Guatemala! Mt. Haley’s mission to the TRACKS and a week with missionary David Beam has preoccupied my thoughts this month as we have prepared for our March 5th–13th, 2016, mission trip. God blessed us with great prices for our plane tickets; however, we will fly not out of our usual departure cities of Flint or Detroit but from Chicago. God saved us almost $6000 by flying out of O’Hare, but our next challenge is getting to Chicago: 6-7 hours travel time with 16 people and probably 32 pieces of luggage. Now I am patiently awaiting a phone call for a confirmation of travel arrangements that might get us there in a convenient fashion. Praying big time right now. We have five of our team coming from other churches and the rest are somehow related to Mt. Haley. A cool stat this year is that we have 8 team members under 25; Jeremy Hassen is just a little older than that; and the rest of us, well, we won’t go into their ages. Plus Pastor David and myself represent the clergy with plans for David to speak at the Church of the Tracks. We have plans to build two bedrooms and a bathroom for Sonia, the English teacher at the school and a long time friend of the Mt. Haley team. It will be exciting for her and her family, plus the satisfaction we receive in ministering to this community of Guatemala. May All the Glory Be to God!! Continue reading
December Youth Update
Merry Christmas! It’s a wonderful season for the church as we celebrate the most important moment in human history. It’s a time to be with family and friends to celebrate the virgin birth of our Lord Jesus Christ. This is moment where a miracle became a reality and we learned that nothing is impossible with God. It’s a story of the eternal promises of life, Jesus becoming a man with the ultimate sacrifice of death to pay for our sins through His resurrection, the fulfillment of prophecy and becoming our Messiah, our Savior, our hope in a hopeless world. The reason we celebrate Christmas, the miracle that changed the world. It’s for me, for you, for us, and the world. May your Christmas season be joyful! Continue reading
February Youth Update
It’s February already! We are well into 2015 and time just seems to fly. Our Winter Retreat was awesome this year. We had snowy great weather for traveling to and from it, plus the weekend went just as planned. “Collision with God” was our theme for weekend as Brett Talley from Church at the Crossing in Indianapolis delivered several great messages that challenged our thinking and brought us closer to God. Josh Lavender proved to be a great Worship leader, as he and his band brought us closer to the throne of Grace. Again, through the victorious effort of our Mt. Haley girls, in ga-ga ball, we brought home the Winter Retreat Traveling trophy to reside at Mt. Haley until next year. Lots of tubing, skiing, ice-skating, indoor games, broomball and other activities provided fun for everyone. Special thanks to Chase Brenske and Paul Hassen for serving as temporary counselors for the weekend. Thank You! Special recognition goes to our table cup masters as they entertained the meal crowds with their display of timing, rhythm, and manipulation of their cups. (You would have to be there to understand!) Great Retreat! Well done, Connie!
Who is the Holy Spirit! We are almost done with our series of “Who are God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit?” We will be wandering into a discussion on “church” and living in the Kingdom of God this spring. There will be NO YOUTH on Sunday, February 1 (Super Bowl Sunday) and February 8 (leaders in Guatemala). Bible Study on Sunday mornings continues to look at “Purpose, Purity, Power and People” and will throughout the year. The GRADS @ Graham group on Sunday nights is studying “Why Revelation” and will be through March. Again, I would emphasize that Youth begins at 6:00 PM on Sunday nights, not at 6:15, 6:25, 6:40 or whenever. Your help in starting on time is appreciated!
There is a special Concert and Super Bowl Party at the Community Nazarene Church in Midland on February 1st for High School and College-aged kids. PW Gopal will be in concert at 5:00 PM followed by a big-screened viewing of the Super Bowl with pizza and snacks provided.
Unfortunately, due to a variety of reasons the Lock-In was postponed. People were out of town and had conflicts, and we called it off when we only had 6 people coming on Wednesday before the Friday. The Lock-In is a huge activity, needs extra adult supervision, and has a higher cost than most local activities. Signing up for events is important to us in planning – so help us out! The GOOD news is we did have the swimming party which was very well attended (15 kids) and we enjoyed the pool, each other and Pizza Sam’s. We will let you know when we find a new weekend for the Lock-In.
