Sunday, June 17, 2012

We've Moved

Lifepointe's main site is finally capable of hosting out blog so we have migrated on over there. Check it out at www.ignitedyouth.com and click on "Youth News"

Thursday, July 21, 2011

Day 4: Lose It All

Rush of Fools rocking their best song at student life camp.

Day 4: Group Shot

The group got soaked.

Day 4: Water Day

It's so hot! Thank goodness for water day. Our group is in there somewhere...

Wednesday, July 20, 2011

Day 3: Early Morning QT

We just finished breakfast and are getting charged up for a great day.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

SL2011 Girls Family Group

Day 2: Angels of Awesomeness

Several of the girls (this is just three of them) decided to be nice
and pick up people's trash in the dining hall tonight. One lady called
them angels. To quote Amelia, "I love this and can't wait to do it for
the rest of the trip!" Go team!

Day 2: Rec Video

We beasted the human ladder race :)

Day 2: Rec Time Pics

Go Red Rumble!

Monday, July 18, 2011

Student Life Camp 2011 Day 1

Devoted. (Deuteronomy 6:5) That is what I hope each of these 19 people
learn to be by the end of this week. Please pray for each of us by
name to experience God in a big way.

Friday, July 15, 2011

Day 7: Cedar Point

How do you remember a mission trip after you get home? That's right,
tattoos! One of the guys took it to the extreme...

Thursday, July 14, 2011

Day 6: Starbucks really helps!

The crew tore it up again weeding, painting and cleaning up a garage.
We all joined in the afternoon to work at 'Medwish' packing supplies
for medical missions and clinics. It was a great day. Everyone
celebrated with a big slushy.

Day 6: Blink!

Today was the first day that Team Blink (Blue and Pink) got to work together on a service project. Since we have 2 vans and 3 teams we had to split up, but it's cool because it really helped us grow closer together during the times we were together.

Here are some pics of the painting project we worked on. We had to scrape all the old paint of off the entire front of the garage, which was surprisingly fun. I am so proud of our team. When lunch time came and the other 2 groups had brought the food to us Team Blink wasn't content with taking a break. We finished that garage before we ate and the team worked really hard on it.

Day 6: Random Pic

Heres a pic for Sean, PJ and Clayton's up and coming band "Jello
Pudding Pops." seriously we were just helping clean up the movie night
and I snapped this pic.

Wednesday, July 13, 2011

Day 5: Men's Shelter and Yard Work

Today started early and ended late. My group did an amazing job
serving guys who really needed a smile and a morning meal. The rest of
the day we spent serving people in the community doing yard work. My
group served a lady named Mrs. Gail who was so excited that she was
going to check put Velocity with her daughter. Everyone beasted it and
transformed people's lawns and shrubs. We rounded out the day with a
movie night we helped put on for local kids.

This is a pic of my group in downtown Cleveland after the men's
shelter. If you're a parent you should be very proud of your son or
daughter. I know I am!!

Tuesday, July 12, 2011

Day 4: Finishing The Box

Today was a long day. We finished passing out 10000 flyers inviting
people to Velocity Church. Here are some pix of some of the group with
the their empty box and celebratory slushies.

Monday, July 11, 2011

Day 3: Photo of the Day

The photo says it all. Justin found it while passing out flyers

Day 3: Handing Out Flyers

Today our group began the challenge of handing out up to 15,000 flyers
inviting people to church at Velocity. There was a great attitude
among the group as everyone walked in pairs from house to house
leaving flyers on the door.

Many people quoted the park we had lunch in as a highlight for the
day. As you can see from this pic, three of the girls learned how to
walk on water. We passed out more after lunch but had to call it quits
due to rain, got all cleaned up at the YMCA and headed out to dinner.
We spent a lot of time tonight hanging out and bonding as a group.

Sunday, July 10, 2011

Day 2 Pics Pt2: Working at the Kiddie Company

Day 2 Pics Pt1: Working at the Kiddie Company

Day 2 - "Here Today, Juan Tomorrow"

(Sorry this is a little late. There is no WiFi in the building we are staying in)


Hi everyone! Elizabeth here. Like Todd said, we got up and ready pretty early and headed to Velocity to help them set up. Some of the teens split up and helped in the children's ministry. It was muy divertido! BUUUT…..I AM NEVER HAVING KIDS!!! haha oh jkjk :P they were wonderful :)


After church was all torn down, we stayed at the Kiddie Company to help them. We cleaned windows, cots and we changed light bulbs, vacuumed, and we power washed playground toys. We stayed at the Kiddie Company until 4 and then we headed to the pool to take showers…however, some of our group stayed and went swimming for a bit.


For dinner we ate tacos…they were very yummy! We are so blessed to be able to stay at this church, it is so nice here - we have two rooms, bathrooms, a kitchen (even though it is hard to find pots and pans to cook in), and a hugeee "dining room."


Tomorrow we will start working in our separate groups (Grellow, Blink, Orple) and get to help out the community in a few different ways. :) Pray for safe work and experiences that will impact the community and our lives.


Miss y'all! :)

-MT11 Team

Day 2: Velocity Church & Kiddie Company

What a great team! Everyone got up, ate, packed up, cleaned up and got
to church by 8:15!!! We are at Velocity Church waiting for services
after helping setup.

