Suncreststudentlife’s Weblog

Saw this video and it got me thinking.  Sorry that he is a little crude, but he some great thoughts.

I have spent the last couple of days looking for a replacement for Nathan, since his internship will end June 1st.  I have found 2 guys that I would have no reservations about hiring, and now I have to figure out which one is going to be the best fit for Suncrest and for me.  Both are great guys with unique gifts, please be praying that God will give me direction as to who will be the best option for Suncrest.

Also, the weather is great down here, and the mountains are beautiful!  Nathan and I will be back Thursday evening…see you then.

I will be spending the week in Knoxville attending my alma mater, Johnson Bible College’s homecoming.  It is a great chance for me to catch up with some old classmates  and attend some encouraging sessions for pastors.  I know that Chris and our great youth leaders have everything under control back home, and things will not skip a beat with me and Nathan gone.

We have a middle school lock-in on Friday, February 27^th.  We are meeting at Suncrest at 9 PM and will return at 7 AM.  The cost for the lock-in is $10.  Guys need to bring a 2 liter of pop and girls need to bring a snack of some kind.  It is going to be a whole lot of fun!  We have rented a bunch of huge inflatables and that is just the tip of the iceberg.  We will have dodge ball tournaments, video games, board games, and a “girls room only ” for girls to paint nails and color in coloring books.

The registration deadline is next Tuesday, February 24^th.  We would love for you to join us or send your teen along with us for a great night!

Since I got back from the winter retreat I have been trying to find time to sit down and tell everyone about how awesome it was.  Days have just kept slipping away to the point that it seems ridiculous to talk about the retreat now that it is Thursday afternoon.  But, I am going to do it anyway.

I thought I would put the highlights of the weekend in bullet points.

• The weather was awesome
• It was funny to look outside and see our students engaging in snow ball fights wearing shorts and a hoodies
• Nathan’s friend Duane did an amazing job leading us in worship
• Nathan’s other friend Joe absolutely rocked the house with his guitar
• Titus did a great job preaching the word
• Kris and Diane made it appear as if we had way more money than we did in our food budget
• Dino helped by giving us the best deal in town on produce (Who knew students actually ate fresh fruits and vegetables?)
• 2 students accepted Christ: Zoe & Jacob
• All of our students and adults had a chance to go through a really cool prayer encounter
• We didn’t lose any students

I could go on, but I think you get the point.  I just want to thank all the students and adults that attended the Winter Retreat that made it so Amazing!

I have had a number of students call or email me about the packing list for this weekend.  Then Virgina Salata told me I should put it on my blog.  I thought that was a great idea, so here you go.  This is straight from the publicity that we have handed out over the last couple of months.

• Clothes for 2 days
• Clothes to sleep in
• Snow Gear, we will spend some time outside on Saturday
• Sleeping bag or blanket w/ sheet
• Pillow
• Towels
• Toiletries (soap, shampoo, deodorant, toothbrush, toothpaste, brush)
• Bible, notepad, pen
• New Medical Release Form for 2009

I thought some might be interested in seeing what we will be doing all weekend, so I attached the schedule as well.

Friday

• 4:00 pm Check-In and pray before we leave
• 5:00 pm Drive to Camp
• 6:00 pm Dinner
• 7:00 pm Session #1
• 8:30 pm Group time
• 9:30 pm Free time
• 11:00 pm Lights out

Saturday

• 9:00 am Breakfast
• 10:00 am Session #2
• 11:00 am Group Time
• 12:00 pm Lunch
• 1:00 pm Afternoon activities
• 3:00 pm Free time
• 5:00 pm Dinner
• 6:00 pm Session #3
• 9:30 pm Group time
• 10:00 pm Free time
• 11:00 pm Lights out

Sunday

• 9:00 am Breakfast
• 10:00 am Session #4
• 11:00 am Group time
• 12:00 pm Clean up and go home

So, I have realized in the past few days that with launching a new campus and all, there are a lot of people at Suncrest, even within Student Life Ministries, that I don’t know and who don’t know me. So, I thought, why not introduce myself? So here it goes!

My name is Chris Hall and I’ve been working with/for Jared at Suncrest for a little over two years. While this is my entire work experience with Suncrest, it is not my only experience with Suncrest. I grew up here and love the ministry/vision of Suncrest and the leadership here. My parents ingrained in me the importance, as well as the joy, of God, church, the Bible, and prayer for as long as I can remember. That is really where my desire to do ministry stems from.

As I mentioned before, my parents, as well as my siblings, have played a major role in how my life has shaped out so far. My dad is a Level 2 Engineer at Nucor Sheet Mill Group in Crawfordsville, IN. He started there almost two years ago. While I didn’t always like the way he taught me things (like the stuff I learned from the wooden spoon!), he has taught me and modeled for me what it truly means to be a man of God. My mom was a stay-at-home mom for most of my childhood. She homeschooled my older sister, younger brother, and myself from the time I was in fifth grade. If that doesn’t speak to how crazy she is, nothing will. I have a good relationship with my older sister, Heather, even though we tried killing each other on several occasions when we were in our teenage years. She is a massage therapist and loves doing that. While my brother, Sean, and I have had our differences and butted heads in the past, we have always been really close. I mean, after-all, this is the guy that jumped off of our roof because I told him it would be a quicker way to get downstairs! But hey, at least compressing his heel made for a great story later in life! We used to do everything, including getting in trouble, together.

While my family may have had a large impact on my life, there comes a time when it’s time to leave the “nest” and begin a family of my own. That time for me is coming in September. I am currently engaged to a wonderful woman named Ashley Leep. She is many things that I am not and by FAR the better half. Everyone on staff tease me regularly about how she is way out of my league because of both her beauty and her heart. I won’t deny that fact! I am the lucky one and… well… she got the short end of the stick! We’ve been together for over three years and look forward to the rest of our lives together.

Well, that’s about it for my background. Have a great week!

Chris Hall

Student Life Director – East Campus

Communicating with Teens & Parents One of the biggest struggles of a youth minister is finding ways to communicate with parents and with teens. We have tried everything under the sun to help parents and teens stay up-to-date with what is going on in youth ministry. Here are humorous looks at what we have done in the past.

25 years ago youth ministers had a bulletin board in a church

20 years ago youth ministers had a monthly newsletter

10 years ago youth ministers set up cheap websites

7 years ago youth ministers set up forums online for students to talk about issues

4 years ago youth ministers set up a Myspace page

2 years ago youth ministers set up a Facebook page

Today I am rolling out an idea that I first heard about a year ago. It is a text messaging service that allows me to send mass text messages to parents and teens about Student Life things. Below are the instructions for how to sign up. There is no additional fee,however, standard text messaging rates do apply.

It will be used to remind students and parents about special events and announcements. We subscribed to this service last week and introduced it to our students on Sunday. This Tuesday when we decided to cancel re-Mix because the threat of severe weather, it was one of the ways that we got the word out.

Here is how to subscribe: text “stulife” to 41411

It is honestly that simple! If you haven’t already, I would like to invite you into the text messaging age. If my mom can text, I know you will love it too.

So you avid blog readers are aware, we are canceling Remix for tonight – Feb 3rd – due to the severe weather warnings.
-Nathan-

I thought I would join the large number of people that are making predictions today.  This is a hard game for me to pick.  As you watch ESPN everyone(the analyst) loves the Steelers and can’t stop talking about how great they are and how there is no way Arizona will be able to match their skill them.  So, I am going out of a  limb and picking the Arizona Cardinals to win!

Final Score Arizona 28 Pittsburg 21

Super Bowl MVP: Larry Fitzgarld (the guy is a beast!)