Crazy Good Vacation Bible School!

Vacation Bible School for children has begun and it's off to a phenomenal start!

 

 

More than 200 volunteers are serving between 300-400 children.  The goal is to plant seeds of God's truth into the hearts and minds of children.  VBS began in a completely new way this year.  The first session of VBS was our 10:45 a.m. worship service where 900 children, parents, volunteers and church attendees participated in energetic worship and inspiring learning.

 

 The VBS worship team brings energy, great modeling and authentic praise to God!

 Lunch is enjoyed by many, many families following our Sunday morning kick-off service.  This was billed as a picnic but bad weather forced us inside.  The meal was much more than expected!

The massive jumper created a fun atmosphere in the gym following the VBS kick-off worship service!

I want to thank the 200+ volunteers and staff who are making this a great week of mission.  Both Nazareth Lutheran Church and us are having great VBS weeks.  Touching these numbers of kids in the Cedar Valley has to have a huge impact for Christ in the years ahead.

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Children Listen and Learn During Worship Service!

At the end of Mike Brost's teaching this Sunday morning, he asked people to consider worshipping our Holy God by raising their hands during worship.  Some children were listening and responded!

Here are two children in the back row that wanted to participate and worship our Holy God with others.  So many incredible things happen in these little hearts.

This summer we are stressing the importance of families worshipping together!  Research (Sticky Faith) is clear that one key to having faith stick with our young people in college and beyond is the act of worshipping together as a family.

Our Family Worship Service begins in the sanctuary @ 10:45 on Sunday, June 16.  But, parents don't need to wait for that onramp to worship to begin.  Parents can bring their children in any worship service at any time.  Don't expect them to sit perfectly still.  They are kids and even I can't sit perfectly still.

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Love Cedar Valley Demonstrates God's Love and Grace

Forty-three churches partnered together to take God's love to our communities today.  It's called Love Cedar Valley and is led by Laura Hoy, Orchard's staff person who leads our partnership with Walnut Neighborhood in East Waterloo.

Orchard volunteers gave leadership to several of the projects including handing out lunches at the four corners of Lincoln Park in downtown Waterloo.  I stopped by there at noon and they had what appeared to be 40-50 people cooking hotdogs, putting  lunches together and then 5-6 people handing out lunches at each of the four corners.  One group of these volunteers comes to this outreach from Drug Court.  I had one of the lunches--they were delicious!

I also helped for 3 hours at a new outreach house that has been purchased by Mike and Laura Hoy on Almond Street.  A dozen volunteers in 3 hours made amazing progress by clearing this home of it's contents, cleaning, ripping up all of the carpeting and trimming trees.  It is so good for a neighborhood to have houses transformed, one house at a time.  This will provide a powerful opportunity for being a good neighbor in many ways.

Hundreds of volunteers, a nice morning, good worship, lots of energy and the Spirit of God at work--what could be better.  My prayer is that God will use this effort in the hearts of those who are on the receiving end of these kindnesses and that God will use this effort in the hearts of those who have been on the giving end of these kindnesses.

Congratulations to Mark and Haley Iehl, who were Orchard's point leaders for this event.  Good Job!  Thanks to the many volunteers that work this week and today to make this event such a success.

I was really inspired by the closing worship at Love Cedar Valley.  A worship band with participants representing 6 different churches led in worship.  The prayers and the video touched my heart.  It ended with a challenge to say to God....."Here am I to serve you!"  Powerful.

 

 

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Strong Participation in Faithful Service

Today I was inspired by the strong and faithful work that occurred on our Cedar Falls campus during our Spring Work Day.  This day is sponsored and organized by our Route 55 Ministry which is a ministry of those who are 55 years old and better.   Between 60 and 70 people partnered to do everything they could to help us continue to be a prevailing church.  I reminded our staff early this morning not to simply see volunteers wiring, cleaning, cooking, planting......, but to see people who love Jesus serving Him in these very important ways--building His kingdom and serving our church.

