2012 Turkey Olympics

On Sunday November 25th 14 brave youth kiddos headed to fellowship hall unprepared for the tasks that Lindsey had planned the evening. Since the removal of our wisdom teeth, both James and I were not as brave but more irritable and out of it, so I resorted to taking pictures of this great event!!!

Event 1: Blow a Bubble

After the teams split into girls and boys two girls and two boys sat down in front of a plate of whip cream with a surprise inside! The goal of this round was to find the bubble gum, chew it and blow a bubble. The first person to complete the task won first place.

Event 2: All The Leftovers

What do you do with all of the left overs from Thanksgiving? Well the logical idea would be eat them, right? Wrong, when Lindsey asked everyone to bring any Thanksgiving left overs we had none of us expected to be taking a trip to vom city. Lindsey mixed all of the canned food, stuffing, turkey, potatoes and all the other junk together with Mr. and Mrs. Potato head. She gave each team a picture of the potato head they needed to build and all of the pieces were in the gross tub of leftover Thanksgiving food. What ever team built their potato exactly like the picture first won.  

Winners!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!                                                                Good try boys!!!!!!

Event 3: Candy Corn Catch

The goal of this game was pretty simple... one person throws the candy corn and the other person catches it in their mouth. The more pieces of corn you caught the father back we would have to move. We had a few good catchers but I think we can all agree most of the candy corn ended up on the ground!

Event 4: Turkey Bowling

Just like a game of bowling the lanes except for the fact that we were bowling with a frozen turkey, and soap to knock over bottles of maple syrup. We had to improvise with the things we had people! All the pictures I took did no justice to how much fun this final event was, so I have a video instead!!!   

It was a fun, exciting and a little bit of a smelly event but everyone had a fantastic time!!!

Youth Group Fun

After a fun-filled summer, the youth were excited to get things going this fall!  We started the school year out hanging out together at Starbucks and Handel's the Sunday after school started.  We then officially kicked-off Joyotic Youth a couple of weeks later with a super fun Progressive Dinner!  

Lauren, Ashley, Derek, and Kenzie Grace enjoying their ice cream!

Sunny, James, and Derek hanging out by James' new truck and enjoying their milkshakes!

 Hoover-Louisville football game after a fun evening of Tailgating at the church! Unfortunately the Leopards got crushed by the Vikings. 

James, Sunny, and Nathan on the boat at the choir kick-off party!

The girls with Nathan and Ava on the boat.

  

Progressive Dinner salad stop at the Hirschman's! 

Second stop: Appetizers at the Morris house!

Spaghetti bar at the McKelvey's!

Brownie Sundaes for dessert at Pastor Matt's and Vanessa's! 

This picture is proof I have the best job ever. 

McKayla and her friend Molly came with me to a Mount Union football game. 

Race Against Time games at youth group as we learned the value of spending time each day with God.

Dollar Menu Dinner Nights are my favorite.  I love just hanging out with the teens, sharing a meal, and catching up on life together. 

The amazing youth group kids hung out while I was on my missions trip to the Middle East and they sent me and Pastor Matt this!  It's says Miss You!  

 Me and Miss Mariah volunteering at a Farmer's Market for the Stark County Hunger Task Force at Gervasi Vineyard.

The youth wrote reasons we have to praise during our night of prayer at youth group.

"10,000 reasons for my heart to sing" <3

And that's what we've been up to this fall! Lots of fun, spending time together, and growing closer to God as we journey together.  Again, I have the best job ever, and am so thankful and so blessed to be working with these amazing teens!

Joyotic Fall

The first 7 weeks of Joyotic Kids on Wednesday evenings have been nothing short of wonderful! 

We started off in September learning all about "Respect."  The kids did a great job learning the main points of each Bible story, the memory Bible verse, and their Joyotic Singers song, "Show a Little."  Last Sunday at church, the kids got to perform the song and all of the Joyotic volunteers were so proud of them! 

SO blessed to work with these little ones and teach them about the love of Jesus each week!

October is off to a wonderful start! This month we are learning about "Individuality" and what better way to celebrate our uniqueness than with a photo booth?

  Alayna 

Ava

 Katie

 Madison

 Katie 

 Ava

Nathan

Some of the girls

Lindsay, Alyssa, and teen volunteer McKayla

Austin, Carter, and Pastor Matt

Goofy kiddos

Alison, Lucy, and Ava having fun! 

And with this picture, I will state the obvioius.

I have the best. job. ever. 

It is such a blessing to share the love of Christ with these kids.  I love watching them sing to Jesus and pray together.  I love hearing them retell Bible stories and explain the love of Christ with their childlike faith.   There is something beautiful about hearing a 3 year old explain how Jesus 'got dead on the cross' or hearing 9 year olds talking about how Jesus saves us from our sins.  What joy these kids bring me!