Winter Retreat

Hey guys, Evan is out of state this weekend. He's speaking at a High School winter retreat. So, Matthew is going to be speaking both 1st and 2nd service on Sunday Morning. We'll be going through the book of Haggai.

Speaking about winter retreats... Here's a diagram of what is to come in February.











So get ready for White Noise 2007!!!

Merry Christmas!

Have a Merry, Merry Christmas! This past Sunday we looked at Zephaniah and how the first half discusses judgement, but the second half discusses hope and restoration. God made promises in the Old Testament that He would come to restore the people. When Jesus was born in Bethlehem this was part of this promise being fulfilled. So this year as you sip your eggnog and open you presents, remember the greatest gift of all time, and the gift that is so great we keep celebrating it, Jesus' birth!

Liewer Family Christmas Letter 2006

Well every year my parents go the extra mile and instead of just sending Christmas cards with lovely photos in it, they write an entire Christmas letter. This year, they gave that dubious honor to my brother. Some may remember my brother from the Weekend (this year's theme is asfOIYB&f% 587%^#39) and he also came to Amped All Night. Well my brother wrote an amazing 7 page Christmas letter that was eventually edited down to 1 single page. I enjoyed the letter so much I figured I would share the portion he wrote regarding me and April. So without further ado, I present to you the infamous, unedited 2006 Liewer Christmas Letter:

Evan&April.....Evan was always a gifted child, but we had to wonder how his videogame skills, ninja techniques, film production output, stunt work, and his knack for lighting things on fire, would ever come together as a career. Let it be known people, dreams do come true, if you only believe. Evan has combined every one of those childhood talents with wisdom, patience, and a passion for the Gospel to create a position where childhood innocence meets adult leadership. And believe me- you will NEVER, see the Word of God taught so pure and dynamic and then seamlessly transitioned to cricket spitting contests or num chuck demonstrations until you witness him in person.
Evan's faith, commitment and reverence have led to two recent distinctions at church. In November, our family, including April's parents, witnessed Evan's ordination at Ocean Hills Community Church, where he has spent the last 3/4 of his life. Secondly, he was promoted to Head Youth Pastor at Ocean Hills Community Church. He must get his teaching skills from his mother and his perseverance from his father. More importantly, we credit April with dressing him, feeding him, and making sure he keeps good hygiene. Evan and April truly personify a Godly marriage and true love. In addition to her support, April has been working as an office manager for a design firm, as well as decorating and renovating their new apartment in San Clemente. In fact she is in the process of adding an art studio in their new garage.


I kid you not, when I first read this I had tears in my eyes from laughter. I couldn't breathe.

Baby Caleb

Baby Caleb has been upgraded to a Crib!

Family Dinner Night

Last Night was such a wonderful night! It was so great getting together with family and sharing a feast. But i have to be honest one of my favorite parts was the White Elephant . With 48 presents exchanging hands this was my largest White Elephant (the previous record was 46). I may be biased but one of my favorite gifts was the hamster in the ball. I mean who doesnt want a hamster? Other notable gifts were the toilet paper, cheese and quackers plate, teddy bears, basketball fondue , and a good old fashion starbucks card. I am so excited that Matthew is stepping up and helping more and more. Today he and I have a planning meeting for the Weekend. We already have the theme, and the theme is U345G Vasd4758897fAF^*A%2345 D2345_(DAFHDAF&TD5634F^%*A&%^$AD AST7 A09dasfGUYAfgbdfas7tsa80dbw6 38f7h7y6d57fjk7 9576hf976h567658461stn8768h. Doesn't that sound like a blast! But remember if you have any questions (other than the theme) feel free to email me!

