Youth Happenings

This Sunday, October 18th we are going to meet at our church from 5:30-7:00 for pizza and fellowship. Please bring $5 and friends.

Sunday, October 25 at 7:00 will be Praise Loud!

Stay tuned for more news!

We are coming home!!

We left New Jersey Sunday morning, stopped by the Hershey Plant in Hershey, PA and got on the road to Paris, TX. We switched drivers often and stopped for a short nap in Tennessee. We arrived at Shanna's parents about 10:30 pm. They had prepared Baked Potatos and brownies and SHOWERS!!! After being on the road for 2 days we were quite hungry and very stinky! Their neighbors also opened up their homes for showers which was awesome, so we got all but a few showered and all of us fed, and then headed to very welcome beds.

This mission trip summed up in one word from several people....eye-opening, awesome, encouraging, harvest, fulfilling.

This has been an amazing trip and we are all ready to be home with our families. We have been so blessed to go on this trip and thank you for all of your donations so we could do this. This week, after catching up on sleep, we will post a link to view our photos online so stay tuned!

love to all....First Baptist Church Kyle Youth

Day 9

Well we made it to New Jersey Friday evening and caught our first glimpse of the Manhattan skyline. We also got our first taste of real traffic. We were 30 miles from our destination and it took us 2 hours to get there. However, when we pulled into the Westin Hotel it was worth the wait! The youth were so excited to stay in such a nice hotel and I was happy to get it for such a reduced rate (thank you Hotwire.com).

Yesterday was a crazy day!! We started with the light rail to the ferry. Went by ferry past Ellis Island and then on to the Statue of Liberty. Man she is really big and amazing! After this we boarded another ferry and headed into New York City! While on the ferry Whittany kept hearing someone yell her name and turned around to see her grandma, great grandma, aunts, and some cousins. What a small world in such a crazy big city. We went to Battery Park and had hot dogs off carts. Then we traveled a few blocks up to Ground Zero. We visited Fire Station 10 that is right beside that and were inspired at what we saw. Head over a few blocks and you find St Pauls Church. It is a neat church that firefighters and police officers used during 9/11 cleanup to pray and rest. It was very humbling being there.

Then the craziness began, we took two subway trains up to Chinatown. That was an experience. From there we took the subway again to see the Empire State Building and on to Times Square. After many hours of walking and looking around with wide eyes, we headed back to the hotel via subway and PATH train. The best thing that happened all day is that we took MANY subways and did not loose anyone!!

Today we will begin our journey back. We are all ready to get home to our beds, moms and dads and our pets. Please pray for our journey back and we will keep you posted from the road.

Day 8

Good Morning! We are heading out for our last day of Backyard Bible Clubs. Pray for the kids as they present the gospel for the last time, say goodbye and try to get over leaving a part of their hearts in the town of Meriden, CT.

We have had a great week and are excited to head to New Jersey tonight and into NYC! These kids have worked so hard this week, through rain and all kinds of odd happenings. We have learned h0w to be fluid and flexible and full of joy. (we will admit that we have not perfected this but are trying)

The bus, van and space shuttle are loaded, Whittany and I are waiting for our checkout papers and we will head over to White Oak Baptist Church to prepare the final lunch. After lunch we will head out for New Jersey.

I did forget to post last night about our lunch yesterday.....Whittany and I decided to treat the kids to pizza, we found a Domino's and when one of the workers at Walmart overheard us talking about it, she said..."Ewww, don't eat there! Eat anywhere but there!" So we found Franco's Pizzeria. YUMMMMMYYY! This guy is from Italy and he was separating the fresh dough he had just made from scratch into pizza portions, he had herbs drying on a tray behind him and he told us "I maka my own sausage". Oh my goodness, it was so good and the kids LOVED it!!

I will post more tonight. Please pray for safe travels also today.

Photos

Day 7

We had a great day today!! We went out this morning and had 14 saved! This was such a testimony to how Jesus is working on this trip. A lot of the kids are having a hard time saying goodbye and we are going to have to check luggage to make sure we don't have any tag-a-long kiddos.

Tonight was back to the park for a ice cream party. The gospel was presented and we had parents saved as well as kids tonight. Wonderful news that some of these kids are going home to parents who know Jesus. Lou and Janet from New Beginnings will follow up with all of these adults and kids to make sure they get on the right track.

This has been such an experience for our youth. Thank you for providing that for them. I am going to post photos, but cannot do many with faces due to privacy issues and the Internet, you will have to come see the power point at church when we get back.

Sunset at Hammanaset State Park

Devotion time at the park

The water was cold, but the boys headed in!

