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!
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.
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!!!
Duct Tape has always been one of my favorite things. There are so many wonderful uses for the stuff. The photo to the left is some highschoolers that went to prom in a tux and dress made only of duct tape. I know what you are thinking, what kind of weirdos do something like that? But actually its a contest a duct tape company has every year, the winning outfits get giant scholarships for college. But this is the newest installment to the podcast, its a message about, yes you guess it duct tape.
Amped All Night is rocking along. All is going well. I bought most of the *Food * Soda * Candy * yesterday, buts odds are i'll get more. But lets say that the variety is there. I counted there are like 20-30 different items you can buy. This means if you buy 5 items there are 24,300,000 different combos you could get. And i thought Mc Donalds had a lot of combos with 14 Extra Value Meals. Take that Golden Arches we have 24 million combos. The menu might be a tad large, uh can i get a Number 7,423,495. The night is going to be fun. We have had a TON of preregistrations, but sig-up before Friday to avoid the registration line, and save $2, $2 that you can buy * Food * Soda * Candy with.
Jeremiah had a tough life, rejected by friends, family, neighbors, kings, his audience, pretty much everyone rejected the message Jeremiah had, even though it was a message direct from God. But what is so cool about Jeremiah is that he stuck through it. He found his strength in God and not in man. And throughout all of it God had a plan for Jeremiah, before Jeremiah was even born God had a plan for him. God has a similar to plan for each and everyone of us. That is so cool!! Amped All Night is coming along beautifully. Later this week I have to fill up all the balloons for the balloon room. Thats a whole lot of balloons, like millions or billions of them. Its going to take all the air out of my lungs, i will be so out of breathe i may not have enough air to breathe myself. Nah, i'll use an air pump, make life eaier. But the night is getting really exciting. We already have a ton of people on the VIP list. To get on the list sign-up by Wednesday and get the wristband and not have to wait in registration line. Thats it. Its going to be a magical evening, there is still one GIAGANTOR surprise i haven't mentioned yet. But lets keep that a secret just a touch longer...
Another message for the podcast. This past Sunday I spoke for Expand College Minsitries at Ocean Hills and we talked about choices. Everyday we make choices, from small choices such as what should I have for breakfast, to big choices as what do I want to do with the rest of my life. So this message is a look at 3 events in David's life where he had to make a choice.
This has been a difficult week for Amped Ministries. Our beloveded Mark and Gilda who are 20 weeks pregnant with their son Caleb had some complications. Currently Caleb has a good heart beat and is moving (a lot from what the nurse says) but Caleb is in danger. So much that Gilda has to remain in the hospital until the birth. Please keep Mark and Gilda Bates in your prayers daily. Pray that Caleb can be a full term baby (meaning he is in the belly for al 9 months) and pray that Mark and Gilda can be strengthened by God. Mark and Gilda have a positive outlook now, knowing that everything is part of God's will. I have had many requests from people asking how to help. First and foremost, pray. Prayer heals. But if you would like to help out in a specific way such as cooking a meal, since we all know hospital food isn't as great as your secret family chili recipe, or anything else. Email me and I would love to coordinate that with them and they would really appreciate it.
So this past Sunday we finished the book of Isaiah. Isaiah was known as the Messianic Prophet because so much of his focus was on the coming Messiah. Isaiah's audience is very similar to us. Isaiah had a glimpse of the future God showed him what was to come. But the people rejected Isaiah, ignored what he had to say, and eventually killed him. We live in a time where John the disciple was given a similar glimpse into the future and God showed him what is to come. Are we going to reject what John wrote in Revelation or are we going to live our lives in anticipation for the coming King? I'm getting so pumped for Amped All Night, I am finishing up the night game right now getting it planned, we have almost 3-4 times more glowsticks than last year. The DJ has been confirmed and He is way awesome, one of the coolest guys I know!!! And I am working on what food, candy soda will be there. All I know is I really love hot dogs, but you won't see any hot dogs that look like this at Amped All Night!
Happy 50th!!! No not to Disneyland, but to AmpedOC.com This marks the 50th post to the website. Blow out the candles, unwrap the presents, and get ready for the cake and ice cream. Can't wait for the next 50 posts, or the next 100, or the next millionth post. Today I get to work more on Amped All Night. I decided yesterday that we don't have enough bounce houses, so I ordered another one. I mean the more bounce houses the better right. This night is going to rock! Make sure to sign-up soon and invite as many friends as possible!
We have officially finished the book of James. This past Wednesday we did a recap of all parts of the book. One of my favorite parts was always the concept of Wisdom. James starts out his book by saying if anyone of us lack wisdom, we should ask God, and God will give us wisdom. So often times we don't take this approach, we make our own decisions and never bring it before the Lord. I think there would be a lot less hurt feelings in the world if more people sought God's council before they made decisions. Since we were talking about wisom, I thought i would share a photo of the Yoda backpack. It unzips and you can put all your school books in it. If i had school books I would buy this. I don't have school books and I might buy this, nah. But seriously for $40 and a brand new school year, this could be the perfect school accessory!
This past Sunday we looked at the first part of Isaiah, Chapters 1-39. We spent a lot of time looking at the example of God as the Potter and us as the clay. God is the Creator, He made us. He took nothing, no materials, no ingredients, no anything and He formed us. He knew us before He wonderfully made us. But sometimes we act as if we aren't the created but the creators. If i baked a batch of gingerbread cookies and all of a sudden one of the gingerbread men started talking smack on me and giving me attitude I would be shocked (and probably bite his head off, literally). Luckily God doesnt do that, but we need to treat God with respect and we need to live life in worship of our Creator. Isaiah is a beautiful book with beautiful descriptions of God. Yet Isaiah as a prophet of God had a very difficult time, as many people didn't want to hear the message he brought from God. I am getting really excited for Amped All night. Make sure to sign-up so you dont have to wait in line that night. Also make sure to invite as many friends as possible. This night will be awesome!
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!