Thank you for the great participation on this Monday.

 All kinds of cleaning and upkeep items are handled on this day.  I hope someone remembered to cut  the electricity!

 Following an early morning hailstorm, much good outside work was done around our campus--once the ice melted.

 The hospitality team for this day made certain that no one went hungry!

 

I celebrate the faithfulness of these great people.  Thank you!

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Staff and Leadership Board Community Day!

Yesterday our entire staff and four members of our Leadership Board, invested our day in traveling by bus to different parts of our Community.  We enjoyed a day of getting in touch with people in our community who often are distant and unseen by us as we live our normal and everyday lives.

We visited the Waterloo's River Loop Public Market and the Plaid Peacock where our Youth Art Team has painted a huge and beautiful mural.  We heard from Jorge and Nuriz Lopez at the La Cosecha Hispanic Church.  We had a delicious lunch while visiting with many folks at the Salvation Army. 

In the afternoon,  we interacted with Chaplain Rick from the Tyson plant, got a tour of 316 Walnut House, Jobs for Life (led by Brian Carr, one of our Leadership Board members) and a home that Mike and Laura Hoy are buying to have roots in the neighborhood.

Our day ended with a time of worship in our own sanctuary.  God is at work beyond our wildest imaginations.  He is at work in places within our community that we aren't even aware of.  He is even at work within us in ways that we seldom recognize.

Armond Floyd (Fuzzy) leads us in worship as we close our day together!

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Are you growing?

Physical growth spurts happen to many young people.  Our grandkids are one example!

For awhile they don't seem to eat much and don't appear to be growing.  Then all at once, they enter a growth spurt and they eat like a horse and it's almost like you can watch as they stretch taller and taller.  It seems to happen right before our eyes.  They are growing.

Our church mission:  Helping people become fully devoted followers of Christ requires that people grow in many ways.  It requires that people grow spiritually in their connection with Jesus Christ.  It requires that they grow in learning to obey God and following his leading in their lives.  It requires that we all learn to be more and more courageous.

As I've listened to several people who returned from our Haiti Mission trip in these last days, it seems to me that I am observing a spiritual growth spurt in these people.  You can almost watch them growing in their love of people, their courage and their understanding of the power of God.

On Wednesday I had the privilege to teach at Mom's Morning Out.  What an outstanding group of young moms and several mentors.  As I was interacting with them, I was reminded that raising young children at home can be a time of graduate level spiritual growth.  Classes in this time period include perseverance, lack of sleep, patience, gentleness, answering thousands of questions.  I thought I might be witnessing a spiritual growth spurt in these young women.

Just a question--are you growing these days?

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Reflections on Easter

I'm writing this on the Friday following Easter Sunday.  After five days of reflecting upon our Easter celebration, I want to share 4 celebrations and brief thoughts--

1.  Jesus chose to go through such great suffering and pain because of love for His Father and for us.  John 10 17-18 says, "The reason my Father loves me is that I lay down my life--only to take it up again.  No one takes it from me, but I lay it down of my own accord."

2.  Easter is the source of our hope and the foundation of our faith.  The more I've thought about this, the more convinced I become that all of our hope, for this life and the next, are found in this empty tomb.  This is the foundation of our faith and the empty grave upon which we stand.

3.  Orchard people care deeply about declaring and demonstrating this truth.  Our volunteerism on Easter week is through the roof.  People volunteer to care for children, set up chairs, park cars, pass out bulletins, pick up donuts, make coffee, practice and play music, greet at the doors and so many other things.  They do this because Christ has touched their hearts and they want to respond to such a great love.

4.  We have some amazing young people involved in our ministries.  The Maundy Thursday service was entirely led by college students who shared their testimonies, led worship, washed feet and served communion.  The music and the message was amazing.  Good Friday's two services at Nazareth were also absolutely touching.  The fourteen senior speakers shared vulnerably and  reflected upon the last seven words of Jesus.  More young musicians led us in worship.

