Schedule Change This Wednesday

1-2-1 and Inside out will meet together this Wednesday, Oct. 29. Join us 7:00 - 8:15 pm!

Middle School D-Now was a great event. Over 90 middleschoolers participated and seven decided to become Christ-followers!

Project 42

Guess what!?! We are in single digits for the number of projects we have left in Project 51! I don't know about you, but I'm pretty stoked about that.

When we started Project 51 back in January we said, "What would happen if Westwood Student Ministries just disappeared all of a sudden?" Would our community miss anything about us? Are we serving in such a way that it is making a difference in the lives of those around us? And it became one of our goals to find a place where we could serve and share the love of Christ in Alabaster. Over the past few months we have been going to Kids First Awareness Center and it has been great! The best part is that this may be one of those opportunities for us to continue to serve even after project 51 is over. Pretty exciting! Anyways...Thursday was a lot of fun as always. Here are a few pictures:

Project 41

Project 41 'aka' Project "Piney Woods"

The weekend of October the 11th was a busy time for many people, however some students took time out of their hectic schedules to show some local children the love of Jesus in a simple way; Facepainting! Students also shared information on the upcoming "Operation Christmas Child."
Students tirelessly worked through the day painting children’s faces at the Piney Woods festival, held at Veteran’s park. The festival is an annual event benefiting the Alabaster Library. Many children stopped by during the day, wanting many different things painted on their faces and arms. Some of the more popular designs included, Hearts, butterflys, footballs, soccer balls, baseballs, Alabama and Auburn Logos and of course Ninja-Turtles. The team included, Drake and Dean Fowler, Jonathan Prince, Mr. Bobby and Mrs. Lillian Culpepper and Myself. Experiencing all of the awesome art and culture on the 51 blog has inspired me to compose a limerick based on this weekend’s events:

The Students of Westwood don’t faint
When they are asked to facepaint
When children come by
They’ll get a heart or butterfly
And they get it with joy, not complaint.

Tom (you can’t touch my rhymes) Bird.

Project 40 (the cheerleaders)

On October 11th a group of 6 people from Westwood volunteered to be Cure/cheer leaders for the Race for the Cure. We had the amazing opportunity to witness the 15,000 people who walked, ran, and just took part in this amazing event. The people gave us a chant to say "Evey Person Everywhere I am the Cure." We helped to encourage people on there first mile to keep on going to the finish line.... here are some pictures: (check out Sydney's level of enthusiasm, it's amazing that she can still talk after how much cheering she did!)

-Courtney West

Project 39 - by Caleb Hughes

On October 5th, 2008, from 0800 hours until 1300 hours, many 8th grade young men changed the lives, or at least the mornings, of several people. We were the helpers, or the phrase i coined, "blood buddies," of several donors for the blood drive at Westwood's campus. Since it was a Sunday morning, as you can imagine, we had many if not all of our regular life group attending guys. There were more than enough guys there to help out. And for that I am well-pleased and very thankful. As far as i know, there was only one complaint about my group and it wasnt even a big deal...something about one of my guys talking to the "blood bus" workers too much which i though couldnt possibly be true... *wink* They take after their main man DJ Cabes, so they just like to communicate their points of emphasis. But in all seriousness folks, we had a good time serving the blood donors and passing out refreshments. It was also a great day in the Lord's house. Thank you for all the people who donated, even though i was cowering in a corner hiding from the blood sucking needles. Speaking of which, i was wearing a shirt that said "Give blood!" Now does that make me a hypocrite? I guess it would be about the same as me being a Barista at Starbucks who doesnt drink coffee. But i digress...(i dont know how to use the word "digress" in a sentence, I hope that was grammatically correct for Anne Stansell the greatest 8th grade English teacher ever). Ok, now im rambling, i hope i got my point across. The blood drive was a huge success and i am very thankful for my life-group's participation and serving attitudes in it. We got some pictures i think, check out me and my boy Madison "mean muggin'" (as the kids are calling it) to the camera in the group shot.

