Coming Home

Wow, to say this has been a whirlwind of emotion would be an understatement. We have really fallen in love with the city. It's an enormous task but its something God has really put in our hearts. We ask that you would pray for the people that we have met this week and that you pray especially for the missionary Alex Otalora and his family along with his team of Sharon and Mike. Thank you for all your prayers, God has kept us safe this week, and we're really excited to share with all of you about our trip and even more excited to come back!
-Matt and Brian

Matt and Brian say Hola!!!

make sure you visit Brian's blog at b-michael.blogspot.com

Bogotá

Bogotá

Hey folks...just wanted to let you know that I will be posting a daily journal of mine and Matt's adventures in Bogotá on my personal blog which you can find here: b-michael.blogspot.com

Pray for us!

God Bless!
Brian

Sunday Fun Day

College Students and Young Adults! Come join us for a rip-roarin’ good time at the Flemings. Every third Sunday, the Young Adult Ministry will head over to the Flemings after church for a good, old fashioned time of food, fun, and fellowship! Come as you are or bring a change of clothes to be more comfortable. For directions...follow someone!

August Mission Project!

College Students and Young Adults! For our August Mission project, the mission field will be in our own backyard.... and front yard! We will being doing all sorts of yardwork around the church, spraying weedkiller, trimming bushes, pulling weeds and other yardwork that needs to be done. We had a great turnout last month at Choices For Women and hope you will join us again. This will be August 16th from 10am - 3pm. Lunch will be provided!

Rock the Boat 2008

Rock the Boat ’08
July 24-27, 2008
Schedule

Thursday Evening

5:00 PM Leave First Southern Baptist Church

10:00 PM Arrive at Campground (Girls in one wing & Boys in the other)

10:30 PM Worship & Session 1- Bible Study- George Coates

11:30 PM In Beds & Lights Out

Friday

8:00 AM Breakfast

8:30 AM Guest Speaker/ Worship (Worship& Session 2- Bible Study)

9:30 AM Leave for the Lake

10:30 AM Lake Time

12:30 PM Lunch (Sandwiches on the Lake, meat or PB&J)

1:30 PM Lake Time (We will be stopping to swim and have some fun!)

6:30 PM Supper Time! (Gilled Hot Dogs and Hamburgers, baked beans, homemade chill, and chips)

8:00 PM Speaker /Worship (Worship & Session 3- Bible Study)

10:00 PM Return to Campground

11:00 PM Lights Out

Saturday
9:30 AM Breakfast

10:00 AM Worship & Session 4 – Bible Study

11:00 AM Leave for Another Awesome Day @ the Lake or Day of Shopping in the Pigeon Forge, TN

12:00 PM Arrive at Lake or Shopping

9:00 PM Arrive back at Campground

9:30 PM Worship & Session 5

11:00 PM In bed prepare for worship tomorrow

Sunday

8:45 AM Boys leave Lake

9:15 AM Cereal and Fresh Fruit

9:45 AM Sunday School: Youth Dept. (First Baptist Church of Fall Branch)

11:00 AM Sunday Morning Worship: HOMECOMING SERVICE

12:00 PM Lunch (Potluck Dinner in the fellowship hall)

1:00 PM Hike to the Fall Branch Falls/ Devotional (Matthew Stanley)

3:00 PM Leave for Indiana and arrive back @ 9:00 PM

Phun in Philly!!

 

Rap for Jesus

Rap from School's Out Blow Out 2008

Brain and Noah take a turn!



Josiah and Tanner forgot to write that part!

School's Out Blow Out was great this year. The raping was great, thanks to all who came and helped.

ON FIRE!

June 23, 2008 see the louisville fire vs. lexington horsemen @ freedom Hall. Free Tickets are limited, so reply to this post to reserve your spot today. we only have 9 tickets. Game kicks off at 7:30 PM and we will leave from the churc at 6:55 PM. Get ready to be on fire!

June Ministry Project

Who: Young Adults & anyone else who wants to help
What: Landscaping work - planting flowers & mulching
When: Saturday, June 14, 10:00am - 3:00pm
Where: Choices for Women ("Blessing Boutique"), New Albany
How: Come join us for this mission project in our own backyard! Meet at the church at 9:30am to drive over together. Please bring any tools you may have (shovels, rake, gloves, etc...).
Why: This is a great ministry right here in our midst and anything we can do to help them will be greatly appreciated. The "Blessings Boutique" is a building on their campus that provides ladies clothes and supplies for their newborns and young children. This is a great ministry to others, let's minister to them!

