Tulsa State Fair Cookie Stacking Champion: Hannah

Hannah won her heat at the Tulsa State Fair for the Cookie Stacking Contest with a total of 24 stacked cookies: AWESOME JOB HANNAH!

Bear Fight at MORPH: Caleb vs Nick

MORPH Weekend: Group Shot
This picture didn't turn out that great, but it represents the coolest group of students who gave up their Fall Break to Love Out Loud.
I am very proud of them for the selflessness! God used them in incredible ways to bring hope to the hopeless.
Our students were exhausted by the end of the weekend. I played too much football and felt my age all the way down to my feet.

Ridgeway Students are AWESOME!

--A Huge thank you to our adults who weathered the whole weekend: Megan, Bethany, Kristen, and Ray! You guys are fantastic!

--Thanks to Scott, John, and Chris for leading the morning devotionals!

--Thanks to Lisa Hamilton and our wonderful Senior Adult ladies for making the desserts!

--Thanks to Bob for cooking and for cleaning up after us--also to Aimee, Jeremy, and Christian--you guys are such a blessing!

--Thanks to Sarah and the Dobrinski's for cooking the Friday night meal!

Day One: MORPH Weekend: LOVE OUT LOUD

What a great day! This morning Chris B. really set the tone for us through the Word! Thanks so much Chris!

Our students did an incredible job of helping a lady and her neighbor with some much needed yard work that they couldn't do. One thing we want to accomplish is to love our community out loud. I'm hoping that Ms. Sherry sensed the love of Christ from our students! Thank you students for setting an incredible example!

We had a great lunch of peanut butter and jelly sandwiches and ham sandwiches! We then headed to Shannon Valley to love on people in that community. We essentially are asking each household if they need anything done around their house like mowing and weedeating as well as inviting them to the playground to just play soccer, football, etc. It was great to see our students and adults make those much needed connections with the children, students and adults of this community. Please pray for us as we go back tomorrow!

We closed the evening with a hot dog cookout at the Reed's house--thank you so much for your hospitality. Patsy is battling cancer so we got a chance to encourage her through prayer! What a wonderful couple the Reed's are!

Thanks to Jeff J. for coming and leading us tonight in the Romans vs Christians game! The kids loved it!

MORPH Weekend: LOVE OUT LOUD

We start today our ministry projects in our community! We have about thirty students who are excited about getting out into our community. Brent Higgins challenged us last night in the Word and got us off to a great start. He talked about COMPASSION! Brent will be here again on Friday night at 7 p.m. so feel free to join us!

Through our weekend, we are wanting to teach our students two things:
1. Serving One Another Unselfishly
2. Being sensitive to the prompting of the Holy Spirit in ministry. So many times we are so scheduled that there is no room for direction from the Holy Spirit. If God prompts one of our students or adults to meet a need in our community as we drive or as we serve, then we hope immediate obedience to the Spirit's prompting will be learned this weekend.

As I write this, a group of our students are preparing breakfast--biscuits/gravy/eggs/sausage! Our students are pumped....they are sooo pumped a few of them got up around 5 a.m.(a little tooo early for me).

This weekend we have partnered with the Code Enforcement Officer, so we will be going to homes who have received complaints about their lawns and we will do somewhat of an extreme makeover to their lawns so they don't get a ticket.

We are also partnering with a community down the street from our church where we will be doing random acts of kindness and playing games with the kids. Our whole goal in this is to LOVE OUT LOUD--presenting Jesus through actions and words. My prayer is that people do not see us, but they see Christ and through that they would desire a relationship with Christ.

Thanks to the parents who are helping us this week: Ray Teague, Scott Hamilton, Brian and Melissa Shepard, Bob Alexander, and Tim and Sherry Dobrinski. Thanks also to Chris B. and John W. for coming to lead our morning devotions.

Please pray for unity among our students. Please pray that the people we minister to will come to know Christ. Pray that our eyes will be opened to the lostness of our community.

FIREPROOF---A MUST SEE MOVIE FOR ALL!




Sarah and I went on a date night last night and saw this great movie. We highly recommend it for all! If you are struggling in your marriage, I highly recommend you set aside a time for you and your spouse to go and see this movie! Even if you have a great marriage, it's a great reminder of our promise to our spouse!

