Thursday, September 28, 2006

FACEPLANT SKATE TOUR 2006 - Camas

CAMAS SKATE PARK***
On September 28, 2006 Team FacePlant headed to Camas skate park which is the second skate park we have gone to on our FacePlant Skate Tour. Camas isn't a bad park at all if you are into street skating. The park is week in the vert department, though. Nevertheless, our guys tore the park up. The huge funbox in the middle of the sunken area seemed to be the most skated obstacle. In the middle of the funbox is a nice sized handrail, too. There is an eight stair at the top of the skate park. There is a little launch ramp that is mobile. The guys decided to move it near a fence and ollie off of it over the fence. John, Josh and Blaine seemed to be the skaters who shredded the hardest. Overall I give Camas skate park a THREE STAR rating.



Monday, September 25, 2006

FacePlant Ministries Is Born!

















After nine months of pregnancy, Faceplant Ministries is born! What I mean is that it's been nine months since God opened the door for me to become youth pastor at Whipple Creek Church, and what started out as a few students in our Middle School and High School youth groups, has now exploded into a thriving youth ministry which was more recently named Facplant Ministries.

Faceplant Ministries encompasses our entire student ministry here at Whipple and is broken down into three weekly youth meetings. On Tuesday nights from 6 to 7:30pm is our Middle School youth group and from 7:30 to 9pm is our High School youth group. Both groups have a similar format of fellowship, games, worship, teaching and small groups. Our Middle School group, which was originally on Thursday nights, is geared toward those who want to grow in their relationship with God. It's brand new and I'm excited about what God is going to do. Our High School group went through a transition at the beginning of the year and what started off as a few students has developed into a group of 15 to 20 on-fire followers of Jesus Christ. We started gaining a lot of momentum at our beach camping trip in June. A lot of cool God stuff happened there and continues to happen. But our High School group is more than a Tueday night youth group. Our volunteer staff members connect with these students on a daily basis and have all kinds of small group activities going on. If you are in Middle School or High School and want a life-changing experience, come out on Tuesday nights.

On Thursday nights from 6 to 8:30pm is our skateboard ministry or "skate church" as people have been calling it. About four months ago I was visiting with some friends at Luciano's and ran into four skaters. I talked to them about building some ramps and having some skateboarding at our Middle School youth group. I overheard them talking about being thirsty and not having money so I bought them each a Frappucino and gave them the invite. That Thursday about 10 skaters showed up and gave their lives to Christ. Now we have 75 to 100 skaters, bikers and spectators on Thursday nights and have sponsorships, skate competitions and plans to build a huge skate park. We skate, talk about Jesus, and skate some more. On Thursday nights we have had at least 50 kids give their lives to Christ. It's cool how God can use a piece of wood and four wheels to draw this generation to Himself. If you haven't experienced this movement of God, all I can tell you is "come and see."

Christian Jung
Youth Pastor