Guatemala is NEXT WEEK! 15 servants from 5 different churches (8 from Mt. Haley) will be departing for Guatemala City on Thursday, February 5 and returning to Midland Thursday, February 12. We have been spiritually prepared and challenged, we have insurance, we have bonded together, and our plane tickets are purchased. We will be weighing our luggage on Tuesday this week and flying on Thursday. Your prayers are wanted, needed and appreciated as we minister in Guatemala! We will have many blessings, stories and God-sightings to share with you when we return.
Can’t believe it! The time is coming for registration for the annual Michigan Church of God State Youth Convention held in Kalamazoo on the weekend of May 15-17, 2015. This year’s speaker is Reverend Doctor Todd Faulkner, campus minister of Anderson University. The worship leaders are Alanna Story, a new and upcoming Christian band. If you register in March, it’s $120 with a $40 deposit. After that, the costs go to $130 in April & $155 in May. We have a special deal for you this year. If you pay the $40 registration in March, the Mt. Haley Youth Ministry will match your $40 and provide fundraisers to work on in April & May to complete the $80 balance. To have the match, you must register in March. Our fundraisers work best in April & May because the weather breaks and we can rake, collect pop cans, sell hanging baskets, etc. SO, plan ahead, save yourself $40 with the match and then earn the rest of the way to a great SYC!
Parents and church, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter and our congregation for holding the youth up in PRAYER.
Love God, Love People, Live It!
Blessings, Pastor Jerry
November Youth Update
Our Youth Meetings have been going well and participation has been good on Sunday nights. GRADS @ Grahams has also been doing well so ministry on Sundays is happening. The Sunday morning class is chugging along with “InTune with God Through Purpose, Purity, Power & People,” and we have enjoyed better attendance than last year. On Sunday nights in Youth we have just finished “Who is God?”: our CREATOR, our FATHER, our God of MERCY & JUSTICE, our LOVE, that’s what we have learned who GOD is! We have begun a new series, “Who is Jesus?” This Sunday we finish up “Extreme Love” with the GRADS @ Grahams then we will move in our Bible Study with the topic yet to be determined.
WE MADE A DIFFERENCE! On October 25th we packed hundreds of diapers for the “Diaper Alliance” and had a good time at Grandma’s Pumpkin Patch! Thank you Pastor David for stepping up and helping us out! Diaper Alliance is an organization in the Tri-City area that supplies diapers to various agencies that distribute them to families in need of diapers. Basically, we sorted them into groups of 20 (each worth $6) in particular sizes and prepared them for delivery. It was amazing because we packaged hundreds of diapers for people in need across our area in just 2 hours of work. This is a great activity for any group who would like to participate in a service project.
There will be NO YOUTH on the evening of November 23 due to the area Thanksgiving Service in Oil City at the Assembly of God. We will be doing a service project, Sunday, Nov. 23rd with the Midland Thanksgiving Basket Food Drive from 1:00 -3:00 PM. The Midland County Department of Human Services, Aldersgate United Methodist Church and the Midland County Food Pantry Network will be coordinating this afternoon of service. This important program provides Thanksgiving dinners for some of Midland County’s families in need. We will be having sandwiches, chips, & dessert between 12:00 PM & 12:40 PM, then travel to Aldersgate Methodist Church in town. After our service project we will travel to Northern Lanes to go bowling, then we will return to the church afterwards.
We have planned some of our events for the year with the details still needing to be worked out. They are as follows:
- November 23: Service project – Thanksgiving Baskets @ Aldersgate followed by Bowling @ Northern Lanes
- December 21: Christmas Party @ Mt. Haley
- January 9-11: Winter Retreat @ Cran-Hill
- January 23: Mt. Haley Lock-In
- February 22: Swimming Party @ Four Seasons
- May 15-17: State Youth Convention
- There will be events in March & April yet to be determined and there probably will be other events mixed into the schedule.