I would love to hear what you thought of the movie. It will definitely provide some discussion for you as couples! There are some great resources for couples at www.fireproofmymarriage.com.

QWESTion Mark

Check out our new blog for our Student Ministry Series: Qwestion Mark.

Qwestion Mark is a forum for people to ask the hard questions about God, the Bible, circumstances in your life, or other spiritual questions.

We are on a Qwest to help you find answers. We hope this will be a tool for you and your friends as a resource to find Hope.

QWESTion Mark

The Real Reason Why Baptists Don't Dance
From Todd Pruitt at toddpruitt.blogspot.com

Was this on Saturday Night Live?

Random Cool Pictures of my Kids
Pic #1: Elijah wanted a mustache like dad used to have, so he created his own
Pic #2: We were getting things ready for InnerMission up at the church, so my kids decorated themselves in these cool outfits.

I Love my Kids!

My Brother and I in Chicago

This is a picture of me and my brother, Bobby(and Caleb, my nephew, in the background). Of all places we get to see each other is in Chicago at the Navy Pier. We were on Mission Trip and they were on vacation the same week, so we met up at the Navy Pier! It was good to see him and the fam!

I love my brother !

What is our L.I.T. Ministry?

We have just started a ministry in our church for 5th and 6th Graders called L.I.T. which stands for Leaders in Training. The whole goal is to disciple these students and help them find their fit in ministry. This link gives a better description of what it is and gives an idea of what we will be doing: http://www.godtube.com/view_video.php?viewkey=0f8ba5f7bbf6dfdac794

I met Clint May, who leads this ministry in his church, back at a conference in April. When Clint was talking about this, it was like the light went on. The thing I like about it is not just the serving part of it, but the strong discipleship emphasis.

We just started two weeks ago and I am looking forward to seeing how God uses our children to minister in our church. My daughter Hannah is involved and really enjoys it!

Pray for Nic and Mark in Panama!

Nick and Mark are with AWESTAR in Panama this week. They will be arriving back on Sunday sometime...I am so proud of these guys! Check out these pics.

Update from Studentlife Chicago Wednesday

Pic #1: Caleb Holding up the Bling Bling

We are in a group of other churches and our name is Gold Rush---we have a little cheer that we do before we go to our mission site

Pic #2: Crazy Pic at our Mission Site

Pic #3: Group Pic at Wheaton after morning celebration

Pic #4: Holders of the Key: Austin and Jacob--these guys are responsible for making sure all of our supplies/food are ready to go before we leave for our mission site.

Pic #5: Williams Random Pic of the Day: Enjoying the food at the #2 rated cafeteria in nation

Got a chance to meet more people at our mission site. A great group of people who are doing a great thing for their community. It's cool to see how relationships form just through serving. Please pray tomorrow specifically for Nicci as she will have an opportunity to take on of our new good friends out to lunch--what an incredible ministry opportunity.

Just want to say I am so thankful for our two adult sponsors: Jeff and Nicci---they really love students. What a great investment they have made in our students this week.

Our students have been wonderful and have done such a fantastic ministry this week and is allowing the Holy Spirit to mold them. One thing that has been stressed this week is that we are not just doing this to get a pat on the back or doing these things to get a warm fuzzy which is what happens many times, but that we are allowing Christ to change our thinking and for us to realize that much of our ministry should happen outside of a time schedule....sometimes we think that we can only do ministry when the church sanctions it or it is scheduled, but true ministry is an overflow of the heart.

This week I am reminded that we are teh flesh and blood of Jesus alive in the world through the Holy Spirit. I am reminded that I am God's hands, feet, and ears.

This week, I have been reading a book called, "Irresistable Revolution" by Shane Claiborne and it is very intriguing. Want to share one quote that has stuck with me this week:

"....some time back we have stopped living Christianity and just started studying it." I find it sometimes easy to study the Word and not allow it to be digested. How about you? Are you living Christianity or are you just studying it?

Have a great evening!

Wise words from Nick: Please help me....William is a bully :)

Can someone from Ridgeway come and save Nick? Tune in tomorrow for the latest...........

