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Written by Charles Fisher
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Thursday, 15 January 2009 |
We started out the evening looking for aliens - 90 of them to be exact. They were hidden all over the church and the person who found the most was given the "Silver Alien" award. The winner of The Way's first Silver Alien award was Emily Robertson. She found some crazy amount like 38-40 or something (even though she had some helpers). The idea behind this (and other) hide and seek games came from Matthew 13 where it says, “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field. Again, the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant looking for fine pearls. When he found one of great value, he went away and sold everything he had and bought it.” We talked about how when it comes to worship we need to be obsessed with finding God. We had some discussions about what we all think of when we think of worship and what we think worship looks like. When thinking about worship (and other spiritual disciplines as well) it can be helpful to compare it to a house. You start off with a foundation which builds on our love for God, our desire to honor Him, the obsession of wanting to be with Him. Then you work on the structure of the house and this is sort of like the "why" we worship. We always need to be checking the why to make sure it is for the right reasons. Otherwise you could have some major problems. Like a house could have water damage, mold or termites if the structure is not kept in check. And as you grow in your faith the "why" you worship could grow and expand, just like adding additions to the structure of your house. The cosmetics of the house is like the "how" we worship. This can always be changing as we grow and change. We may try something for awhile and then not feel like it is affective anymore and try something else. The evening was great and included some Pew-Ball, Sardines, Movies, a ball drop at midnight (except the ball was a computer monitor, and the drop was off of the building), and all kinds of junk food. There was a lot of fun had by all and to go along with all of the fun we had some serious discussions about worship, a gag gift exchange where you had to use the gift you ended up with to describe worship, a prayer/quiet room, and about 25 minutes of intense worship through song.
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Written by Charles Fisher
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Monday, 15 September 2008 |
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Last Updated ( Monday, 15 September 2008 )
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Written by Charles Fisher
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Wednesday, 12 March 2008 |
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Last Updated ( Wednesday, 12 March 2008 )
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Written by Charles Fisher
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Tuesday, 04 March 2008 |
 
(The crew getting ready to go home and eating dinner on Saturday night)
February 29th to March 2nd Nicole and I took five of the teens from The Way to PCTC (the Pennsylvania Christian Teen Convention). We all had a blast. The trip started off pretty rocky since we didn’t actually get on the road heading to Harrisburg until 45 minutes after the time we wanted to. Then we hit a lot of traffic. Then when we got to Harrisburg we went to pull into the parking garage and realized that the luggage rack made our van too tall for the garage. So, we pulled up to the front door, we all jumped out, we unloaded all of our stuff to the sidewalk, unstrapped the luggage carrier, folded down the seats in the van and then threw the carrier into the van. I left Nicole with the teens to get our stuff inside while I parked the van and got us all registered for the convention and our rooms. Once we got to our rooms though, everything went pretty good for us as a group. We spilt off girls and guys for our first main session, which was awesome, then when we came outside to go to the next event -- it was snowing! The city was so beautiful in the snow. We watched a comedian duo, “Bean and Bailey”, then headed to our rooms for the night, where the girls spent some time chatting and the guys played some Mario Cart.
Saturday morning came really fast. We all had different sessions until lunch, when we came back together for just enough time to grab something to eat and tell each together how much fun we were having then went back for more sessions. I had the opportunity to teach a workshop on “Faith and Film” where I had about 320 teens and sponsors come throughout the day. Then we met back up for dinner where we all ate together and talked about the highlights of the day. After dinner we had about an hour to relax before we had our main session for the evening. The night ended with a rock concert with a band called “The Shakedown” which the teens loved and we may have them come down to Boulevard sometime (their youth minister is one of my best friends). After the concert the guys went back to their room and hung-out playing video games and talking about what they learned from the day and the girls got the chance to go see the executive lounge on the restricted 15th floor before going back to their room for discussion. By the time we went to bed, no one had trouble sleeping.
Sunday morning came even faster since we woke up at 7:50 AM and our session started at 8:15! We rushed around getting ready and headed to our session, where we heard our last sermon for the weekend and some information about next year’s convention. Then we sadly headed to our rooms, packed and headed to the car. The guys helped me load the car. We packed everything into the luggage carrier and put it back into the van, then drove out to the street and all three of us heaved it onto the roof of the van and strapped it down. Then we had a bus driver take a picture of all of us standing by the van and we headed home. Listening to the “Bean and Bailey” CD that Josh bought.
It was a great weekend, an I enjoyed sharing it with our teens. I cannot wait to see how many will be interested in going next year.
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Last Updated ( Tuesday, 04 March 2008 )
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Finding the Christmas Star |
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Written by Charles Fisher
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Monday, 17 December 2007 |
Last night, December 16, 2007 was a huge triumph! I would like to thank everyone who put in a lot of work to make the play such a success. I also would like to thank everyone who was able to make it out a support the youth during their performance. We had over 100 people make it out to the church last night.
This musical, Finding the Christmas Star, finds Miss LaToe and the school choir preparing for the annual Christmas Star Competition. Coach Chris Masader, who once attended the school, threatens to halt the "Christmas craziness" by demanding the auditorium for his class achievement test. Through song and narration, the kids and Miss LaToe help the coach discover the excitement he once had about Jesus and Christmas. When Coach decides to help by reading the Christmas passage from the Bible, and tells how the wise men followed a star, it becomes evident who the real Christmas Star is.
Everyone who participated in the play last night sure made it evident that they are people who excited about celebrating Jesus' birth. They really rocked the house!
Following the play we had some refreshments, a cookie swap and a special appearances from Santa! Not one person left the building without a smile on their face, stories to tell, and a little knowledge on how to handle the hustle and the bustle of the Christmas season!!!!!!
Thanks again, and Merry Christmas!
~ Tan N. Baum (Charles)
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Last Updated ( Thursday, 20 December 2007 )
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