Ignite Film Festival - Coming Up!

The film festival is January 16. Video submissions must be turned in by January 8th. Make sure to get your group together over the break and put together your 5 minute (or less) video!

Summer Camp '07

Make sure to get your registration in for next summer!

Christmas Party Tonight!

Christmas Party tonight! 7pm-11pm. $5

Zoolights. Friends. Fun. Food. Games. Bring a friend!

Vancouver Mission Trip Applicatons and Info

The registration/application deadline for the Vancouver Mission Trip is next Wednesday, Dec. 19th. There will also be an informational meeting at 6:30pm so you and your parents can find out more about the trip (cost, fundraising, passports, etc). Let us know if you have any questions.

Bogus Ball Pics now on Smugmug!

The Bogus Ball Pics are now on our smugmug site, go check it out!

Ignite Film Festival

Our Ignite Film Festival is coming up Jan. 16th! Get a group of friends together (make sure one of them as a video camera) and put together your short film. There are some boundaries to the film (like under 5 minutes!) so make sure to check the flyer for all the details!

Last Call for Bogus Ball!

Bogus Ball is this Wednesday make sure you get your tickets tomorrow. Check posts below for details.

Bogus Ball Tickets - get them this Sunday

Get your Bogus Ball Tickets this Sunday at church! Bogus Ball is Wednesday night from 6-9. Tickets are $10. Bring a friend!

Bogus Ball Tickets

Bogus Ball Tickets are now available in the front office at the church. Talk to Marsha or Jill and they will help you with them. Tickets are $10.

Bogus Ball is next Wednesday! 6-9pm. Talk to your friends and make sure they get tickets!

Bogus Ball Tickets!

Bogus Ball Tickets will be available Wednesday night at Ignite for $10. Bogus Ball is Dec. 5th so this will be your last opportunity to get tickets unless you get them next Sunday.

Unofficial Youth Group Movie Info

So I'm doing exactly what bloggers are not supposed to do. I'm ripping off what someone else wrote and pasting the entire thing here! Ha! Take that blogging ettiquette!

Posted by Jen over at hccfuel.com:

Here's the deal, a tradition has been started that instead of having youth group the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we ask students to come out to the Thanksgiving Eve service at 7pm. Afterwards, it's been know that a bunch of HCC peoples go and see the next family friendly movie playing at the Gig Harbor movie theater.

Now this is not a youth sponsored event. That means, we don't collect money from you, buy your ticket, drive you there, drive you home, have you sign a waiver, or even have to wait to make sure you get picked up afterwards (though we probably will out of habit). We are just letting you know that we are going and that we'd love to see you and your friends and your family there as well.

This tradition has been going on for over five years and even returning high school grads come out and join us!

I would also like to say that it is less about what movie is playing and more about getting to hang out with a room full of friends! Our average HCC-associated attendance is usually around 50-60 people and are record set a few years ago was around 95! Now that's a lot of fun!

This year we will be seeing "Enchanted" at 9:50pm and to make things easier, I recommend coming a few minutes early or simply pre-buying tickets so you don't need to stand in line in the cold!

Remember, the service is over at around 8:30pm, so plan rides accordingly because the church won't necessarily stay open for the entire 80 minutes after the service ends!

Can't wait to see you all there, bring everyone you know!

All Sorts of Stuff

We have so many things going on right now I just wanted to remind you of them so you didn't forget one of them:
Beach Freeze registration is open - flyers in the youth pod.
Summer Camp registration opens Sunday.
Summer Mission Trip registration opens next week.
Bogus Ball - $10 - Dec. 5th, 6-9pm.
Movie Night - This Tuesday after the Thanksgiving Eve service.
Ignite Film Festival - flyers in youth pod.

For other info make sure you click on our online calendar located on the right hand side of this page (upper right).

Video about technology

FREE RICE!

Check out this website. Everytime you get a word right 10 grains of rice are donated through the United Nations to end world hunger. www.freerice.com

Nightmare Before Christmas

Last night was our Pumpkin Patch After Party and it was a blast! A dark basement, a chainsaw, Nightmare Before Christmas, and a bunch of people.....scary combination!
I shared some reflections last night about the movie and I thought I post some of them here.
In the movie, Jack Skellington finds himself restless and discontent with his life. He discovers Christmas Town and enters into the story of Christmas Town but really makes a mess of it. He ends up hurting others and hurting himself. Luckily Santa was able to pull off Christmas but the memories and scars are still there. Jack finally finds his purpose and belonging when he connects with his original home in Halloween Town but with a new perspective.
I think this movie paints a beautiful picture of our lives. How many times do we find ourselves living our lives in a story that feels awkward? A story where we are out of place and we hurt ourselves and others? A story where our own brokenness exceeds what we can handle?
In the book of Romans, Paul writes to the church: "Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind." Do we let God transform us so we have a new perspective on this world and our place in it? Do we enter into the story of God, a story that is filled with purpose and belonging? Many times we just follow what or who is around us without even thinking and we find ourselves in the wrong story.
This week try to focus on entering God's story by loving God and loving others.

