November 19 to now update

Well, we had our Vertical Excape lock-in November 19 and 20. Wow, it was a blast. There were over 30 that attended. I honestly was a little scared going in to it thinking that after climbing for a couple hours that the kids would just be worn out and bored. Oh how they proved me wrong! They literally climbed from 9 at night until 7 the next morning. I practically had to pry some of them off the wall when it was time to leave. A BIG thank you goes out to our volunteers who helped: Kevin and Richelle, Britt, Michelle, Erica, Ryan, Julie, and Shawna. Thank you all for staying up all night and helping. You guys rock! After taking some of the kids home, Jackie and I got home at about 8:30. Needless to say, we crashed. Exhausting but soooo much fun. Our students told be that night that I better plan on doing this at least once a year...or else. Then came Thanksgiving. After eating myself stupid, we began a new Sunday series on Evangelism (this week's was called "Come and See" and a new Wednesday night series on Hope. We normally try to stay consistent with Sundays and Wednesdays, but Jackie came to me and told me God has been putting something on her heart about hope - especially with Christmas coming up. After all, that's why Jesus came to Earth - to give us hope! Sunday's lesson was from John 4:1-42 where Jesus talks to the lone woman at the well. She is so blown away by Jesus knowing everything about her that she goes and tells the townspeople to "Come and See." Wednesday Jackie completely brought it with her message on Hope. I even saw multiple Facebook statuses from our students about how awesome it was. You could tell that God was totally speaking through her. I love my wife! Well, that's all for now. Journey to Bethlehem is December 11 in Washington, IN. We are LEAVING at 5:15 p.m. and returning around 9:30 p.m. If you don't know what this is, here is the website.

This past week

This past week has been exciting. Wednesday we had 31 students for AMPED. One thing is becoming apparent: with the average of 30 - 35 students each week, we are out of room! This is definitely a good problem to have. It just makes me even more excited about our 4ward campaign. Wednesday we talked about the upcoming events. The excitement from these students is overwhelming! They are on fire! One thing Jackie and I have been doing is talking with a lady that works at Deaconess Hospital in Evansville. We are trying to come up with a night where we can take AMPED down there just to visit with the sick (non-contagious of course) children around Christmas. We took a vote Wednesday - the vote was whether to have our AMPED Christmas party (where we bring a $10ish gift to trade) or instead spend the $10 on a less fortunate child and bring them something instead. The vote was unanimous that we serve the less fortunate! We were blown away at the selflessness of our students! Sunday our lesson was "Watch Your Mouth" where we studied James 3:1-12. We learned that just as we can't draw fresh water out of salt water, we also can not (even though we do) let negativity flow from our mouths and live a worldly life and claim to belong to Christ. We must discipline ourselves daily to watch what we say in order to be His example. We had each student write on the back of their hands where they could see it James 3:10 which says: Out of the same mouth come praise and cursing. My brothers and sisters, this should not be. We learned that just as a forest fire is started by the tiniest spark, just one negative comment can blow up beyond anything we could have ever imagined. Gossip spreads like wildfire. The students admitted that they deal with this both personally and with other people on a daily basis. One thing I've learned and shared with them is that no matter how old you get, it will never stop, but if we make it our priority to not be the cause of the negativity, it will make our lives so much easier and pleasing to God. Now for just a couple announcemnets:
1. Friday/Saturday November 19-20 is our Vertical Excape lock-in from 9 p.m. - 7 a.m. We will be LEAVING the church at 8:30 p.m. Parents, by all means take your kids down and pick them up in the morning if you prefer. All students MUST be there at 9 so they can take the safety & belay course. This is mandatory if they are wanting to climb. Also, the $35 and the waiver (permission slip) MUST be turned in by  Wednesday, November 17 because they require that I pay 100% of the attendees cover charge in one lump sum.
2. Pioneer Day at Robin Resenbeck's (our Children's Minister) parents' house is Saturday, November 27 from 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. in Cecilia, Kentucky. The $10 and permission slips are due Sunday, November 21 so we have an accurate count so they know how much home-cooked food to prepare. We will be stopping on the way down for breakfast at McDonald's (or something similar), so they will need $5 or so for that.

That's all for now. AMPED is growing, and the students are having a blast. I'm so thankful for this group!

Heading into Fall 2010

I must start off by saying this: I LOVE OUR CHURCH!!! There is so much going on here at The GBC, and I am so proud to be a part of it! This past Sunday we had our quarterly business meeting where we talked about the future of our church and moving "4ward." It was so awesome to see all the excitement everyone has surrounding our future. Now for news about AMPED students ministries:

Before the business meeting Jackie and I had a meeting with the AMPED parents. It went great. I love it when the parents get just as excited as the students! We discussed what our plans are for the remainder of 2010 - both in teaching and in activities. Parents, if you weren't able to make it, I have a printout of the upcoming events, but if you have any questions, please see the website. ALL the information is on there. Go to www.thegbc.net, click the ministries tab, click students, and you can select Calender, UNSEEN, LOUDHOUSE, etc. You and your students can even leave prayer requests that come directly to my email.

