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Our first one was at Bixby. Brian cranked out sweet cinch backpacks with our logo on them along with a big banner, for several days some of the youth and I had been hand spray painting 60-70 t-shirts with the AHYEAH stencils and graffiti, and Deb popped in with hot dogs and snacks. We parked the bus (an advertisement all by itself) in a rather strategic place and gave away the backpacks (pink or black with an AHYEAH flier inside), spray painted t-shirts, had a raffle sign up for 1 of 3 ITunes cards (this is how we gathered info to call them and promote AHYEAH), and food throughout a couple of hours before the game and all the way to half time. We blasted music and tried to start mini football games in the parking lot with passing youth. For our first attempt, it went rather well.

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Afterward, we took a minute to think it through how it could be better. I remembered that several weeks back a couple of youth estatically told me about how a Red Bull car had met them in the parking lot outside a football game and gave them free Red Bull. I threw out the suggestion that we give away free Monster Energy Drinks to the people who would fill out the raffle ticket. Plus, we decided to set up a large tent or two and stretch our banner across the outside. Both good ideas.

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October 24th - Amy's Night
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Amy was in a marching band. I had never been to a marching band competition before and expected very little. Heck, we were going to support her. Boy, was I wrong! It was a blast. All the bands were so creative and in sinc, it was totally entertaining. Plus, her band won!

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October 26th - Coleman's Night

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We headed over to Jenks and despite many of the youth being Union fans, we rooted him on with enthusiasm. :)

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October 30th - Tailgating at Union

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Well, we tweaked the event a little bit. Be brought a huge tent, and tons of Monsters, and whew what a draw. Plus we got a sweet spot where most everyone had to walk past us to go to the game, especially the band, cheerleaders, and ROTC. When you yell at a group of students that your giving away free Monsters, it definitely catches attention. People were grabbing a Monster, filling out a raffle and running and grabbing/telling their friends to get one. It was awesome. 100+ Monsters were gone by the end of the night and we had stacks of kid's info in raffle tickets, youth were leaving the game to come and get free stuff. We gave away all of the AHYEAH spraypainted t's and definitely caught attention.

Some of the youth have actually seen the T's being worn at school for now 7 months after we were there. God is cool!

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October 31st - Wacky Watermelon Night

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This was an improved version of 2008's Wacky Watermelon Night. We kept events like the watermelon pinata, and improved others such as: stacking watermelons with duct tape instead of chewed gum (gross), and launching water balloons at the carved watermelons (with candles inside) with waterballoon launchers instead of just throwing them.

We also had an awesome band (Acts 29, the new name of the former Blood Drive from Meta 3:14) come and jam out while we carved the melons. Live music + carving melons instead of pumpkins + bashing a watermelon with baseball bat + hanging out with friends = FUN!

September 2009

September 20th - See You at the Pole Sunday

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This event was to vamp up attendance for See You at the Pole on the following Wed. We discussed prayer, played some games, then graffitied our own SYATP shirts with multiple stencils. To this day, some of the youth still wear their's.

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September 23rd - See You at the Pole

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Around the nation, schools unite for an hour to meet at their flag poles for a time of prayer for our nation, our leadership, and our schools.

This year, all most all of AHYEAH was at their flag poles at 7am that morning. Some stood alone as the only ones at their schools. May God see our obedience and passion for Him.

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September 25th - Adam's Night

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Beginning in September AHYEAH started a new style of events. Instead of 1-2 big expensive events, along with 1-2 smaller events a month we decided to be more relevant and personal to the youth. We pulled together their schedules from sports, dramas, and band competitions and worked out the calendar to participate in at least one event for every youth that was involved in something extracurricular. We'd give a time and date and any youth that could come would meet at the church and we load up on the bus to go support our bro/sis.

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Tonight was Adam's night. We brought a white board with markers and yelled our guts out. "ADAM SAID 'NO!'" Then, in celebration of his coolness we treated him out to Buffalo Wild Wings. :)

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September 26th - Paintball

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We like paintball, OK?

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September 30th - Rachel, Bijan, and Kameron's Night

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They all acted in the play "The Cripple of Innishmen," and did a fabulous job. Ya'll rock! Plus, we had a pretty good turn out of youth to support them.

August 2009

The Sequel

With the start of a new school, we began a new theme, "The Sequel." It is based on the idea that the book of Acts is the sequel of the 4 gospels. Therefore, we to whom the church has been passed down to are the Sequel to the book of Acts. During the next few months we studied the book of Acts with the understanding that neither God nor His promises have changed; that we are to be living in the power of His Holy Spirit and seeing our schools, activity centers, etc as our mission field. To be honest, despite the first two themes being a ton of fun, this one was the most powerful. It was very cool.