It was a great week celebrating the most compelling event in all of world history.  This man conquered death and His Spirit lives.

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Preparing for Easter Week as a Christ-follower!

Spring Break is coming to an end and it's time to turn our thinking to the celebration of Easter week.  The first Spring Break Mission Trips will return tomorrow morning and then soon all five of our teams will return--our Jamaca team returns late on Sunday evening.  They will probably be shocked by our cold tundra type weather and the snow and ice remaining in our yards and driveways.

As a church we've been focused these last four weeks on the book of Galatians.  It has been a powerful and good focus for our church family.  We will do our last teaching on Galatians this coming Sunday and that will also finish our Daily Scripture focus upon Galatians.

Our Daily scriptures (from Orchard's website) will move to scriptures from the Holy week story.

In my own preparation for Holy Week and Easter, I will be reading John 12-21.  I will track with the steps of Jesus and try to imagine His feelings, His thoughts, His pain and His ultimate celebration.  I encourage you to add a focus on the scriptures that follow the final days of Jesus' life in the gospels. 

I pray that each person who calls Orchard their spiritual home, will give some extra time and focus upon the final moments of the life of Christ.  And then, make plans to celebrate Easter with us!

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Stories of God at work!

One of the current practices for each of our staff meetings and Leadership Team meetings is that within each meeting, usually after prayer and scripture, we share stories of God at work. 

This has become a valuable tool in helping our staff and elders see the world through the lens of God's active involvement in our church and our world.  Each time of sharing these stories creates in me a new awareness of the many venues in which we see God at work.  He is at work in lives, events and ministries that prior to the sharing, I knew nothing about.  Telling these stories is a great way to honor God!

Let me share two stories of God at work this week:

Story #1 is the Special Olympic Challenge Day that is taking place at Orchard today.  I snapped these pictures just now....

 

 

This morning I said a prayer at the beginning of this very special event.  Each time the event meets in our gym, I am struck by how God so often uses our building and campus in strategic ways that  to help people who need a time of encouragement.  Watching these folks do athletic events in the gym where we will hold our worship service in the morning, always touches my heart.

 

Story # 2 is the 66 Bibles given to 2nd graders last Sunday morning at both our Cedar Falls and Grundy Center worship services.  These Bibles becomes a symbol of the important role that the God's Word is to play in the lives of these young people and a symbol of our church wanting to stand beside these young people and their parents as they move toward "more fully devoted followers of Christ."  I love this picture of partnership--God's Word, the students, the parents and our church.

 

So, today I just got a text from one volunteer on our Junior High Ski and Shop where 30+ volunteers and 130+ students are traveling to the Minneapolis area for skiing and shopping.  This is simply another tool to help us be positioned in the lives of students and families in order to challenge and encourage them with Christ's gospel.

 

 

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Mission Trips change people!

Meet Jason Wellnitz…is my son-in-law and my guest blogger. He’s written a novel inspired by a trip to Mozambique with Orchard Hill Church and Food for the Hungry. Read about his experience and what he did in response to what he saw.

June 2011, Gorangosa, Mozambique.
Our driver turned the white minibus off the main paved road and down onto a red, rutted dirt path. We bounced and swayed as he navigated the bumpy network of paths, the way that lead somewhere apparent to him, but not to us.

As we slowed to a stop in front of a small house constructed of hand-formed, red clay bricks, the children burst into loud song. There are at least 80 small children next to the house, many of them holding their even smaller siblings on their hips.

This is Calvette’s Sunday school. Calvette is a key member of the FH/Mozambique staff, and I met him when I traveled there in June 2011.

The children sang us song after song, overjoyed at the opportunity. Eventually a drunk man wandered by, swearing at the children. They were undeterred, though later we found out, this wasn’t an uncommon occurrence.

