Friday, December 29, 2006

Swanson's Roof

     For quite a few months we have been planning to re-roof Kim Swanson's trailer.  We had some funds left over from Texas and raised additional funds.  Julie VanVoorst, the Diaconal Coordinator, worked with churches in GR South to raise additional funding.  Finally we had enough money.  Now shingles.  Rev. Randy Ledeboer put us in touch with a roofing supply company (Eikenhout Inc.), and they provided quality shingles at half price.  Julie arranged for a dumpster from Bob's Disposal, and now we were ready.  It was Thanksgiving weekend, the weather was fine, and we were ready to work.  Except I didn't coordinate delivery of the shingles in time.

     We put the project on hold, but when additional funds came in early in December, we pushed forward.  It was a cold day, and the crew was smaller than we had planned.  We stripped and cleaned one side on a Saturday, then a crew stripped the other side on Sunday.  Those of us who aren't as agile on a roof stayed below and cleaned up.  We had to rely on the old tarp-it-and-dump-it technique, but it worked.

     One lesson we learned: don't roof when it's cold.  The shingles were too cold and wouldn't lay flat.  We were able to dry-in the roof and ended up having to tarp the skylights and wait on the weather.  Our roofer kept telling us we needed 40-degree days, and I kept wondering how many of them we would have in December.  Apparently a bunch.

     It's approaching the end of the year and it looks like we'll get the project done.  If we can't complete the shingling we'll tarp what's left and finish in March of 2007.  But I believe we will get it done yet this year.  Prayer is powerful.

     Another lesson we learned; more of us need to learn how to shingle.  I'm thinking of letting people practice when we re-roof our garage this spring.  It would be helpful to have more people who can shingle when we go to Texas next year.

Wednesday, October 25, 2006

Pumpkin Night

OK, so you go to the Apple Orchard and bring home all those apples.  What are you going to do with them all?  How about baking up some goodies and bringing them to the next meeting!  That's what we did; apple crisp, apple pie, cookie fresh from the oven, and fresh-roasted pumpkin seeds.  We opened with some icebreaking games, then dove into pumpkin-carving.  Seth and Ryan, 2 of Randy's skate buddies, tagged along.  We had a great turn-out, and even invited the Cadets to join us!  We have some pretty unique imaginations, as you can tell from some of our pumpkins.  It was a good night of relaxing fellowship.  I never knew pumpkin guts could be so messy!  Thanks, Ray and Paul, for the extra help!

Tuesday, October 17, 2006

Klackels Orchard

It was a dark and cloudy morning....then the sun broke through!  It wasn't exactly warm but a good time was had by all.  We rode the wagon out to the apple orchards and picked 'em fresh off the tree.  Jonagold, Fuji, Mutsu...what a variety.  When not out shivering in the cold we could be found inside picking out some squash or buying a bag of Honey Crisps.  Afterwards we met with Andrea and Elijah and had a great lunch at the Big Boys downtown.  Oh, and Klackel's is in Greenville, not Sparta.  My bad.  All in all it was a great time, as you can tell by the pics.  Next year we want to go as a group and spend some time in the corn maze!

Monday, October 9, 2006

GAMES AND A MOVIE

A large part of what we do is spend time together.  One planned event was a night of bowling, but when we got there the place was smoky and the leagues were still bowling.  Once we found out the cost ($150.00) we went to Plan B; Craig's Cruisers!  There we enjoyed a game of minature golf (Jim whupped 'em all) and some airhockey.  The best part was watching Luke on the go-karts!  That boy can go!  It's intersting to note that Drew still carries the scorecard in his pocket to remind Jenny that he beat her at golf.

Another night was a stay-in night.  Most of the group engaged in a Skip-Bo Tournament.  Paul and Jim didn't want to put the rest of them to shame so they opted to watch a movie isntead.  They were joined by Jenny and Andrea (and the little guy).  We watched The End of the Spear.  It was a pretty tough movie to watch, even a little violent, but it definitely made you think about the power of forgiveness.

Our next fellowship event is a trip to Klackel's Orchard in Sparta.  Hopefully it won't be snowing Saturday!

Wednesday, September 13, 2006

Helping a Neighbor

Paul, Tab, and Drew live next door to a woman named Kim.  She was in desperate need of having her porch roof repaired, and we decided to tackle the job.  We had some money set aside so we set the date (Labor Day) and went to work.  Ray and Randy did most of the roof work.  Others painted the large columns on her porch, mowed the lawn, or cleaned up a bit.  It took us a few hours, with a great break for lunch at the Ainsworth's, but we got it done.  Special thanks to Ray and his roofing prowess.  The next day Kim brought over muffins and a thank-you card.  This was our service project for September.  Cool!

NOOMA

We want to make sure that we stay relevant to the younger set so we chose to use Nooma for our studies.  Nooma is a product of Mars Hill, short DVD studies that touch on a variety of topics.  Some of them have a powerful emotional impact.  Our goal in teaching and in worship is to break some of the barriers we put in front of our worship, so we worship in the sanctuary but spread ourselves out.  We use video clips for worship music, then the Nooma DVD.  We follow that up with a short time of teaching and/or exchange.  Our biggest problem lies in the fact that Nooma only produces one DVD a month.  There is a desire in the group to add a second study on alternating Thursday's.

Saturday, September 9, 2006

Skate Ministry

As part of our transition from a youth group to a small group ministry we recognized the need to include opportunities to serve God.  With a few of the younger generation involved in skateboarding and inline skating, we wondered if we couldn't reach out to the "skate" generation.  Our first foray into this ministry was to go to the local park and serve a free dinner to the skaters and boarders.  One of the gang helped "drum up" business.  That evening we met at the park served dogs, chips, and pop, all free, to the skaters.  We were amazed at the turnout and they were amazed that we would just do this for free.  We brought along a digi camera and shot mpeg clips of them in the skate park, then played them back on a laptop.  We were able to make some neat connections, and got to know a lot of people who now hang out at our house regularly.  And we learned an important lesson; if you reach out to people, be prepared for them to be around a lot.  As a result of this night we ended up having a mini-skate park built in our backyard, and our home (and garage) opened to skaters, boarders, and bikers for the summer.

Wednesday, September 6, 2006

Beginings

It started with a desire to help young people dig deeper into God's Word and to grow in Christ.  Sometimes it was only 2 or 3 of us, sometimes more.  Then the Spirit moved us to invite another adult couple.  And some out-of-high-schoolers.  And some parents, and their kids.  Soon we realized we had something bigger than a Bible study, a group of caring individuals that crossed generational lines.  We had Genia!  Genia is the Greek word for generations.  We are a multi-generational group who desire to generate spiritual growth through worship, fellowship, and service.  This is our story.