This picture isn't moving

It's Cold Outside

Have you been outside today? It's cold. I saw this flagpole today and thought to myself, I should see if my tongue gets stuck to it, and as I approach the flagpole I realized something. Only 1 of 2 things can occur. Either I am "successful" and my tongue does stick to the pole, but at that point, I am standing in the cold with my face glued to a stick in the middle of nowhere. I could call the fire department on my cell phone, but that would be a difficult time telling the operator, "I eed, elp, mi ung its stuthk to a agg-pole." But the other option is I put my tongue to the pole and it doesn't stick, at which point I just licked a flag pole for no good. So I choose not to try it. But man it is cold outside. But i like this weather a lot more than being 90 degrees in December. But finally with weather this cold, it gets me ready for Christmas. And being ready for Christmas makes me ready for White Noise. Every service we have more and more people are signing up, which means fewer and fewer spots. So please, please, please sign up soon. Make sure to reserve your spot with your deposit as soon as possible. Also dont forget this Monday is our Family Dinner Night, a night to spend with our familes having a great time. And in case you wonder, the photos you see in this post are REAL snowflakes. These arent drawings are CGI, these are single snowflakes placed under a microscope. Isnt it great how God is, I have seen billions of snowflakes in my like and they all look like little white dots, but God is so creative that His little white dots are beautiful!

Update: It is burning hot outside, I have taken off my Amped Beanie, but my sweatshirt is still on!

Micah

God hates things? That was such a weird thing for me to understand at first. But just as we looked at it this past Sunday, it makes perfect sense. God loves us so much that He hates things that keeps us away from Him. So God loves us no matter what, but when we choose to seperate ourselves from God, He hates it. It is so cool having a God that loves us that much.

White Noise Sign-Ups have begun and spaces are limited so sign-up very quickly cause we dont want it to fill up without you being on the list. Also this coming Monday is the Family Dinner Night, so if you haven't signed up to bring your favorite dish get on the list this Wednesday!

Fruits and Hamburgers

So last night we looked at the example Paul set for other Christians. Paul said, hey if you want to know what a life looks like of someone who follows Christ, then look at my life. A very bold statment. We need to be able to make statements like that, "look at my life as an example. " Paul also told us that God works first within us, then through us. We looked at the example of a tree, that first you have to take care of that tree, water it, give it soil, air and sun and then it will produce fruit. So we as Christians should be working on growing ourselves, by reading the Word, spending time in prayer and devotion, as well as spending time in fellowship with other Christians. We also learned another wonderful little fact. Hamburgers are not a fruit. I know that is difficult to understand, but although a Hamburger may contain fruits in it, and yes some hamburgers have seeds (Seasme Seeds) this does not make them a fruit. Other notable things that are not fruits: Bacon, cell phones, AmpedOC.com, Apples*, and the moon.


*Note: Apples Computers, not to be confused withe the actual Apple fruit

Holiday Time

It's Christmas time in the city. As November comes to a close and December begins, the smell of hot chocolate and Christmas trees fill the air. As I look at my calendar for this month I quickly realize one thing, it is quite full. December is a crazy and a full month. So in all of your holiday busyness and crazy tests at school and eating as many cookies as possible, always try to remember what we are celebrating.

A Fishy Story

This past Sunday we looked at the story of Jonah. So in as condensed as possible here is the recap of that story: God tells Jonah to go to Nineveh. Jonah runs in the opposite direction. God places a storm in Jonah's life. To save the ship Jonah walks the plank. A Hungry Giant Fish swallows Jonah. Jonah prays. Fish barfs Jonah on shore. Jonah preaches to Nineveh. Nineveh listens. God says He won't destroy Nineveh. Jonah goes on cliff to watch Nineveh explode, it doesn't. God gorws a vine for shade. Jonah falls in love with the shade. Next day the vine gets destroyed by a worm. Jonah tells God he is so angry about the loss of his favorite plant that he is willing to die. God tells Jonah that just as Jonah cares for the plant, God cares for the people of Nineveh. The End. I call that the abridged version. The part of the story I love so much is Nineveh was the enemy of Israel, and yet God has compassion for them. God loves everyone. So it was difficult for Jonah to preach to a people group he didn't like, but we need to view the world as we are all God's children. So we need to show the love of God to everyone!

Happy turkey day! Eat lots of mashed potatos and tell your family you love them.

