God is ALIVE in the students at Westwood! On Friday April 11th twelve of us left Area 51 ( a little late due to weather ) and headed to the Ronald McDonald House, to what we later found out was "Westwood Family Fun Night". Cayla prayed for us before we left and specifically that we would be able to minister to these families and that they would see God in us!
When we arrived, there were only a few people down stairs, so Inez, the Resident manager, made an announcement to come join the fun! Darriana was the 1st little girl down stairs and was surrounded by about our entire group. First thing was a puppet show for her (she had a puppet too!) - then on to Dominos (really it was hide the dominos) - then to the computer with the puppets. Then it was time for us all to be entertained by her for a bit until the other group of kids (3 boys) came down. This is when things really picked up - before long there were puppet shows - checkers - horse back rides (Cayla's knees are probably still hurting) - Candy Land games - hide and seek - coloring - booking reading - Duck, Duck, Goose - OF COURSE, Laffy Taffy jokes! - And the best of all........the Hokie Pokie! This was the best because, even the adults joined in - First we got 2 of the dads (Joel and Jeff) to join in, then came Nicole who has been staying at the House since June because of her premature daughter (Michelle) - she joined us for her 1st ever time to do the Hokie Pokie! After some persuasion, we were able to get several adults to join in the fun!
Overall, we talked and played with over 20 adults and 6 children. For over 2 hours, we just tried to take their minds off their children that were in the hospital for either heart operations - spinal operations - or because they were premature.
Joel shared his testimony how God has been helping them through all of the tough times and how he knows it has all happened for a reason. He and his wife have grown closer together and he just got a MUCH better job - GOD IS AWESOME!
One of our "keepsakes" was to bring back handprints. We traced hands of most of the ones we talked to, had them write their names or child's name or family name on the hand. We told them we wanted something that would remind us to pray for them. These hands have been cut out and pasted to a poster board and will hang with the pictures of this project at Area 51! Please come by and join us in praying for these families by name.
Thank you so much for showing these folks a good time and that God is ALIVE! I am really proud of all of you! It was just AWESOME to see Courtney reading, playing Candy Land, talking to the parents - Jennifer playing Duck, Duck, Goose and coloring - Michael and Stephen getting adults to trace their hands for our poster - Stephen playing checkers with the kids - Liz coloring or playing puppets or Candy Land with the kids - Casey and his "Don" puppet playing with the kids or doing the Hokie Pokie or taking video - Cayla telling telling Laffy Taffy jokes or giving a lot of horse back rides or tracing hands - Mary Afton playing checkers or giving horse rides or reading a book - Ellen Ann was also giving horse rides - playing Duck, Duck Goose or doing the Hokie Pokie - Katie doing the Hokie Pokie or talking to the parents or playing Duck, Duck, Goose or coloring - Haley doing the Hokie Pokie or playing Duck, Duck Goose or coloring with the kids. Everyone did a little of everything, I just tried to pick out specifics from pictures taken.
Special thanks also to Karla (my AWESOME wife) for the huge cookie cake we took for the guests to enjoy!
In two weeks we kick off our second annual MEGA MAY! It starts May 7th with High Flight Society in concert @ Area 51. Each Wednesday will feature something different that you DON'T want to miss out on. Here is the schedule:
For the past week I have heard non-stop smack talk from students about their plot to take me out on the paintball field. Yesterday they got their chance to back up their words with some actions as a group of 44 parents and students met at Fort Red Rock for some hardcore paintball.
Saturday 5 high school students volunteered at the Operation Christmas Child training event held at Westwood. People from all over Alabama came to learn about and be equipped to facilitate Operation Christmas Child at their churches. The students greeted and served lunch to the guests.
God is ALIVE in the students at Westwood! On Friday April 11th twelve of us left Area 51 ( a little late due to weather ) and headed to the Ronald McDonald House, to what we later found out was "Westwood Family Fun Night". Cayla prayed for us before we left and specifically that we would be able to minister to these families and that they would see God in us!
As many of you know we have had LIFE Groups, our Sunday morning small groups, off campus for about 2 years now. The high school groups currently meet at Amstar movie theaters and the middle school groups meet at Buffalo Wild Wings. While the experience has left us with some less than boring Sundays... we are VERY excited about moving back on campus.
This weekend we took some of our high school seniors to the Passion conference in Atlanta. It was an incredible time of worship, prayer, teaching, movement and awakening. I like the way Louie Giglio sums it up on his blog; here is what he said....enjoy!
re some pictures
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At Westwood we always want Jesus Christ to be the center of attention so it was really cool last night as we got look at scripture and consider this question: Do you know the character of Jesus Christ?
