Skillet Concert - Tuesday, October 20th

Teens, you don't want to miss the concert of the year coming to the Four Corners area! If you love music and you love it live and loud- this is the show for you. There will be great Christian bands like Skillet, Hawk Nelson, Decyfer Down and more. Tickets are $25 and money needs to be turned in to Chris Standridge by Sunday, October 11th. We will leave Grace Church at 5:30 PM. Because the show is in Farmington, NM, we will be home a little late (11:00 PMish), so make sure you tell your parents. Let's ROCK together!!!

Collision's Skate Nite

//collision.skate.nite

Now that school is back in full swing, you may feel like you need an escape from the daily grind of homework, pop-quizzes, exams, trying to impress people and on and on. Does this sound like your routine!? How about a one-nite recess from all the stress? Join us for a nite of skating, games and food! Here’s your chance to show off your mad X-Games-worthy skating tricks and skillz. Whether it’s traditional skates or inlines, we’ll have a blast skating the nite away! There will probably be a ton of pizza too!

//One Big Event:
Skate Nite 6-12th grade
Friday, Sept. 11 6:00 PM @ Grace Church
Cost is $12. As always, friends are free!
Need more info: call (208) 861-2588

A New Sunday Lesson Series at Collision!

Teenagers- join us every Sunday for 12 weeks at Collision Student Ministries as we look into this new, interactive study on "GPS: God's Perfect Story". During this study we will look at the importance of God's Word in our lives and see how God has the whole story- from the beginning of time with Adam and Eve- to the end of all things in Revelation.

The idea of GPS is to help you look at God's story for your life by looking at HIStory through the Bible. When we look at God's Perfect Story, we understand that He is in control and can help us navigate our lives as well.
So join us every Sunday at 9:30 AM at Grace Church! It will not be something you want to miss out on!

Float n Flick July 18, 2009

“The “dog days” of summer have arrived. So what better way for a teenager to enjoy these lazy days by joining us for Float n Flick on July 18th? Collision Student Ministries is inviting every teenager at Grace Church (and their friends) to join us at 1:00 PM at the church as we brave the rapids of the Animas on tubes! If you or your teen has an inner tube or a store bought tube they can use, encourage them to bring it with them on Saturday. We will be floating the Animas River from 32nd Street to Rotary Park. It will be a great time and afterwards we will come back to the church and watch a flick on the “big screen” in the youth room while eating as much pizza as we can imagine. Cost is $7 per student. (First time visitors are free!) If anyone has some tubes that they would be willing to let Collision students borrow, please see Chris Standridge or call him at 208 861-2588.”

Remembering Ray

Nine years ago I got the special privilege through a friend, Joyce Boston, at my old church to be introduced to a young man named Ray Werner. At the time Ray was in between his 8th grade and freshman year of school. Ray was a pretty special kid. He was from a broken family. His dad was non-existent. His step-dad was in prison. His mom was an alcoholic. Ray had already been through Narcotics Anonymous as a 14 year old. On top of that, it was not out of the norm for Ray's mom to call the cops on him when they would fight. To say that his history was sketchy would be an understatement.

But one summer afternoon I got a call from Joyce asking me to come meet Ray at her horse pasture where they were tending to the horses. While Ray and I met and talked in a mini van, I sensed that the Holy Spirit was doing something special. That day Ray accepted Christ as his savior. And man, did his salvation ever change him! From that day forward, Ray truly was a new creation in Christ Jesus. He became involved in church and WaterMark Student Ministries. He began going to a Christian high school. He was discipled. He got involved in leadership. He straightened up his life and used what Satan meant for evil as good.

Ray changed my life that summer afternoon. Because of what Jesus did in his life, it gave me hope that God could reach and use anyone and that there are no lost causes. Not only did I get to lead Ray to Christ, but I had the privilege of mentoring him and discipling him for 5 years! Those were five of the happiest years of my youth ministry because he was so contagious. He truly impacted the people around him for good.

Ray died in Iraq on February 8, 2007. His patrol was hit by a road side bomb while policing the streets of Iraq. While Ray provided me with nothing but positive memories and joy in my ministry, the day I found out about Ray's death was the darkest day of all my years in youth ministry.

I continue to believe that God works all things according to His purpose and He is sovereign. While at the time I did not understand why God took this 21 year old man who had gotten married 2 weeks before he shipped out for Iraq, I just knew that God was not done with Ray's life and legacy. I was asked to preach Ray's funeral a couple of weeks later and it was one of the greatest honors for me to be able to preach about the hope that Ray had as a child of the King. That day the Gospel of Christ was presented at Ray's funeral and dozens of hands were raised saying they accepted the very free gift that Ray received when he was 14 years old in a mini van. Praise God! Even in death Ray was impacting eternities!

I write this today not to mark an anniversary or to commemorate a special day or memory. But I write this because I was just thinking about my friend and "child in the ministry" and missing him. I was notified of a facebook page that is dedicated to remembering Ray. When I viewed the page, I was reminded of what a special place Ray had in my heart and how much I long for a student in my current ministry that I can raise up in the Lord. I have hope. I pray that God gives me another "Ray".

