Bayside Bowl is SATURDAY!

I hope you all get a chance to come to our Bayside Bowl this weekend. It is Saturday from 11am-3pm. Come for football, games, pizza, and more! We look forward to seeing you there. I will post pictures and results on Sunday...

Mistakes

We had a great night last night at youth group. Glad to see all of you that were there. If you weren't there - we missed you! We had some human tic-tac-toe and we talked about mistakes. Anyone willing to post about the worst mistake they ever made?

Also, here are some more pictures as requested.

This first picture is from youth group back in October:



And here is one of youth leaders Annie, Tom, and Grant. Not sure what is happening here but I think we can all assume!



Hope everyone had fun last night. We'll see you Saturday at the Bayside Bowl!!!

-PT

What do you feed yourself? What do you desire?

On Sunday Pastor Mark preached a sermon about feasting on the word of God. There was a part where he focused on a very important truth for us to remember. What we feed ourselves is what we desire. He talked about when we feed ourselves with junk, we will desire junk. And when we feed ourselves with the word of God, we will desire the word of God. In Sunday school class we discussed this further and talked about how important it is to choose wisely what we feed ourselves, so that our desires will be after God, his word, his will, and his way. So my questions are this, "What do you feed yourself and what do you desire?" How do these two relate? You can share your thoughts in a comment or email me at baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com

-PT

Bayside Bowl IV is next Saturday!

We are one week away from the fourth annual Bayside Bowl! It is going to be an awesome event and you don't want to miss out on the fun. We will begin at 11am and it will go until about 3pm. There will be pizza, a snow football tournament, video games, foosball, ping pong, and dodge ball! There is something for everyone! So invite a friend and plan on coming next Saturday, January 30.

For the football tournament we are expecting the 2-time defending champions to return in an attempt to win the Bayside Bowl again. However, I am hearing of a few different teams being formed that could give some competition to the defending champs. I can't wait to see how it unfolds. Each year we have had more teams than the last year. For the inaugural tournament we had just three teams. The second year we had four teams. And last year we had five teams. My hope is that we will have six teams this year! That means you have to find some friends and put a team together.

So my question for everyone reading this is: what are you most looking forward to at the Bayside Bowl?

I had to put a new picture in here...

After seeing my ugly face with my prison picture on here, I decided it would be best to post a new picture at the top. Last night we had lots of fun at youth group. We played some serious "Bin" ball, which if you don't know is a variation of dodge ball but with large trash bins that you try to score the ball in. It was lots of fun. Then we had Nate Steel as our guest speaker. He has spoken at youth group a couple times now and will continue to do so periodically. I think he did a great job on his talk. What was the most intriguing thing that you took from what Nate said last night? You can post a comment here or email me at baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com

Also, enjoy the pictures:

Falyn and Erica getting serious about a game of ping pong!


Erick, Luke, and Ryan make a great totem pole!


Aaron, Philip, and Tyler just hanging out!


-PT

Bye Bye Beardie

Well as many of you have seen I shaved off my beard. Every winter since I was a junior in high school (1997) I have grown a beard beginning around Thanksgiving and lasting sometimes until the end of January. As I have gotten older I have adjusted how long I have kept it, and also Sarah has had her say in it as well because she does not like my look with a beard. I started growing this beard back in early December, right around the time we went to California for vacation. So it lasted for a about a month. As I was writing this I remembered that two years ago I had Sarah take a before and after picture of me when I grew my winter beard. So I looked in my computer and found the pictures. Here is my beard in January of 2008:



And below is a picture that was taken immediately after I shaved off said beard. Also, notice that I cut my hair too.



So what do you all think? Do you like the beard? Do you like the normal look for me, which has historically been a goatee (and Sarah's favorite)? Or do you like a clean shaven look? Let me know what you think...

-PT

Help

Well I have received some emails from students about different things to post on the blog. This particular one was a student looking for help from any and all of you that are a part of Bayside youth group. It involves a friendship that is hurting and many of us have experienced situations like this. Any advice or suggestions that you have could be helpful to this student. Please take a moment to read this and then make a comment to help this student out. Here is the situation:

I'm having a little trouble with one of my friends from school and I'm not really sure what I should do. I've been friends with this person for about 9-10 years now and for the last two years things haven't been that good between us. We've had times when we haven't talked and times when we are constantly fighting. We've "made up" many times but I just don't feel that we are the same best friends because now whenever I try to talk to them about something that upsets me that they have done, they will bring up all the mistakes that I have made in the past instead of just saying, "You're right, I'm sorry." The problem is I don't know what to do and I'm not really sure if our friendship is worth fixing because I'm always the one making the effort to fix the problems so it seems one-sided.