National Youth Workers Convention

So we're down here in San Diego at the National Youth Workers Convention. There's a bunch of us (me, Allison, Jeremy, Paulina, Madison, Mark, Jory, Jen, and Rachel). Friday the convention started and there were two large group gatherings. When I say large group, I mean it. There are over 3,500 adults who work with students here. David Crowder Band led worship both sessions yesterday and today we had a group from Vancouver called Starfield. Besides worship, there are great speakers, comedy, and skits. There are all sorts of late night fun things to do.

So today we went to the beach in the afternoon and had some fun, it was great.

It's great to get away for a weekend and relax. Below is a picture of Jory falling down (common occurrence).

We saw Carrie at the convention and hopefully she will get to hang out with us a little bit tomorrow.

This afternoon we kicked it at Mission Beach. While everyone was getting crazy in the waves, Jen and I read books!

This is the Truth

Here's the video we showed tonight at Ignite:

Miss South Carolina

I can't believe a couple of you haven't seen this yet.....so here it is...

All I have to say is "no comment"

Tetris Retreat

We got back from the Tetris retreat today, it was awesome! We had a lot of fun talking about how we can transform our community with the love of Jesus. I'm sure you're curious...but you'll have to wait.

Friday night the moon was out and the clouds broke apart for a little while. I got this cool photo of it.

Wednesday Night

It was great to see you all last Wednesday night. I'm really excited about this year and what is in store. Make sure to be there this Wednesday at 7:30pm!

For those of you that are doing Tetris your applications were due on Sunday. Please have them in by tomorrow with your $50. The retreat is this Friday-Saturday.

Rob Bell

Rob Bell is speaking in Seattle on November 11. Here is the link for more info: http://www.thegodsarentangry.com/



If you pick tickets up at the box office in Seattle you avoid the $8 per ticket service fee (this service fee is in addition to the $15 ticket).

This Wednesday Night!

Jeremy (our speaker from summer camp) and Mike Flathers with his band (worship band from summer camp) will be here this Wednesday!

7:30pm in the Sanctuary at Harbor Cov. Be there!

John's website

At the dessert I talked about how cool John's website is. Well you should check it out! Click here!

New Ignite Calendar

The Ignite Calendar has gone digital! If you look to the right there is a link for our Ignite Calendar. The Calendar has all of our programs, events, and trips on there for this next year. Hopefully this will help you keep up to date on what is going on!

Mexico Duffel Bags are here!

Come pick them up at the office. :)

Mexico Update

If you are going to Mexico and did not receive a packet of essential paperwork in the mail in the last two week you need to contact me immediately. The packet had your balance amount (which is due in full Aug. 6th), notary information, packing information, etc.

Just a reminder: Please be at church at 9:30am this Sunday Aug. 5th so we can be commissioned by the church. We will meet at 9:30am in the youth pod and then we'll go over to the service at 10am.

Bible Study reminder

Hey guys! Just a reminder about the bible study tomorrow. We're meeting in the Youth Pod tomorrow at noon after VBS. VBS is over around then, so we thought it would be good to have the study at lunch. Brings some money, your bibles and yourself!

I hope to see you guys there!

.daniel.

The good old days

You probably don't remember the good old days because you weren't born yet....but, just to give you a taste:

Aloha!

Hey guys, its Daniel from Hawaii!

Its been a great vacation hanging out with my family and friends. We've seen waterfalls, rain forests, surfers and giant craters. Its been a fun week, although I did get stung on my face by a jellyfish. No worries-- I'm okay, really.

Its been a fun vacation, but I'm ready to come back to Washington to play some frisbee and see all of you. Have a great next couple of days.


.daniel.

David to the Rescue!

A bunch of people played Ultimate yesterday and afterwards David and I went kayaking. It was a perfect day out on the water and the clouds disappeared just in time for us to enjoy the sun. While we were out there on the water we saw a boat that was having engine problems. The guy was paddling with a waterski toward the boat launch but the wind and the tide were against him and if David didn't help him out he would have drifted right into a bunch of boats. So David hooked a rope up to his kayak and pulled the guy all the way to the boat launch.