Each Sunday, Calvette and his wife open their home to as many children that will come, giving them a good place to be away from the vices that haunt the communities.
Inspired by Calvette’s efforts, and those of the rest of the talented and dedicated FH/Mozambique staff, my wife and I donated a small amount of money to help Calvette complete an addition to his home that would shelter the Sunday school from both the elements and drunk people.

Wanting to do even more, I recently published a short novel called “River Way Home“. It’s inspired by my time in Mozambique, but it is pure fiction, not based on actual events or people.
I’m donating the proceeds from the first 500 sales of the novel to support FH’s efforts in Mozambique. Please see an excerpt below and if it looks interesting to you, please consider purchasing it from Amazon.com.

Excerpt from River Way Home, Chapter 1: Headwaters -
First, a small bit about myself. This much I’m sure you know but I must start at the start. I don’t know much about the woman who gave birth to me or the man who impregnated her. They are veiled from me. Hidden. Separated. They lived in Mozambique. Mozambique is a long country occupying twelve-hundred miles of coastline where southeast Africa meets the Indian Ocean. On a map it looks like the thick, crude, wooden slingshot of an African boy. It’s the ancient puzzle piece mate of the drifting island of Madagascar.

I was their first-born son and they were very young. They farmed some small sorghum fields and occasionally sold wooden goods at the market. The man who supplied my Y chromosome was deep in the throes of malaria at the time of my birth. He left his wife a four-lettered gift and she died near my first birthday. I have never seen her picture and my infant mind retained no memory of her. I passed through the hands of some extended family members who didn’t care to grasp me and landed eventually in a Christian mission orphanage near Beira, Mozambique. If Mozambique is shaped like a slingshot, Beira is the top of the handle, along the sea. I spent two years in the care of that brave, tenuous orphanage. My memories of that time are a thin patchwork. I was fed. I was kept out of the rains. There was a woman who was kind. But there were many of us and only one truly kind woman, so there were long gaps between her touches.

Now is the time to turn to the story of my real father. He is the one who came and found me in that orphanage.

Eventually you will understand the precise details of how my father ended up being born in Milwaukee. But suffice to say for the confines of this story, there was the brightest flash of light, an immense amount of time passed, and ambitious tribes made their way from Africa to Mesopotamia to Europe. They learned how to coax food from the Earth along the way. My father’s fathers were farmers in every generation except those immediately preceding his own.

For three thousand years they farmed this or that piece of land under this or that system of order. Sometimes they grew grain for lords and kings. Other times they walled off gardens and lived utterly on their own. In prosperous times they prospered. In poor times they were poor. But they worked and moved. They worked and stayed. They moved and worked again.

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Powerful Morning at Christmas in Walnut

Begin with a delicious breakfast at Harvest Vineyard Church on a beautiful December 8, Saturday morning. 

Add to that 400 enthusiastic and cheerful volunteers, 2500 Christmas toys, 50 dozen cookies, 400 families who've come for some help in purchasing toys for their children and grandchildren.   What do you have?  A very powerful morning at Christmas in Walnut.

This morning was amazing and I believe, pleasing to God!  Christmas in Walnut Year 3 was a huge success in every way we could have imagined.  Great gifts, powerful prayers, every family took home a book of the true Christmas Story and again our partnership with the Boys & Girls Club and Harvest Vineyard was built even stronger.

Here are some of the parents standing in line outside the Boys and Girls Club waiting to get inside the Christmas Store.  The average wait to get inside was about 10 minutes.

These are two pictures of the Christmas Craft Workshop which gave children the opportunity to make both Christmas decorations and Christmas gifts.  I love that this project gives everyone an opportunity to be a "giver!"  The children give by making crafts, parents give by purchasing great toys at very reduced prices (the money is then invested in the neighborhood and schools), our volunteers give their service and joy, and our church and community give the gifts.  Everyone is a giver!

These two pictures show the shoppers and their personal shopper who gets to know them (a little) and helps in any way possible as they choose their toys.

