Tuesday, April 22, 2008

High Flight Society in concert May 7

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:
May 7 - High Flight Society

May 14 - Jarrod Jones

May 21- Senior Night

May 28 - Mikeschair

Events start at 6:30 @ Area 51.

Monday, April 21, 2008

Student vs. Parent Paintball

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.

The adults got off to a slow start as the students dominated the first round. Let's just say Mr. Jeff Doe looks great with pink hair! Then the adults showed no mercy on the air-ball course leaving the students in shock and forcing them to surrender. The rest of the day was filled with heroic stories and tragic losses as the students and adults battled it out to the end.

It was a great thing to see parents and their kids coming off of the field eager to share their stories of victory (and defeat). In the end it was probably a draw as to who the champs were, but I think everyone would agree that it was a really fun day!

By the way... I definately know what paintballs taste like now!

Lacy

Project 19

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.

In November, Area 51 is going to be a regional drop-off point for the shoeboxes that are collected in this area.

Wednesday, April 16, 2008

Project 18

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!

- Jeff Long



Monday, April 14, 2008

Coming soon... our new small group building!

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.

I got a chance this afternoon to run by the new building and take some pictures...

The pics aren't great, but you can get the idea. This first one (above) is the front entrance (it was interesting getting in.) The building looks weird on the outside right now, but the inside, even under construction, was suprisingly nice. There are 26 rooms that are going to be perfect to hold our small groups, an atrium in the middle, and little kitchen area. We are anticipating the building to be complete sometime in the early summer -- can't wait!



We're back from Passion Atlanta

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!
Passion Atlanta.
Crazy Crowd.
I Need Tickets.
New Friends.
First Timers.
My Flame.
His Flame.
Sing. Sing.Sing.
Fruitcake.
Huge Storm.
There Is No One Like You.
Rain.
Come Holy Spirit.
Shut Up!
Towels and Socks.
Do Something.
Now.
11 Wells.
Chain Breaker.
We Are Free.
Lenny's Late.
Overcoming Savior.
"I Want To Win"
Rescue.
Silence.
Stillness.
Single Words Are Powerful.
Eruption.
Nations.
Sam's Laugh.
Giving.
Hoarse.
I Want My Life To Count.
Let's Go.
Going.
Grateful.
Something Happened.
Here.
Now Where You Are.
Holy Spirit Is In You.
For Jesus.
I think these words and phrases pretty much sum up the weekend.

Our God Reigns!

Monday, April 7, 2008

Project #17

Saturday we returned to Mrs. Williams house to continue scraping/painting her house. Despite the cloudy and rainy day we were able to get a lot of work done on the porch of the house, and we completed the first side of the house.

Here are some pictures:

Thursday, April 3, 2008

The Character of Christ

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?

No fancy words, just a simple question. Do you ever stop and think about what Jesus was like? His attitude, his heart, his desires? What he cares about and what he doesn't care about...

Last night we looked at one chapter of the bible (Mark 8) to see what we could learn about the character of Jesus Christ. Here is what we discovered:

1. Jesus cares about people (vs. 2)
2. But, Jesus does NOT care about doing whatever it is you want him to do.  (vs. 12)
3. Jesus cares about you living well and not messing up.  (vs. 15)
4. But, Jesus does NOT care about hurting your feelings. (vs. 17-21)
5. Jesus cares a great deal about God's freedom to accomplish His purpose and mission (vs. 26)
6. Jesus is not afraid to tell you that you are wrong. (vs. 33)
7. Jesus unapologetically will throw down the gauntlet and make you choose which way you are going to live. (vs. 34-38)
8. And, most important, Jesus cares about the answer to the question, "What about you?  Who do you say that I am?" (vs. 29)

If your answer to the last question is really "the Christ, the Son of the living God," then your priority better be getting to know who this guy named Jesus really is, what he is all about, what he likes and dislikes, what drives and what repulses him.  Because if he is the Christ, then he is the most important person to really know.

"Your attitude should be the same as that of Christ Jesus" -Phillipians 2:5