To check out Ray's memorial page on face book and read the articles about his life, legacy and his funeral, go to http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/group.php?gid=2239340403&ref=mf

Chris Standridge

Day 3 - Camp Oro Quay

Well, today is "hump day" at camp. This is usually about the time when kids start losing energy, settle into a routine, starting going to bed at sane hours and actually sleep till sane hours. We are all feeling pretty good. From what I can see, all of the kids are still having a great time. I have not heard a hint of homesickness from any of them. I have tried to keep a handle on each student and how they're doing and adjusting to being away from home for so long (as today is usually the day kids start getting homesick). All is well with these kids. Come to think of it, I think most of the girls would rather be with Katie than the parents! Katie is doing a wonderful job with the girls. Every time I turn around, she and some of the girls are posing for her camera. She is loving on them like Christ would if He could put His arms around them.

The guys are a different story. I had to beat Tyler today. He wanted to see how big a "man" he was so he started a punching contest with me. I told him this would not end well for him but he persisted. So I was forced to show him who the "man" was. It was all in good fun. Tyler and I got to go repelling today. We went off a 70 ft. cliff called Castle Rock. He was very scared to say the least, but he made it all the way down! That was an exciting extra that no one knew we would get to do before camp. Ethan is becoming very independent. He is making friends and playing with kids from other groups quite often, which is great! I love his outgoing spirit. Ethan has a new knickname- "Spider Monkey". That kid can climb anything. Today we went to the ropes course and he climbed right up to the top of this 30 ft. tree and climbed across a couple of ropes and jumped! It was great to see the confidence coming out of him.

The girls are doing great as well. A few of them passed their swimming tests today so they could go into the deep end of the pool. Becca will get to go repelling tomorrow with the older girls. As for today, Becca, Bella, Kari and Riley all either got to the top of the ropes course jump or got most of the way up. I was surprised at their lack of fear when it came to these obstacles. When Riley started up the tree, she got about 15 ft up and decided she wanted to come down. We talked her into going a little bit further just to see if she could push past her fear barriers. She went another few feet and was like, "Now I'm serious. I want to come down!" So she made it much further than even she thought she could. We have tons of pictures and videos that I can't wait to share with the church on how our week at camp is going.

That's all for now. Hopefully I can share some more tomorrow.

BTW: You need to ask the kids about the wild gorilla roaming the camp grounds!

Day 2 - Camp Oro Quay

Well, we got to camp all fine and nobody got car sick. It took a little longer to get to Camp Oro Quay than usual. I guess that's what happens when you let a bunch of pre-pubescent girls have 32 oz soft serve in a cup! When they asked me if they could get shakes and ice cream, I thought it was in place of their drinks, not their lunch. Well, none of them ate lunch and I was a bit nervous about the fact that all of them had a ton of ice cream but no one complained or got hungry on the drive.
When we got to camp, we found a beautiful camp setting in the foothills outside of Albuquerque. Last night was mostly just an introduction time to camp but the camp speaker did a great job of introducing the theme of camp "Exploring God". It's amazing to listen to his messages and hear the doctrine that is being taught to these little ones and they don't even realize it. He's really speaking to their level!
Right now all the kids are swimming, I think for the exception of Stephanie. (thumb). I hope someone is watching them as they swim! J/K. They have three lifeguards on duty and Katie is with them as well.
Let me just give a quick update on each student from our group for all you who are inquiring minds:
Stephanie: doing great, quite athletic as she beat me in the Castle House race
Becca: talks a mile a minute and is having a great time. I feel like God is working on her this week. She said she memorized a verse out of the Bible this morning. That's a great step for her even though when I asked her what the verse was, she couldn't remember it.
Bella: Surprisingly to me, I have not heard much out of Bella. I can tell she's having a great time but she doesn't talk to me much. Maybe I stink. Maybe I should take a shower. I see her listening during the messages and participating in all the games and activities though.
Kari: She stinkin beat me in the Castle House race too! Doing great at camp away from home for the first time in this setting. I was a little nervous about her since she was crying at church before we left but she shows no signs of homesickness. I asked her if she was and she said "no way" but also that she did miss her mom a little.
Ethan: I'm convinced this kid is a genius and no one has realized it yet. There is a lot going on in that head of his and we had a great discussion about last night's message afterward. I was thinking I was going to have to prod him a little to get him to talk. Man, it took him about 2 seconds to get going. Then he became the preacher. I told him I thought he would make a great preacher someday. He is very in tune with God and what He is doing around him.

That's it for now. Please be praying for each of these kids that God's Spirit would get a hold of each of them right where they're at and just how they need it!
Check out my facebook if you want even more pictures! I would love to have your comments. I'll make sure I share them with the kids. Don't forget to send your kids "Meal Mail". None of them have gotten any and I think they might be getting a bit disappointed. You can email them from the camp website: www.oroquay.org
Chris Standridge