Please pray for us this week. Last night we learned a few things about
Cleveland. In Raleigh the economy is down but it's nothing like here.
When people speak about Raleigh it's usually positive and about
growth. Here it's not so upbeat and in fact the city is shrinking. In
Raleigh about 12% of people are connected to an evangelical church
and, while we have a long way to go to reach 100%, here in Cleveland,
less than half a percent are connected to such a church. As teens in
Raleigh many are connected to a youth ministry and have friends who
are too. The lead pastor here shared that he knew of no youth
ministries anywhere in the area!

Pray for God to use us to connect one life at a time this week to help
lift the spiritual darkness in this place. Know at home that we are
blessed beyond measure both economically and spiritually and thank our
father for that.

We miss you Lifepointe!!!!!

Saturday, July 9, 2011

Mission Trip Day 1 Late Night

How do you feed 21 hungry missionaries? Well five full carts is a good start...

Mission Trip 2011 Day 1

We made it safe and sound today to Cleveland OH. We scored some great
pizza in 'Little Italy' at Mama Santas before meeting up with the guys
from Velocity Church to get settled into our lodging for the week.
Here's a shot of my top notch copilot hard at work on the way there :)

Heading out!

Headed to Cleveland with Ignited Youth!!!

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

10-12th Grade Mission Trip 2011

Our mission trip team of 21 is getting ready to leave this Saturday
morning for Cleveland OH so please pray for us and the work we are to
do. I can't wait to see God move on this trip. Keep an eye out for
nightly blog updates from the team.

Friday, June 17, 2011

Day 5: Saying Goodbye to Mission Camp '10

We are now all officially home from mission camp 2010. It was a great trip filled with a lot of fun memories. We served others, heard some "good preachin'", celebrated the fact that many of our students more fully surrendering areas of their lives to Christ, had a student dedicate herselves to missions/ministry, witnessed two guys devoting themselves to lifting each other up for the rest of high school and generally grew together into a stronger group. The theme of the week challenged us to ask, what am I 'DEVOTED' to? We redefined passion from faith based on personal feelings, emotions and excitement to faith based on continual sacrifice to God's will. Being passionate for something doesn't mean that we are simply excited about it, it means we would die for it. Much of the week was devoted to understanding that living as a Christ follower means that we will have to face trials and we will have to pick up our cross and walk daily but in that trial we have one thing the world doesn't, hope.

Personally I love the time at camps to connect with students and share in the wonder of watching them walk toward God, watching them make decisions that will change the course of their lives for good, watching them grow into young men and women of God. Those students who wanted to be 'unstuck' in their faith were moved and that is one of the most exciting things to watch.
  • Students: I appreciated your general willingness to open your heart to God both through the camp and also through us as leaders.
  • Parents: Thanks for sharing your kids with us this week.
  • Meghan, Tyler and Taylor: Thank you so much for your dedication to sharing God's love with our students! As always, it was great to serve with you.
- Todd

Thursday, June 16, 2011

Day 4: Saying Goodbye to the Children's Center

Day 4: We Are All Sleepy

Good morning everyone. I'm really tired. So are the students. Isaiah
40:30-31 is our verse for strength.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Day 3: Missions Continue

Some of the crew finishing cleaning all the outside toys at the
children's center.

Tuesday, June 14, 2011

Day 2: Getting Ready For Worship

Day 2: Missions Begin

We made it to the mission site today. Here's a quick pic of a few
girls hard at work spray painting a fence. Will update more tonight.

Camp Day 2: Morning Celebration

We woke up this morning to all the girls singing Justin Beiber.

Monday, June 13, 2011

8-9th Grade Mission Camp Day 1

Day 1 at camp is all about settling in, finding your way around and seeing how the group is going to become a team. This year's camp is shaping up to be an exciting one with a great group of students. Just to give you a few highlights of the day, after getting on the road, eating at Wendy's and checking in we migrated to our dorms. It always seems to take forever to get checked in and then in a matter of minutes the everyone has their beds setup and bags unpacked. This year the guys are in a hall style dorm with bathrooms shared 1 bathroom for two rooms (1 shower: 4 people) but the girls hall style dorms are 1 bathroom to an entire wing of the dorm (4 showers: 40ish people). That should prove an interesting challenge. After getting all unpacked we had our camp orientation, dinner and our evening 'celebration' worship service. Our band is called 'The Museum' and they are really engaging the whole camp in worship through music. Clayton King is our camp Pastor speaking each morning and night on what it means to be a devoted follower of Christ. The whole camp is centered around Deuteronomy 6:5 which Jesus quotes in Matthew 22:36-37 as the greatest command. Clayton really drove home the idea tonight that a devoted follower of Christ isn't driven by feelings or emotions but rather by dedicated seeking of God's will through a healthy daily walk. He conjectured that passion isn't just this emotional high of being on fire for God and making a shallow commitment but rather being willing to endure pain and suffering in order to glorify God.

Please pray for our group as tomorrow we begin our daily mission work at the Children's Center for the Physically Disabled, a public school not far from the university here in Winston Salem. We will be playing with the kids and helping wherever needed. I know they plan for us to paint and do yard work. I hope our team really takes hold of the words in 1John3:16-18 as they serve tomorrow. Please check back for updates and leave comments.

Saturday, July 24, 2010

In the USA

Just a quick update to let everyone know that group 1 has made it to Miami and we are getting ready to enjoy our 4 hour layover. See you all soon!

A.J. Viola
Sent from my Verizon Wireless BlackBerry

Last Day Rap

We had a great day living it up in Antigua. We stepped up our highlight rap from last year. It was a big challenge but we pulled off the first three sections before the lemonade workers shut us down. Check it out:


Thursday, July 22, 2010

Previous Pictures from this week
















Hope you liked them! :)

Love Hallie and Lauren