Free Puppies

Free Puppies to Good home. Our dog Reese had five beautiful puppies on Wednesday May 7, 2008. There are three black, one white, and one tan. The father is a Lab/Irish Sitter mix, and mom is a boxer mix. They will be ready in a few weeks.

Parent's Night Out - 3rd Edition

Hey young adults! Come out and help us make this third edition of our Parent's Night Out and great one.

This has been a great success the last two times we have done this, and I'm looking forward to it again. It will be on *May 16th from 6:00pm until 10:30pm*. We will break up the evening into 30 minute intervals again. The layout will be as follows (same as last time):

Session One: Playground time (indoors if raining of course), parents will be dropping off kids (someone will need to register the kids while the rest of us play with them)

Session Two: Pizza Time

Session Three: Song Time

Session Four: Teaching Time

Session Five: Craft Time

Session Six: Game Time

Session Seven: Movie Time with Brian

Please email me or let me know somehow which one of these you would like to do. I claim movie time...but there are plenty of other jobs. This is a great way of loving our brothers and sisters in Christ. I know that all of those parents out there greatly appreciate it.

Return to Narnia

All are invited to return to Narnia on May 17, 2008. We will take a group over Saturday for the 7:00 PM showing at the Great Escape in New Albany. Children, Youth, and Families are encouraged to attend. These are the types of movies we want to see produced, so let's support them.

Expelled!

Here is a movie clip you will not see on TV. Why? Well you watch and decide.

9-Volt Saturday & Paintball

Hey folks!

This Saturday, March 15th, we will be reaching out to our neighborhood as a church. We will go to 200 homes and let people know that we are here and that we care. We will give them a 9-volt battery and a pack of coffee (awesome). I hope that you will join us as we "live as Christ" by loving our neighbors. My prayer is that this would be a great opportunity for each of us to share the life-giving gospel with many lost people who don't know the saving grace of Christ Jesus our great, redeeming Lord. Please meet at the church at 11:00am.

Following this time, we will eat pizza at the church (1:00pm) and then head to the Branhams for some Paintball (2:00-7:00pm). I have worked on each of the guns, cleaning, oiling, and repairing them. So they are in tip-top shape. They all work great! The cost for Paintball will be $15. Hope to see you all there!

God bless you all.

Announcements 3-2-08

Matthew and Travis give announcements for the first full week of March.

The Ten Commandments of the Coffee Shop!

Hey students, do you need some cash for student activities? Why don't you work in the coffee shop? You get $7 an hour towards the youth activity of your choosing! That's great! Enjoy this training video for the coffee shop, inspired by the Holy Hand Granada!

Announcements 2-24-08

Announcements 2-17-08

Announcements 2-10-08

OPERATION NOAH REBUILD

New Orleans needs you. Will you make a difference in the life of someone in need this spring break? Will you put aside what you want and put others first?

March 24-30, 2008 (spring break) will you help rebuild?

Announcements 2-3-08

How we roll!

Don't send a lame Starring You! eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Announcements 1-27-08

Announcements 1-20-08

2008 Kentuckiana Broomball Championship (must be read with an announcer-like voice)

Broomball is back!! This year churches from the Kentuckiana area will compete for their souls? No. Their dignity? Maybe. The Golden Broom? Absolutely.

The event will take place at the Alpine Ice Center in Louisville from 9:00pm to 12:00am February 17th. The cost will be $10/student.

Each student will need to bring a broom (wooden-handle brooms last the longest), money for snacks, and/or drinking water.

No high-sticking!

See you on the ice!

Pictures from the 2007 Championship

Announcements 1-13-08

Paintball!

The young adults and youth will be having a day of Paintball fun February 23rd at Cary Schooley's place. Come out and join us!

If you have your own gun, we ask that you bring that.

We will provide plenty of water for the occassion but we do ask that you bring a sack lunch.

Thousands of paintballs will be provided for purchase at a reduced rate and the price is TBA.

Thanks to Dennis Jenkins, we have free CO2 available.

If you are under 18 please bring a notarized medical form which you can find here.

We will leave the church @ 11:30am and arrive back at the church @ 4:30pm.

It is a 30min drive and we need people to drive and take passengers.

Ski Trip '08

I hope everyone is as excited about going to Paoli to ski as I am!

