Tuesday, November 28, 2006

Colors For The Game Room
We have been talking about the "Game Room" for a long time but up to this point have not made any decisions or choices. Karolyn and I went to Menards about three months ago now and picked out these colors for the game room as a possibility! We have talked through the colors with a few of the teens and they all ove them. We would make the base color the green and then the other three colors would be accents in the form of cirlces and designs on the walls. That room is going to take a lot of work and probably be comparable to the Casa. I think the final viewing of the Casa is amazing, but are we ready to take on another project like that. We definitely need new furniture, paint, and then the TV's and game consols. I am excited to get it done, but do we have the funds and energy to make this happen? I am asking for all opinions on this topic to see where we want to go with this. If I don't hear back from anyone I will move foward this project and buy the paint. I think we do have the finances to make this happen (Marlene please correct me if I am wrong)! What do you think? This is WIDE OPEN for talking.
-Joel

New Fridge in the Casa

Toby and I went to Fort Wayne and bought a new "glass-front fridge" for the Casa to store the IBC and Jones' Soda we will be selling in the very near future. I just wanted to show you all a picture of it and let you know we went ahead and bought the fridge which cost $170.00! We are going to be selling the IBC and Jones' soda for either $.75 a bottle or $1.00 a bottle depending on what you guys think. The cost of the IBC was $9.00 for 24 bottles. The money we make on the pop will help offset the cost of the fridge. Let me know whether you think we should sell them for $.75 or $1.00 apiece. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and I look foward to seeing all of you at the Youth Worker's Christmas Party!

-Joel


Tuesday, November 14, 2006

T-Shirst for the Casa De Espresso
Toby AKA "The Godfather of JV" has asked the YWT to decide whehter it was OK or not for him to purchase T-Shirts for the Casa De Espresso. He is planning on buying 30 T-Shirts at $3.50 a piece and then 10 T-Shirst, which are X-Large, at $4.50 a piece. I told him I would post it on the blog and get everyone's reaction to it. If no one responds within the first week, then we are going to move foward with this! I think it is a good idea and we have had teens asking about T-shirst, especially the black ones we made. This money would come out of the Youth Budget. I am not sure what Toby is thinking for design, but maybe he will blog a comment under this title and let us know. You can always email him with questions as well. Thanks for the taking the time to respond. Toby has been doing an awesome job with the Casa.
-Joel

Fall party 06'

Alright, I thought the "Fall Party" on last Saturday November 11th 2006 was a lot of fun. I thought it was good for at least three reasons. First, I enjoyed working with Jason Fager on the event and it was absolutely awesome that he stepped up like he did and was an extreme help. Jason actually took ownership in the event and I believe he was proud of it when all was said and done. If we can get the teens to take ownership of things that is considered a success to me. He did a ton for me and it also allowed me to build a more solid relationship with him! Second, the youth worker help was extraordinary. We had ten sponsors there not including me and then Jason's grandparents. The sponsors did an awesome job and I know the teens had a lot of fun with them. There is no way we could have handled the magnitude of this event with only four or five sponsors, so I thought that was awesome. Third, we had around 45 teens there. I know numbers don't mean success but the teens actually invited their friends to this event and that means more and more teens are being exposed to the Gospel and other Christians in a way that is not threatening and is fun! This is the most we have had at a single event since I have been here with the exclusion of the "Beach party" which takes a ton more work and effort to pull off. I have not heard any negative comments yet and most teens asked if we were going to do it again next year. I guess one negative I had was when I was trying to give a little lesson the teens weren't that attentive and were loud. I know it echoed a lot in there so I attribute some of this frustration to that. I am not sure how we could fix this. Overall, I loved the event and think doing only four huge events like this a year is a great idea. Let me know what you think.

In God's Love,

Joel


Wednesday, November 08, 2006

#1 Debate Item and Discussion Item

The first creative blog for the YWT concerns small groups. I was given a great idea by "The Godfather of JV" and I thought it was soooo good that I wanted to jump on it right away. We have always struggled with Small Groups at FOCUS Factor Ministries and I think a lot of it has to do with the fact that we try to do them in 15 minutes (if we'ere lukcy) on a Wednesday Night. True small groups and True relationships usually come when people meet together outside of church having fun and laughing together. Here is the premise for strengthening our small groups.

If you are a small leader and want to participate you would contact me via email, blog, phone or in person and let me know. All you would have to say is something like this. "Joel, I am interested in trying this new small group thing. I enjoy playing video games and food so the teens who sign up for my small group get-together will be signing up for a dinner at Las Limas and then come back to my house and we will play Halo on my X-box for a few hours and then finish the night with some Mint Chocalote Chip Ice Cream." I would then put your name on a sheet a paper and put 5 to 7 lines underneathe it for some teens to sign up. If the teen is interested in video games and food he/she would sign up with some friends and then once all the spots were full your job would be to contact them and get together doing what you said was going to happen. They would be responsible for paying for their own meals and whatever else you want to do. If they need rides you could work that out with their parents and them and you! I would love to have at least 5 people who say they are interested in this and get the groups started ASAP. If you have any questions about this please blog about it. I hope this all made sense.

The point behind this is that you would hang out with some teens doing things that you all like and building relationships. The advantages to this include the fact that you get to work out the dates and times with them and your own schedule. You get to put together the whole night how you would want it to look. You can even do whatever you want. I think this will work awesome.

-Joel and his first real post

OK, this is me trying again to post a picture of my wife and I on the blog! I am trying to get it in my profile because last time it said the picture was too big of a file. So, until then I hope this stays on here. Thanks for looking at the blog and this should be a good thing. Have an awesome day.

OK, this is the start of a new generation of meetings. No longer do you need to show up to a meeting once a month and wonder where your kids are, what they are doing or what is on TV! Now we will hold our meetings on this blog site. As I come up with ideas or have questions I will post them on here and open it up for discussion. If you have any ideas or recommendations you can post them and we will discuss them as well. You will be able to read everyone else's posts and add to them. I hope this works out and I pray that I get a lot of feedback and God will work through this.

-Joel