Christmas is here?

Well it has been a while for information on this blog...sorry about the silence.

Thanksgiving is this next week and before we know it Christmas will be upon us.


December we will be talking about A Christmas Story...
At Christmas, we tell the story about shepherds, angels and a manger but so often the significance of the story is lost because it seems like just one more holiday tradition. Or we've heard it so much that we do not hear it anymore. This series tells the Christmas Story - but in a slightly different way through looking at the stories of Herod, Simeon and Mary.

12/3
Herod: Following Jesus will cost you something, not following Jesus will cost you everything.

12/10
Simeon: Let your life be consumed by one thing . . . just make sure it is the right thing.

12/17
Mary: The size of your story depends on the size of your God.

December 24 & 31 we will not be meeting for Student Impact!

Sr. High 5th Quarter Party - October 17th

We will be having a 5th Quarter Party following the Rocky vs. Moline football game for Sr. High students on October 17th. Come celebrate the Rocky win with us!

New Series beginning @ Student Impact on October 1st

Get ready for a Road Trip because at Student Impact we are starting a New Series called Road Signs...

10/1 Road Signs – One Way
10/8 Road Signs – Caution
10/15 Road Signs – Yield
10/22 Road Signs – Rest Stop
10/29 Road Signs – Men at Work

Student Impact Resumes this Wednesday, September 10th!

Student Impact starts up again for the fall on Wednesday, September 10th @ First Free Church - 3321 7th Street in Moline.

We will finish up a Series called On The Lot that we started last month.

Doors Open @ 6:30pm and we get going around 6:45pm.
We will end around 8:15pm and then doors close around 8:45pm.

Invite your friends. Student Impact is for 7th - 12th grade students!

Student Impact Camping Trip - August 22-24, 2008

We will be going camping at Sugar Bottom Campground in Coralville, IA August 22-24, 2008. This is for all Jr. & Sr. High students. Cost is $25 and need to register by Sunday, August 17th. Click here for more info and a registration form or you can also click here to register online.

Student Impact will be moving soon!

Student Impact is on the move...that is right, starting in September we will be moving from Sunday nights to Wednesday nights.

We know that this move may be difficult for some with school activities and dealing with homework, etc. But will be looking forward to having a consistent weekly night...plus we will get to see your faces during the week as well as on the weekend!

Our 1st Wednesday Night will be - September 10th!

On the Lot Series

Well it has been a few weeks since the last post. Just finished our Storm Watch Series last night and no major storm came through in our area! It seemed every time we had Student Impact during this Series a real physical storm came through.

I am looking forward to this next series called On the Lot. We will be talking about making the Bible come alive for us. Lights! Camera! Action! So be sure to come on August 3 & 17 and then we will finish on September 10th.

We Made It Home!

Well we made it back on Saturday night around 5:30pm...it is good to be back in the Quad Cities! The last 2 days we spent one night in Evanston, WY and then back to Maranatha Bible Camp in Maxwell, NE for the 4th of July. They had an awesome BBQ and we got to watch some Fireworks there too.

Now the most important part of our Challenge '08 experience...bringing the changes that God made in us home with us! Pray for the commitments made this last week and that God would continue to help make those changes in us reality!

Last Night in Salt Lake City

It is our last night here in Salt Lake City...Challenge ends tomorrow and then we are driving to Evanston, WY around 9:30pm. Then on Friday we will be driving to Maxwell, NE at Maranatha Camp for the 4th of July.

Today's focus was on Leadership and God's call for us to be lead by Him. We also had 2 volleyball teams play this afternoon.

Day 4 On the Down Slope

Today is Day 4 @ Challenge and we are slowly getting on the down slope of the week...not that things are getting worse but that we will be leaving here in a day or so and ready to re-enter the real world as we know it.

Pray for these last few days we have here at Challenge and the lessons, challenges and encouragement that we will be receiving. Pray for attitudes and grumpiness as everyone needs rest. Pray that what we have learned here we can bring back home with us and be different people because of what God has molded us into.

We have the volleyball tourney this afternoon.

Day 3 Recap

Just an awesome day here at Challenge!

Today we found out that in order to package the 250,000 meals for the Congo & Haiti we needed to have received $43,000 in the offering last night. Well we didn't get $43,000 but $45,000! A group helped package these meals this afternoon and were able to write notes on the meals!