Better than Turkey

Hey guys it's Matthew. I say that we get the fussing aside and let's just talk turkey. Usually, a Thanksgiving Dinner consists of turkey, potatoes, and stuffing right? Yes that is all fine and dandy, but shouldn't we try to expand our pallet? This Thanksgiving I propose a new recipe. Instead of the usual turkey, why not be more exotic and try a slow cooked squirrel?

Thats right! All you need is two squirrels, four potatoes, one pound of carrots, one chopped green bell pepper, four sliced onions, two cups of water, a quarter of a medium head cabbage. It's so simple even I can do it! Throw all of the above ingredients into a slow cooker and eight hours later bada bing bada boom you have squirrel stew. In my opinion, an easily cooked meal like this is way better than any turkey.

House Cleaning

So I was doing some house cleaning and checking things out and then it hit me, there are any photos from The Weekend or White Noise on the website. For you see AmpedOC.com wasnt created until after those events took place. Well if you take a gander to the right you will see two new links in the photo section. So as White Noise Sign-Ups are out and space is limited get your deposit in quickly! And if you have any questions on White Noise, check out the White Noise Info Page, which also has a link on the right.

Obadiah

So to the left is a map of Israel, Judah, and Edom. This past Sunday we looked at the book of Obadiah, a book about the prophecies to the nation of Edom. The Edomites made some poor choices, as their brothers were suffering they stood by and did nothing. As Christians we are called to make a stand for righteousness. When we see something that is wrong we need to stand up for God and say that what others around us are doing is wrong.

Hiccups

We wanted to show this video last night but due to some technical difficulties we were unable to play the sound. So here it is in all of its glory, Baby Caleb having the hiccups.

Last night we talked about following the example of Jesus in Philippians 2:5-11. In small groups we discuessed what were Jesus' examples and how can we imitate that? So how are you going to imitate Jesus?

Family Dinner Night

What is family Dinner you ask? Well it is just as it sounds, A night where we can all get together and share a meal. So on Monday Night December 11th at 6pm we will be meeting in the Satellite Room (The large room near Jr. High) and having a wonderful night of fellowship and laughter. The event is for the entire family, so if there are five of you, we would love to see all five come, bring the dog too! There is no monetary cost, but we ask every family to bring 2 things, part of the meal (think potluck style) and a white elephant gift. For the food there will be a sign-up list in JHigh for different fixings. So if you have some amazing family recipe we would love to eat it! We also need people to bring the turkey or ham or whatever so please sign-up. Now the white elephant exchange has been an Ocean Hills youth tradition for decades. I remember playing when i was but a lad. There are a few simple guidelines keep the cost to $5 or $10, so no ipod videos, or you can even something laying around the house. But please nothing gross or used. There are been many famous gifts in the past, last year I recieved an acre of land (on the moon!) So bring what you would like, grab a flyer in JHigh and as always, if you have a question, feel free to email me!

Ordained

This past Sunday, Evan was ordained. Ordination is a really cool thing, in fact it is somewhat similar to be knighted. I was so happy that we could have Jr. High there and my family came out for the ceremony. If you missed the service, it is archived online, just like every service at Ocean Hills, and you can watch it here. The ceremony is at the very end of the service. Many people have asked me what exactly is an ordination, so here is what it is. Ordination is given by the church you are at and it is the leadership of the church saying "We fully support this man in his ministry". So its pretty sweet. By being ordained and being licensed by the state I can also preform weddings, which is pretty cool. So to all you Jr Highers when you graduate JHigh, then graduate HS, then go to college, meet your future spouse, and then graduate college, I would love to preform the ceremony! Or maybe I can at least get an invitation.

White Noise 2007

White Noise is coming. This trip is going to be amazing and you will have the greatest time of your life. So make sure to sign-up while there are sill spaces left. Also check out the White Noise Website for more detailed info!!! If you have any questions feel free to call the church at 949-496-7411

Baby Caleb

Below is a beautiful video of Caleb Bates. He was taken off the respirator and has been breathing on his own!

UPDATE: Caleb is doing very well. He was recently moved from a private room to a group room with a bunch of new friends. He is still in the incubator, but Mark said he had the oppurtunity to hold Caleb for 2 hours and that Caleb is eating more food! So please keep praying for Caleb!

