This Sunday

I just heard that the group that went to Romania over spring break is doing a presentation on there trip. Remember they came up and shared their drama with us. The presentation will be in Middlebury, this Sunday, at 2pm. I'm thinking that I'll bring a van if there is at least 5 people interested. We'd leave at 1:30pm and be back around 4pm.

Let me know if you'd like to go.

May Welcome Note

Hello Spring! I know that our JOY should not be dependent on the weather,but now that my flip flops are out of the closet and waiting for me eachtime I need to go outside...I am a happy man! It also seems that with thewarm weather, I am having all these exciting thoughts about USM thissummer. I am in the midst of planning a great summer of learning and fun.

I wanted to share a part of anarticle I read recently. It was entitled "God isn't a Magic 8 Ball" andwas written by Ricky Alcantar. It kind of reminded me of our talk aboutprayer. If you asked Ben C. "what is prayer?" he will probably answer"It's us lining ourselves up with God". Here's what Ricky wrote:

"I found a spot in the park under a tree and began reading Psalm 37.Verse 23
said, "The steps of a man are established by the Lord, when hedelights in his
way; though he fall he shall not be cast headlong, for theLord upholds his
hands." But the words on the page felt hollow. It washard to believe that
--amidst all the chaos of my decision.Then I saw it. The condition. "When."
"When he delights in his way."A quick internal inventory revealed a distinct
absence of "delight" in myheart. But what did that have to do with my decision?
Then I saw verse 4:"Delight yourself in the Lord and he will give you the
desires of yourheart." There it was again—the command to delight in God. Then,
throughall my hardheaded selfishness the thought came to my mind:Do my desires
in this decision line up with God's desires? Do I love whatGod loves? " (end)

(you can read his whole article at http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001729.cfm)

This pretty much sums up our overnight.

Passport to the Promised Land

Reverse Road Trip

It's finally happened. We are having a youth group come to us. The Memorial Baptist youth group will be with is Sunday, April 6th. They have a team going to Romania on a mission trip over Spring Break. They are interested in seeing some of our skits. Namely "The Backpack" and "The Sign". Drama team will meet at 5:3pm.

Quiet Time

So today we talked a bit about quiet times. Those are times (hopefully each day) that we set aside for prayer and scripture reading. Prayer is "lining ourselves up with God's will". Scripture reading is "allowing God to speak to us". I found an interesting website that just started: www.alilbit.com The idea behind these podcasts is to give students a lil' bit of scripture. The guys have a good time filling each 10 minute clip. It kind of sounds like me on the announcements.

Whatever you choose for your quiet time...I'd like to hear about it. Let me know this week what you tried, what worked or what didn't work.

Winterfest

The beautiful, clear and crisp day began in Ripton. Nola Kevra offered to lead us on a snowshoe hike through a huge beaver community. We saw their handy work, their homes and the ponds they created. I went though one of those ponds...but thankfully I didn't get too wet. We even tried some "Liken" from a tree. It's a green leafy plant that comes from Algae and Fungas. Mm..Mm..Good!

We came back to the church for some pizza and then spent the afternoon sledding on the logging trail. I good size jump was built and Conor won the "Big Air" contest. Seriously, it was the biggest hit I've ever seen on a sled. Nice work! After sledding, we enjoyed "Rocky Balboa" on the big screen.

Habitat for Humanity

Can you believe someoen trusted us to paint? The interior of a house? With minimal supervision? Wow! Well, we did just that at the Habitat fo Humanity house in Bristol. Student volunteers woke up early on their first day of vacation and put in nearly 5 hours of painting. And some of the paint actually made it on the walls. No, really, I was very proud of the work they did. What a great day it was. Make sure you say "Good work, my friend", next time you see Ben, Aliza, Jacob, Patience, Conor, Meghan, Isaac, Emily, and Travis.