Sorry for the lack of updates

Sorry everyone that I haven't got to update that much since I have gotten back from the DR, I am only home a couple days in July and I need to make the most of them so the blogspot has taken a back seat to the other things, but..........


I have a couple of things for you today!

1. tomorrow night we are having a Junior High only Pool Party at the Cruises! They live off of ST 15, if you need an address they are in the directory if you don't have a directory, txt me and I can give you directions, my cell is 574-370-2094!

The Party is from 4-8, you need to bring a Towel, a Swimsuit, 1 piece for the ladies, and a 2 liter to share with people! We will be having pizza that night and its going to rock! Also if it is raining tomorrow we are still having the party we will eat pizza and watch a movie and play some awesome games!

We hope to see everyone tomorrow from 4pm-8pm!

2. I am on vacation starting Saturday and I will not have my cell with me so if you need to get a hold of someone about youth stuff call the church and they can direct you to someone! We will be gone until next Sunday so I will see you in August!

Hope to see a ton of Junior High students tomorrow!

P.A.

Junior High Bible study

Tonight the Junior High Bible study is at the church at 7pm. We will be talking about creation and the first sin tonight, Its going to be a ton of fun tonight with all the things that we are going to be doing, so again tonight the Junior High Bible study is at the church tonight from 7-8pm!

We hope to see you all tonight!

P.A.

Lots of New stuff

Hey there everyone, I hope you are all having an amazing day!

The youth group has had some crazy times but this past week with 2 mission trips and some other events coming up you might feel a little left out. So let me catch you up a little bit

Junior High Missions trip - The Junior High trip consisted of a great group of students heading over to Dayton OH, they spent their time helping different organizations and food kitchens, also did a prayer walk and prayed for each other. They had a great time bonding with one another and then also connecting with God!

High school Missions trip - The High school Missions trip went to the Domincan Republic where they were based out of Jarbacoa at alternative school for American kids. During that week they got to help run VBS, play soccer and baseball, and love on kids who have a very hard life. Also the spent 2 days up in a mountian city called boma. They repaired a road from a mudslide, dug out a ditch for water to run down, and then spent time taking medicine to people who can't get their own medicine. It was a great time to connect with God in a new way, all of our students had an amazing time slowing down and just listening and being with God while they were the hands and feet of Jesus Christ.

Both trips were massive successes, God is doing alot in the ministry, and we are excited for this coming fall to see what He is going to be doing.

Continue to check here for announcements on upcoming events!

UPCOMING EVENTS!

This Sunday for HS only is a time to hang out at Wes and Sheila Millers house from 4-8. Bring your suit if you want to swim, and bring a 2 liter of pop. We will be grilling out, playing domino's, playing some other games as well. They have ping pong, 360, and some other board games. If you want to bring some other games do it! We will spending some time in worship and in prayer that night as well. Come and hang out with us this Sunday July 18th!

July 23rd - Junior High only Pool Party at Gene and Michelle Cruises house! We will be hanging out from 4-8 and grilling out that night. What you need to bring is a 2 liter of Pop, and a bunch of friends! We are having this event rain or shine. If it rains we will be moving inside and watching a movie and playing games. So come ready to hang out and have a ton of fun with friends. Girls please 1 piece bathing suits only, and guys no speedos. I know our swimmers might now like me but to bad! NO SPEEDO'S

July 19th - Junior High bible study at the church, this night we will be doing some worship with our bible study so we are going to meeting here at the church, we will be playing some games, and having a really good time! This event is from 7-8pm, at the church. Hope to see you there!

Lots of things going on in the youth group hope you can get connected with. Have a great day today!

P.A.

Last post of the DR

Hey there everyone I hope you are all having a great day. This was our last full day in the DR, and it was awesome. We took a sweet hike up to see 2 waterfalls. The first hike was over 4 rope and board bridges. It was pretty wobbly but it was fun, then the students and leaders who wanted to go see another waterfall got the hike of their life. We went about 500 feet higher then the first waterfall. In this hike we got to jump off a rock that was about 25 feet off the water, It was really fun to watch all of our students conquer their fear of jumping off the rock.

We will have some pictures from that hike on here later.

Then we went into town today and cleaned out the super market of Vanilla and Coffee. It was so much fun walking around and seeing the town up close and personal. We also stopped off and saw the people at SI, for those who have gone with our group from CVMC they would know that name.

We are back at our base camp now, getting ready for dinner, the ladies are packing all their little jewelery they bought and the men are getting their things packed and cleaning a little.

Tomorrow we are leaving the base at 5;15am, and our flight leaves at 8:55am. We arrive in Miami at 10;55am, we then have a lay over in Miami until 2:25pm. We will be back at Chicago Ohare at 5:25pm (chicago time) We hope to be home to CVMC at 9pm (Indiana time). This is obviously can change with anything that goes on at the airport, so please please please pray for us tomorrow, our students are tired, and when you have to travel with tired teenagers well....... :)

So please pray that everyone sleeps well tonight and we get through all the security and get our bags back.

We will be home tomorrow. We can't wait to see you all tomorrow night


PS - I am writing this message while Andrew Jones, Ross Jones, and Raleigh Bontrager are here and they want to to give a shout out to Barb Jones :)

See you tomorrow

P.A.

DR Pt 4

This morning we lead a church service for the students here on the campus, there were about 50 people total, we did some really awesome card board testimonies and then we had a couple of the students and 1 leader give their own personal testimony.

