Mess Fest 2006

Mess Fest 2006 has come and gone & it was totally awesome. I've placed below the press release for it that was sent out. We had over 150 jr highers there. You can click on the above picture to see some pictures from this event.

Mess Fest 2006 is a massive community wide activity where Middle School students (6,7,8 grade) get to play extremely messy games to build strong relationships with each other and local youth ministries.
Middle School students from all over the greater Cedar Rapids area are invited to join a “Messtival” with a number of area wide youth ministries. This event is a time for them to make as much of a mess as they want without even getting in trouble! From a mud pit tug-of-war competition to diving into a pool of oatmeal students will be walking away from this event messier than they have ever been. Imagine them laughing with their friends while getting syrup poured down their backs– just one of the many activities that will happen at Mess Fest 2006. The messiness of the day will be used in a brief devotional message, explaining how Christ can clean up our spiritual lives.
Mess Fest 2006 will be happening May 20th 2006 with a rain date on June 3rd 2006. It will be held at Valley View Baptist Church at 5555 Mount Vernon Rd SE, Cedar Rapids, IA 52403. Mess Fest 2006 will happen from 1pm-4pm.
“Mess Fest is a great opportunity for jr highers to come have a blast, get messy, and have no negative consequences doing it.” Pastor Keith Pitts, Youth Pastor at Valley View Baptist Church. This is Keith’s third year helping with Mess Fest.
“This is a great event for jr hi kids and youth ministries to get together, throw some mud around, and develop relationships.” Pastor Mark E. Eades, Jr hi youth pastor at New Covenant Bible Church. This is Mark’s fourth year helping run Mess Fest.
Mess Fest 2006 will be using a duck tank to explanation how Christ can clean up the kid’s spiritual lives. This massive community wide activity where jr hi kids (6,7,8 grade) get a focused explanation of three key realities about sin:

1) That their sins are real (as real as the messy stuff they have all over them)
2) That they cannot remove that sin on their own (just like they can’t just remove the messy stuff on them)
3) That Jesus’ blood is the only thing that can wash away their sins (just like a good water bath will wash away the messy stuff on them).

This is a once in a life time kind of time with Jr high kids.