Water’s Edge Youth Ministries

I myself am not an outdoors man, so the thought of spending my weekend in a tent doesn’t usually appeal to me. However, the annual wilderness retreat for me is always an exception. Besides the fact that we  do spend most of our time in a lodge, the time spent with friends and the spiritual emphasis makes the cold nights and the annoying bugs almost nothing at all to over come.

This is how the trip has been thus far: Read the rest

On Saturday May 2, we’ll be making a return trip to X-Site Laser Tag in Castleton, IN.   Here are the details:

• Who: The trip is open to any student in grades 6-12
• When: We will leave the church at 10:15 am on Saturday, May 2, and return at approximately 3:30 pm.
• How Much: The trip will cost $25 per student which covers transportation, refreshments, 3 games of Laser Tag and arcade tokens.  Students should also bring money for lunch afterward.  We will eat at the Castleton Mall’s food court.
• REGISTRATION REQUIRED: We have limited space available for this trip and participants will be accepted on a first come, first served basis. Complete and turn in this registration form by Sunday, April 26 to attend. (You will need Adobe’s free Reader to open this.)

We’ve posted two new multimedia items on the site for your enjoyment.

In our photo galleries, you can check out a new gallery of pictures from our March 31st Junior High service when we learned about the Lord’s supper by sharing a family meal together.

And in our video gallery you can see a compilation of photographs from the 2008-2009 School year.

Today was our last full day in Juchitan. Again, we met in the hotel lobby at 7:30 and made our way over to the church. I had forgot something in my room (a 2 liter of pop), and was sent back to get it. Most of us were walking, but the only person that waited for me was Dad. So we set off. For the most part, I like walking through the city, but the paths aren’t level at all. I was still a little tired at that time of the morning, so I didn’t notice it when Dad and I made a wrong turn. Once we had walked a block or two, I realized that I didn’t recognize ANYTHING about our surroundings. I asked Dad, “are you sure this is the right way?” He looked around and replied, “You know what, this isn’t!” To redeem himself from this mistake, he looked around and was able to work out a way back to the main road without back tracking. We were only a little late to the job site.

Today started out with more shoveling. We had 2 holes that really needed to be dug out, so 4 of stood around one hole while we watched the one unlucky man do the digging. After about 30 minutes of this, I was called over to the concrete mixer to carry buckets of “mud” over to the other side of the site to poor a wall. (If you didn’t realize this, as I understand that people like Katlynn will be reading this blog, by mud I mean wet concrete.) Wow, that stuff was heavy. lucky for me and my quickly tiring arms, we had enough people working at that that we were finished with the heavy lifting in around 10 minutes. Then it was back to shoveling. Read the rest

We’ve added a video gallery to our website, so you can keep up with all the original videos we use in our services.  Check it out today and you can watch every episode of our Mythbusters: Water’s Edge series.

Keep checking back, and every time we feature a new video at Water’s Edge or the Shore, we’ll post it here for the world to see.

Tuesday night, Feb 24, we began a new Lenten series at Water’s Edge and the Shore called My Brand New Life.  We’re seeking to allow God to shape His life and character in us through a renewed commitment to the book, the body, prayer and praise.

As part of this new series we launced a new website called mybrandnewlife.org. Check it out and discover what this journey is all about.

Mexicans know how to build some amazingly strong buildings. They are all 99% concrete. Unfortunately, this makes for a lot of hard work. Lucky for them, a bunch of Americans came to help. Today, we again started heading over to the work site at 7:30. As soon as we got there, I was handed a shovel and was told to dig, and digI did. For the most part I was digging a hole for a new footer that would support the columns which themselves supported the wall. The work got even harder when we had to break through the layer of previously laid concrete. Luckily, Will finally showed up with the lunch.

Today, we had tacos. They were stuffed with beef and we had the option of adding onions or salsa. So good!!! Once we were all finished eating, we started our walk back to the hotel. Don and Dad were walking ahead, and by an unfortunate occurrence of events Don tripped and fell. Luckily, he wasn’t seriously hurt. Once we got back to the hotel, I changed jumped into the pool. The water was SO cold! After about 10 minutes of swimming, I got out, grabbed a chair, and made some progress on my Huck Finn book that I need to read for English. Read the rest

Today began like Saturday. We woke up bright and early, and made our way back to the work site. After about 30 minutes of of twist-tying support beams, we all went into the kitchen and had a breakfast of timales and fresh fruit. The tamales were good, but not my favorite. Luckily, Neil didn’t try to eat the corn husk like he tried to eat the paper wrapped around the tacos we had Saturday. (Don’t worry Neil, you know I’m just messing with you). Then it was back to work. Aaron, Bill, Neil and I spent the next hour or so shoveling dirt back into these 3′x6′x5′ holes that were dug out to house the support beams. After we were done with the shoveling and tamping, I finished bending the metal squares I had started on Saturday. Finally, we spent the last hour doing more twist-tying on the walls. For the most part, the work today was a snap.

Lunch today was fried chicken. Not quite KFC, but it was very good. Once we had finished eating, we walked the mile distance to the hotel, where we had about an hour to get cleaned up and ready for VBS. Considering I was covered in dirt, that shower was amazing. Once 4 o’clock finally rolled around, we all met in the lobby to head back to the church. Read the rest

Today, being Sunday, meant that we went to church. It was a really great service. Luckily, Dad was preaching, so we weren’t going to have to deal with the possible embarrassment of the visiting pastor falling asleep. Along with a great sermon, the music was also really good. To be honest it put our praise bands to shame. They had about 4 or 5 singers, 2 guitars, a bass, and drums. That drummer is a phenom.

After the service Aaron, Mario, Arturo, their cousins, and Pablo went to the down town market in search of a graphic t-shirt with Spanish words on it. Such a shirt was nowhere to be found. There were tons of shirts, but they were all written in English. So finally, we caught a few cabs and made our way to the restaurant where we were celebrating the birthday of  Mario and Arturo’s mother Olivia. The food was amazing. I had the fish, and then I ate the extra beef. By the end of that meal, I had to loosen my belt a notch or two. Read the rest