Hey everybody!
I hope you are having a great day today. It is a good day to be alive! Here the winter cold is starting to set in, but spirits are high. October was another great month for our campus ministry, with a couple of new events and some really exciting news.
For instance, I started up my monthly trips to teach the youth program in Faith again. They run an after-school youth program on Wednesday nights that draws a crowd of 20-30 students every week. In a town of 500 people, that's huge, so I try to go over there and help out wherever I can. This last time, I ran a “Life Sized Hungry Hungry Hippo Game” and taught a class. They were both received well and made an excellent dry run for our big event two days later.
So that Friday was the Spearfish Recreational Center's “Spooktacular” event. This is a fun event where families get to dress up and let their kids play carnival games in the safety of the Rec Center. The games are mostly ran by college clubs and organizations, which are reimbursed for the number of tickets they collect from the kids. So the clubs get a fundraiser, the kids have a good time, and the parents don't have to worry about their children wandering the streets in the dark. It is a pretty good deal all the way around.
We showed up and ran the “Life Sized Hungry Hungry Hippo Game” again. This was our very first time to participate in this event, but I thought is was a tremendous success. Here are some pictures for you.
Ryan Working The Hungry Hungry Hippo Game
Our Team
I was once again proud of our students showing and working hard at the game all night. We had one of the most popular booths in whole place because of our students. They pushed kids on creepers out and pulled them back in by a rope repeatedly for a steady stream of kids for the entire three hour event. Our team was completely wiped out by the end of it, but we got our name out there in a very positive way and made a buck or two in the process (we won't know how much for another week). Here is our exhausted crew smiling for the camera:
Speaking of our students, we still have a solid group of students coming to church with us on Sundays and Wednesdays now, which is thrilling for me. One of the greatest struggles of our campus ministry has been integrating it with our church family and that wall has been breached in a big way recently. We have a crew of our students coming to our congregation regularly and we have had several of our church folks come visit our Monday night Bible studies, so I'm glad to see us getting some more traction here.
The best news of the month actually grew out of this sort of thing. The other day I got a call from Calvin Chapman that one of their members in Faith, Jack Valentine, was baptized. Jack is Calvin's son-in-law and he has a daughter who is part of our ministry here, Hannah Valentine. Calvin said I should see if she was interested in being baptized too. So one Wednesday night at church, I asked her if she was interested in being baptized. However, our conversation was interrupted, so I had her chat with one of our elders, Alan Hardison. I don't know what they talked about, but that next Wednesday Hannah decided to be baptized. Hooray! I'm thrilled for her! Calvin and Jack both had the honor of baptizing her in the freezing cold stream across the street from our football field. We immediately smothered her in blankets, but look at that happy smile:
Hannah Recovering From Being Baptized
“Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life.”
- Romans 6:4
I'll follow the best news of the month with the worst news though; Thomas was playing racquetball with his mom and accidentally broke his ankle. It was pretty bad for awhile there. He had to get surgery and crutches and mandatory rest and all that. At the same time, the Pruetts were buying their very first home and needed help moving, so it was a rough time for everyone. Fortunately, our church family rallied around them and helped with the move, and the meals, and getting the kids where they needed to go. So now they are all settled in and happily recovering, but I'm sure they could still use your prayers, as could we all.
Thanks for reading and you have a great day!
-Silas