August 16th - Back To School Battlecry

The Back To School Battlecry is an event which is fun but also challenging. It calls the youth to step up to a new level of living for Christ outwardly and staying focused despite the infinite distractions that the school year will bring.

We began it by an introduction to the theme "The Sequel," which was very well recieved. We then initiated the kids that were graduating from the children's ministry and into the youth ministry. Each one recieved a Teen Study Bible and a pocket size Christian fish. They were very well recieved and it was a great kick off for them.

We then hauled everyone out to Pump It Up, which is basically an inflatable playground. Huge inflatables like slides, obstacle courses, and games. We ate pizza and then headed for Braums for dessert. All in all it was a success.

July 2009

July 10th, 17th, and 31sth - Pink Flamingoing

Still raising money for camp!
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July 11th - Shopping with Dom

Where Viking night is exclusive for dudes, Shopping with Dom if just for the AHYEAH ladies (and they had to put up with me. hehe) This was an event which was purposeful in treating the girls like princesses. :) For weeks the AHYEAH ladies had been bringing friends to church and events to rack up cash for an Oklahoma City shopping spree. Basically, each girl starts with a $15 credit, and for every friend they bring they get $ added to that credit. Can life get better? It will!

So we met that morning and loaded up in a mini-van and the CRV and headed to OKC. We arrived and picked up their shopping cards with worked at every mall store and went to town. The girls shopped till we were all about to drop.

Then we loaded ourselves and our bags up and headed back to church fora catered dinner (thank you Randy Schuyler). What the girls didn't know is that we commissioned the AHYEAH men to serve the girls. What I didn't know was how awesome, caring, and thoughtful our men are.

When we arrived at church, we were ushered into the youth room and not allowed to come out! Finally, all of the girls, and several mothers that came to join us, were allowed out and led in a straight line to a sign-in table where stood an AHYEAH gentleman dressed to the hilt, hair slicked back, and a speaking in a swave French accent. As each girl was signed in, a different gentleman escorted them arm-in-arm past a partition to an exquisite table, decorated with flowers, wine glasses, candles, chocolates, fine china, and folded napkins. Froo froo was hanging from the ceiling and decorated everything. And meanwhile a youth serinated them with live music from a keyboard.

Serving by serving (appitizer, salad, entree, and sides), the AHYEAH gentlemen, sharp in black dress clothes (one youth even ran to Goodwill and spent his own money that day so he could be dressed nice) and speaking in French accents served the ladies and waited on them hand and foot. And to drink they had classy Martinelli's sparkling cider, red or white (non-alcoholic of course), which they served wrapped in a towel.

Throughout the meal, live music was played. Then, during the entree one of our gentlemen got up and sang a couple songs to flow with the music and the setting.

Finally dessert came out. And as the dessert plates hit the table each girl noticed that their names were written on the plate in chocolate. These girls felt special!

Amidst the dessert, I gave a 15 minute devotional about their worth and who their first love is and should be, and their status before God as priceless gems and princesses. With the closing of the event, the AHYEAH gentlemen took the sign-in list from the beginning of the meal into the sanctuary and prayed for each girl by name, for blessings for her and thanked God for her value.

Every one of those girls were touched and felt special, and at some point in the evening every one of them teared up at one thing or another. And I must say, I have never been so proud of our AHYEAH men. Men, may you always see the value in the women around you and treat them as the priceless treasures that they are. Ladies, may you have confidence in your worth, demand nothing short of God's best, and carry yourself as the princess that you are.

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July 20th-24th - Extreme Camp

Camp was awesome! It was the first voyage of the Abiding Harvest Bus (Joan of A.H.). The theme was exhange. Based on the idea that we can't just give up something, but we exchange that for Christ and who He is. The sessions were awesome and convicting ("Just a lil' bit of poop!" - ya, ask an AHYEAH camper). We also were teamed up with another group basically to compete against. That relationship started out a little rocky, but by the end of camp we were family.

On top of the extreme sports (extreme ultimate frisbee, extreme soccer, paintball, the blob, human foozeball, and extreme volley ball) which were all AWESOME, the camp rented out an entire waterpark for us where we spend half a day with the place to ourselves. It was sweeeeeeet.

