Friday mornings

Okay, who likes Cracker Barrel? If you are raising your hand then let me invite you to our Friday morning breakfast at Cracker Barrel in Grapevine. We usually meet at 8 am and just hang out and have breakfast. No Agenda. Just good times with friends. So, with that said, we are having breakfast tomorrow and you are more than welcome to come, in fact, consider this a formal invitation.

Oh the places you'll go!

Howdy everybody!

Here we are on the cusp of another great school year. Can't you just smell walking into the hallway of your school as it has been freshly painted and cleaned all summer? Maybe that's just me. Anyhoo, Summer has been crazy busy and we are now settling down into the final preparation for the fall and spring. We've got several things going on this fall that I am really excited about and I want you to know about.

Parents meet and greet for new 6th graders - August 17th.
Pastor Zach Neese will be preaching at this AMPED for the last service in the Turn Up the Heat series. Kam and I will be hosting parents of the new 6th graders that night and we will have Pastors Ken Jackson and Jelani Lewis with us. Moving up to Jr High is a really big deal for these new 6th graders and their parents and we want to really make them feel welcome.

AMPED Olympics - August 24.
Our own version of the olympics, AMPED style! I am an Olympic nerd. I love to watch the Olympics on tv and online. This will be a crazy fun night where the kids are split into teams and compete in fun games against each other. We really need all of you there to lead and facilitate the games with the students.

Back to School Bash with Skit Guys - August 31.
For those of you that were here last year when we had the Skit Guys, they are hilarious. You won't want to miss this night. We will also give away a free Nintendo Wii to the student that brings the most first time guests. The students will have been in school for a week at this time and we really hope they connect with friends they haven's seen all summer and invite them to come.

There are more events to come but these are the immediate ones that I really want you to be aware of.

I know this becomes a very busy time of year for everyone, but please do your best to make sure you are here at AMPED. If we didn't need you we would tell you. Know that all of you are valued and needed at AMPED. If you are anticipating not making it to AMPED, please let me know at least a week in advance so we can make preparations in your absence.

Have a great week!

Here we come!

Okay peeps, Fall is almost here. In a few days we will have the Group 1 crew concert and then a few weeks after that we will have the back to school bash. The week after that we will begin our series on Freedom as well as our access groups. I am totally stoked about that.

We are also officially done with our trips for the summer. Whew!

Camp was amazing. No doubt about it. But it left me drained. I wish I would have had more energy than I did. I don't exactly know why it was so tiring for me, but the night services were all out for me. There was a lot invested. I feel that the services may have been what drained me, but that has never been the case before. I guess its a whole new ballgame now.

New Orleans was a good trip and it was good to see that the city is getting back on its feet. There will always be needs there, but it feels good that it is not so desolate. It was so stinkin hot there, but these kids we have in AMPED worked so hard, without one complaint.

I'm ready for the Fall and all that it will bring. I am sad about the 8th graders we are losing and feel good about how we have worked to let the incoming 6th graders feel about coming in. Please be aware of how nervous they will be and go the extra mile to welcome them and love on them as they start out at AMPED. Also be praying and try to coach our older students on makin them part of the family.

We are also planning out '09 and if you have any suggestions, please let us know.

No Monthly Leadership meeting July 3rd

Happy 4th of July weekend to all!

Just a note, there will be no monthly leaders meeting tonight, Thursday July 3rd. Enjoy your holiday weekend and we will see you all Sunday night at AMPED!

James Reid

Ummmm

Okay, so, wow. Camp pretty much just blew me away. Overwhelmed is the word I keep coming back to. For those of you that went, you know what I'm talking about. For those that did not, we missed you a lot. I must say, Jr. High students never cease to amaze me. Never, I say it again, never underestimate the passion and drive and spiritual hunger of a Jr. High student.

Also never underestimate the hurt of a Jr. High student. One of the things that I heard back, from students and adults alike, was that they loved the family time. This was a time where we had no agenda. Secretly I thought it would bomb, but the campers loved that we actually asked them about what they thought and then listened to them. Isn't that what we all want, for someone to listen to us?

The evening services were crazy good. I mean crazy good. Here is a break down:
Thursday night - Let God re-write your story.
Friday night - Lose your fear and get out of the boat. Let God heal you from thoughts of suicide. Let God heal that place in your heart where you have been wounded by your father.
Saturday night - Forgive those that have offended or hurt you and let go of the unforgiveness. Come and get filled with the power of the Holy Spirit - he's not weird.
Sunday night - Live your life loud for God and be unashamed.

Now go take on the world!

back up

well, I am so glad for back up plans. Our nurse is moving to Arkansas tomorrow so PTL we have a backup nurse (Yay Lauren!) and it's supposed to rain tomorrow so our inclement weather plan is to do check in inside the hospitality room. Whoever thought of the concept of the backup plan, I salute you!

Fun!

Okay, so I see that some are coming around to take a look periodically, especially since I sent out an email last week saying I posted a new one. So I'm trying to keep this thang on the regular. You are also more than welcome to leave a comment; it sends me an email each time someone does. I encourage you to do so.

BTW, our next fun night is July 13. Come on and hang out with kids because you never know what we have in store! It is definitely not a night off. It is a time to purposely build relationships. It will be a great time to follow up on the relationships you will create at CAMPED!

One more thing, Chris K. will be helping with the CAMPED blog and updating it nightly with updates for the parents and videos from the day. I think we will even have pics up on flickr. I won't give out the addy's for those yet because there is nothing to see yet, but as soon as we have it up I will give you a sneak peek.

Shoot me some ideas for pulling late night pranks at camp, or some stories of stuff you have done in the past...