For People Who Like Snow

White Noise. For People Who Like Snow. February 1st through the 4th. Sign-Up Today! Thats right, we are now accepting sign-ups for the White Noise Winter Retreat 2007 Today. Sign-Up soon as we have limited spaces and we hit capacity last year. Grab a flyer anytime for more info!

Baby caleb bates

April and i are leaving the hospital after visiting baby caleb. He is doing very well, in fact they plan to take him off of the breathing machine Monday morning. So please keep him in your prayers, but healthwise, he is doing AMAZING!

Harvest Festival

Harvest Festival Photos are Up! To the right is a lovely photo of Matthew and Batman. Click the photo link to the right to see everyone's costume.

Pictures of Joy to Share!

Hot off the presses, here are some adorable photos of Caleb Bates! As you can see in the first photo he was born this past Sunday. Please keep Caleb in prayer as he will most likely stay in the hospital until January. Gilda returned home Wednesday night, but keep her and Mark in prayer as they will still be at the hospital every day. The second photo is of mama Gilda and the final photo is the birth certificate with Caleb's little footprints on them. We will be starting a meals ministry for the Bates so if you are famous for some family recipe or know how to cook a mean lasagna from Costco, please email me so we can bless them with this. Mark and Gilda would love anything as long as it isn't served on a tray with embossed crevices to hold mass- produced meals. So as long as you don't buy it at a hospital or American Airlines it should be all good. And as a side note, Mark told me that one of the nurses on the floor gave Caleb the nickname, "The miracle baby". First off I thought that was really cool, then I thought about it for a second. Mark and Gilda were at one of the best hospitals, on a floor that specializes in very difficult pregnancies. I mean these nurses take care of some of the most difficult cases and Caleb is the shinning star. But Caleb had something going for him that many babies do not, parents and friends who prayed and prayed. Mark and Gilda had the absolute best attitude throughout the pregnancy (and continue to do so) and it is a testament of their lives. We looked a few Wednesday nights ago about how people will judge us and thereby judge all Christians by our actions. Well I am proud to say, I want people to judge Christians by how Mark and Gilda act. If people look at Mark and Gilda's life and what an amazing attitute they have had and all the loved ones who have come to visit and pray, that is a testament of what a Christian community is.

Better Late than Never

So yesterday I asked Nate, "Do you believe in the phrase Better Late than Never?", he said he did, so I gave him his birthday present. In case you didn't know Nate's birthday is in May. But hey better late than never. And as last night was our Harvest Festival, and what an amazing night it was! I will put photos up as soon as I can find the cable to do it, I know its around here somewhere. .. But if you look to the right here are the photos from the Liewer's most recent pumpkin carving party. My pumpkin, I am proud to say is the ugliest one up there, its the one on the bottom right. Its chewbacca from Star Wars. I didnt have time to finish before the photo was taken, so its not done. We did have a contest and a vote and the headless horseman won, by a single vote.

Harvest Festival

Today is Harvest Festival! October 31st and it is going to be an awesome evening. The night kicks off around 4pm and if you get there at 4 I know there will be very few lines for any of the rides. Also come help at the Amped Booth by making Cotton Candy. The only rule is you have to sell more Cotton Candy than you eat, but that shouldn't be too hard, cause everyone wants to buy Cotton Candy. April and I will both be dressed up, she will be dressed as a ??????? and I will be dressed as ???????. Matt and Kira are also coming, Matt told me what he was dressing up as, it was either E=Mc² or a ????????, I can't remember. And as for Kira she is either dressing up as a bunch of question marks, or a ???????. Guess you will have to come tonight to find out! Also there will be a prison, and you can pay like a buck and get anyone arrested, even Pastor Evan. I would not reccomend this, but you theoretically could do it.....