We are so stoked with the direction our ministry is heading. The students are bringing friends every week, and we are growing like crazy. Yesterday at AMPED we had two girls that came just because they heard how awesome it is. How cool is that?! They heard it from an ex-AMPED student (now in college), and took it upon themselves to check it out. They had a blast and were so much fun to have! We played human foosball. Basically it was a game to promote team building. They had to hold hands to get the soccer ball in the goal, but couldn't detach hands and had to stay in a line. The point was to see that they had to work as a team in order to get to their goal. We followed up the game with a lesson about the upcoming LOUDHOUSE Back-To-School Bash and how we MUST work as a team to make people feel welcome and loved. The students were so stoked. Every one of them wants to volunteer. They realized that LOUDHOUSE isn't put on for them - rather, it is put on by them for others. It's their way of serving their fellow students.

This Sunday we will continue our seven week study of "Truth or Dare." In this series we are learning the truths of money, media, being nice, authority, self-control, and words. We will end with a lesson on Living the Truth. We are learning these truths and how they affect not only ourselves but also the people around us and then daring them to change the way they think and act.

In case any of you parents don't know Julie Treadway, please introduce yourself if you weren't able to make it to the meeting. She is an amazing woman of Christ. We depend on her so much because of her love of Jesus and her desire to see as many people in this fallen world come to know Him. We are so thankful for her.

Also, as we head into Fall busting out of the seams with the number of students we are gaining, we have made the decision to pass 5:16 college ministries off to someone who is a tremendous man of Christ. That man is Chris Miller. Again, if you don't know him, let me introduce you. He is so awesome. Jackie and I really got to know him this year in Honduras, and he blew us away. I promise your college students will be in great hands! God has told us that with our ever-increasing number of students we are gaining, we need to step out and concentrate strictly on Jr. and Sr. High. God continues to blow my mind by sending people like Julie and Chris our way with the love of students and their betterment in mind.

Another awesome thing is that Jackie is working with Heather Rowe and Carrie Butler in PRAISE. PRAISE is a new ministry here at The GBC for students wanting to use their dancing, singing, acting, etc. talents for the glory of God. Jackie grew up dancing, so she's definitely in her element here!

We have so much coming up this Fall/Winter that my head is spinning, but I absolutely cannot wait! Please be in prayer as we continue to - with God's help - mold the students into disciples of Jesus. We can't do this ourselves. He is our Rock. We are just two messed up people that have been chosen to have the amazing responsibility of mentoring our students to reach out to others to further the Kingdom of God.

Bart Wagner
Student Minister
students@thegbc.net

BUSY SUMMER PLANNED!!!

HEY YOU GUYS!!! Quick update on what's coming up with AMPED & 5:16: First of all, Youth Sunday and LOUDHOUSE is Sunday, May 16th. We will be honoring the graduating seniors that morning during second service. Way to go guys! That evening's LOUDHOUSE theme is "Gossip Killz". We will be talking about why people gossip and the dangerous effects it has on people. Secondly, it looks like our Summer trip for high school and college is going to be July 8-10 at King's Island for Spirit Song. It's a 3 day event packed full of tons of big name Christian bands along with tickets to the park (including the water park!). Another awesome thing is the 2 week trip to Honduras in June. "Did you say 2 weeks?!" Yes. Yes I did. The second week is going to be our typical going out into the local communities putting on VBS. The first week though, Jackie and I are leading our students down to put on a VBS just for the Faith Home orphanage (which is where we stay every year.) The most amazing part? Our own students will be doing the discipling! Each day will have a different theme and lesson by one of our own followed by separate female and male break out sessions to discuss what we just heard. One HUGE blessing is that Anette Scott will be going with us. Why is this so HUGE? She's a full on fluent Spanish teacher! We will also be performing our new skit "Set Me Free" both weeks. We couldn't find the song in Spanish so Anette got it translated and Jamie Rowe is going to sing and record it for us. Thanks Earl! The students are blowing me away with this skit. We have 6 demons, a tempted and lost girl (Jackie), the typical Jesus Grant, and Christian as Satan (no offense buddy, but you make a great Devil!). That's about all the big stuff. With all of that plus VBS here at The GBC, we don't hardly have time for anything else! Heck, a few of us will be working VBS here all week which ends on Friday and then will be leaving that night around midnight to travel to Louisville to fly out for Honduras. We're going to be exhausted! Oh well, God called us to it. He'll get us through it!