We are grateful to God for this opportunity!

 

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Christmas in Walnut Stories

The stories are so powerful and good.  So many people are pulling together to make our Christmas project in Walnut Neighborhood happen and help up to 500 families have gifts for their children under their tree this Christmas.  We have so many opportunities to explain again and again the process of helping financially under-resourced families in a way that builds thheir self-respect.

Stores have given our shoppers huge discounts because of the heart and strategy of the project:  Toys R Us, Kohls, Blain's Farm Fleet, Hobby Lobby, Scheels, Walgreens and others.

Last night our high school students heard a strong talk on God's design for sexuality and then went out with small groups and purchased gifts for these families.  We calculated their investment in the project at $2500.  A huge thank you to the students (and parents who provided some of the funds.)

A family with four older children from another church just came and delivered $450 worth of gifts.  They decided this money was better spent on others than on themselves this Christmas.  What a powerful decision for them to make!

Here are some pictures of the joy we find in helping others.  Our Sunday morning Children's Ministry raised enough funds to purchase 157 books for the families we will be serving this weekend.

Here are some of the small groups returning from shopping last evening.  How cool is this that students are focused upon other students who have less this Christmas.

Please join me in praying that Saturday's Christmas In Walnut will be a huge encouragement to families as they eat breakfast together, attend the Christmas Craft Workshop and the Christmas Store.

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Everyone a full participant!

In this picture, one of our youngest partners is adding her toys to the pile of toys to be distributed at our Christmas Store.  I loved this picture the moment that I saw it.  This little girl helped choose the toys and then helped deliver them to the church.  Wow.  She is actually an important part of our church.  She can be a giver at 2 or 3 years old.  I love this part of the church.  Everyone gets to be a full participant!

I see full participation everywhere in the church and I see it in the scriptures.  Jesus chose 12 very different guys upon which to build His church, and each one had the opportunity to be a full participant in his cause.  When he congratulated the 5 talent servant and the 2 talent servant with exactly the same words, in the Parable of the Talents (Matt 25), they were both full participants.  They gave according to what they had.

I saw it a couple weeks ago, when a group of high school guys, joined some others in serving communion to our church family.  Brad Hillebrand said, "It was so great for the guys.  Mayor Buck Clark went into "youth director mode"  huddling the guys up and said, 'whatever you do, don't spill the juice!"  These young guys did an inspiring job of serving communion.

Tomorrow night the high school small groups will journey to Walmart, Target, Toys R Us and buy toys for Christmas in Walnut with their own funds. If you're out shopping at 8:00 p.m. you might want to stand aside.  Last year the enthusiasm was both chaotic and filled with joy! Again, full participation!

Saturday, some of our youngest members were the entertainment and the program for our Route 55 Christmas program.  I heard it was awesome.  I heard it was like a "holy moment" with people sitting on the edge of their seats.  Again, full participation by throwing in gifts that God has given to each of us.

I hope and pray that the people of Orchard will continue to look for ways to encourage others and engage themselves as full participants.  The scripture that I cannot get out of my head this week is, "To whom much is given, much is required."

I know for sure that I've been given a lot.

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January 2013 will focus upon family!

Last night our Family Task Force met for the 6th month.  The goal of this task force is to help Orchard ministries provide tools and experiences for families to be Christ-centered in their homes and neighborhoods.  Our goal is that every parent would understand that they are the primary spiritual coach for their children.

Our teaching team is excited to focus January 2013 Sunday morning teachings upon helping all of us be stronger and better families.  Watch for more details and plan to learn a lot about being Christ-centered families.

So, on Wednesday mornings, I walk 3 of my grandchildren to Orchard Hill School.   My wife, Linda, is in preparation for our Mom's Morning Out Program and this is my one morning each week to be with the kids.  It's never a simple walk when grandpa is along.  This morning it involved climbing a tree on the way.  Here's some pictures....

I have so much to learn from my grandkids about joy and fun!  They can find fun in so many places that I would think is a simple walk to school.