Lance, Kayla and Whittany snoozing

Many thanks to West Jackson Baptist Church for housing us our first night out. This is a beautiful church right up the road from Union University in Jackson, TN.




View of the bridge over the Mississippi River in Memphis, TN

Heading into Arkansas!

Day 6

Good evening! We had a great day today, sunny and breezy. Our kids are doing well and having so much fun introducing Christ to their new friends at the Backyard Bible Club. We have had 14 salvations this week and are still praying for more.

Tonight we went back to Friendship Baptist Church for their Wed night service. We had a great time eating dinner and hanging out with the youth from Friendship.

Enjoy some photos of our trip up here and the beginning of our week!

Days 4-5

Sorry for not posting yesterday, we were so busy by the time we got to bed, I just forgot to post.

Monday started off beautiful. The youth were excited to get to their parks and get started. We had kids coming in to learn about Christ and had several who gave their heart to Him. After lunch they did some prayer walking and felt good about what they were doing in Jesus name.

Monday evening we went to Hammanasek Park and got to swim in the Atlantic Ocean. It was cold but the kids braved it and dove in....they even coaxed Bro. Jeff in with them! We had a picnic and devotion time under the trees in the park and it was cool, breezy, and nice. There were huge seagulls that the kids were feeding bread too, Analynn was the first to try it and they would swoop down and it scared her. She said that the "pelicans" were going to eat her! It was a beautiful place and we had a lot of fun and fellowship!

Today was forecast for rain....and it rained. We let the kids sleep in while we decided what to do. We went ahead and went out into the parks with tarps and tents. We had kids come out and we were glad that we decided to go ahead and come. Everyone was soaked and headed back to the hotel to change and head to lunch of Chicken and Dumplins. Something that we just don't fix or eat in July, but it was 65 degrees and raining, and it was perfect. We also had cupcake cake for Kayla's 18th birthday!

Speaking of birthdays, we have had a lot of them so far, Taylor was on Friday, Lane on Saturday, Sherry on Sunday, Kayla today, and Jeff on Monday! I wonder what the odds of that are?

Tonight we went to Friendship Baptist Church in Litchfield, CT. This is Bro. Jeff's former church. On the way we passed by the most photographed church in New England. It is beautiful! We were served dinner, played games and had devotion time. When we headed out it was really storming, but we got back to our hotel in one piece.

Tomorrow is supposed to be rainy some, but not in the morning, so hopefully we will have a drier day.

Day 3

We have arrived!!! After a crazy, unintended, trip into to NYC's upper side, we arrived in Meriden about 2 hours late. We were met street side at New Beginning Church and ushered in for prayer time and dinner.

As I said this morning, we started our day very early and I was in awe at God's beauty in the Virginia Mountains! What I was wrong about is how many states we were going through today....it was not 5, it was 7!! We left Virginia, went into West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Maryland, New Jersey, New York, and finally into Connecticut. Unbelievable!! I could not sleep, I was afraid I would miss something. The kids, on the other hand, slept a lot!

After dinner tonight we went out and scouted the mission park sites. We will be in three parks, Mills, Foster-Groves, and Crescent. This is a area that has kids that have seen so many more things than our kids ever will. We have such an awesome opportunity to serve and introduce Jesus to them all! After seeing where they will be and hearing some of the things they will be seeing and what to expect, they are all ready to head out on to this mission field. There is such love in these youth and I am excited to see them share it.

We got checked into our hotel tonight and as I write this, my three sweet roomies are sacked out in the beds. We will be starting tomorrow at the parks at 9:30 eastern time, so please pray for us.

Now that we are settled in a room and I am not posting this from the road, I will try to get some photos up tomorrow.

Good night!

Day 2

Good morning from the beautiful state of Virginia, where we woke up to 54 degrees! We had a hard day of traveling yesterday and made it into Salem, VA about 7:oo pm. The highways of trees were replaced by beautiful foothills and then amazing mountains. I am in awe at God's beauty and creation in this part of the country. We stayed at the home of Stefanie and Chad McAdam last night, Stefanie's parents are at the mission church we are going to in Connecticut. The fed us and we played in their awesome yard.

Wakeup call at 3:30 this morning was hard and after packing the suburban, gassing up and eating we were on the road by 4:40 am. We will pass through 5 states today....to this Texas girl that is something that I am just going to have to experience to believe is possible. We are arriving in Meriden, Connectifut this afternoon about 3:00 and Brother Jeff is preaching at their service when we arrive.

Watching the sun come up this morning over the mountains was unbelievable. Right now, the steam is coming off the small ponds and the fog is settled in the valleys. This is beautiful country. I am going to have to find some new adjectives so I don't keep writing the same ones every day.

