Prepare for Ski Trip '11: Gatlinburg

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It's that time again! We are starting to prepare for our Ski Trip!
January 13 - 17, 2011
And it's not just skiing. . . It's . . .

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. . . Games . . . Eating . . .
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. . . Bible Study and Praise Music on the top of a mountain . . .
(wayne pippen's mountain!)
(we love wayne pippen!!)
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. . . Snowboarding!! . . .
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. . . Carousel Rides!!?? . .
(pretty sure that wasn't on the itinerary)
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Squealy, girly-girl bonding . . .
(who's the lady in the back?)
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. . . ice skating . . .
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. . . did I mention girly-girl bonding? . . .
(. . . and developing life-long slogans like "three words")

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Friday, 1/14: Ober Gatlinburg, Skiing, tubing and ice-skating
Saturday, 1/15 - Shopping & Applebarn
Sunday, 1/16 - Pancake House, Worship Service, Nascar
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You In??

Be sure to sign up on the bulletin board at church or call the church office.
Questions?

See Vicky Tyler, Ross Smith, Michael Shealy or Doug Busbee
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Prepare for Look Up Lodge '10

Preparations are being made for our annual Summer trip to Look Up Lodge. We'll be leaving Sunday, June 27. Laura and Jamal are working up there again this Summer and we can't wait to see them. Here's a look at Look Up Lodge this week - our friends at Mount Hermon Baptist are up there this week!

Camp Update: June 13-18 from Look Up Lodge Productions on Vimeo.


Here's a cute video of the staffers working on skit ideas:

Look Up: Behind the Scenes - Episode 1 from Look Up Lodge Productions on Vimeo.

Look Up '09: Skits & Activities

The youth are allowed a T-tiny bit of free time each day at Look Up Lodge.

During their free time, they can do the zip line, the high swing, trampolines, play basketball or tennis, do pedalboats or kayaks, go fishing and swimming, hike around the lake, visit the canteen.....etc.

Below are some of the photos from free time, take your time and browse through them.

We got Jon to agree to pedal our pedalboat while Morgan, Connie and I rode leisurely. Then we tied three kayaks to the back to see if he could pedal them, too. He did!

Yay Jon!
Paddle faster.... I hear banjos playing.

The Swing:

The Zip Line:

If they didn't want to do any of the above, there was one more thing a lot of the guys liked to do: Stand around and dazzle the ladies.

Each night in Funapalooza, the staffers would perform silly skits. There were one or two week-long skits, like a series, each night's skit building upon the previous night's.

In one of these serial skits, Jamal played a character who was a high-style Hollywood Talent Advisor who gave great advice to artists on how to improve their act. Not shown in this picture are the sunglasses he usually wore. Jamal was awesome.

More Funapalooza. . .

And here's our very own Laura Wise in a skit. She was awesome, too.


Here's Jamal in another skit of a family on a long car ride stopping for fast food. Jamal was in the back seat, all prim and proper and grownup with his baby sister and pesky kid brother who wouldn't sit still.

Thank you for viewing, please exit to your left.

Look Up '09: The Games

Another major part of Look Up Lodge was the after-lunch games. Upon arrival at camp, campers are divided into teams and assigned a "color." Our color was black. Everything we did at camp, we did with our color group and made most of it a competition. Of course, Black team was the best.After lunch each day the teams would compete in crazy games. First, we'd have to put our war paint on - in our team color.--Sara and Doug (below) are showing you how fierce we looked in our black war paint.

Well... Doug doesn't look much different than a normal workday. But you get my drift.

Now, Mo, here is experiencing a transformation moment. You can see it in her eyes, she is being transformed into a machine.

A fighting machine.

Marj was born for the war paint. Brielle doesn't seem too sure, but Marj's into it all right:

For the water game, each team took a trash can in the lake and put some team members in the water and some team members back up on the docks.

The players on the docks were to throw balls into the trash cans. The ones in the water were to catch stray balls and toss them back to the dock teammates to re-try. Each team could post one "guard" around an opposing team's trashcan.

We didn't do so well....

With this next game, the object was to protect your "castle" (the alien looking silver ball object). Marj and Brielle are doing a great job guarding our castle while Chessa stands behind with our staffer, Chris.

So each team throws balls hard at the castles to knock them down.

(Not sure how Marj and B got this job)

We were hot with this game, baby, HOTT.

The best game, the one in which I threatened to leave camp if they involved me..... was the mud day.
They had an obstacle course to complete, most of which was covered in mud, covered in mesh to crawl under, and had staffers scattered about to trip you up or throw mud on the kids.
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Marj was in the lead for our team, or maybe second, I don't remember, but you can see Grayson rapidly approaching and when she jumped in the mud hole, a kid jumped right on her back and slowed her down & Grayson took the lead. I'm not sure which one completed it first. Before they got near the finish line, Connie and I had taken off at top speed so as not to get slimed by the kids post-run.
Here's Brittney (red) and Sara (blue).

"If we have not quiet in our minds,

outward comfort will do no more for us

than a golden slipper on a gouty foot. " - CS Lewis

Look Up '09: The Brothers

Hi!

I'm Larry and this is my brother Darryl and my other brother Darryl.

For those of you too young to remember the Bob Newhart characters Larry, Darryl and Darryl, watch the following video clip, but fast forward to around 2:55 to see the brothers.

We're Baaaack!!

We're back from Look Up Lodge and will have some posts up as soon as we get back into the swing of things.

Final Ski Trip '09 Post

One more thing about the ski trip.

Ms. Christie's schedule

WORE US OUT!

Ski Trip Bible Study

We began & ended each day on the ski trip with a time of Praise & Worship and a group Bible Study. It was fun to get the whole gang together and recap or plan our day and it was inspiring to hear their thoughts about following God and how it impacts their day 2 day living.

Tom led the songs with Will Rutland and Raymond Middleswarth on guitars. Acoustic guitar, majestic mountains, cozy log cabin..... you can't beat that.

Pastor Billy was teaching from The Tough Sayings of Jesus, by Michael Kelley, a young writer and editor for Lifeway. The study was "in your face" tough, a daring look at Jesus' sayings that addresses the tough questions we often leave unasked. We wanted the kids the know that faith doesn't mean not asking questions. The study also included the historical and cultural aspects that surrounded the people Jesus interacted with. It was interesting to see the parallels to our lives today.

The Bible study time and the spiritual atmosphere laced throughout the whole trip is really the whole point of the trip. It's spiritually refreshing to get away from the normal pace of life, away from our peers, away from the tv and electronic games. I think we all came back refreshed, pumped, challenged. It is such a blessing to watch the youth grow and to hear them speak up and share their lives.

Here's a video of some of our singing. I think the praise time was a little weak because we didn't have the written lyrics. Be sure to check out Grayson at the very end of the video. He was really getting into it.