Our Church of God WINTER RETREAT at Cran-Hill Ranch is coming up on January 9-11, 2015 and registration has begun. A $50 registration deposit is DUE by November 30, 2015, with the remaining $49 due by January 4, 2015 (total cost $99). It’s a great deal for two night’s lodging, five meals, snacks, all programming and much of the recreation. This year’s speaker is Brett Talley from the Church of the Crossing in Indianapolis. Josh Lavender (recommended by Tommee Profitt) will be our worship leader. By December, Connie will be praying for snow and making some of the final preparations! Think ahead, earn your money needed and mark it on your calendars.
Hopefully, by the time of this reading, Olive’s (our church centenarian’s) yard will have been raked and Olive will have blessed the participants with several hundred dollars. Our Poinsettia and Wreath sale begins this month and orders are due by Sunday, November 30th with delivery on Saturday, December 6. There will be another Scripts Gift Card sale also before the registration date, which Youth can take orders for and claim the profits. Hopefully, Youth have participated in the fundraisers (Mums, Gift Cards, Raking) this Fall which will help you in costs of the retreat.
Great news, most of this year’s permission slips have been collected and will cover us for the year. Also, our “Prayer Warrior” ministry has begun for the year with prayers being offered up daily for all of our youth (6-12) plus our grads! We consider this ministry one of our MOST important aspects of the church and we THANK everyone who has volunteered to participate.
Missions – YES, we NOW have 14 people signed up for our Guatemala Mission on the dates of February 5-12, 2015. We have had our first Guatemalan Spiritual Growth meeting and are anticipating our November meeting. We have 8 people from Mt. Haley, 1 from the Meridian Church of God, 3 from the Community Nazarene Church and 2 from the First Church of God in Saginaw. These churches will be helping in the fundraising, however, our goal of $5000 to help with the cost of a Guatemalan Home is set and we are praying for God’s blessings in helping out another family. Please consider how you can BLESS this church ministry and help our team. Each year it is exciting to anticipate the blessings of Guatemala.
Parents and church, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship, and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter and our congregation for holding the youth up in PRAYER.
Love God, Love People, Live It!
Blessings,
Pastor Jerry
January Youth Update
WOW!!! What a way to end 2012! Winter Retreat was AWESOME! Honest words for our journey as followers of Jesus Christ. God’s word highlighted our identity in Christ, His words brought us into a fresh relationship with Jesus and His challenge was for us to “Sin no more” and spread the news of His love to our world. Students accepted Christ, rededicated their walks, shared their struggles and looked to the ministry that Christ has for them. Best of all, we bonded together and enjoyed our time together. All that and fabulous fun too – tubing, swimming, winning the Dodge ball tournament, basketball, foosball and MORE! We even brought home the traveling Winter Retreat trophy! WOW!!!
As we begin the New Year, our youth accounts are “depleted” and we will need to grow them again. Coming in May will be the State Youth Convention with the band, The Afters, Onetime Blind, and our speaker, Raymond McElroy, the chaplain of the Chicago Bears. ALSO, now is the time, to begin thinking and planning for the 2014 International Youth Convention in Nashville, TN. Any student entering 9th grade in September of 2013 through one-year post-high school is eligible to participate and attend. You will be hearing more and more. In the meantime, no formal fundraising for January other than pop cans & printer cartridges.
On Sunday nights, we are all done with the topic, “The Ten Commandments.” We will begin on January 6 with “Getting By After the Spiritual High,” which will lead to a series on “Doing the Disciplines.” The series will look at Bible Study, Prayer, Quiet time & Devotions, Service and Spreading the Word. We will be looking into and discussing how to grow in our relationship with Jesus. Should be FUN and CHALLENGING! We will NOT have a Youth Meeting on Sunday, February 3rd and Tuesday, February 5th. The Graham’s, the Adams, and the Aukerman’s will all be on a mission trip in Guatemala. Pray for us!
We will be having a BOWLING party on Friday, January 25th to celebrate the end of the school semester. Details will be coming SOON. Our Winter Lock-In is tentatively set for Friday, February 15th. These are both days when students do not have school. We will NOT be having the February 3rd Super Bowl Party this year because of the Guatemala Mission Trip, February 1st – 8th. Again, we ask for your prayers.
Your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter.
Love God, Love People!
Pastor Jerry