The Hunt IV

Yet another amazing Hunt this year! 148 students participated, and many adults. The girls and I attend the Hunt every year, and help out in some way, but this was my first year to be a driver. I had a group of six 7th graders (including Hannah) in my car. My friend Kelly rode with us and kept me sane. It took us almost 4 hours of driving around to complete the mission. We were the 12th team (out of 29) to finish. I recovered nicely after taking 4 Advil and drinking 2 Cokes.

Back from Barnabas

Lance returned home today from 9 days at Camp Barnabas. He is tired, and sick. We are glad he's home. We missed him tons!

Reality Week Pics

Where Has the Week Gone?

I returned home from camp a week ago, exhausted but excited about what I had experienced. It was great to be at camp with middle school and high school students again. These kids are amazing, all of them. It was a privilege to get to know some of them better and to hear their stories.

Of course, I can't describe all that went on this year at camp, but I'll hit some highlights.

First, I've never seen a large group of students love each other like these kids do. From the oldest to the youngest, each one was taken in and made to feel a part of the family that is Underground Student Movement. We had several kids who are new to LifePoint on the trip and a few who have never attended a service or been to the Underground. These students were taken in by the group before the buses arrived at Millersville. It was also incredible to watch older students befriend and mentor younger ones.

Another highlight was having some of our good friends from Texas here for the week. Clay Walker spoke to the students Sunday morning at Elevate and Uprising, then each evening during the week. From hilarious stories to great truths and challenges, Clay was phenomenal.

Todd Wright and band played for our morning and evening services. I have known Todd and his family for years, and love to worship with him. He is an amazing song writer and musician. Please do yourself a favor and check out his new CD, All The Freed. Great stuff.

Forrest Layton, one of our former students, flew in from Nashville to play guitar with the band. I first met Forrest when he was in middle school. Throughout his high school years, Forrest played for our student ministry on Sunday mornings. This guy is super talented and fun to listen to.

One last highlight of the week had to be cornhole. We set up four cornhole games in a large commons room in the dorm and each night everyone gathered there. It was fun to stand on the balcony that stretched across the room and look down on everyone throwing some corn bags and interacting. It was also fun to stay up late and play after sending the kids to bed at midnight each night.

So, that was camp from my perspective this year. I'll post some photos later when I have time.

Reality Week 2008

I'm headed to camp this week with the student ministry. Camp was once a part of my summer each year. Then Chloe came along and when she was an infant we moved across the country and away from our family. I haven't been to camp in 5 years now. Thanks to good friends Julie and Jodie who will be taking care of Rachel and Chloe, I'm going this year! I'm excited to be rooming with Rachel, it will be like old times.

Upgrade

Hannah is now officially a part of the middle school ministry at LifePoint. We had a blast yesterday at the Elevate Upgrade Party. It was a great way to welcome all the soon to be 7th graders into the group. What great kids. Thanks for a fun event, Jason. Here are some photos from our day at Adventure Park USA.

Weekend 180 - Becoming

Weekend 180 was an amazing time again this year. Even more amazing for us because it was Hannah's first student ministry event. It was a great event for the incoming 6th graders to take part in. They'll be moving into the Underground Student Movement this summer. Hannah is ready!

Lance doing one of the things he does best

Ross King and band

Ross rocks the Underground

Hannah and friends

Hannah's group takes the stage to share their Big Live

Todd Wright - singer-song writer-speaker extraordinaire (and funniest man in the world)

Just Another Sunday Together at LifePoint

Here it is. The finale from Children's/Student Ministry Weekend Services at Lifepoint, May 2007.

The Hunt 3: Dr. Z's Final Move

Agents of the UGR gathered at headquarters Sunday afternoon for information on a new plan to stop Dr. Z and his G.O.F.E.R. (Global Offensive for Evil's Renaissance) forces once and for all. The Duke arrived via helicopter just in time to rally the agents. Next, Earl von Strausenberg laid out the plan, Operation Check Mate.

During von Strausenberg's presentation Dr. Z broke in with a video feed showing his latest destruction. His goons had been busy kidnapping the wives of the staff and elders of LifePoint Church. The footage of these abductions only fueled the fire in each agent present and made them all more determined to put an end to Dr. Z. Agent Lurch regained control of the room, reminding the agents that his wife was there with them and had not been taken. At that very moment, two G.O.F.E.R. goons burst into the room. Surprising all those present, they grabbed Lurch's wife and dragged her away.

The agents quickly received their final orders and sprang into action to locate the wives and bring down Dr. Z.

Thanks to the hard work of many UGR agents and undercover field agents, the wives were rescued and Dr. Z was once again captured. Agent XYZ, The White Knight, escorted Dr. Z back to UGR headquarters. While waiting to be transported back to Blackheart Island, Dr. Z made a daring escape in the helicopter and flew away into the night.

We soon heard from Dr. Z again through video and watched as he celebrated yet another escape. Little did Z know that The Duke was there waiting, poised and ready to pull the trigger. His celebration turned into maniacal laughter and we watched as Z choked to death on a hot dog. The Duke confirmed his death and agents of the UGR returned home to their families, no longer worried with the looming chaos of Dr. Z and G.O.F.E.R.

Barnabas Bound

Instead of going back to Student Life Camp this year, Underground Student Movement went to Shippensburg University, Pennsylvania for the first ever Reality Week. This was the first time for Lance and Jason to "do" their own summer camp. It was a lot of work, but it seems to have been an incredible week for everyone involved. Over 90 students and about 20 adults attended. Scott Murrill was the speaker, and Billy and Cindy Foote and band led worship.

While Lance was at camp, I enjoyed having my mom here with me and the girls and Chad flew up to spend a few days with us, too. It was good to have Lance home for a week after camp, but now he is off again.

Today Lance and a group of high school and college students are headed to Camp Barnabas in Purdy, Missouri. He just called to let me know they are in Atlanta. After a two hour layover they will depart for Missouri.

The group will go through training for a day, then for the next seven days of camp each one will be assigned to a special needs camper. This week at Barnabas is set aside for blind campers, so all attending camp will be visually impaired. Once assigned to their camper, they will be "on duty" day and night, with the exception of about an hour rest time each afternoon.

Lance took a group to Barnabas two years ago and it was one of the most tiring but rewarding trips he has ever made. After Lance was there in summer 2005, Barnabas was featured on Extreme Home Makeover and received lots of publicity. It should be neat for them to see the improvements that show made possible for the camp. I can't wait to hear all about this year's trip.

Ride

Underground Student Movement's first annual Ride of Passage begins today. Lance and Jason left this morning to bike about 140 miles of the C&O Trail with a group of high school guys. Today they are driving to Cumberland, Maryland, where they'll begin their ride at the far western end of the trail. From there they will ride about 40 miles each morning then set up camp for that night. They will be riding through a really interesting historic area and will see some beautiful scenery along the canal and the Potomac River.

Weekend 180 - Journey

130 students, 16 host homes, and 17 leaders were involved in Weekend 180 at LifePoint this year. It was a great weekend!

Saturday afternoon the girls and I hung out with everyone at Hashawa as the groups competed in a geocach hunt. Each team got a GPS and set out on the trails to find 10 way cards with info they needed to phone in to home base to decode a message. It was a beautiful day, and a lot of fun. The Saturday night and Sunday morning services were great times as well.

So now it's over, and Lance has crashed. He should be doing better by this afternoon.