Athens

My buddy Travis manages bands and he was up here this last weekend with one of his bands called Athens. Saw them play on Saturday and Sunday night. It was awesome. Haven't been to a show in a while so it was good to get out and finally here a band that is good. Here's some pics from my cell.

Bible Study tomorrow!

We're having Bible Study down in the Harbor at the park. Join us! 9am!

Summer Camp Photos

Do you have Summer Camp photos and videos from The Cape? I'd love to have them to make available to others on our smugmug site. If they're good they might even make it into our Summer Dessert slideshow. Please swing by the office with your camera (and cables) or a disc with the pics on it. I'd love original sizes if possible. Video is great too! Please don't email the pics, it would probably blow up the church server again (see pic below).

VBS helpers needed!

If you are a living being and from the human species we need you to help us out at VBS! VBS is Harbor Cov's week long children's program. It runs July 23-27 from 9am-11:30am. There are a ton of kids signed up and we need high school students and adults to love these kids and have fun with them! So are you interested in helping? Call the church and ask Suzanne Cox more questions! (253)

Walking Like Jesus

We had Bible Study this morning and we studied the first chapter of 1 John. We had some great discussion about what it means to Walk like Jesus walked, or as some translations put it, to live like Jesus lived.
To live like Jesus means we are to live authentically. Pretending like we have it all together and are super holy is not living like Jesus. In fact, that is what Jesus had against many of the Pharisees. The Pharisees acted as if they had it all together.
To live authentically means to be truthful about our own brokenness and to testify to how Jesus is putting us back together. When we're truthful about our own brokenness and how God is restoring us we will likely find people that desire this redemption as well.
Next week Bible Study is at 9am at Jerisich/Skanise Brothers Park on Wednesday. Bring a friend!

Summer Camp

Wow, I'm tired. Got home late last night (1:30) and was back at the church this morning (8am) to see the Gleanings group off. Finally got a nap in this afternoon.

Camp was amazing. Oh the stories, and the pictures, and the memories. I can't wait to share them all with you. Here's a preview...

The Closet of Doom

Okay, so we undertook a huge project. We decided to clean the closet. Now, the closet is a scary place. We think we might have even lost a couple students in there in the past. But the closet was overflowing and needed help so Daniel and I pulled everything out on Monday. Here's a picture of the closet once we got everything out that was piled up on the floor.


We thought the closet was going to take us all day and maybe the next. Well that was Monday. It is now a week from last Monday and it is still not finished. We took my truck full of junk to the dumpster, plus another truck load full to Goodwill, and we even have another Goodwill pile started. The good news is:
1. we're almost done.
2. Nobody got (really) hurt.
3. We found cool stuff we never knew we owned.
4. And now we will have a functional closet that will be organized!

I can't wait to get back from camp and see how great of a job Jen did finishing the project while we're gone.

Note: Closet tours will be available throughout the month of June. $3 entry fee.

Bible Study and Jellyfish

A couple of us met up on Wednesday while most of you were in school to do a little Bible Study. We studied a couple of stories about Jesus from the gospel of Luke. A lot of it had to do with how hard it is to be a disciple and follow Jesus. The picture above was taken with my underwater camera... I know... cool. Until it stung Daniel. Actually that never happened.

Anyways, so this old lady comes up to us and interupts our Bible Study. She must have thought we were a cute group of kids studying the Bible or something. Anyways, she asks us to look up a verse for her that her friend told her about. She tells us some verse out of 1 Corinthians and Daniel reads it to her. The verse talked about the intense sufferings Paul had gone through for being a disciple of Jesus. So the lady gets kinda freaked out cause I'm sure she was thinking it was going to be some soft and fluffy verse. So she said, "that mustn't be it" and left.

So the story we were studying in Luke before the lady interupted us was about this rich guy that approaches Jesus and wants to know how to really be fulfilled in life. Jesus tells him to sell what he has and give it to the poor. But the guy loved his wealth and had thought it would bring happiness and contentment. He walked away bummed with Jesus's answer. Kinda like how the lady walked away from us when Daniel read her the verse she asked about. I'm starting to think that our encounter on the pier was more than just a casual conversation. Perhaps it was Jesus, speaking through the text to this lady calling her and us to a deeper understanding of discipleship. Maybe Jesus was calling her to suffer for him. Maybe Jesus was calling us to suffer for him. I wonder what she thinks about really living a life in radical obedience to Jesus. Maybe she was missionary when she was younger, or perhaps she has just played the safe church game her whole life. I don't know. All I know is that she walked away.

Lip Sync: The Revenge of Trogdor

LipSync 07 Trogdor

Incoming Freshman BBQ!