Caleb Benjamin Bates Born October 29th 2lbs9oz

At some time around six o'clock this evening Baby Caleb Benjamin Bates joined us. The photo to the right may not be of the best of quality (its a photo i took with my camera phone of a photo) but Caleb is doing very well. He weighs 2 pounds 9 ounces, but according to Mark is very long and is going to be an amazing soccer player, cause he wont stop kicking. In the photo you can see that Caleb had to be intabated, but Mark told me that Caleb started to cry after he was born and is able to breathe on his own. These are all amazing things for a baby, especially since Caleb was only 27 weeks along and most pregnancies go 36 to 40 weeks. Caleb is going to have to stay in the hospital for a while, but it looks like Gilda will be able to go home in 3-4 days. Please continue to keep the Bates in your prayers, God has been doing miracles in Caleb's life this entire time, and we know that He will continue to do so. Mark and Gilda are both doing well and told me that they really appreciate all your love and support. If you have any other questions, feel free to email me.

Consistency, Cooperation, and Confidence

Last Night Paul talked about the three C's that we need to learn.  First we need to be Consistent in our Christian lives, always living as Jesus calls us to live.  Secondly we need to Cooperative, to work as a team.  And finally to have Confidence knowing that God wins!

No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service

Normally when I see that sign, "No Shoes, No Shirt, No Service" I think about going somewhere else. I mean if I cant enjoy your establishment in bare feet, then it aint worth it. But this past Sunday was No Bare Feet day and I had to wear shoes. I didn't enjoy it very much and even tripped on the stage and ate it pretty hard. But the villagers demanded pictures and Mark was kind of enough to bring his camera (as well as point and laugh a lot) so as you can see a photo of Evan wearing shoes. I did however write a script so you cant save the photo for black mailing purpose. So don't even try right-clicking the photo and trying to download or save a copy of it....

Widgets and Gadgets

So much to post about, so little time. I still want to post about the weekend and the wearing shoes and all that, but first I thought it might be fun to share the brand new Amped OC widget. Yes thats right we have our own widget. So if you want a box to stay on your screen and easily check when new things have hit the site then this is the thing for you! Just click the link from the right! When you download it, its going to be a zip file, so you're going to have to unzip it, so just double-click it and let windows or apple do their magic!

To live is Christ, to die is gain

Last night we looked at a passage in Philippians where Paul bluntly says, "To live is Christ, to die is gain." Paul is telling us that we are to live life, to really live it. And the only way to really live life is to live a life for Jesus. Paul then says that death is gain, because Paul knows that when he dies on earth he will be in Heaven, a place with no pain or sorrow, a place that where God is worshiped. So Paul's attitude is something like this, "If I die and go to Heaven sweet, but the best thing for everyone is if I stay around and keep preaching Jesus" We too should have this focus, knowthat one day we will be in Heaven, but until that day comes live a life of sharing Jesus with our friends, family, and anyone else we may encounter.

Pumpkin Carving

April and I carved some pumpkins last night with friends. Here are our final creations, April carved a cute and lovable Gizmo. I carved Jack Sparrow while my friend Glenn carved Jack's arch Nemesis Davy Jones. And Finally Valerie carved Lightning McQueen from the movie "Cars".

Observations of the Temptation

So this past weekend I spoke for the college group and gave a message on the temptation. The reference is Matthew 4:1-11.

When it rains it pours

You know the old saying, when it rains it pours. And as you look to the photo on the right your might be wondering what exactly is raining here? Shoes my friends, shoes. In the span of 1 single week, Monday to Monday I will have to wear shoes 4 times. Now i can't remember the last time I wore actual shoes with laces. I went running once or twice this year and had shoes on for less than an hour. Then there was a friend's wedding 14 months ago that I wore shoes to (because I was in the wedding). But other than that shoes and I don't make the best of friends. And yet I havent worn real shoes with laces in months (and as a side note growing up ALL of my shoes were slip ons or velcro, something i am very proud of). So no laced up shoes in months and now I have to wear them 4 times. It all started with today, Pastor Mike Lutz is in Belize on a mission trip and asked me if I could do the shopping for the food bank. This is something I used to do and was quite excited to go back. But as I drove there I remembered the warehouse rules, closed toes shoe only, my kyrptonite. So there I am on the freeway figuring that I have to pull over and buy a pair of shoes. I mean I cant turn around and go home, cause there aren't any shoes there. So i had to stop at my parents place and "borrow" a pair of my dad's shoes. (i'll return them don't worry) So i have to do that again next monday, so there is twice in a week that i have to wear real shoes. Then there is this Sunday which is "No Bare Feet Day" so i will be wearing shoes then, and finally, this Saturday is the World Famous Mud Run. I am running a 10k with some other people from church and its going to be crazy. There is a map to the left, let me point some places of interest to you. Slippery Hill, River Crossing, and Suicide Hill. Then there are the tire walls, the army crawls under barb wire, and running in thick mud. I am really excited, but not really exicted that I have to wear shoes for the forth time.