- Caleb

Project 40 (the race participants)

Today we did project 40; it was the Susan G. Komen Race For the Cure to help raise money for Breast cancer research as well as awareness. There were about 13,000 people walking, running, and volunteering. Lacy and I (Morgan Jordan) ran the 5k in 29 min.s, but the amazing, spectacular Preston Earnest ran it in 22 min.s. Beforehand, we made plans to meet after the race at the pink fountain in the middle of the park. However, Ellen Anne got a craving for some cotton candy, and disappeared... FOR THIRTY MINUTES. We finally wandered around and found her in the cotton candy line, and she just said, "what? i wanted some cotton candy?" It was funny. So then we gathered around for a group photo, and headed back home. It was awesome to get to race in honor of people like Lori's mom who is a survivor of breast cancer. All in all it was a great day filled with lots of pink.
* This amazing peice of art was written by the INCREDIBLE Morgan Jordan!!!

The runners/ walkers were Lacy Allen, Courtney Jordan, Alex Jordan, Jamie Jordan, Lori McKenzie, Ellen Anne Bentley, Janice Bentley, Whitney Emery, Cayla Crabb, Kelsey Dewberry, and Erica Hesse.

Project 37

On Saturday, October 5th the 7th grade girls and 9th grade guys combined together to do a project. We went to the home of an elderly couple, Earl and Betty Chapel and did yard work for them. We cut limbs, trimmed bushes, pulled weeds, cleaned out flower beds, put in new mulch, and painted the front porch. This was really needed because nothing had been done all through the summer and everything was overgrown.
The Chapels are older and aren't able to do any physical labor, so they were very appreciative of our efforts. It was a pleasure to serve them in the name of Christ and meet this need for them.
- Andrea Parker

Project 38

For Project 38 we teamed up again with the Hipanic church at Westwood for their last Block Party Outreach Event. Our team included: Mrs. Lillian Culpepper, Tom Bird, Cameron Kemp, Andrew Wash, Karima Kemp, Savannah Thigpen, and Steven Stone. We worked with the church to do face painting, jumpropes, soccer, balloon animals, and tag. They also did puppets and had a snack. There were over 50 people there, mostly kids. Hopefully these block parties Over the past two months have helped the church to reach out to the hispanic people in Alabster.

Middle School Disciple Now '08

You DO NOT want to miss Middle School D-Now 2008!

This is a weekend for students grades 6-8 to GROW with BELIEVERS and CONNECT with GOD as they spend all weekend in host homes with a group of 8-10 other guys or girls from their grade and college-age group leader. Not only is this going to be a great weekend with Adam Robinson and Chuck Hooten but, you also get 4 hours of go-karts, laser tag, putt-putt, and skating at Trussville Playstation. Sign up at Area 51 or the small groups building at the main campus.

When: October 24-26

Cost: $40 (includes meals and Trussville Playstation)

Deadline to sign up is October 19!

Project 36...by Andrew Wash

On Thursday, 10/2/08, the 11th grade guys LIFE Group went to Montevallo and fed the Shelby Academy football team. We met up at AREA 51, got the food, and made our way to the school.

When we got there, we unloaded the stuff and set up all the food in the kitchen. The menu was simply fantastic: chicken fingers, macaroni and cheese, baked beans, sweet tea, and cookies. Soon enough, the Shelby Academy football team, coaches, and cheerleaders started to come in, anticipating the delicious meal they were about to receive. Altogether, there were about 40 to 50 people. We served the food to them, and with about 4 people left, we ran out of food. Luckily, Chris Martin had already gone to get some more.

So while Chris was out getting more food, Jeff spoke from the Scriptures to the football team. He talked essentially about how if you seek first the kingdom of God, everything else in your life that you run after will be taken care of (Matthew 6:25-33). He taught about if you live for Jesus and put him as the first priority of your life, He will take care of everything you need. After the message, Chris arrived with more chicken and mac n' cheese, so the last few people ate theirs while the football team and the cheerleaders left. Then, we just cleaned up our mess and, with the leftovers, returned to AREA 51 to eat the rest of the food. Altogether, it was a great mission project. It was really awesome to serve people who weren't old or disabled.

The people who did this mission project are as follows: Jeff McKenzie, Chris Martin, Stephen Jacobs, Ryan Horton, Steven Stone, and Andrew Wash.

And now, I have arranged an original haiku of our experience at Shelby Academy. Now take a deep breath, and get ready to be inspired by this touching poem:

Serving people food
Football players like to eat
Westwood loves Jesus

- Andrew Wash