Wednesday night we're throwing a party for the incoming freshman. It's at Allison and my house and it starts at 6pm. If you need directions give me a call at the office

So if you're in high school.... or will be in high school, come out to the party!

Grad Party Roundup

We're getting to the end of school. People are graduating. School is finishing up. The sun is coming out....soon.....hopefully....

Sunday there were several grad parties and we (Allison, Daniel, Suzanne, and I) made the rounds. The first party we stopped at was Mark's. The food was awesome!

We then made our way over to Kevin's party. We checked out the Cannaday's garden and Madison Graffe and I ate their first two ripe raspberries of the year. Kevin proceded to tackle me to the ground.

We then dropped Suzanne off at the church for the kids musical and went over to Andrew Stakset's party. Once again, more food. At this point my stomach just down right hurt! Here's Andrew and Jen Easton (doing his white guy impression).

We then went to the congregation meeting, listened to a thousand questions, and then headed off to our last party. Lianna's party had no shortage of good food! What a long (but good) day.

Hey Guys!

My sister and me.

Hey guys, how are you doing?

This is Daniel, I'm here from California to hang out for the summer. Let me start by saying I'm psyched to be here this summer in this amazing city. (There are alot of trees here!)

Let me tell you a little about me. I'm 19, almost 20. I go to American River College in Sacramento, California, and I'm majoring in English. I enjoy playing soccer, frisbee, longboarding and listening to music.

I look forward to meeting all of you, and hanging out this summer.

.daniel.

Lip Sync Video

The third installment!

LipSync 07 Mockingbird

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Graduation Banquet

The grad banquet was awesome last night (regardless of a couple technology set backs). This senior class was truly awesome and they will be greatly missed. A couple highlights:
Nunzilla!
Jory falling asleep
Good food
The flashback slideshow
Mark kissing Jory
The baby pictures
and of course, the afterparty!

Lip Sync - Bohemian Rapsody

LipSync 07 Bohemian Rapsody

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Lip Sync - White and Nerdy

More videos will be posted later!
LipSync 07 White & Nerdy

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Community Rent a Kid

Community Rent a Kid was awesome! It was great to see how much work was accomplished! One new park was constructed down on the waterfront by the Donkey Creek Estuary, trails were repaired at Kopachuck State Park, and a new gravel trail was installed at the Skate Park. Here's some pictures!

285K Meal Marathon

For those of you that missed out on the Meal Marathon. Well, you missed out. We had a blast. The cool thing is that hundreds of thousands of meals were packaged that night for kids in Uganda. Super cool. Here's some pictures from the event. I'll hopefully get some videos posted soon.

Lip Sync was Awesome!

I thought Lip Sync last night was amazing. It was hilarious to see Ben and Eric getting up on stage again and again. They did five different acts! Anyways, every act was videotaped and we will be uploading videos hopefully sometime next week. They will be posted right here for your viewing pleasure!

Lip Sync Tonight!

Come out tonight at 7:30pm for our annual lip sync. A bunch of stundents have been working to put this thing together.
It's going to be hilarious! (highlight videos forthcoming!)

You gotta see this video!

Jory showed me this! It's crazy!

Starbucks and Worship

Next week we are meeting off-site. We are meeting at the Gig Harbor North Starbucks by Target at 7:30pm. If you need a ride you can carpool with us, be at the church at 7:15pm. If you want some coffee or other drink bring some money. It should be a great night.

Reflections: Sushi Party

If you missed the Sushi Party you missed it and we missed you! It was a blast. We ate tons and tons of sushi. It was hilarious watching Stan eat raw yellowfin tuna. I don't know if he was a fan.
For dessert Allison made dessert egg rolls that had apples, walnuts, cinnamon, and brown sugar inside. Served with a scoop of vanilla ice cream... they were amazing. We had a fun time hanging out! Hope you can make the next one!
Some said we're the nerdiest youth group. Well, all I can say to that is Ben will take you out in chess! Seriously!

Project Serve

For Spring break we had two opportunities for students to serve others. Friday was especially great. On that Friday we met at the church. A group of us made cupcakes while the others made Birthday cards. When everything was ready we loaded up and drove up to Seattle to Pioneer Square.
Once in Pioneer Square we went and bought some pizza and then we split up into three groups. We walked around the downtown area and found some people that were homeless. We would start conversations by asking their name and when was their birthday. We would have one person from the group write the person's name in the card and then we'd sing them "happy birthday".....the short version of course!
We would then give them some pizza and a cupcake.

Here's one of my new friends I met.