Also this afternoon we had a team of students and adults go to the Dream Center to help fill water balloons for a huge water balloon war on Thursday afternoon - 25,000 water balloons. But they were not ready to fill balloons yet so instead we had a chance to play with the neighborhood kids and invite them to the event on Thursday. These kids are from many different ethnic backgrounds. We met one 3 year old girl named Mary who is being raised by her 16 year old sister.

Then tonight made the day even more awesome if there is such a word. Becky Tirabassi challenged us in making our commitment to God stronger by committing the next 30 days to praying and reading God's Word consistently and living a pure lifestyle. Following the rally we had some students who wanted to spend some time as a group to pray for one another as well as for others in our group by name.

Just a great night here in Salt Lake City @ Challenge!

Day 3 Ready to Begin

Another good night's sleep at least for our room....getting harder to wake the guys up and get moving in my room, not sure of others yet...I guess we will see in a few minutes when we meet to go for breakfast!

Just thought I would share some pictures here so far of our time here. Today we will be having a group do a service project this afternoon to help the new church plant in the Salt Lake City area. Yesterday our group did landscaping and yard work. Pray for J.D. Greear and Becky Tirabassi as they speak during the rallies and also to pray with us as the Prayer Army gathers at 5:42pm that would be 6:42 Quad Cities time.

Day 2 Recap

Well today the focus for the day was on "hurting" people...and that does not mean actually hurting one another but rather seeing the needs of others that are struggling in some way.

Zach Hunter the teenage student who has lead a movement to stop slavery came to the morning Rally and shared his passion for teenagers to step up and make a difference in our world today!

We had about 8 students and 2 leaders go and help with a Service Project this afternoon while the others took advantage of the seminars and workshops here at the Convention Center.

Another cool thing that happened today was that Aaron Johnson and I took part in the Student Prayer Army that meets before our evening Rally at 5:42pm. 1,500 students and adults gathered to lift up the evening rally in prayer! So if you remember at 6:52pm each night you can join us in prayer for the evening Rallies! We are praying for 2,500 students and adults gathering in prayer each evening.

One more cool story about the Service Projects. A ministry called the Dream Center we are supporting by helping them be a place where people in the city can come and receive food, clothing, etc. Some students were pulling weeds and cleaning up around the area and a local business man stopped to see what was going on and talked with the director of the Center to hear what it was all about. Well after hearing the vision of the center the businessman wrote a check for $30,000.00! Is that God or what? It started by students being willing to serve the community we are a part of this week!

Day 2 Ready to Begin

It is 7:00am and we are ready to get going this morning with breakfast and the rest of the day. Our room slept well, but I will see how the other rooms did when we meet to go over for breakfast in about 30 minutes.

Looking forward to seeing what today brings, tis afternoon we will take a group on the Ministry options and join 1,600 other students and adults in serving the community of Salt Lake City. Others may be doing recreation this afternoon.

Last night they had some technical difficulties with video equipment...pray that these distractions would not take us off focus into what God wants to do in our lives this week.

More tonight...

Challenge Day 1

Well we made it to Salt Lake City at about 4:30pm and got checked in, in our rooms, ate dinner and then headed over for the 1st Rally at The Salt Palace where Francis Chan spoke and challenged us with a great message on our View of God.

We are looking forward to see how God works in and through us this week. Pray for rest over the next day.

Buford, Wyoming POP. 1

We are gassing up in Buford, WY population 1. ANother 6 hours until Challenge.

Challenge is right around the corner!

I can't believe that Challenge is just in 2 days! Looking forward to an awesome time with our group and what God has in store for us. For those not going below are those who will be going along with ways you can be praying for us...

On Friday, June 27th 28 students and adults will be leaving for Salt Lake City, UT for Challenge 2008! Keep this group in prayer over the next 8 days as we travel together and experience what God has for us at Challenge.

Scott Tinman
Kirk Johnson
Gwen Hanger
Lora Loete
Jannette Duhm
Alex Dailing
Cody Dailing
Katy Bradley
Michelle Marquis
Becca Marquis
Christian West
Alex West
Sara Blomquist
Liz McSparin
Kayley Miller
Adam Oles
Scott Oles
Cara Allmendinger
Christina Marquis
Ali Hawotte
Aaron Johnson
Matt Sedlak
Evan Loete
Josh Loete
Andrew Allmendinger
Micheal Bradley
Mark Beasley
David Tank

* Leaders in bold


We will be traveling with Grace EFC in Davenport and Taylorsville EFC and have a total of 69 people in our group. Marceia Duhm is also going to be at Challenge Conference as part of the EFCA Staff in Hotel Security.