Then on the last night, the session discussed laying down who we are and send the entire group of camp outside. Outside we found dozens of crosses set up with little fires underneath them. After going outside we continued in prayer and worship and really had an encounter with God. Each youth was given a peace of old cloth which they would lay down at the cross, and each counselor was given a small cross to give them in return. Then all of the youth gathered around Jacqui and I and prayed for us some really powerful stuff. God did awesome things that night!

Returning home was/is always kinda sad, but we were comforted by stopping at our traditional Don's Restaurant for some good, non-camp, Texas food. Yum.

June 2009

June 19th - Pink Flamingoing

Many of the members of Abiding Harvest were seeing pink the next moring!

June 24th - Kilt making night

For all of those attending Viking Night who couldn't buy a kilt, we got together and created our Viking costumes.

June 27th - Viking Night

An event solely geared for testosterone! The event had two requirements. You must be male, and you MUST wear a kilt. Yours truly was clad in fur, leather, a kilt, and a helmet (O yes, ruggedly handsome).
The vikings met at 8am fully dressed to raid and each chose a weapon and shield. Then set out on a short road trip to the Illinois river. Two sights are funny: 1) A group of youth dressed as vikings running around in a gas station convenience store. 2) When the caravaan gets split up and 4 youth dressed as vikings go and dance at an intersection so the vehicle looking for us can find where we turned.
We arrived at the Illinois river and mounted our canoes; and the vikings were off on their 9.5 mile canoe trip. I must say that we rented the most pathetic canoes of all time. It was as if someone welded together crushed coke cans and slapped U.S.S. on the side of it. All you had to do was sneeze and you'd roll over. Needless to say, before everyone even got in there canoes two different boats tipped. Thanks to someone intellegent, all our food was in sealed containers, no thanks to someone else all of our paintball guns were not (I didn't mention that we were planning on having a paintball war on the water during the trip . . . "planned" being the key word).

During the extremely eventful water trip (canoes flipping every couple of minutes, canoes getting wedged under and between trees, drunk people yelling at me in fur, and attacks by horseflies on steroydes) we found a certain rock/cliff/thing that was perfect for a sweet cliff jump (about 10'). The jump was a blast and then we noticed a tree growing off of the rock/cliff/thing. Yes, we also climbed and jumped from the tree (20'+). Testosterone is a beautiful thing. :)

Finally, after we were all blown out from canoeing we arrived at our destination. Our dinner was grape juice, pork beans, and a hog . . . no really, a whole hog (precooked for safety - don't tell anyone). A nice family at the canoe place loaned us their smoker and BBQ sauce. Mark and CJ cooked while we went to the campsite and set up camp and built the camp fire. At dark the hog was done and we chowed. With no utensels in sight, we bare-handed the pork and beans. Because of the Vikings that we were, it became a competition as to who ate the hog eyes and three of us split the brain. Then we passed the head around and each had to take a bite of the nose (yum). And somewhere in there a grape juice chugging contest broke out.

We gathered around the fire for some worship (led by Bobby Baker) and a message on our spiritual enemy, whom we fight as warriors with the armor of God. After an awesome devo and worship, we then settled down . . . not! We had beastly jousting competitions and Viking games!

Testosterone at its best.

May 2009

May 16th - Paintball

As always, paintball was awesome. AHYEAH youth are simply beasts at paintball!

May 22nd - Pink Flamingoing

Similar to last summer, AHYEAH was vehicle for practical joking within the church. As a fundraiser for camp, we (the youth) are hired to fill other people's yards up with pink flamingoes. For the summer of 09' we kicked it off on May 22nd and went out under the cover of darkness every other Friday to do the churches' pink dirty work. :)

May 30th - Out of School Bash

The Out of School Bash was huge! All of the AHYEAH youth were given fliers to hand out at school, they were rewarded when they brought friends, we had 25-28 volunteers, and over 80 youth attend. The event featured:
*a mud volley ball pit (60'x 80'),
*a water war zone - inflatable bunkers, hight powered water guns, and water baloon launchers,
*kick ball field,
*air brush tatoos,
*football,
*TONS of food and drink,
*a band and worhip band,
*a 80' slip n slide,
*and so many door prizes that everyone recieved one or two prizes (such at $50 sunglasses, IPod Shuffel, AHYEAH T-Shirts, ITunes cards, etc).
After the games, came the food, then we had a time of worship and a devotional.
Finally, after all of this, the Broken Arrow Fire Dept came and hosed all of the muddy youth down. It was a blast!