One practice that I have started to implement is that on my walk home alone, I pray for them, their school, the staff and all of the schools that are in session on this particular morning.  Many of the teachers at Orchard Hill attend our church and I know so many others are active Christ-followers in other churches.

I encourage you to find practices that become disciplines that are regular times of praying!

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It was a celebration!

For some of my friends who lead large churches, the day of the Annual Church Business Meeting is one of the worst days of the year.  It can be a day of uncertainty, strife and division within the local congregation.  It can be a day when politics within the church raises its head.  It can be a day when the mission of the congregation gets lost in the details of the business of the congregation.  It can be discouraging.  Many people experience that within their local congregations.

At Orchard we had our "annual business meeting" on Sunday evening.  We call it the Annual Church Celebration.  It has become one of our very good days as a congregation.  We have moved the focus from doing business to celebrating all that God has and is doing within our local congregation.  We had 225 of our leaders and congregational members together to worship, share and pray for our staff and our church leaders.

It was a blast with outstanding and moving worship.  George and Judy Marshal, who are the pastors of our partner congregation Harvest Vineyard Church, said to me, "That was great worship!"     People told moving stories about their children coming to Jesus, about their college students being saved from destruction, about the Youth Art Team and its huge mural, about the Connect and Care Team who visit shut-ins and others who are struggling.

It was powerful.

We have chosen to do our business by mail in ballot which then allows for our current practice which is to celebrate all that God is doing in and through Orchard.  In the above picture people are choosing from many desserts and appetizers.

Here I am interviewing Angie and Elna Dieken about our merger with Lincoln Center and how they see this transition.

Here Maribeth Boelts and Jo Dorhout are encouraging our staff and preparing to lead our congregation in a prayer of help and encouragement for our staff.

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19 Baptisms and many people in church this morning!

What a grand morning.  We did a total of what turned out to be 17 infant baptisms in which parents promised to raise their children for Christ.  What a powerful time with Doug and Tim up front doing the baptisms.

Doug and Jeff also did two baptisms by immersion of college students who are now followers of Jesus Christ.  It is such a powerful picture for young people and parents to take spiritual steps like this. 

This really matters!  Thank you to the hundreds of volunteers who serve every week by parking cars, seating the crowds, doing childcare and Children's Ministry, making coffee and all of the other responsibilities that allow all of this happen in Christ's church. 

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It's Not About Numbers???

Sometimes I sit in meetings and I hear the phrase, "it's not about numbers!"

I know the true thing that people are trying to say.  People are trying to remind us that our work for God must be about something deeper and more true and more important than numbers.  I agree with that.

But, what I usually think at that point, is that numbers most often tell a story that is true and exciting and important.  Sometimes we should absolutely celebrate numbers for what they reflect and tell us.  We ought to thank God for the numbers and the story behind the numbers!

Here are some numbers that I'm thanking and praising God for this Saturday morning:

15--young people who stood up at our Big House Student Ministry event on Halloween to make a first time commitment to Jesus!  Also at our CHAOS Junior High Event on the same evening many other students made some first time commitments and re-commitments to following Jesus.

14 & 2--baptisms we will do on Sunday morning this week.  14 is the number of parents who are bringing their infants to be dedicated to God.  I love this because they are making the commitment (the promise) to God to do everything in their power to raise these little ones to become followers of Jesus Christ.  I've oftened wondered what could be more on our church mission than this kind of a promise.  And the 2 represents the college students who will be baptised as followers of Christ in the 11:01 service.

382--the number of coats that our congregation gave to be to be distributed at Harvest Vineyard Church in Walnut Neighborhood today.  We had a goal of 300 which I thought was way out of the park because this is our third year of doing the project.  How many coats do people have hanging in their closets?  But thanks to the faithfulness and giving hearts of our people, we again have exceeded our goal and God could use these coats to keep 382 people warm this winter!

