Who's ready for some OHYG! basketball?!!

Two New Christians!

Everyone be sure to congratulate Kimberly Hensley and Zach Meador who were both baptized into Christ this last weekend. I was blessed to be present for both of their baptisms, and their passion for being followers of Jesus Christ was truly refreshing.

It's always cool to know that you've done something here on earth that makes the angels in the presence of God shout with joy.

May they be a great example to us all.

Pauls, Pumpkins, and Much More!

Many thanks to the Pauls for having us over! We had a great time. The food was good. The pumpkins were lots of fun to carve. Corly was around to provide some quality entertainment.

We talked about "Decorating Your Christian Life," based on 2 Peter 1. Thanks to everyone for participating. This was--if I remember correctly--the largest attendance we've had at a devo since we began doing them.

Here is a link to the full Facebook photo album.

See you Saturday for the Predators game!

Meeting Jesus in the Gospel of Luke

Coming up in October we'll have a new Bible study at Old Hickory. We've had about 31 different members contribute devotional thoughts based on different passages in Luke. It's divided into 31 days. Be planning to spend the month of October learning more about Jesus through the eyes of Luke. We're getting some nifty calendar-style books printed out so you can have one to read every day.

Back To School Bash

Many thanks to the Bells for having us over for our annual Back to School bash. We really had a variety of good stuff going on: Video games, swimming, boccie ball, football, board games, basketball, and barbecue! Here is a sampling of pictures. I'll try and add the rest on Facebook soon.

Kidnapped...

The kidnap breakfast was really great! Mrs. Drake had some awesome food ready to go, and we managed to take 5/6 kids completely off guard! haha!!

David claims he was already awake. I beg to differ.

Here is the link to my facebook album.

-Mark

Caption This! OHYG! Edition

Post a comment and tell us what caption you would add if this were your cartoon...

Mexico Trip

We really had a terrific trip to Mexico this year. For those of you who are curious about what we did, but who don't have Facebook, have no fear! You can access the pictures I have put up on Facebook by clicking here. The second album is here.

Holiday World 2008

We had a great trip to Holiday World. It was a LONG day, but God answered our prayers for safety, and we made it and returned home safely. I'd encourage everyone to keep an eye on Facebook, as several pictures have appeared there. Here are a few of my favorite shots.

Many thanks to everyone for being responsible, behaving well, showing up at the checkpoints when you were supposed to, and for keeping great attitudes. It was really a great trip, and I'll look forward to going again next year!

OHYG! Crib

We've been working on spicing up our classroom, and we're pretty much done for now. It's got a new paint job, some new pictures, a new white board, a magnetic portion of the wall, updated mailboxes, and plenty of cards for note-writing.

I've also discovered a cool thing that my camera and computer can work together to do. Have a look around. :-)

Coming to a church camp near you...

I just bought one of these things for a new addition to some of our church camp activities. It's going to be glorious. Imagine pulling against 3 other people with all your might...on a sopping wet tarp. :-)

INTERNS 2008

The interns are here! Working with us this summer are Colby Paul and Joyanna Jakubiak. Colby is 'one of our own.' Joyanna is joining us all the way from Worcester, Massachusetts. Today is their first day here in the office. Both of them will be posting their thoughts and comments on the OHYG! blog during the summer.

If you haven't met them already, you have a lot to look forward to! We're making big plans for the summer.

Graduating Seniors 2008

Congratulations to all of our graduating seniors in 2008! It's been great having you, and we're excited to see where God leads you from here. We expect great things from all of you.

Spring Retreat 2008

Sorry I haven't updated the blog in a while. April has been a crazy month. We've had tons of stuff going on, and all of us are winding down to the end of a long semester at school.

The spring retreat went GREAT. We had a wonderful time. We grew closer to God and to each other. Everyone behaved well and took the Bible classes seriously.

This year has been great. Everyone has done such a good job of helping out with all the service projects we've tried. We've been making a positive impact on our community, and setting a good example for our congregation. What's even better is that we've had fun doing it!

I'm really proud of everyone. I can't wait for this summer! We've been working on some ideas that I think you guys are going to love...

See you soon!
-Mark <><

1 in 4

Hey guys and gals,

I just ran across a scary news article. If you want to read it, here's the link to it.

