More Pictures from Beach Blast

Everyday Sunday - Wake Up! Wake Up!

Sunday Morning Impact

This was the first Sunday since Beach Blast. Kids were still excited from the week, and everybody seemed to be in a real good mood...and real tired. We started off with a game called Beach Ball Dodge Ball. Basically it was dodge ball with beach balls in case you didn't figure that out. Nathan and Jesse were the 2 winners.
Gideon led worship and did a great job. I know I say this every time, but he just gets better and better every time he leads worship. The kids were in to it. The band was in to it. He just did a great job leading us into worship.
I led a big group because I didn't want the leaders who have been at camp all week to have to come back and do a small group lesson. I talked about keeping the mountain top experience that they got at camp. There were three things I told them they needed to do based on Isaiah 1:11-20. First, they need to have meaningful worship. They need to make time for their personal worship. They need to come with the right focus. We can't read our Bibles and pray just to mark off some spiritual checklist. We need to make time for it and come with the right focus. We will make time for American Idol. We will make time for what we care about. So we need to make time for worship. Second, we need to be honest with God. Confess things that are in our lives. Check our hearts, and try to get rid of the sins that we can't seem to get rid of or really don't want to get rid of. Third, we need to do what is right. I know I feel closer to God when I am serving other people; when I'm helping other people. We need to become other-focused and look past our own problems to see that there are other people out there who are hurting that God is asking us to help.
Doing these 3 things may not keep the mountain top experience from camp last forever. But I think it will keep us connected with God longer and will keep the valley experiences shallower and less frequent.

Beach Blast Day Six

Well, another year of Beach Blast has come and gone. I think this was the best year yet. Our team leaders were awesome. Our student leaders were awesome. Everybody had a great attitude. The band was great. Mark Matlock was great. Jared Hall was great.
We started off the last day with baptisms. 18 kids were baptized in the gulf. The waves were super big (at least for Texas waves) and a couple of times almost knocked me and Jerry over as we were baptizing the kids. That was my favorite time of the week.
We got into the morning session and had a lot of stuff to do. First, we got to give out individual awards for the kids who had a lot of spirit and had a Christ-like attitude. The Jr. highers who received the award were Jesse, Alexa, Aaron B., and Clarence. Every one of those kids really were encouraging to other kids and had a great attitude all week. There were probably about 15 other kids who deserved it, but we had to narrow it down somehow because we only had 4 of the little award trophies.
Jerry spoke a little bit. He talked about really getting focused on God, and what does that look like. Then all of the adults started to go through the crowd of kids and pray for them. I wish we would have had a little bit more time for that, because I only got to about 8 or so kids, and there were a lot more that I would have liked to have got to.
Everything from then on went by pretty fast. We had to take down all of the equipment and load it in the truck, get all the kids on the buses and then get home, and unload everything back to the youth room. But all the kids helped and it went pretty smoothly. I'm glad to be home though to see Parker and Suzy, but it was a great week.

Beach Blast Day Five

The junior high had our mega-relay race today. It was awesome. We had a lot of messy games, and a lot of team games that were intertwined into a huge relay race. There is always a ton of excitement and it can get pretty intense. Again the kids were great, encouraging their team and showing great sportsmanship. In the end, Team 4 won. The reason I mention that is because the day before, in the beach line relays, they didn't place the entire day until they got 4th in the very last relay. But they still had such great attitude the entire time, and then today they ended up winning.
The Turning did a fantastic job in worship. I wish they had a worship album, because they do so good at it. I love their style. I love how they get the kids to focus in on what they are singing. Mark Matlock did a great job again. I think he connected with the kids. He talked about living in the freedom of Christ. I think that is one of the messages that God has really put on his heart. The kids really seemed to enjoy Mark. He had to leave pretty much right after the service because he had to drive back to Ft. Worth. He had a flight for California at 8 this morning. He did a great job with the kids, hanging out with them and talking to them.
After worship, we had a talent show. The kids did a big variety of talents, from Kung Fu to skits, to songs, to stand-up comedy, to clapping. It was very entertaining. I liked them all, but the clapping was very creative. We finished the night by hanging out at the beach. When we finally got back to the hotel, a bunch of guys came into my room and played silent football (the greatest game ever invented). Day Five was a great day.

Beach Blast Day Four

I'm a few days behind. On Wed. we had another great day. The junior high had their competition down on the beach today. We did a bunch of line relays. The kids were great. They were really encouraging to each other, even though the sand was super hot. Everybody was involved, and it seemed like everybody had fun. We did one game, bat spin, which was my favorite. They had to spin around 10 times around a wooden peg, with their head down, then run to a cone and back. Some ran to wrong cones. Some ran and fell down...several times. It was hilarious.
Jared Hall did a magic show for us during worship. I had seen him a few times, so I had seen most of his tricks, but they still amaze me. He is very funny with his act too. So since then, a lot of kids have become amateur magicians since he has been here. But he brought in a lot of spiritual illustrations with his illusions. He escaped from a straight jacket, and talked about how we need to escape from sin. He did a great job.
I forgot to mention that we had nerds night on Monday night. We had a lot of kids dress up and have a good time. Jesse Kieslich won. I got fourth. Personally, I think I was hosed. But I put up a few pictures from that night and thought I should explain those pictures a little bit. Sharlette says hey, by the way.

Bull Riding Pictures

Last Wed. we had an inflatable mechanical bull. It was a lot of fun. Here are some pictures from it.

Beach Blast Day Three

Today was our special day at Beach Blast, where we got to go to Schlitterbahn. So, everything was a little bit different today. We didn't have any team competitions. We ate lunch at the water park. We ate dinner at the Golden Coral. Just everything was a little different as far as the schedule went.
We still had our morning service. I haven't talked about it yet, because this was the first one I've been able to go to. Usually, I'm setting up for competitions, so I don't get to listen to the morning sessions. But this morning was great. Mark talked about our attitudes, mainly towards the Bible. We say that the Bible is the most important book that has ever been written, but we don't spend time learning about it. We don't spend time reading it, or learning it. It was a good message for me to hear at least, and I think it was good for the kids.
Schlitterbahn was awesome. I did the Boogie Board thing twice. On this ride, they shoot a wave up, and you get on a boogie board and it's like you're riding a continuous wave. It's super fun...if you ride the wave. The bad thing is that sometimes, you go down, and then right back up over the wave. You stand in line for about 30 minutes, and then your ride is 7 seconds. The first time, I stayed on for a while, and then I tried a barrel roll and flipped out. The second time I fell right over the wave. I waited for 45 minutes and I rode it for 4.5 seconds. I did the 2 wedgie rides, where you shoot down this super-steep slide and land in a foot or so of water. I then spend the next few minutes retrieving my swimsuit from my colon. I think the kids had a great time, but it wore us out.
The worship tonight was great again. The kids are getting more comfortable with the band, and the band is getting more comfortable being with our kids. Tonight, the music was great, and you could feel the Spirit moving in the kids' lives. Mark Matlock spoke about humility. I don't know, but it may have been a message more directed at me than the students. I was worried about tonight a little bit because all of the kids were so tired (as well as all of the adults), but I think everybody stayed connected for the most part. Some of his points to take home were the 4 things that keep us from being humble. 1. We have a false sense of independence. 2. We think the world revolves around us. 3. We think we know it all. 4. We have a false sense of invulnerability. I think pride destroys more believers than almost any other sin. And we don't even see it coming, because we think we have everything under control. A lot of students responded to the invitation. I know of a few who became believers tonight (really, I'm so happy about this that I could tear up). I know of a lot more who are going to follow God deeper. I think today has been the best day.
Here are some pictures from the first few days.