We had walked down the street behind some buildings and found a group of people on some stairs by a loading dock. Walking up to them, one of them looked at me and his eyes were glossy. I immediately got cautious because I thought they were doing drugs and here I am with three high school students and one middle school student! There were four guys and one woman. I noticed that the woman was crying hysterically. The pieces started coming together. The guys were crying with her as they listened to her story. Her name was Alisha and she was talking about how her kids had been taken away from her because she is on the street. We talked with them for a while and they were very excited about the pizza and cupcakes. They asked us to pray for Alisha so we spent some time praying for her difficult situation.
After saying our goodbyes we walked back down the street, around the corner, and started up the hill back toward Pioneer Square. While we were walking we heard someone behind us. We turned around it saw one of the guys that we had just met. He was an older Native American guy with a really cool handlebar mustache. He chased us down and with tears in his eyes gave us all hugs.
Jesus said "blessed are the poor". When we live as part of the Kingdom of Heaven and we are pouring ourselves out to others in love, the poor are blessed and the words of Jesus become reality.

Reflections from last night

Last night was our Prayer for Peace. We had planned this night weeks before the school shootings went down which brought the importance of this prayer to the forefront. When thinking about the situation of our world and what Jesus is calling us to do in response sometimes frightens me. I also get overwhelmed and doubt that I can actually make a difference. I think it is okay to feel that way. But only if we don't let those feelings paralyze us.
So if you are going to be a peacemaker it is okay to be scared. It is okay to think that you are inadequate for the job. We are not proponents for peace because of who our friends are, our nationality, nor political alignment. We are not proponents of peace because it is the logical and rational thing to do. We are proponents for peace in individual lives, relationships, and the world because we are part of the Kingdom of Heaven which is ruled by our Prince of Peace. Today may you experience shalom (wholeness, wellness, prosperity, completeness, peace) in your heart, in your relationships, and in your world.

Calling All Sleeping Bags!

Do you have any extra sleeping bags that you can donate? We are collecting sleeping bags for Tacoma Street Ministry. Tacoma Street Ministry is a group of churches that are working together to meet the needs of homeless people in Tacoma. There are a group of us that go down once a month and we'd love for you to join us. The next time we're going is April 27th.

So bring your extra sleeping bags to the church anytime and drop them off in the youth pod! Thanks!

Virginia School Shooting

Many of you have probably already heard about the school shooting at Virginia Tech. The death toll continues to rise. What was your first reaction?
All I felt at first was shock, I was stunned. But that was soon replaced with anger, sadness, and sympathy. I am afraid that many people will feel indifference to this tragedy. The culture in America is rooted in violence. From music, video games, and movies, to our relationships, and our government policies; violence has formed the way we think. In many ways we have become desensitized to violence and death and we don't even realize it.
Coincidentally, Wednesday nights topic is called "A Prayer for Peace." We will be talking about peace on a personal, relational, and global level. The word peace is thrown around a lot these days and I think its definition has become distorted and disfigured. We will also be talking about what peace really is.

Reflections on Scott's last weekend

So if you missed last night's party it was pretty sweet. I'll try to post some pictures if I can get a hold of some. Jen and I were dressed up as Mormon missionaries and rode in on bicycles. It was pretty funny. We were going "further in mission." Many of you know that Scott is really into bicycling and that was one of the themes last night. All the staff came in dressed in black leather Harley gear which was pretty hilarious. Then Jen and I came in. What most people didn't know is that I had misplaced our two black ties and could not find them anywhere. While we were getting dressed in our black slacks, white button-up shirts, name tags, and bike helmets we could not find the ties. We both made several trips out to my truck looking for them. So we ended up incorporating it into the skit. Jen's response to the rest of the staff was, "Scott told us to go further in mission." To which I replied, "but how can we be missionaries without our black ties?!" Hopefully I can track down a good video of it and I'll post a You Tube link here.

This morning Scott preached a beautiful sermon. His benediction (good word) to us has definitely been good. I've appreciated his authenticity and desire for living as part of the kingdom of God.

Pastor Scott

Tonight is Pastor Scott's farewell party. It starts at 7pm at Lighthouse school. Show up if you can. Tomorrow is his last day as well as last sermon so make sure you show up!

Sushi Party!

We are having a Sushi Party next Friday. It is $10 per person and you must sign up in advance. All profit is going to One Life Revolution in Africa. You can sign up on Sunday or Wednesday. Not all the sushi will be seafood, there will be plenty of vegetarian sushi as well. Space is limited to the first 15 people to sign up.

Welcome

Thanks for visiting the new blog for Ignite Student Ministries. We hope this blog keeps you up to date with what is going on with Ignite and how you can stay connected. Please let us know if you have any suggestions or comments.