Monday/Tuesday Update from Studentlife Chicago

Let me give you scoop on the pictures above first:

1. This is some of our students standing in line for dinner: Austin, Alex, Amber, and the back of Jake's head. The food is absolutely fantabulous. Wheaton has the 2nd best food cafeteria in the nation---lucky us!

2. Williams Random Pic of the Day--we will do a Williams Random Pic each day for your viewing pleasure.

3. Like I said before, Wheaton has the 2nd best food cafeteria in the nation--not so good for me...since yesterday morning Immodium AD and Kaoepectate has become a close friend of mine. It's not because of the food here--It all started yesterday morning. I am feeling a little better today--praise the Lord for Immodium and Kaopectate! (Did you know that diarrhea is hereditary? It runs in your "jeans"! :)

4. The Humanitarian Service Project is where we are serving this week. They are a non-profit organization that reaches out to senior citizens and children. They provide birthday gifts for over 1200 children each year and so we had an opportunity to wrap gifts for these children. They also deliver groceries to over 115 Senior Adults and 100 needy families. (See below about our day)

5. This is a picture of our group wrapping gifts. I was amazed at the gifts of our group in wrapping---I for one thing do not have that gift(ask my wife) and so I was the designated bow person.

It's been a good week to just be still. The worship is incredible and the teaching is great. It's interesting that last nights message was very similar to what we have been talking about at Ridgeway in regards to hearing God's voice. An interesting point that Darrin made was that in Psalm 119:105, it says, "Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light for my path." Note, it does not say a trucklight or a floodlight, but a lamp...the lamp illuminates the here and now--not the future meaning that following Jesus and His Word is step by step and day by day. He wants us to cling to him on a minute by minute basis.

We had a great day on our mission project....we have been able to meet a few people--pray that our conversations would flow with grace and love towards the people who work at the Humanitarian Service Project. It is not a religious organization, so there is great opportunity for us to impact those who work the the Project. So, could you pray for us in this regard? We will go back tomorrow so please be praying for us between the hours of 10 a.m. and 3 p.m.

PARENTS: YOU CAN GO TO WWW.STUDENTLIFE.COM AND GO DOWN TO FIND YOUR STUDENT AT CAMP, CHECK WHEATON AND THEN LISTEN LIVE. You can email your student or send a gift card or listen to the services live, check out pictures or the Studentlife Blog

Hope everyone is having a great week! Will post more tomorrow!

Mike

We Made It

It's 1:47 a.m. in the morning and we are settled in our rooms! The above picture is William's nightly routine of cleaning his nostrils. Can you believe we only stopped twice during this 11 hour trip? I am amazed at the depths of our bladders!

Our team had a great day in the van of getting to know one another better! It was a great day! Later this morning we will check in at Wheaton College......will post more later!

Mike

A Note from our good friend Nick: NICK IS THE COOLEST EVER!!!! HES MY FAVORITE!!! GIVE HIM MONEY.....ALOT OF IT!!!!!

StudentLife Chicago or Bust

We leave Sunday for our Studentlife mission trip. We are going through StudentLife and will be serving at a comunity service center. We have a group of eleven adults and students going.

We will do our best to give you daily updates on what is happening in Chicagoland. We will be staying at Wheaton College!

Darren Whitehead, teaching pastor of Willowcreek Senior High will be bringing the Word. Kristian Stanfill, worship leader from Northpoint, will be leading in worship! It's going to be GREATTTTT!

Pray for us as we travel....we will travel all day Sunday and stay overnight in Chicago and start on Monday at Wheaton College. Pray for us to be obedient to sharing the Gospel as the opportunities present themselves.

Mike

Continue to Pray for our Summer Missionaries: Aaron, Mikayla, Bethany, and Mandi

Check out http://www.awestar.org/ for the Trip updates. Here are some pictures from their site. We will be having a welcome home party for the missionaries....will keep you posted.

Can You Find Dre in this Picture?

Monday's Falls Creek 2008 Video

This is our Tuesday night Falls Creek Video---Kudos to Brandon H. for all you did this week in getting the videos together....they were all wonderful!