May 21, 2008 - Water/Egg Olympics

Thanks for coming out and playing hard in the first Wild@Heart Watet/Egg Olympics! You guys did play very hard and took a lot of hard shots from water balloons and eggs. And we all learned that if you leave eggs out of the refrigerator overnight, they're much hard to break, especially on exposed skin! The team that drew the black stones DOMINATED--winning every single event. But the team that drew the white stones really hung in there and worked hard and never gave up. Hopefully you guys learned some things about teamwork, and also which baby food flavors to stay away from. Thanks for listening as we talked about Jesus' encounter with the woman at the well, and the "living water" that Jesus provides us. We hope all you guys took home your "SPRITE" cards and put them somewhere to remind yourself of how life really works when it comes to making decisions and choices. And remember, "Savior Provides Real, Intense Thirst Extinguishment". Only Christ can truly satisfy that thirst for acceptance, approval and security that you were created with! Next time the occasion arises, turn to Jesus instead of something that will leave you thirsty again!

Each member of the night's winning team received 3 heartbucks for the win. Everyone got 1 heartbuck for showing up.

May 14, 2008 - Lots

Thanks for coming out to talk about casting lots and for a little "arena ultimate" as I called it. The rules were a little crazy and it was a little crowded out there, but you guys did really well helping Ken officiate asnd helping stay inside the cups. Only 4 cups suffered permanent damage, so, uh, thanks for that. Thanks for your thoughts and insight on casting lots. I hope that you guys are learning more and more about how God communicates with you specifically! And how to know Him and listen for Him--there's nothing greater you can do as a Christian wtih your relationship wtih God than to learn how to listen. Paying attention to the Holy Spirit, reading God's word, praying, seeking wisdom from other believers, spending time in God's creation--whatever it is, God has truth, grace, wisdom and insight for you that is unique to you!

Each member of the night's winning team received 3 heartbucks for the win. Everyone got 1 heartbuck for showing up, and Andrew O. received an additional 3 heartbucks for carrying the cooler up to the kitchen and back to get ice.

May 7, 2008 - BullsEye!

Thanks to all you guys who tried out a very crude version of the slingshot that David used on Goliath. Fortunately, nobody's forehead got sunk into with a stone, but I think we all realize how talented David was and how much God was with David the day he made history. Thanks to Blake Moore for letting us use the field behind his house, and thanks to Bud Long for getting together all of his archery equipment for us to use. Since nobody wanted to be the target, we used a fake deer and some other targets. Many of you guys had never shot a bow and arrow before, so we hope you learned a few things, especially how to get that crazy hand/finger protector on correctly! You guys had some great shots at both the deer and the target. I think Brian C. may have killed the deer the most times.

Ken E. read the story of David and Goliath and we talked about how important it is to see that even in the day-to-day, God is preparing you guys for what's coming down the road, just as He prepared David for that fateful day on the battle lines. We also talked about how important it is for what we do to make a name for God and not a name for ourselves--just as David did. Finally we talked about how when it comes to the things of God, age isn't an issue. We don't have to wait until we're adults, or 30 or 40 years old for God to use us. David and many others in the Bible were the youngest, the poorest, the smallest and the most undermanned--because, as David said, "for the battle is the Lord's".

April 30, 2008 - Skippin' & Smores

Thanks to all you guys who participated in skippin' rocks and building reservoirs out of s'more materials--marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars. And thanks to the Keislers for having us over to their beautiful place! We started out the week with a rock-skipping contest. Everybody got a few test throws in before we had the final contest. The winner of the rock-skipping contest got to pick his own team for the next event. Oleg M. was the BIG winner! His rock skipped EIGHTEEN times! The next closest was Chris H. with 6 and Cody M. with 4. Next we divided up into 3 teams to build a reservoir on the back of one of their team members. The reservoir that held the most water for the longest period of time would be the winner of 4 Heart-Bucks for each team member. After some pretty intense strategery and a lot of messy marshmallows and some burnt, sticky fingers, the winning team was Michael H., Brian C., Oleg M., John G. and Emmett D.). Their reservoir held approximately 7 drops of water, whereas the other two reservoirs only help about 2 drops.

Ken E. then talked about what Jesus said about building a good foundation, and everyone talked about how the foundations of their reservoirs compared to foundations they build in life. Some great insight from a lot of you--thanks! And we had a lot of new guys this week who didn't make it for the first week. Hey, keep coming! And keep bringing your friends. Just make sure you don't wait until the last minute to do paperwork!!!!

April 23, 2008 - The Big Card Hunt

Thanks to all you guys who participated in The Big Card Hunt, to kick off Wild@Heart at Crabapple. We had 8 guys, divided up into 3 teams. Each team was assigned a team color, and went in search of 8 colored cards that were hidden all around the church property. Each team started off with the #1 colored card and a Bible verse. They looked up the verse to find the "keyword". The keyword gave them a hint as to the location of the matching #1 colored card. Once a team found their #1 card, they had to return to the central location to get their next card, and so on.

Each team also received 3 "Free Pass" cards. They could trade in a "Free Pass" card and receive a hint as to the location of a specific card. The team who finished with the most cards plus leftover "Free Pass" cards was declared the winner, and received 5 Heart-Bucks.

The Blue Team (Ruslan M., Stephen J. and Matthew F.) jumped out to an early lead, collecting their first 3 cards almost immediately. The Blue Team (Michael H., Cody M. and Emmett D.) found their first card immediately, but had a hard time on card #2. The Orange Team (John G. and Chris H.) got stumbled up at the beginning because their first Bible verse was written down incorrectly and they had to wait for the leaders to find them a replacement verse or give them a clue.

The Brown Team began to slow down and the Blue Team raced out into the lead. The Orange Team was steady throughout and by the end of the game, the Brown Team was stuck on card #5, while the Blue Team was working on card #8. The Orange Team was finishing up card #6, and the Blue Team thought they had it won, but they didn't realize that the Orange Team had already found their #7 and #8 cards and just had to go retrieve them and bring them back to the home base.

At the end, the Orange Team had all 8 cards plus 2 leftover "Free Passes" for a total of 10 points. The Blue Team had 7 cards, and the Brown Team 5 cards. And so the Orange Team was declared the winner and received their 5 Heart-Bucks for the night.

The leaders (Ken E., Bud L. and Blake M.) shared a little about this new ministry and where we wanted to take it, and we prayed and dismissed for the night.

Everybody's already asking what next week's adventure is. Let's just say we'll be building something. Be sure to wear something you can get really, really disgustingly dirty and we'll see you then. Hey, bring a friend, but remember they gotta get their paperwork in just like you did!