Deer Creek Retreat with Georgetown Church of the Nazarene!

While the weather could have been a little less frigid and a little more sunshiney, our retreat was STILL a huge success!! You can tell by looking at the pictures below that it was filled with rock wall climbing, singing, fellowship, zip lining, and "Leap of faith"ing!! Thanks again to Georgetown Church for inviting us along!! Let's do it again soon!!


Deana and Allison share face time...

Lindz and Allison get ready to fly...

Lindz doin' her best Spider Man impression....

Makayla works the vertical obstacle course!



Just tryin' to stay warm!

Michael and Connor getting clipped in...

Joshua tree....

Imo and Daniel model some of the latest climbing fashions with one of the camp workers...

Amber and Makayla happy to be alive...

Peter Pan? Nope, just Michael...









The Leap Of Faith!!

Deborah and Sierra get ready to test their faith!

Sierra smiles by the climbing wall

Josh and Lindz posing? No way!

A family portrait...

Livvy climbs above it all...

"We're alive! We're alive!"

Brandon and Cole show the world their mad leaping skilz!

....and afterwards pose for the ladies...

Deborah flies with the greatest of ease...

Lindz looks for the elevator...

....but plays it tough back on the ground with Allison.

Parker and Livvy conquer the Leap!

....after a somewhat 'tentative' start!

Imo thought Sergio was the vertical obstacle course...

More ground-level toughness...

Some unplanned worship broke out!! Praise the Lord!

Brandon's still working on that whole "Hook 'em Horns!" thing...

Parker makin' his way to the top...

Amber looks for style points from the judges...

"B" is for "Boy, that's high".

Deana says, "I'd LIKE to climb 30 feet in the air with frozen fingers and all and then jump off, but as a sacrifice I'm gonna let you kids go instead."

It ain't cold...it's just heat challenged!

Now you're not gonna let go, right?

Pastor Huff was our special speaker and he did a great job!

"Never underestimate the power of prayer."

This is a letter Deana and I received from the mother of Cassie Beach, one of the two girls injured in a horrific car crash. Click on the letter to enlarge it. It is a wonderful reminder of God's mercy, His presence in despair, and His desire for us to call upon Him on behalf of others. She also included a special message to each of you.

Take a moment to read it!!!

Nick at night!!

Last week I asked for someone to step up and lead our Wednesday night Bible study and Nick came through!! He did a great job of challenging us to worship however and whenever God tells us to!! He used the song "Undignified" by the David Crowder Band to highlight his point and brought several Scriptures to show where people in the Bible did just that!! Thanks, Nick, and well done!!

"Acquire The Fire"!!!

The "Acquire The Fire" conference in San Antonio was definitely a highlight so far in 2009!! 23 of us piled into two vans and had a blast of a roadtrip to hear some challenging speakers and worship with the likes of Phil Joel (former Newsboys member), Building 429, Sanctus Real, and Abandon!!

We were challenged to take the things in our lives that needed to be turned over to Christ and nail them to physical crosses that were set up across the auditorium!

There were lots of tears and lives were changed!




Joel Johnson reminded us of the power of the cross!

Josh on display...

Aaron shows us which thumb was going to survive his upcoming bike accident (he broke his other one a week later)!!

Speak no evil, see no evil, and make no goober faces....

Off to lunch!

What 6th graders look like during a session about sex and purity....

The guys' breakout session...

Sanctus Real rocked!!

Ex-Newsboy Phil Joel helped us prepare our hearts with amazing praise and worship times!!

Perched high in Section 128 of Freeman Coliseum...

And now, a shot of our sponsors!!! Thanks Ismael and Gutierrezes!!

Just before departure...

"Hey look, you guys! My eyes match my hat!!"

Sierra takes it all in....

Fundraiser night at Chick-Fil-A!

When was the last time somebody said, "Hey, come hang out at our place, eat some of our food, and we'll give you some cash."? Well, that's exactly what Chick-Fil-A did! They make no apologies for being a Christian-owned business and they could not have been a more gracious host for our fundraising on this Thursday night! Many thanks to Crystal and Cheryl for providing the adult supervision, and to all of you who came out to eat some great food and help us raise some money for our upcoming events!!

Pardues love them some ice cream!!

See what I mean?

Drama Queens!!

A few weeks ago we got to go see two of our most lovely and talented divas in their respective high school productions!! Here you can see Lindsey in her school's presentation of "The Music Man", in which she played TWO roles, one of which was a guy!! Now THAT'S actin'!!

We also got to see Kristin in her school's version of "Little Shop Of Horrors"...here she is on Skid Row....what a bum! :-)

Both girls were awesome and we were sooooo proud!!