This report was specifically about women getting sexually transmitted diseases. The average is that 1 in 4 sexually active women under the age of 25 has an STD. Think about that! If you were to line up all the kids at your school who are sleeping around, you can actually go down the line counting "1, 2, 3, STD!, 1, 2, 3, STD! 1, 2, 3, STD!" It's not just the ladies...it's the guys who are transmitting these things around, too. This stuff is real, and terrible if you get it. Warts, puss, itching, pain for days at a time, sometimes you end up unable to have children, and some STD's even cause you to go insane and die!

God loves us, and he made us in his image. The world around us tells us that it's a good thing to treat our bodies like they are just pieces of meat. As Christians, it's so important to save yourself for your future husband/wife, even if you have no idea who that person might be! Don't let anyone convince you that you aren't worth waiting for. If someone will only spend time with you if you give them what they want, then they aren't worth being with anyway. You are more valuable than that.

And if the fact that it's wrong isn't enough to convince you not to do it...look at the huge risk involved! Would you pull the trigger of a gun pointed at your head just because someone said, "There's only a 1 in 6 chance it's got a bullet in it"?

We're talking 1 in 4! And some of these STD's are as deadly as bullets, only you die much more slowly and painfully than getting shot. Birth control methods might help prevent pregnancy sometimes, but they do little to stop STD's. The only 100% safe way to avoid STD's is to not let people treat you like you're only a piece of meat. Your body is the temple of God. Keep it pure. Save it for your spouse.

When people are young and aren't serious about life, loose girls can get a lot of attention. But if you are serious about wanting a good life and a good spouse, people want to marry someone who is pure and who respects himself/herself. Be that person. And even if you haven't been perfect up until now, then you can at least decide that from now on you will do the right thing. You'll never regret honoring God, especially when honoring God is something that's hard to do.

Sorry to get up on a soap box there, but I love you all too much, and it makes me sick to think of any of you becoming a statistic.

I pray that you all make good decisions,

Mark <><

February Devo at Adams'

Last night we had the second of our monthly devos for 2008 at Mark & Carolina's house. It happened to be Kassie and Caylin's birthday, so along with some hot dogs and chili, we had some Oreo Blizzard cake. The thought of it still makes me salivate. Yum.

Thanks to everyone who was able to come! We're looking forward to having one of these every month.

Valentine's Banquet 2008 (Updated)

Lori Dickens, and all the people who assisted her, gave us a tremendous Valentine's banquet this year! The food was great, Jared and Chet kept us well entertained, the games were fun, and everything was so nice.

If you weren't there, be sure to ask Cody what facial features he thinks that a man looks for in a woman. It was classic!

It was a memorable evening. If you want any of the pictures in this slide show, just click on the link at the bottom, and it will take you to the Picasaweb album where you can download any or all of the pictures.

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Update: Also, if you want to access Jodie's album, it is here.

OHYG! Basketball 2007-2008

We had a great season this year, and I am excited that so many of our players are young enough to be around for next season! We saw a lot of different church teams with a lot of different kinds of attitudes; some much better than others. But in every situation, our guys represented us well both on the court and in their lives. We're looking forward to the award ceremony for them this coming Sunday night!

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BINGO!!!

2008 has already been a great year. Everyone has done a great job of helping out with all the many things we've had happening. Our Bingo Tournament was a big success over at the Old Hickory Towers. We had some extra help from the YP class, which was very appreciated. I was extremely proud of everyone for helping to brighten these people's day.

I'll have to say, I was surprised by what competitive Bingo players they are! They were all anxious to have multiple cards to increase their chances of winning. They also started grilling me on some of the rules (which they obviously knew better than I did!) We gave away a total of about 30 prizes.

I was telling Matt that this whole thing was a win-win situation. We go and visit people who aren't able to get out much, and they get to have a fun activity. Everybody has a good time, and we honor God with our actions. We'll definitely do it again!

Upcoming Wednesday Night Classes

Nathan and I will be tag-team teaching the Wednesday night class for the next quarter, and we're doing a series dedicated to myth-busting. And not just the stuff about whether or not you can get beheaded by a ceiling fan...we're going to talk about stuff that people are really saying and believing all around us that is just...well, completely untrue!

We're looking forward to seeing YOU there! :-)

Some topics we'll address will include:
-The Consumer myth
-The Manhood myth
-The Egoist myth
-The Covergirl myth
-The Conformist myth
-The Puritan myth
-The Humanist myth
-The Love at First Sight myth
-The Pharisees’ myth
-The Anarchists’ myth