We will be leaving the church @ 8am on January 21st (that's Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and spending all day at Paoli.

If you know that you are going to go, please leave a comment on this post by clicking "comment" (below). Leave your name and tell us how excited you are! Right now the price is $67/person. If we can get 15 people to sign up then the price will drop considerably. Bring your friends.

Also, we still need people to commit to driving up there.

Mission New Orleans '08

"Do You Know What it Means to Miss New Orleans?" If not, you must not have gone with us on the last mission trip to New Orleans.

We have an amazing opportunity as a church to go to New Orleans this year in March. If you have any interest in this mission trip you can view pictures from last year's trip, see the slideshow we put together from the trip, or read about our staff's experiences. There's a lot yet to be done despite how the media portrays New Orleans. Just ask anyone who went on the last trip.

This year's trip will be March 24th - 30th. The total cost of the trip is $300 with a $50 deposit due on February 13th. If you need assistance to pay for this trip, please see Travis.

Annoucements 1-6-08

Here are a the announcements I gave in the video.

1. Southern Live is back to regular schedule this week. (guys we will be studying how to handle conflict this week's title is "grace or grudge"

2. Fuel2 this Wednesday night January 9 @ 6:30 PM (The Virgin Birth of Christ)

3. Church clean up day (Saturday, January 12)

4. $50 deposit for M-Fuge Mission trip to Philly due January 16. Dates are June 29-July 5.

5. We are going to switch our Broomball date with the Ski Trip date. So we will be going skiing at Pailo on January 21 (Martin Luther King, Jr. Day) and Broomball has been moved to President's Day (February 18).

6. I need some help with our recycle project. Please talk to me(Travis) about it.

Have a great week!

Merry Christmas!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Don't send a lame Holiday eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Christmas Formal 07

The power may have been out, the weather may have been bad, and we may have had to move the time but we all had a great time at Christmas Formal 07. Photos are here.

Creation Museum Trip

Hey guys, we are taking a little trip to the Creation Museum in Cincinnati (well...near there anyway). We are going this Saturday. Hope you can make it. We will have group rates! I posted a video here to wet your appetite.

OCC - Operation Christmas Child Packing Party

Our recent Operation Christmas Child packing party was a big success. We had lots of volunteers and we packed over 600 boxes!!! Pictures of the event will be posted soon. Courier Journal did an article on the event. You can view it here.

Parent's Night Out

The college students held a Parent's Night Out last Friday night and it went very well. The parents were very appreciative and the kids had a great time. I believe that the college students enjoyed the time. We provided songs, crafts, games, and more.

Enjoy the photos.

Trunk or Treat '07

Wow! What a great time we had at Trunk or Treat 2007. If you weren't able to come, you really missed a good time. Pictures are posted here. A big thank you to our Associate Pastor of Students Travis Tyler for organizing this successful and fun outreach event! And thank you to all who made this a success through working games, face painting, food, hay rides, registration, set up, tear down, and CANDY of course!

Already looking forward to next year. And next time I get the golf cart!!

Natural Bridge State Park Trip

This may not be a youth event...but I thought I would take advantage of the space. The photos from the trip are posted. We all had a great time. If you have other photos...email me and I'll tell you how to upload them.

Youth Harvest Part Photos Are Up

Click on Operation NOAH or Dan-O the Man-O with two pumpkin-O's to get the pics from the 2007 Youth Harvest Party.

Cowgirl Take Me Away!

Winter Retreat 2008

Where: Adam's Mark Hotel in Indianapolis

When: January 4-5, 2008

Program: There will be Three Main Sessions and Two Breakout Sessions

Featuring: Speakers :Patrick Hanelya and Tom Atkinson

Concerts: John David Webster and Fighting Instinct

Illusionist: Drew Worsham

Cost: Before November 1- $100

After November 2- $110

you can go to www.scibi.org, select Youth Ministries, click on the blue ISM Box, and then click on the C2 link.

This should be a great time and you will still be out of school on winter break.

Contact Travis for more details.

Harvest Party 2007

YO HO, YO HO, A HARVEST PARTY FOR ME!

Hey friends, It's Travis again. I just wanted to remind you about the Harvest Party this Sunday. We will kick off with food at 5:30 PM and will go til 7:30 PM. Then we will move into the games! I would like everyone to dress up. We will be giving away two gift cards (girl and guy) for the most original costume. We will be having Subway sandwiches, a scary cookie cake, and o yes PUMPKIN TIME! You don't want to miss this great event. Bring your friends we will be presenting the gospel.