Prayer Guide…

June 27 Travel Day
• Pray for our travel as we arrive @ Maranatha Bible Camp in North Platte, NE

June 28 Travel Day
• Pray for our travel as we arrive @ YMCA of the Rockies in Estes Park, CO

June 29 Travel Day and 1st Night of Challenge
• Pray for our travel to Salt Lake City.
• Pray for the 1st Challenge speaker – Francis Chan.

June 30 Challenge Day 2
• Pray for the Challenge Speakers – J. D. Greear and Jimmy Dorrell.
• Pray for unity within our group.
• Pray for the ministry projects in the Salt Lake Community that students and adults will be participating in.

July 1 Challenge Day 3
• Pray for the Challenge speakers – J.D. Greear and Becky Tirabassi

July 2 Challenge Day 4
• Pray for the Challenge Speakers – J.D. Greear and Tim Elmore

July 3 Challenge Day 5 and Travel night
• Pray as Challenge comes to a close and the decisions students and adults have made throughout the week.
• Pray for the Challenge Speakers – Greg Stier, J.D Greear and Francis Chan
• Pray as we travel following the evening rally to Evanston, WY.

July 4 Travel Day
• Pray as we travel back to Maranatha Bible Camp in North Platte, NE.

July 5 Travel Day
• Pray as we travel back to the Quad Cities.

Pray for attitudes and relationships throughout the week as we spend 8 days together and our travel times in close quarters.

Other Prayer Requests…

• Pray for the speakers to be anointed and used by God.
• Pray that God would create a hunger in students for His
• Word.
• Pray that the afternoon training would inspire and challenge
• students toward ministry and service.
• Pray for the outreach/talent ministry projects to provide a vision of how God can use students to minister. Ask God to challenge students to reproduce this type of ministry in their communities.
• Pray for last-minute details both for the conference and youth groups.
• Pray for God to begin a revival of passionate prayer in the students of the Evangelical Free Church of America nationwide.
• Pray for God to radically transform students' lives and entire youth groups.
• Finally, pray that God would be glorified and honored through everything we do at the Challenge ‘08 conference.

Survey for moving Student Impact night...

I posted a survey to get feedback on the possibility of moving Student Impact's meeting night.

Currently we are meeting on Sunday nights 6pm - 8pm, but because of a monthly Pinnacle Service and holidays or special events on Sunday nights we are not able to meet on a consistent basis on Sunday nights. Sometimes we have a month where we are only able to meet 2 times as a group, so that is why we are researching the possibility of moving our night.

I realize that there is no "perfect" night, but looking for one that we can meet on a weekly basis and consistently. We need to build our community together.

So when making your vote think through the year of which night would be best. I know there may be seasons in the year that you may not be able to make it each week with school or other activities meeting at the same time.

You can also post comments here with any other feedback you may have or suggestions.

Storm Warning in the books.

Good night at Student Impact for our 1st night of Storm Watch talking about Storm warnings. Just like real physical storms that we face that come about without much warning, each one of us face "storms of life" without much warning.

We all will face storms and the struggle is to keep our eyes fixed on Jesus who walks with us through each storm that we face just like He did with the disciples in Matthew 8 & 14. He is always there for us. A good reminder for us all.

Looking forward to our next lesson from
Storm Watch on July 20th as we talk about:

In the Eye of the Storm

Student Impact for Sunday - June 22

This Sunday we start our Storm Watch Series...

STORMS:
Have you ever woken up to thunder so loud you thought the sky really was falling? Or maybe you have listened to the wind scream as it ripped through trees and knocked over fences? Storms can be scary. In the middle of a storm, we know that we are unbelievably out of control. But while physical storms may threaten and terrify us, there are other kinds of storms in life as well. There are storms that rip apart friendships and families. Storms that meet us in a hospital room on a sunny Saturday afternoon. Storms that creep up on so subtly we never saw them coming. Storms like these often leave us asking “Why God?” For the next three weeks we will be talking with your child about the inevitable storms of life and how we handle them.

This week - Storm Warning!

Come check it out and bring a friend!

Challenge T-minus 7 days

Well we will be leaving in a week for Sojourn Challenge Conference. This will be a place where we will update our journey out west and maybe even post some pictures, etc. Can't believe it has been about a year since we posted and used this thing!