prayers this last month - Dec 08

This will be my last prayer list for the year of 2008. Man what a year, not sure what God has up his sleeve by having us go through all that has happened in our lives but I do know he is faithful and will be here no matter what.

Lord, thank you for helping me to be sensitive to terms like "I was only joking!" and staying away from them.

Lord, help me to praise you with my lips all my days and may others see only that.

Lord, take away my trouble because I want to only honor and fear you only.

Lord, may I always have two ears to hear and one mounts to share humbly and graciously and slowly.

Lord, help me to know what I need and what I want - help me to be satisfied with just my needs.

Lord, may I never say "I've done nothing wrong" when I have - may I always confess to you my wrong so that together we can make it right.

Lord, I'm confused where do I go and what should I do - I see so much stuff and the kids I work with have so much (I do to) take this yoke from me.

Lord, I know you are saying something - help me to fully grab onto your wisdom and righteousness.

Lord, may I always remember that "nothing is impossible" for you.

Lord, when I hear you may I be awed by it because you have worked.

Lord, as you shined around the shepherds on that glories night when Christ was born may you shine today and each day in my life for your glory.

Lord, may I spend the time to understand your word better - may I ponder it in my heart like Mary did when marvelous things happened around her.

Help me Lord understand things that I'm meant to understand and be ok with things that I'm not.

Lord, may you find a willing servant in me.

Lord, may I be able to stand up to anything that comes to me for Your glory.

Lord, open my eyes to see what I can do to honor you in my extended family. Lord, may your kingdom come in your time.

Lord, thank you that I don't have to ask you to "go away from me" because of my sins but walk with you because you have made me into a saint.

Lord, may I respond to your truth no matter what form it comes in.

Lord, may I stay constant in your truth but fresh with new ways of presenting it to middle schoolers and to anyone you put into my life.

You are the Lord of the Sabbath and all things happen because of you - help me to understand that better.

Lord, the day that your power was coming from you must of been awesome - may it happen in my life for your glory.

Lord, I want what you want but I'm not always sure what that is - help me pls?

Lord, you are the Lord of my life and that is the number one thing in anyone’s life that must happen thank you for being you.

Lord, thank you for Lauren Darr and the Joy she has brought into my heart, the IMPACT ministry, and your kingdom - yea God!

Lord, because of you I am able to honor you, because of you I am able to be your son, thank you Lord.

Lord, may I never “fall away from you."

Lord, thank you for allowing me to be baptized so many years ago - I love the fact that all that were there saw me respond to you.

Lord, open my eyes even more to see what I am to do for you not so that I might receive anything but your will to be done in my life.

Lord, may I have ears that hear you and eyes to see what you want me to see.

Lord, my I be very careful with my thoughts so that they might only point me and those who are around me to you.

Lord, I don't want to know all your ways just enough to be the best Mark Eades on this earth that I can be - may that be enough for me.

Book report - girls' minstry 101

On the back cover of the book “girls' ministry 101” by Whitney Prosperi 3 facts are shared:
1) Chances are that girls make up half or more of your youth group
2) Ministering to girls presents unique challenges and opportunities.
3) Because of facts 1&2, you need girl’s ministry 101

I’m not sure I could say we need this book but it certainly stood out to me when the first two facts are true of our middle school ministry here at NCBC and one of the main reasons I picked up this book.

My hope was that this book would give me some ideas to put into a job description that we are developing here for a female youth director. We don’t have any plans to actually hire someone but it will happen and when it does I want to have a clear job description ready to present to our church.

A number of things stood out to me but to stay within the guidelines I have put in place with my book reviews I will stick to two key things that stood out to me:

The first thing was right at the beginning of the book. Mrs. Prosperi shares a great list of the benefits of having a girl’s focused ministry:
- Girls have someone to talk to.
- A girls’ minister offers female perspective in planning youth events.
- Having a girl’s minister provides protection for male leadership.
- A girls’ minister can plan girl-only events.
- Discipleship – a girls’ minister can lead all-girl Bible studies and small groups.
- A girls’ minister is a role model to the girls.
I really like lists. I would add to this list – a girls' minister can discipline girls a lot more effectively and meaningfully than their male counter parts.

Another thing that really stood out to me was a key statement a friend of Mrs. Prosperi shared with her. “If you want to be there in the bad times in students’ lives, you have to be there in the fun times first.” I call these fun times “remember when moments…” and they are critical for any ministry to any gender and age.

“girls’ ministry 101” is a great resource for me to turn to when the time comes to hire a female shepherd for our ministry. But until then it will be a book I will suggest to my female sponsors to read and use to create a more comfortable and effect ministry to our young ladies.

Good Bye Lauren our Intern

There are so many joys when it comes to having an intern. One of which is seeing how connected our interns get with our group. The other side of that coin though isn't so joyous and we had to do that last wednsday night (Dec 10) as we said our good byes to our intern Lauren Darr.

I have a lot I could say about this wonderful young lady but I'll put a few links below from this blog about what we have done together. You can click on the picture to see a short slide show of the night.

The day Lauren had to leave I put this in my simple little jornal:

Luke 6:40 "A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher."

The joy of a teacher is to see his students take off. I've had the joy of being an intern mentor - today I let her (Lauren Darr) go. I pray that she learned a few things from me and a lot of "what not to do"s from me. Lord, thank you for Lauren Darr and the Joy she has brought into my heart, the IMPACT ministry, and your kingdom - yea God!

Here are the links:

First post of the flood of 2008

Another post of the flood of 2008

7&8 grade summer trip Day 1

7&8 grade summer trip Other days

7&8 grade summer trip Final

6th grade summer trip Day 1

6th grade summer trip Day 2

6th grade summer trip Final day

Just a fun night

First ever Fall Retreat Day 1

Fall Retreat more stuff

Fall Retreat even more stuff

Fall Retreat final stuff

second 8th grade night 2008-09

Last Wednsday night (Dec 10) was our 2nd 8th grade night. It was a fun night and the 8th graders really got into. Unfortunitly I wasn't able to be in for some of the night so I didn't catch all the different things that happened. Here is some key points of the night:

Lesson Topic: Run with a Purpose

Attendance: Average

'Fun Factor': Below Average - I had the kids play a silly Christmas activity that didn't have a purpose or tye with the lesson

Volunteer Involvement: Average - lot of the sponsors couldn't make it that night

Music: Average - It was a good worship set but I didn't get a chance to be a part of much of it

Lesson Quality: Well done - the girls did a great job

Length of Lesson: 20 min

Student Response: Good - kids were responsive but a little quite for the night

Favorite statement of the night: There is a prize that is worth winning. It isn't easy. But it is worth the effort.

(click on the pic above to see a short slide show of the night)

Thanks Giving in Kansas 2008

I'm extremely behind in updating my blog and so I'm trying to catch up a little.

For the Thanks giving week my family and I got a chance to take a trip to Kansas to be with my family. We start out on Nov 25th by giving my wonderful wife of 15 years a "Birthday Van" instead of a "Birthday Card." We decorated our van with stickers and signs that said, "Birthday mom on board." It was a lot of fun traveling to Kansas with the van looking like this and we had a number of people honk at us to say happy birthday to my wife - she loved it.

For the rest of the week we enjoyed spending time with a lot of my family, eating turkey, playing in snow, riding horses, being at my Aunt's farm, played board games with my brother more than we have in a very long time, and of course watching football. I love my family very much and they really made the time there fun, relaxing, and enjoyable
(if you want to see some pictures of the trip please click on the picture of Lindsey riding a horse)

Live Bible from Group

Group sent me a couple their new live Bibles to use in my ministry and asked if I would share a little review here on my blog. I didn’t want to just look over these Bibles and then just make a quick comment so I used them during our church wide eXchange series that we just finished part 2 of here at NCBC.

Here are my thoughts:
- The extra comments that are spread all over the live Bible are insightful but yet digestible for youth to read. I feel they help explain or encourage youth to go deeper in their reading.
- I like all the extra inputs throughout the live Bible from youth for youth to read.
- The pictures and “creative space” spatter throughout the live Bible is a great touch thou I would have liked more “creative space” to write in.
- All the little extras that are in it – stickers, poems, dictionary/concordance, etc are great. I would have liked to see some maps spatter in it so that the reader could have a understanding of where some of the actions of the Bible happened.
- I really really liked that there is a place for youth to go to (http://group.com/roughedit) and ask questions, see other youth’s questions, and get some thoughts on all things Bible from a youth’s point of view.

I recommended this live Bible to our monthly youth fellowship we have here in the greater Cedar Rapids, Iowa area first of this month and recommended it to anyone who is looking for a Bible to give to a youth.

Book Report – Soul School by Jeanne Stevens

The book Soul School by Jeanne Stevens sparked many thoughts for me. As I continue on this adventure called life I’m always looking for God’s work around me to mold me into a better Mark Eades for him on this earth. This book is another “work” that I have found that has really sparked some thoughts. There are a couple ideas that really stood out to me in this book but all of it has made me think, has challenged me, and encouraged me.

One of the ideas that really stood out to me was Mrs. Stevens challenged for all of us who are a part of the community of Christ to live life and be real in life together. “The greatest moments of my life are always better when shared with others, and my deepest moments of pain find comfort in community,” says Mrs. Stevens. We all will go through highs and lows but to go through those with Christ’s body is so important. Mrs. Steven goes on to say, “whenever we choose an independence that refuses to allow others to know us as we really are, we miss out on God’s intent for us to live and minister in community with others.” I recently spent some time with a good friend who I had lived life together with for almost 4 years but then he discounted for almost 2 years. As we talked I heard the pain that he has been going through and my heart broke. I wish we could have lived life together through those time of pain but we didn’t. We both agreed that we needed each other and that we won’t let that happen again. Life is hard we need each other.

The other big idea that really stood out to me was her ideas shared in the chapter called, “The Miraculous Middle.” This whole chapter sounded so much like the Romans “eXhange” series we are going through at New Covenant that I had to put it down here as I really feel the Lord is speaking to me. Mrs. Steven’s shared this idea, “For too long, I thought God’s desire was that I dig out all of my junk and try to throw it away through my own human efforts. But I’ve realized that what God really wants is for me to actually embrace my humanity and become aware and honest about my brokenness and sinfulness so that I could then life from a place of authentic deep need for Jesus.” The need for us to be real before Christ no matter where we are is so critical in our spiritual walks.

I would recommend Soul School to anyone who is looking for a spark in their spiritual life, looking to be challenged, and/or looking to have their walk with Christ strengthened. The next time I get to do a long (2-3 day) spiritual Retreat Mrs. Stevens book will be with me to spark more thoughts and I hope to be challenged and encouraged even more.