Creation!

By Brian Roberts

Another year at creation for the youth from FUMC, and we’re off to a great start. After a short seven and a half hours of travel, we’ve made it back to Agape Farm.

When we made it to our campsite, camp setup began at once. Wade and CG mowed the lawn like heroes, so that we could pitch tents (which was a breeze for the boys, naturally) and set up the tables and such.

All of our preparations were necessary, and seemed to go way faster than years past. When we were done, we chilled out around camp and finally went to bed.

In the morning (wednesday) Brooke started the epic off with a devotional about the town of Bethany – a reminder of the devotional series from last year’s pilgrimage. With all the work done, it was the first time it really hit me that I was back. It’s time for Creation – a face to face encounter with God that none of us will ever forget.

The excitement could only possibly build as phrases like “chicken parm” and “merch tent” began circling around the campsite. Personally, the vendor-thrill climaxed at my first snow cone of the season.

When you hear someone describe Creation, you hear a lot about the music, and that’s a huge part of what’s happening here, but Creation is even more than a rock-your-face-off Skillet concert or rocking out to Relient K with your friends – it’s the fellowship around the campsite and just hanging out that really make the experience unforgettable, especially for first timers

Dear readers, I just want to thank you for your thoughts and prayers this week. Creation is a great experience for so many reasons. You should probably try it. Seriously. Come on down.

Creation 2009!

By Joe Webb
Welcome to the IHS Youth 2009 Creation blog! We’ll be sending periodic updates of our Creation Festival experience over the next few days. Right now we’re getting ready for the first worship service. We’re having trouble getting Wi-Fi service from our campsite(blogging from my cell phone for now), but we’ll blog what we can when we can.
Stay tuned!

Chew on This

By Anna Webb

So here we are, with about 3 hours of fasting to go. I’m not really feeling the hunger at this point. But then again, this is my fifth year.

Famine, for me, has always been an incredible experience. The way we worship at this event blows my mind. It’s uninhibited and real. And that’s what worship is supposed to be.

Speaking of worship: I gave my first real message last night. (: That was a good time. I had to cut it a little short, though. I felt I was losing my audience to sleep and food deprivation. After all, it was midnight.

I wanted to give the message at the midnight service this year because it’s a service that always speaks to me. Imagine being in the church, in the middle of the night, away from all of the noise of the world. Only music. Only worship. Only praise. It gets me every time.

So, it probably goes without saying that the midnight service is my favorite part of famine. Moving on:

This morning we helped serve the community breakfast. This was the first year that we have had to serve food to others, while fasting. It was definitely a challenge. Although, at that point, I’m positive that most of us were too tired to think about food.

We had amazing worship with Adam’s band this morning, before they packed up to head out. Worship with them is always fantastic. And we can always persuade Adam to play “Light the Fire,” no matter how much he hates it.

But now I’ve gotta wrap this thing up. So I want to leave you with this: 30 Hour Famine is an incredible experience. No matter how many times I fast, each time is different, and each time, I find a new way to connect with God on a more personal level. I am saving lives. And that is one of the most amazing things to be able to say. Because I sacrificed just 30 hours of my time, a child that I will never even get to meet, gets to have a meal today.

Chew on that next time you’re hungry.

In His Grip,

Anna

food? nope.

By Josie Tomsik

uhm, so famine has been a great experience as always:) i Love not eating, wow, thats a funny statement. Anyways other than the food subject, we have had an awesome time! Staying up late is normal, and keeping water in you is always a great idea.  We made a ‘cardboard city’ which was so much fun.  But then the rain kicked in and ruined our hard work. Good news though, we managed to make some people notice us. We had a visit from Micheal Herb who put my sister and my picture in the paper. Neither of us expected it, but it was a pleasant suprize. Worship service was fantastic! Everyone just looked so happy and so moved. God was deffentily with us, Tim also was into the music. He plays drums and he couln’t keep a smile off his face. Haha Anna Webb. Creations coming up and im so  excited its unreal. Famines an awesome experience and i LOVE every second of my hunger

Soulfood!

by Brian Roberts

Famine, famine, famine…  There are so many amazing stories and experiences involved in this world-changing event, so many that it would be futile to attempt to describe each one.  However, I will describe to you some of the hilights of 30 hour famine ‘09.

Firstly, as you may already have learned, famine provides a worldwide service to many youth experiencing starvation, but here at IHS Youth Group, it also provides service to the community.  Not even the rain could stop our dedicated and hardworking students from cavassing door-to-door for donations of canned goods, toilet paper, and other nonperishable items for the benefit of the community.  What’s more important, or as Joe put it – counter-cultural - is the inquiry for prayer requests that accompanied each plea for nonperishables.  Many people were puzzled by our simple questions.  Seeing students spending their time towards charity was enough of a shock, but they would even put theirselves on the line to ask for prayer requests?  Indeed, the youth of the church have much to be proud of tonight.

Speaking of pride, I would like to make a shout-out to the Jaguars of Bolivia, my team’s “tribe” during the gaming sessions of the night.  Several fun and amazing games were organized, including a crab soccer tournament, a relay of fascinating teamwork efforts, and team hide and seek.  All teams had much fun in these endeavors, and while the Jaguar’s efforts earned them the first spot in line to break the fast, each individual in participation gleaned a sense of accomplishment in this fellowship experience.

