Thursday, April 30, 2009

Summer on the horizon

It's hard to believe that school is coming to an end and summer is quickly approaching. Summer means new schedule and if this summer is anything like past summers, new faces at Rock Island. Ron and I recently completed the Rock Island daily schedule but still have a few holes to fill. Here's what it looks like so far...

Monday
1:30 High School Lunch
2:00 High School Movie Day
4:00 High School Workout

Tuesday
11:30-12:30 Elementary Craft Time
1:30 High School Lunch And Hangout
4:00 High School Workout

Wednesday
1:30 High School Lunch
3:00 High School Bible Study
4:00 High School Workout

Thursday
10:00 Elementary Hang Out
12:00 Lunch
1:30 High School Projects

We still are in the works of a possible athletic team, possibly basketball or soccer, and will also have the spontaneous weekend events that we will do our best to keep you updated about.

As far as camps go, we have opted out of the more traditional Oklahoma City camp appearance for our middle school and high school youth and have decided to take our efforts to another city, Dallas (Cleburne actually). The specifics are still being hammered out but it will have more of a work-project/fun trip look rather than a sleepless week, camp feel. Also, our elementary young'ins will continue their summer camp experience at camp Shiloh, located right here in Okc. We have signed up many of our kids already and have decided upon the camp dates of July 6th-10th. It is a day camp, 9-5:30, and offers the kids lots of outdoor games, crafts, animal experiences and....ok, just check out the link it does a better job of describing the camp ( http://www.shilohcamp.org/index2.htm ).

Along with summer comes more time with kids, along with more time with kids comes more activities, functions, organized and structured outings to keep them connected, involved and plugged in. Due to the increase in activity we also see an increase in the amount of funds we must have in order to keep up with all the summer's happenings. Our two biggest fund-eaters this summer will most definitely be sending the elementary kids to camp ($20 per camper X 15 campers = $300 ) and our jr. high/high school Texas trip (amount yet to be determined).

If you are interested in helping send even one student to camp this summer or are interested in helping fund the jr. high/school road trip, please email me and/or Ron or leave your contact info on my blog. Also, with all the extra activity going on we are always in need and desire volunteers to come check things out and get involved. If you have a special interest in anything in particular on the schedule feel free to contact one of us about that too.

lwhitmire@hotmail.com - Luke
ronwylercrawford@gmail.com - Ron

Thursday, April 2, 2009

Wednesday Bible Study

Wednesday Bible studies are still going strong. This past Wednesday we finished reading Luke 8. We reviewed each of the small stories as we read and let the youth determine which stories we would spend the most time discussing. The majority of our time was spent talking about the healing of the demon possessed man, Legion, and the sick women who had been bleeding for years.

Some of the questions we discussed were questions such as: Did the demons know Jesus? What happened to the demons when they fell of the cliff with the pigs? Do demons die? Where did demons come from? We also discussed what kind of lifestyle Legion might live. Where he lived. Who, if anyone, associated with him.

The bulk of our discussion was based around the women who had been bleeding for years and only desired to touch Jesus. Jesus told the women, "Daughter, your faith has healed you. God in peace." We asked the kids how they felt about this and why Jesus would allow this women to be instantly healed and at the same time was having a small girl wait to be healed until he could be present at her house. We discussed how Jesus, like in the stories, decided to instantaneously heal one person and decided to heal another person only after a short wait. Each person came to Jesus with a need and He answered/fulfilled their needs.

As we wrapped up our study and prepared to pray we challenged the kids to ask God for something they couldn't do on their own, something they needed Him to do, that only He could do. We stressed to the kids how the people in the story had REAL needs, not just wants, and how Jesus was true to answer their needs when He deemed necessary.

As we prayed some kids said a word, some kids said a phrase in order to tell God their need. We challenged the kids to keep lifting up the same need in prayer until God showed his power, whether a day, a week, a year or longer.

"God, who has called you into fellowship with His Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful"