Just a Middle School Guy has moved - if you are here to see what Mark Eugene Eades is up to head over to pakmail215.blogspot.com and get the latest. If you are anything else - thx for checking my blog and hope you have an awesome day.

Quick update on my weight

A while ago I put some pics of me for a weight competion I was in.  I'm just putting another quick pic of showing where I'm currently at.  FYI - I started at 250.

Simple Thought - from a former student

"Our first church experience down here was pretty good it's just really hard to not compare it to Harvest.  I feel like I'm having an affair or something..."  This was shared on a facebook post today from a former student of mine.  She is married now and they have moved to another part of the country and experiencing church in a different location.  The thought of "having an affair" really hit me.  I'm not sure what to think of it but it is saying something that we need to be thinking about.  How can we help them now so they don't feel like they are having an affair when they leave?

middle school winter retreat 2013 - cut short

I'm a little late get this out but here are the pictures from our Winter Retreat - enjoy.  MS Winter Retreat 2013 slideshow

When messy doesn't always mean bad

Today in youth group we tried something and it worked - kinda.  We use tables in our group - it works great for the kids to stay a little more focused and gives a leader (we call a sponsor) a group of middle school kids to interact with.  The problem with tables is the middle schoolers love to make a miss.  We use handouts, flyers, pens, pencils, candy, etc and at the end of the time most of the tables have many of these items left behind but torn up, chewed up, or just destroyed in some way.  So today we asked them to clean up after themself and they did - kinda.  Most of the tables had a few things left on them but nothing like they did before and what was left was interesting.  There were peaces of candy wrappers or 1/2 a pencil but there was also notes with a Bible vrs on it or 1/2 a thought of a teacher shared.  So it was a good time to catch that some of the middle schoolers are getting something and it was the "messy" they left behind that helped us see that.

Sad times - when youth group is closed

Last night a snow storm came through eastern Iowa and dumped about 5" of snow.  Now wind is blowing the snow all over the place and making snow drifts that are almost a foot high.  Needless to say we had to close youth group tonight - sad times. 

When these times happen I start to wonder what I should do about it.  Just enjoy staying at home with the family, go out and shovel snow for all my neighbors down the street, or set up a phone or online conference with any kid that would like to connect with me during this snowy time?  I've done all of these and find that all of them are the right choice. 

When these times hit I try to find the best thing to do and I find out that most anything is a good thing to do.

Simple Thoughts - Remember When moments

A long time ago I tried to post some simple thoughts that I had/have. I've been thinking about starting those up again as I've been finding myself with simple thoughts again. So here is the start of something old - again.

"Remember when" moments - this is something I've talked about ever since I've been here at New Covenant Bible Church. It's the idea that every time I spend time with middle school students (or anyone for that matter) there is a chance to create "Remember when" moments. Weather I'm doing something silly like having a snow ball fight or teaching a group of 6th grade guys how to stand on chairs or coaching a 7&8 grade girls’ basketball team there will always be a chance to create "Remember when" moments.

To me there are three main reasons to create these moments:
1) To give middle school students an "in" for a future conversation. How many times when I was a middle school student did I want to say something to a friend or an adult but was too scared to because I didn't want to start it acquired.  I did have some great talks with some people because I was able to use a "Remember when" moment from our past to start talking with them - "Hey Jim you remember when we played that game on the Atari...” (yea I know that was a long time ago)
2) To give an adult a way to start a talk with a middle school student. Not only do middle school students not want to seem acquire the adults who want to care and love on them don't want them to feel acquired (or for them to feel acquire). "Hey Johnny do you remember when you hit me in the face with a snow ball..."
3) It also can give the Holy Spirit mental "fodder" to help a student or adult remember when he moved in their lives through others. "My son do you remember when I shared through the pastor about your choice to follow me..."

Just some simple thoughts I was thinking.