I would encourage you to celebrate and thank God for these kind of numbers.  Maybe the next time someone says, "it's not about numbers!" you will have a little different thought.

I'm sure thanking God this morning for my privilege to be a part of the ministry of Orchard Hill Church.  Here's some pictures of the coats!

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Beyond our walls!

So much of our ministry is beyond our walls.  We work heavily in the following communities:
Gorongosa, Mozambique,
Pignon, Haiti
Walnut Neighborhood in Waterloo
Grundy County
and within the Cedar Valley where we have our Cedar Falls campus.

As I looked at this picture of our Cedar Falls campus taken from a hot air balloon this past weekend, I was reminded of several things:

1.  What we do inside the walls of this 59,000 square foot building is important.
2.  This facility is a gift of God to be used for His glory
3.  Many people have come to know Jesus on this 20 acre campus
4.  We continue to make this campus available to our community--tomorrow night the CF Cross Country Team will have their sports banquet on our Community Center
5.  This is simply the gathering place for those in our church who are out being "salt and light" 24/7

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Have you seen the HUGE MURAL?

Youth Art Team paints a huge mural in 12 days!

24 students painted a new mural that covers approimately 1600 square feet on the Plaid Peacock, a highly visible two-story building in downtown Waterloo.

These students met Jessica Young this summer, toured the shop, researched at the Waterloo Public Library and sketched out their ideas.  After Plaid Peacock approved the team's mural proposal, students picked up paint brushes, scaled ladders and scaffolding, and painted their largest mural yet.

Team members' ages range from five to 18.  While the effort required help from more than 20 adult volunteers, only students were allowed to draw and paint, guaranteeing they would claim the finished piece as their own piece of art.

The Youth Art Team believes that as God transforms lives, he transforms the spaces in which we live.  Check out the new mural, visible from Highway 218 between Waterloo's RiverLoop Public Market and under-construction Cedar Valley SportsPlex.

"I am sure they don't realize how their artwork affects so many other people," said Jessica Young.  "I think it is something the kids should know--how what they do has an effect on so many people!"

Every time I drive by and see the mural, a smile breaks out on my face.  I love how that 1600 sqaure foot mural brings light to our community.  I love that the students did every part of it including the research and planning.  I'm so proud of these young people!

Also check out  www.YouthArtTeam.blosgspot.com

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Big House and CHAOS have great starts!

Passing the baton of faith to Next Generations is a huge core value at Orchard Hill Church.  This value of reaching next generations with the message of Christ has been a core value since the very earliest days of Orchard beginning in the basement of the founding pastor's home.

This calling on Orchard to reach Next Generations has been affirmed in so many ways.  Many of us on staff have been Student Ministry Directors and we continue to have a heart for the development of faith in the hearts and minds of young people.  The list of those who have been full-time staff reaching out to next generations includes:  Ed Baker, Dave Bartlett, Tim Boettger, Pat Oehler, Doug Tensen, Kris Hoskinson, Laura Hoy, and Jesse Henkle.  Add to that list our current Student and Children's Ministry Staff and Orchard has much passion to unleash for reaching the Next Generation.

God is doing amazing things this fall with Student Ministry for Junior and Senior High students in Grundy Center.  Mike Brost and Stef Rohler leading junior and senior high outreaches.  They have had a powerful start.  Both Big House and CHAOS on the Cedar Falls campus is also having powerful

Our outreach to high school people which is currently called Big House has a 27 year history.  Take a look at this video which was used at the first meeting of Big House to inform students of the history of this event.

Link to see the video

http://www.facebook.com/n/?photo.php&v=10151196293141352&mid=6b2e1cdG5af359cf9f44G5b17ffeG1d&bcode=zDChOPKn_1.1346954399.AaT5GKK2p0ncPtBi&n_m=dbartlett%40orchardhillchurch.org

I'm so grateful to be a part of a local congregation that has reacjomg Next Generations as such a core value.

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