Paul's perspective

Last night we saw in the book of Philippians, Paul was excited that people wanted to preach Jesus. Even though half of the people didn't like Paul and they didnt get along with him, Paul was just excited that Jesus was being preach. Paul never got jealous over it. Its cause Paul has some great perspective, instead of getting jealous because he was in prison and they were preaching, Paul got excited that good things were happening. So April and I enjoy carving pumpkins every year, we have never been into carving scary things, so we carve super heros and video game characts, as well as fall decorations and the occasional Napleon Dynamite. Now many people don't believe that we actually carved these. I assure you we did, there are photos of us doing it. This year we have some big plans, stay "Tuned In" to see what we do this year!

Daniel and Friends

So we talk about perspective a lot and our beloved worship leader Mark talks about Batman a lot as well. (And with good reason as Batman is the best superhero, don't make me bring up the kyprtonite bullet theory) So back on subject, I stumbled across a cool photo that I wanted to share. You can see it to the right, its a newer form of art that I have been enjoying recently, its side walk chalk art. You can see the artist against the back wall but can you tell "where the side walk ends" and where the art starts?


This past Sunday we looked at the first half of Daniel. These texts are filled with such beautiful stories of contrasting cultures and contrasting points of view. On one side we see the Babylonian Empire where Kings rule how they feel is right. On the other side is Daniel and his friends who are from their Jewish culture and they worship God. We see time and time again Daniel and friends were required to follow laws that were in direct opposition to their Jewish beliefs. The law told them they had to break promises they had made God. But in every circumstance we see Daniel and his friends refusing to break God's law. We also see that God took care of them every time they made a stand to fear God rather than fear man. As Christians we should never compromise our beliefs, we should also choose God's way, knowing that being in God' s will is much much better than finding security in man's way.

"What has happened to me"

Last night we looked at just 3 verses in Philippians, 1:12-14. And in verse twelve Paul tosses down the "What has happened to me" like its no big deal, so we took a look at what happened to Paul. Looking at Acts 21 through the end of the book, we saw all the crazy stuff that happened to him, imprisonment, trials, shipwrecks, all the bad stuff imaginable. So after Paul glances over that stuff like its no big deal he tells us that because of the things that have happened, he has encouraged others to follow Christ. Paul tells us he was the first to try something and since he did it we should be encouraged to do it as well. Last night we also brought up the subject of evan getting viciously attacked by a rabid squirrel. There I was minding my own business on vacation and a crazy, wild eyed squirrel sprung from the shadows, attacking me without reason. At least I think thats how it happened, the good news is we have it on video, so you can judge for yourself.

Ezekiel

So this past Sunday we looked at the book of Ezekiel, which interestingly enough is a book about the life of, thats right you guessed it, Ezekiel. Ezekiel was a very visual teacher, God had him do various things that demonstrated God's message. My favorite of these was when Ezekiel had to lay siege against the city of Jerusalem. God had him draw and build a model of the city and then lay on it for 390 days, then roll over and lay siege for another 40 days. The model in the photo is interesting as it is a model of the city of Moscow from the 70s. Models are sweet and I would totally buy this thing if 1) I had the space to build it and 2) I had $3 million dollars laying around to afford the thing. But if I had $3 million I wouldnt spend it on a model of Russia, I would spend it on the Lego model of the Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer. That model only costs $300, so i could have a fleet of 10,000 of them. It would be so awesome. And in case you were wondering, the plural form of the word Lego is Lego. And in case you were wondering what a Lego Star Wars Imperial Star Destroyer does (other than destory stars) or looks like, I included an interactive model below.