The kids are doing great.....the adults are a little sleepy but are also good. I will post again later when we get into the hotel.

Love to all and thank you for your prayers.

Day 1

Good morning from the Volunteer state! We got off to a great start from Kyle, sent off at 5:45 with breakfast tacos prepared by Scott Squires (THANK YOU). Lunch was picnic style at the Arkansas Visitor Center and we all enjoyed a welcome hour in beautiful weather out of the bus and vehicles. Passing into Tennessee over the Mississippi river was beautiful and we arrived in Jackson, Tennessee last night about 7:00 and were welcomed into West Jackson Baptist Church with open arms.

I noticed that almost all of Arkansas and the beginning of Tennessee look a lot like East Texas except very green and all of the ponds were actually full of water. We are looking forward to travelling across TN today and seeing the mountains. We will arrive in Salem, VA early evening tonight.

Everyone traveled well today and the 13 hours passed by before we knew it. We are doing a study in James and it is starting off great.

Please keep praying for safe traveling today and we will post photos tonight.

Mission Trip

Well.....we are about 31 hours away from leaving for our mission trip to Connecticut! The final training was completed tonight and I think everyone is almost packed and ready to go.

A few reminders....we are packing the vehicles tomorrow, Thursday, night at 8 PM. Bring your large duffel and sleeping bag to load in the van/suburban. Keep your overnight bag, pillow, and blanket to pack on Friday morning.

Keep your eyes open for our daily updates with photos and pray for our team.

What is going on in the youth group.....

We have moved Dinner and a Movie night to next Tuesday, July 7th. More information will be coming in the next few days.

THANK YOU to all of the youth who showed up and worked at VBS! We had a great week!!!

Workday Wednesdays: For the next two to three weeks we will not have a normal workday. It has become too hot for anyone to be out doing work in the afternoon, so we are going to coordinate our needs to be taken care of in the morning. If you need to rent a youth for any work(yard work, house work, shopping, etc) please contact the church office and let Pam know what you need. We will contact you and set up a good time to complete your needs.

Mission Trip training: For everyone going on the Mission Trip to Connecticut, we are going to be meeting on Wednesdays at 4:00 to work in our teams for Backyard Bible Clubs. Plan to attend every meeting. Bring $3 for dinner and we will go into bible study starting at 7:00 and concluding at 8:30.

4th of July gathering at the Aguilar Home, Saturday July 4th starting at 5:00 and ending after the fireworks show.

Mission Trip parent meeting next Sunday, July 5th, immediately after the morning service at the front of the sanctuary.

Vacation Bible School and this weeks events

The time of Boomerang Express is creeping up on us. If you pass through the church the aroma of paint and sharpee markers in strong, and there are many strange things showing up all around. We are down to the week before VBS and that means decorating the church! If you are available this week we can use all the help we can get. Call, email, or text me if you would like to know times we will be at the church.

This week we are heading up the rock...Enchanted Rock that is. Tuesday at 9:00 am a group will be leaving the church. If I remember correctly it is bring a sack lunch and $ for dinner. I will change this tomorrow if I am not correct.

Wednesday is another workday, in addition to VBS work that needs to be done, we are renting out the youth again to raise money for our Mission Trip. If you need a youth please contact the church office and we will send one out to you! Youth need to be at the church at 1:00 and bring $3 for dinner. We will conclude the night at 8:30 after worship and bible study.

And lastly, but certainly quite important....we have raised $2000 for our trip so far. Thank you God for blessing us with these donations, it means so much to us.

Teams for Mission Trip

Yesterday the Youth Council put together mission teams for our Connecticut Mission Trip. These teams will all be meeting on Sunday nights at 5:30. If you are going to Connecticut you need to attend these meetings. Each team consists 5-6 members, Bible Story, Mission Story, Music, Memory Verse, and Games. One person on each team is in charge of each area. If you are unable to attend these Sunday meetings you need to see one of the leaders and discuss your role on the Mission Trip. Every one is excited about this trip. Almost everyone has been trained, and those who have not are in the process. As Brother Jeff said this is a Mission Trip, our youth are going to a very unchurched area to be Missionaries. Greater things are yet to come through these youth with God in charge!

Getting Started

Good Morning! This is going to be a great day in the Lord! Welcome to the new FBC Kyle Youth blog. I have started this blog for the youth and parents so we can get everyone informed of the awesome things happening in our youth group. It will also serve as our daily diary while we are on our mission trip to Connecticut. Stay tuned for more as I get this updated with the youth calendar, youth council happenings and other information. If you have any questions or would like something posted, email me at cmckyle@austin.rr.com

Cindy