Another noteworthy experience is the praise and worship led by Adam, a friend of the youth group that has come to every 30 hour famine here for as long as I can remember.  Their passion for worship definately shines through their music as the famine participants sing, dance, and clap along with the songs in performance.  Personally, the band is my favorite part of the experience, and I’m thankful to see them each year.

Currently, we have just finished up Joe’s Bible study.  Stomaches rumbling, we discussed being the salt and the light of the world, and the impact famine has on our peers as well as the people we set out to help.  Many adults would criticize the youth of the day as whipper-snappers, lazy, and uncaring.  I cannot help but wonder whether seeing a collection of students from different grades, “cliques,” and circumstances come together for such a holy cause and sitting together in the youth room of our church just talking about Jesus and what he expects of his disciples would change their minds about us.

 

In less than an hour and a half, the fast will be broken and our stomaches will thank us for finally answering their cries, but the focus of the event will not be lost.  Our charge from God to get out and do something was fulfilled this weekend, and the light we’ve shone will effect people near and far.  We’ve all learned a little something about ourselves, too. 

SUDDEN IMPACT!!!

By Alex Gedon:

     Faith without deeds is dead.  Deads without faith is dead.  When they combine it is a SUDDEN IMPACT!  That is what this weekend was all about coming and fasting to draw closer to God.  My most specific example for this is the worship service.  We were there just singing and praising God even though we were hungry.  It happened so quick I had the SUDDEN IMPACT with God at the worship service.  I have always been a christian and I know that God was right there next to me just saying I love you and I will never leave you.  I was the best part of famine for me.  I was so tired at the midnight service but I was just overjoyed with the spirit that Their was no way I was going to bed.  Every worship service was the best their was no number one they were all equally great. The eight o’clock service was so alive with energy.  The midnight service we were all so tired but we all wanted to be there praising God.  Then the morning service had the sun pouring down on us as we praised God.  Every part of famine was incredible ,but each worship service their was a SUDDEN IMPACT with Christ. I think that those impacts got me through it all.  Last year was great but I was very hungry.  This is a famine I will always remember and that is a fact no doubt.

30 hour famine

By Brooke Cieslewski

Hey the 30 hour famine is great! We have played games that taught us about the troubles of people who live in places like Bolivia, Columbia, Peru, and Brazil. It made me think that we  have so much in our lives and we still complain, and peolpe who starve and have things like malaria just keeps chugin along and don’t ask for our help, but we help anyway. When you doing 30 hour famine it makes you think about what your accualy doing to help and it makes your relationship with God even closer. In worship you get realy into what your doing and makes you thankful for everything in your life, but it also makes you just want to help the people around the world even more. When you do help, at the end of the day you just think, “Wow, this IS making a difference.” And you end the day with a job well done. It doesnt get any better than that. So next time when your complaning or your just moping because nothings going your way, just think about the people (even though you can’t see them), but you know they are way worse than you, take the time to pray and do something about it. Think about doing 30 hour famine, it a wonderful way to still learn about what your doing but still have fun . Don’t stay chained to a pue.

It’s time to blog

By Bryan Lampkin

Soooooo…it’s hour 28 without food. This no food thing is starting catch up with the most of us. To be honest, I just woke up from a little nap along with wade and brooke while everyone else was serving the breakfast. Last night was quite a night. The Bolivian Jaguars proved their dominance in our series of “tribal war” games. By the looks of it, team Bolivia will be eating first come 2 p.m. when we break our fast. You’re probably sitting there wondering what the heck I’m talking about. Well…for 30 hours famine, we split our group into four teams: Brazil, Columbia, Peru, and Bolivia. Throughout our lockin, we play a series of games, and the winner of that game will get a “winners” card. At the end of famine, the team with the most cards will beable to get first in line when we can FINALLY eat. But anyways, worship last night was pretty awsome. Our first worship service, at 8, was spiritually moving. We had a handful of the congregration who came out to worship and supported us. Up next was Tom’s talk. I can’t even describe it enough for you to beable to understand completely. But I know it opened up my eyes on how Jesus saves us. Then we chilled and played some games in which boliva rules!!! I’d like to thank everyone who is supporting us at home and to everyone who is following us on this fast.

God Bless

Rise & shine!

6:30 am and we’re preparing to head into the final 7 hours of the fast. It will be interesting to see how the kids handle the challenge of serving breakfast to folks from our communitywhen they haven’t eaten since yesterday morning. I’ll try to get some of them to blog this morning…we were so busy with activities last night they didn’t get a chance to get online.

We’re heading into the hard part now, so please keep us in your prayers. The upside is that we slept more last night than at any previous lock-in, so everyone should be well rested to fight through the last few hours. Thanks to all of you who came out for the 8pm worship service last night. Hope to see even more of you at our communion service at 1pm today!

Joe

Awesome worship!

(Tried to post this at 1:30 am but lost the wireless connection.)

WOW! 17 hours into the fast, and everyone’s still going strong, although the lack of energy is beginning to show. Two awesome worship services tonite at 8pm and midnight with fantastic messages from Tom and Anna about Grace and Worship. Adam and the band were off the hook!

Time to grab a few hours of sleep and see what the morning brings…