Shout Outs of Encouragement

So last night we talked about encouragement. We saw how when Paul opened up his letter in Philippians he was so excited to write to the people of Philippi and always had the best things to say to them. We then talked about how important it is to encourage one another, and not with just words but also with actions.
AmpedOC.com is a pretty sweet website, i mean i like it. But what is cool, is it is super high tech. I can tell how many people visit the website and where they visit from, and recently we have been having some international visitors, so i wanted to give a shout out to the people in Roissy-en-Brie, Swindon, and Porto Alegre. Roissy-en-Brie is in France and is a quaint village, but I really like saying their name. Swindon is a small market town in the South West of England and Porto Alegre is one of the largest cities in Brazil. So there is your geography lesson for the day. I also want to give a shout out to this roller bladder man. He even has wheels on his back so he can flip around and speed down hills that way. Once you can strap a rocket pack on I am so selling my Saturn and getting one of these suits for my daily travel needs!

History of the World (in 90 seconds or less)

So while studying the book of Ezekiel I ran across this very cool map. It is a map of the areas around Israel and who controled them over the the last 5,000 years. My favorite part of the map is the very very end, showing all the different nations that have fought over the city of Jerusalem.

Amped All Night

Wow! What a night that was. It was so much fun and excitment. Let me see if I can go over how the night went, and don't forget, click the link to the right for all 365 photos. To the right you can see the Velcro Wall. Its a simple concept, hop into a suit made of velcro, run, jump on a bounce area and then get stuck to the wall. It was awesome, especially when people got stuck! We also had the Bungee Run. Another great concept, we put you in a harness that is attached to the wal by giant bungee cords. You then run at top speed and see how far you can make it before getting snapped back. Many great races took place. There was also the bounce house, and this is a concept I absolutely love. Make a houce out of inflatable walls, flooring, and ceiling. More houses should be built like this! There was an entire upstairs area that had ping-pong, foosball, airhockey, Dance-Dance, High-Definition Gaming, and a chill room. After going crazy for hours on these activties we all got together and played some group games. The first game was cricket spitting. The game goes exatly as it sounds, the winner is the one who can spit the cricket the furthest. And once again a girl won this event, and not only 1 girl, 3 of the girls all beat the boys best distance. I don't know why girls are better than boys at spitting crickets, but that would be a great topic for a research paper. The second game was charades. Various leaders had to act out different clues. I had lots and lots of fun thinking of different clues for the leaders to act out. One of my favorites was Matthew trying to act out "E=Mc²". Yes I know this is a difficult clue, but someone figured it out. Why Matthew is pointing to the lights was a little confusing, sure the "c" stands for the speed of light, but i didnt see the lights moving... The next game was Gorilla, Man, Gun. Everyone played and we whittled it down to just one winning player. The pictures to the right demonstrate how the game is played, that or Lindy is just showing us how buff she really is. We then had a raffle and tossed out tons of prizes! To the left you can see one of the raffle prizes we gave out, it was a shirt from "The Weekend" that we had this year. Mark your calendars for next year, March 8-11th, The Weekend 2007. After tossing out all the prizes, Evan gave a message on the truth. We looked at how God created absolutely everything. And how we all have made poor choices, we all have sinned. And sin seperates us from God. But God wanted this relationship restored so Jesus died on the cross to bridge this gap of seperation. And to restore this relationship all we have to do

is accept this gift from Jesus. And this is exactly happened that night. Over 25 students raised thier hands saying they wanted this restored relationship. It was an honor to hand out Bibles to everyone that made this life-changing decesion. So please keep in prayer everyone that made that decesion, that they can continue to grow in Christ. After this awesome time, it was time for the Night Game. This year we decided to take the night game to the next level. So the game started with a video. A hilarious video if i might add, and the video is located at the end of this post for your viewing pleasure. Everyone then had to solve the mystery and eventually 1 student was the first to solve all 3 mysteries. It was a great game, and a great night. Amped All Night version 2.0 was amazing and i can't wait until next years!!!