See You At The Pole

Today was national See You At The Pole day. This is where students meet at their school's flag pole to pray. I had the opportunity to be at one of Northeast Columbia's premier high schools, Blythewood High School. There are about 1236 students at Blythewood and around 20 were at the pole this morning to pray. It was cool to see these students step out in front of the drop off zone (pictured above) where hundreds of students filed by while we prayed. May God use these students as a living testimony of His grace, forgiveness and love this school year!

Engage Student Ministry Retreat Review

Hey Everybody,
I just wanted to thank all of you who were praying for our first student ministry retreat, titled "Engage". Engage went really well. We only took four (4) students to White Oak Conference Center in Winnsboro, SC, but I believe that God wanted to do a work in those four students. The theme of Engage was relationships; as in, engaging in relationships. The first night I spoke on our relationship with God, it's importance and the different ways we hear the voice of God. The second day I spoke two (2) times. In the morning we discussed our relationships with those in our immediate sphere of influence (i.e. immediate family, friends and acquaintances) focusing on selflessness and humility. In the evening of the second day I spoke on engaging in relationships with people outside our immediate sphere of influence. As Christians, our testimony to others is not always how we talk; it is often how we live and engage with others in relationships. The way we live demonstrates the reality of Christ in our lives.
Our students enjoyed the trip a lot. We played a lot of brain teasers and did some good old team building exercises to emphasize the need we have for one another (a big thank you to Simpson University Spiritual Formation Dept. for all the great experience in debriefing. It paid great dividends on our retreat). We, as staff, also learned a lot about our students and I'd like to think they learned a lot from us, but you'd have to ask them. Our desire was to build stronger relationships with our students and I think we did just that.
To those four students, thanks for coming, I had a lot of fun with you and am looking forward to doing more of the same in the near future!!

Engage Retreat Packing List

Right Click and download!!!

Engage Student Ministry Retreat

Deadline for Registration Sept. 6th 2009
email me with questions alex.krum@yahoo.com

Palmetto Falls Water Park CANCELED

Well, the water park event got rained out, but that didn't ruin our day. Instead everyone came over to Kat and My new apartment to play bored games and hang out. We made some cookies and had some soda. We played the game of Life, a little Battleship, and some Risk. The nice thing was that it was all free. Thanks anyway Palmetto Falls, we had free fun and that's the best kind of fun you can get!!

Water Fight Night (Aug 2nd)

So, we We had Water Fight Night on August 2nd and it was pretty fun. We did a water relay which turned out to be a lot more disgusting than I thought it would be, a 'see who can get the most points by throwing water balloons at targets with different point values' game, and a human and water balloon version of Battleship. I found that my preconceptions of how these games were going to work were shattered. I thought that all the games had relatively simple rules, but I found that teens and preteens are masters of loopholes. Anyway, we had tons of fun and you can obviously see in the pictures that I got more than a little wet. One of the great parts of this evening though was the testimony given by a parent of a couple of our students, John Pascutti. He talked about the importance of having a relationship with Christ vs. just abiding by the do's and don'ts of scripture because we're 'suppose to'. Christ calls us into something deeper than the cycle of guilt, shame and repentance that the later perpetuates. Christ calls us to himself. That is where we find the grace and love that we hear about. That is where we find peace.

Upcoming Events!!!

Alright everybody, here's the latest event updates!

August 2nd - Water Fight Night

Be sure to wear something you can get wet in.

Also, you might want a towel.

August 12th - Palmetto Falls Water Park (Fort Jackson)

The cost is 9.50/person (unless you already have passes)

We'll be there from 1-4PM

Directions at http://www.fortjacksonmwr.com/waterpark/

Please be sure to wear a modest swimsuit

Bring sunscreen, a towel, snacks (optional)

Invite your friends, the more people the cheaper it is!!

August 16th - Back Skool BBQ/Cookout

We'll be having a BBQ (hamburgers and hotdogs) @ the church campus

You bring the sides and we'll have the main course

We'll need drinks, chips, potato salad and any other BBQ musts

August 30th - Outreach Event

This is still in the works, but expect a lot of fun, music and some food.

This is an event you'll want to invite everyone you know to. Let's get our name out there!

September 11-13th - Fall Retreat

Mark you calendars. We're going on a retreat.

More details to come. You'll definitely want to be there!