Summer Wednesdays Start

Last night, Wednesday May 30th was our first Summer Wednesday for the year! I was pleasently surprised at the number of teens that showed up and I walked away from last night excited and feeling good. I want to take a minute and thank all the adults that came to help. Joe, thanks for running the game room for me all night; Bob, thanks for running the Casa and staying upstairs to make sure everything was OK; Sally, thanks for being in the Casa all night; Dave and Wendy and Allen, thanks for coming down and playing dodgeball with us and having a good time; Anna, thanks for helping out with worship and your willingness to take leadership of that; and Karolyn, thanks for always being there and just doing whatever and always having a smile on your face (you are an awesome partner in life)! If I forgot anyone, I am sorry, but thank you so much for everything.

We talked last night in our lesson about "entitlement" and a sense of deserving everything in our generation and I thought it was received very well! I enjoyed speaking from my heart last night and really getting that off of my chest. I will continue to harp on these feelings and pray that God will place it in their hearts. We played dodgeball last night and it was AWESOME! In the past people are usually "ho hum" about playing dodgeball and it ends up being not that fun, but last night was totally opposite. At one point, we had over 40 people playing dodgeball in our gym and it was soooo much fun. By the end of the night I was extremely sore and sweaty (just ask those who were there) but I made a lot of connections with some of the guys and it was a lot of fun. I pray that the rest of this summer will look like last night and that relationships will continue to be built and that God will speak to our teenagers through the lessons and through the relationships that are built! Thanks again everyone and have a great weekend.

In God's Love,

Joel

End of the Year Get Together

I was talking with my wife the other day on the way home from youth group on Wednesday Night and I feel like a failure when it comes to communicating with my volunteers for FOCUS Factor Ministries! I am not sure where the ball is dropped but it seems like I am always behind in getting the information to you, casting the vision and just plain being able to talk with you to see how your life is going. I have tried numerous things to be better at this and they all seem to fail. First, we had YWT meetings every month and it was extremly hard to get more than 3 people to show up (which I understand because I am not a big fan of meetings), then we decided to go to a once a quarter meeting and we still were lucky to get 3 people to show up. I realized that the meeting thing wasn't working so I started this blog hoping that we could have some good communication between the youth workers and for whatever reason this really hasn't succeeded as well! I know some of you have had problems trying to get it to work and maybe don't fully understand how to post a comment. The one event that we've done as a YWT that was a success and had 100% attendance was our Christmas Party!

I am going to try and use this model to make sure I am better at communicating things to you. I think if we had three "parties" a year in order for me to communicate vision, expectations, thankfullness and ideas to you it may work! I think the three best times to do this would be rigth at the beginning of the summer (in order to thank you for the last year and be able to recap how things went and what we could do better), another at the beginning of the school year (in order to share with you expectations, vision for the next school year, discuss ideas on how to be better and thank you for volunteering another year) and finally have one during Christmas time (in order to make sure we are upholding our commitments, see where we are heading and see what is working and what is not)! I am not sure this model will work either, but at least there will be food there all three times :)! Let me know what you think about this idea. I know schedules are busy but if we cannot meet as a team we will all be doing our own things and won't have synergy.

-Joel

Here is a picture of one corner of the game room! This is the PS3 while Motor Racer is playing on the screen. The games seemed to be a HIT last week during Senior Night but it was pretty crazy. We are going to have to have a youth worker who is in charge of this room while it is unlocked to make sure no one accidentally walks away with anything or breaks anything. I talked with Joe Schible and am just waiting to hear back from him. He would do an awesome job if his schedule allows it. I am praying that this room with an opportunity for our OUTREACH to be brought to the next level as FOCUS Factor Ministries! Continue to tell the teens to invite their friends to this and encourage it. It is open from 6 PM till we start and then after youth group till 9 PM!

Coming To An End!!

Well, everyone it is that time of year. The weather is starting to warm up and we are getting ready to have our Seniors graduate from high school. First, I want to thank everyone for their hard work this school year. We added a few new Youth Workers this year and they did a very good job. I am looking forward to seeing some more new faces next year and hopefully adding to our team. My goal is to meet with every youth worker over the summer and evaluate what they thought of the last school year helping out. Again, I want to give everyone an opportunity to maybe do a ministry inside of FOCUS Factor Ministries that would fit their gifts better. I am not in anway saying someone did a bad job this last year, I just constantly want to make sure everyone is fitting where they need to be. Please help me out by setting up a time to meet with me. We can meet over dinner or lunch or any other time that my wife and I have free. I just want to take some time to debrief and see what we can do better and what we are doing good. I know of lives that have been changed over the last year and I am encouraged to continue fighting the good fight and I pray that you would as well. Please post your comments as you see fit. Thanks again for everything that you do. The game room is moving along and we are just waiting on King Oberlin to put in the TV's. Thanks.

-Joel