It went really well our worship team lead 4 songs of worship. Jessica Baylis, Emily Mann, and Gareth Matteson help lead that from our group. They did a great Job with Emily and Jessica both leading songs.

We are getting ready for lunch now, and then we are going hiking up to monestary falls today where we are going to see 2 waterfalls and then have some team building time.

God has done some amazing things on this trip. We are bonding closer as a team, and the students from our youth group have stepped out of their comfort zone and done some amazing things. God is still working on students hearts, but this is a great jumping point for some of the students. Keep praying for safety and God to move in the hearts of the students.

Tonight we are going to a restaurant called Pica Pollo. Meaning Chopped Chicken. So hopefully we will have a great time there tonight. I will try to post some more pictures tonight, but it just takes a really long time :)

We are looking forward to seeing our families on Tuesday night!

P.A.

Some pics from the trip.

Today we worked on a road that got covered by the mudslides during the rainy seasons

This was the guys bathroom for 2 days

This is how they cooked our meals!

Playing soccer with the kids

This is our dream team in Santiago Airport! Doug was taking the picture

Noelle Climbed up like a monkey! She is a blessing on this trip.

Emily met this boy at our VBS day!

This was Andrews Lawn mower for the day!

It rained!

The girls got in on the action of cutting the grass!

DR Pt 2

Hey there everyone since I cant update tonight, I got up a little earlier to tell ya some more info on whats going on today so you can pray more!

We are heading up to Boma today and its a little town up in the mountains, when we get there we are going to be heading into the town and hanging out with some people and handing out bibles, then we are going to be having a Dominican lunch made up of Chicken, Rice and beans. Then at 2 we are going to be doing VBS with smaller kids up to age 14, then after that we are splitting into 2 teams and heading out to see some sick people in the town to pray for them, and give them some meds.

Then after that we are coming back to hang out with some older youth from the ages of 15 to 25, we will be playing domino's and hanging out with them till the night. We will be doing worship with them and praying for them as well.

Our team is getting tired, we have been doing a lot of things in the heat of the day and people are just a little tired, but still having fun. We haven't had any drama on the trip so for those who have been praying against that keep it up :)

We are getting ready to head to morning devo's. The updates won't be a lot today on facebook mainly because we will be busy most of the day,

Sorry for no pictures last night, we got busy with devo's and then by that time it was already 1030pm, and we had to get up early and the pictures download really slow on here. But hopefully tomorrow night I can send some over!

Thanks and keep praying for us!

P.A.

DR trip

Hey there everyone, wow it seems like so much has gone on that its hard to explain it all in one blog post but I will try :)

Everyone is safe, mostly bug bitten but really good. The weather is amazing, it gets up in the 90's in the day and then down in the 70s at night. Let me tell you the 70's are amazing :)

Today we spent a lot of time with students of all ages from the town. The place we are staying at has a ton of acres here in the mountains. they have a soccer field, basketball court, baseball area, and then a bunch of house where the students and teachers stay. Its a great place to bring kids to play sports, and minister.

The students of Crystal Valley are amazing. They are painting kids faces, playing sports and just trying to talk with the kids. Noelle found a goat she liked today and named it Henry, Raleigh took part in a skit today during VBS, Andrew Jones had kids latched to him the whole time, Ross was helping students draw on the sidewalk with chalk, Emily had little boys in arms swinging them around, hayley was doing great with the little kids and helping them getting their face painted, Gareth took part in playing soccer today and did amazing! Our kids are hard at work its been great.

Tomorrow morning we head up to a town called Boma, we are going to repair a road, help a person who has Hep B, and then repair a bridge. It will be a long day, then after that we are doing VBS with real little kids tomorrow afternoon. Pray for this trip because we will be going up in the mountains where they have 1 road and we have to repair it before we can drive on it.

I will not be able to update tomorrow because they have no internet up in Boma but on Saturday night I will be able too. Keep up with my updates on my facebook page, or you can get them right here on this page on the right hand side.

Tonight the girls are doing Youth Group for the girls at the school, so pray for them. There are around 15 girls that are currently at the school we are staying at all in High school. So please pray that God moves in that time.

I will be getting some pictures uploaded tonight, I hope after the girls youth group time, so check back here for some pictures later tonight!

We are all doing very good here! But please keep praying! We need it a lot still.

P.A.

Updates for Junior High Missions trip

Hey there everyone, The junior high students are off and running!

They left this morning at7:15, with a lot of parents surrounding them with prayer.

For updates check on here because Esther has her laptop, and is hoping to update nightly.

Also check out her facebook page for updates, and also Len Morris' facebook page for updates.

Please be praying for safety, and for those students who are leaving their families for the first time. Pray for unity among the group. Pray also for no DRAMA :)

The DR team leaves tonight at 3:30am! Please keep us in your prayers. as well. We will try to update as much as we can.

Much love
P.A.

Last Post untill the DR

Hey there everyone, I will be out of the country for a little while. We will blog when we can and post updates when we can but it mostly come through facebook through status updates. I might be able to update pictures, and video updates, but again that is a ideal situation and it might not happen. I will resume blogging on July 15th!

We will do a full recap on everything on here that day, and then again in August on a Sunday morning. Please be praying for us, and continue to lift up our youth as they are all over this summer!

Blessings!

P.A.