Girls Baby Ruth's is on at 4:30 PM, and fellows you will be meeting with me in the MAN CAVE @ 4:30 PM.

Get Real '07 Photos

They're here! Thanks to all who made this event a success!

Fuel 2

Hello friends, It's me Travis.

I just wanted to remind you that we will be going on to the next section in our study from Fuel 2.

Fuel 2 is designed to encourage all participants to start "OWNING YOUR FAITH".

Our next fuel 2 meeting will be October 3 @ 6:30 PM. The meeting will last until 7:30 PM, at which point we will join the adults upstairs for Church wide Prayer. In this section we will be studying the Humanity of Christ. And we will also be continuing on in our Garden Parks High story.

Rock the Pole!

Hello again everyone! I want to get you pumped up for Rock the Pole 2007. The time is from 5-8, but we will be meeting at the church at 5:30 PM and going over.

Rock the Pole 2007 will take the place of Southern Live this week. I hope that everyone is able to attend! It is going to be a blast! I will bring our new church camera and get lots of pictures. I have to be back at church at 7:oo PM for the business meeting, but Becki and Melissa will hang out till 8. I would also ask that anyone who can drive, please come and help transport students.

Also, girls don't forget about Baby Ruth's this week. You will be meeting at your regular time 4:30 PM.

Finally, I would like to let you know that we will be back on schedule for the last Southern Live as we know it. The last Southern Live as we have know it will be September 30, 2007. The new Southern Live will have food, music, and small groups (based on age and gender).

We will have a guest speaker, Haggai from Nigeria, on October 7. Haggai will be speaking to us about the importance of International Missions. Hope that Everyone has an exciting weekend!

New Orleans Movie

New Discussion Board - Sign up today!

Hey ladies and gents. We have a new addition to our website: a discussion board. This is simply a place where we can discuss different events that are coming up, etc...

You will find a forum for general discussion for the youth, a forum for the upcoming Get Real event, and a forum for the college students concerning our bible study Get Uncomfortable.

Feel free to register, update your profile with a picture and info about you, send private messages to one another and discuss different topics on our forums. I hope to see you there!!!

Click here to register and get started!

The Three Penny Challange!

The three pennies you see in this blog, are three pennies that Jordan flipped at Braden in Charleston, SC. I found the pennies on my walk to one of our nightly group devotions. The three pennies you see are the beginning of the mission fund to Romania. This blog to to remind everyone that we want to collect all the spare change we can get. So check under the couch, under your bed, and in the washer/dryer. We need all the pennies we can get. Because each penny is a penny closer to Romania! Bring your pennies, nickles, dimes, quarters, and dollar coins to our orange and white piggie bank in the church foyer. We will not stop collecting until we leave in 2009!

Will you help change a life in Romania?

Breakfest Table A Success!

10 Dozen Eggs- $14

18 Packs of Sausage- $45

12 Gallons of Milk- $40

Spilling sausage gravy on your Sunday's best - PRICELESS!

The Breakfast Table was a success we collected $319. We are looking forward to the Baked Potato Bar next Month!.

Discussion

Okay. Time for some interaction people. We want some genuine feedback. And I want you to post your name with the comments so we know who's talking and who reads this blog.

Let's start simple:

What has been your favorite event/meeting with the First Southern Youth Group or College Ministry?

Click "comments" below and post away. And feel free to post responses to other people's comments as well.

God Bless.

P.S. The picture was just funny, so I used it, lol.

Speaker Bio for Get Real '07

Ladies! Get Real '07 is coming up quick!

The bio for Mary Ann Paille is up. I'm sure you're all looking forward to this event. Get in on the discussion group!

Get Real Website

Speaker Biography

Directions to the Event

Discussion Board

Register Now!

Nice Shot!

I just found this shot again, and I couldn't resist posting it. What a great time we have as a youth group.

Get Real '07

This year, First Southern is offering a unique event to teenage girls called Get Real '07. This event includes a Fashion Show, Music, Drama, Speaker and more.

Get Real '07 will be October 13th here at First Southern.

To find directions to Get Real '07, to register for Get Real '07, or for more information, including our discussion board, please visit the Get Real '07 site.

Swimming Party

We had a great time hanging with Rachel Douglas. Miss you!