Pray and Play Day

For the past several months, our 18 months to 5 year old kiddos have been focusing on prayer in Sunday morning classes. Last Saturday, approximately 30 of these tots came together with their parents to celebrate Horizons' first ever Pray and Play Day, themed "Anytime, Anywhere, Any way, I am not too young to pray!"

Families had a fun-filled morning participating in activities focusing on prayer, and learning about the "Faith Five," a daily goal for families to come together to discuss highs and lows, discuss and relate their highs and lows to scripture, pray together about highs and lows, and incorporate "blessing" each other into their days. Perhaps most special though, was the presentation to each child of their very first Bible from Horizons and their parents, and watching each family sit quietly together to explore the new Bibles together. The kids were also pumped to have Pastor Steve and the congregation bless them with prayers in Sunday services! Please keep these littlest members of Horizons in your prayers as we watch tiny seeds of faith grow into BIG love for God. Please see pictures below.

--Jen

Update on Stuck in the Middle conference

Wow! What an amazing weekend at Stuck in the Middle! I was talking to Heidi McInerny who described the feeling of being back home as a "void." This described exactly how I still feel now. I really miss the community we all had hanging out for the entire weekend. I don't know if you know, but we have an awesome 5th-8th grade youth group.

On Friday, our journey started with big vans hauling 55 of us from Horizons to the middle school conference in Kansas City. The conference had comedy from the Big Show, breakout times, worship from the band, Dutton, and several awesome messages from middle school pastor, Heather Flies. During our last main session on Saturday, it was awesome to watch as everyone let their guards down and worshiped God freely. I wish you could have experienced it with us.

One of my favorite parts of the entire weekend happened late Saturday night. After the conference and some swimming at the Great Wolf Lodge, we took time to reflect. Our students and leaders packed into three different hotel rooms to discuss our experiences. The room I was in reminded me of how our students are not only leaders in our ministry, but also leaders in our entire church. When we asked them how they had expereinced God throughout the weekend, 5 out of the 15 students' hands immediately shot up. We then went around the entire room and every single person shared how they had felt God's presence during the trip.

Sunday involved a little hooky from church. My body wanted to catch up on sleep from some late nights, but of course, that didn't happen. A group went over to Cabelas and a lot of us spent a little more time in the pools at Great Wolf Lodge. It was such a blast!

I was reminded this weekend of how lucky I am to serve with this group of people. Thank you to everyone who was involved with this trip!

Derek

Pictures from Stuck in the Middle

stuck in the middle: day two

Stuck in the Middle is so much fun! We arrived at the conference a little late of Friday, but we made it in time for the worship. Our speaker, Heather, was an extremely powerful speaker. Our first sermon was on sin, and how we can avoid it. We then went to a party that was held at the church. By the time we got to The Great Wolf Lodge, it was 11 and, according to a security guard, it was "Hibernation Time," and we had to go to bed.

When we woke up we had to go straight to the conference. We had another service. This one was about our spiritual gifts. We then identified our own spiritual gifts. After that we broke into small groups, and discussed the sermon. Later on, we played the most epic game of Mafia ever! We had 47 people play! I was the first one to get killed off :( Kyle made it to the final 3 (how did that happen?!?!?!).

We went to our final sermon, which was about friendship. This was my favorite service because everyone was so energetic! We went back to the lodge, and swam for 3 hours. We had a great small group. We are now going to bed.

-Grant S.

stuck in the middle: day one

Wow! I’m not sure I have words to express what I saw and felt tonight! Driving down the interstate with 6 middle schoolers was a new experience for me. It was quite entertaining listening to the giggles from the back seat, having someone else control my cd player, and having people who actually liked to play “Would you Rather.” Upon arriving in KC, we found our way to Open Door Baptist Church. The evening activities had already started by the time we got there. Opening the doors to the sanctuary, I was greeted with the sound of about 300 (maybe more, maybe less, I am not good at judging numbers of people…….) middle schoolers rocking out to some awesome music! Instantly the goosebumps ran up and down my arms. If there is anything that gets me, it is listening to the sound of kids singing. It thrills me to hear that sound, but to know that they are actually singing to worship our awesome God, wow!! What a feeling! Our speaker really pushed the kids to think about where they stand with God and their sins. Some pretty heavy stuff to start off our night. After the main event, we partied with all of the other kids that had come to worship and get closer to God. Kaoroke was a huge hit, and of course we all took our turns singing. The mechanical bull was another popular way to round out the night. Tomorrow promises to bring more fun, more worship, more opportunities to bring us closer to God. As for now, I am off to somehow figure out a way to make three 10 year old girls think it’s a great idea to go to bed…………….

Heidi Mac

3rd & 4th Grade Bible Blitz

Packaging meals for Haiti

These pictures reflect Horizons' involvement in packaging 28,000 meals to be sent to Haiti.