Never Give Up

Tonight at youth group we talked about never giving up. It was encouraging to see so many students there and I hope you all had a fun time. The topic is certainly one that all students can relate with as all of us at one point or another have given up on something. So here is my question for you: When was a time that you gave up on something and what have you learned from that situation since then and through what we talked about at youth group tonight? You can comment on this post or send me an email at baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com

Also, don't forget to tally your vote for our weekly poll about your favorite NFL team. I hope you all have a great rest of the week.

-PT

Picture of the Week

Just wanted to start another weekly feature on the blog. I want to make sure we have plenty of pictures of you guys and girls on here, because with all these words it can get boring! So here is this week's picture of the week:


This is a picture taken back in October on a Wednesday night after youth group. This is the senior high small group. We took this picture and it was the cover picture of our church bulletin on Sunday, October 25. That was the last Sunday that I preached at Bayside. In the picture it is Erick Tunell, Luke Tunell, and Zach Brookmole in the front row. Kaylee Labounty, Sam Almond, and Nate Johnson in the second row. And Taylor Christner, Jessica Xiong, and Ryan Paulson in the back row. Great picture!

-PT

Poll Question for this Week

Well the results are in from last week's poll. I'm hoping that more of you will get a chance to vote, but since we just started this blog thing I'm going to give it some time. There were 16 total votes and it looks like your favorite event from 2009 was the Winter Retreat. It was a close one though as 6 votes came in for the retreat (37%), while 5 came in for the Encounter Lock-in (31%), 3 for the New Year's Eve Lock-in (18%), and 2 for the Bayside Bowl (12%).

Since we are deep into the football season and craziness of the playoffs in the NFL, this week's question is "What is your favorite NFL football team?" Since MOST of us root for teams from this area the choices are the Packers, the Vikings, or other. If you want to voice your opinion on another team or anything regarding the Packers and Vikings do so in a comment or send an email to me at baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com

Last thing, on Wednesday night I want to show a music video during youth group. The first person to comment on this post with an acceptable music video will have that video played this Wednesday night at youth group. Good luck.

-PT

Favorite Verse

Well the weekend is just about over. Hope you guys get a chance to vote on the poll. I will post a new poll question for this coming week by Monday. I enjoyed the playoff football games, although most were pretty boring until the Cardinals/Packers game. I was wrong on all my picks except that one, so thanks Packers. But I probably made all those picks with my heart rather than my head. The Packer game was unbelievable, and unfortunately for you Packer fans, it had a bad ending. But keep your heads up, they will be good again next year. And Rodgers is an awesome quarterback! Next week we'll see how Minnesota does. GO VIKINGS!

So today in Sunday school we talked about feasting on the word of God. We had some great discussions about the Bible and looked through some good scriptures. That got me thinking about my favorite verses. So my question tonight is, "What is your favorite verse in the Bible?" Reply with a comment and let me know your favorite verse and why. Or you can send me an email at baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com

I look forward to reading your responses.

-PT

Working for the weekend...

Everybody loves the weekend. It means that school (or work) is over for a couple days and you can do whatever you want (you know what I mean). So that brings up two questions. First, what is your favorite thing about the weekend? And secondly, what are you doing this weekend? I know some of the senior highers are going to the SHS winter formal, many of you will be watching football, and some probably will end up doing chores around the house. What about you?

My favorite part of the weekend is spending time with Sarah and our boys. I love to hang out with my family and usually we don't do much, but it's nice sometimes to just sit around and relax. This weekend that is exactly what we are doing. And I'm certain I'll catch the football games as well. If you are a football fan, post who you think is going to win the games this weekend. My picks are Philadelphia, Cincinnati, New England, and Arizona. (Of course I'm not going to pick the Packers!) Let me know what you guys think...

So far so good...

Well I am beginning to see some more traffic on the blog so that is good. Thanks to those who are checking in and making comments. Don't forget to vote on the poll for your favorite event during 2009. Also I have received some great requests for things to post on the blog! Thanks to those of you who have already emailed me. I will post them in the next few days. And for everyone else, if you have a comment or question or anything that I could post on here then just email it to baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com and I will put in on the blog for our youth group to interact with it.

Again let me remind everyone that each time you make a comment or send me an email for the blog your name will go into the hat and on Wednesday we will draw a name for a weekly prize. Then every two months we will take those weekly winners and draw a big prize winner as well. So lots of incentive to interact on here. I hope you enjoy it.

-PT

Wednesday Night

Well let me first start off by saying that the students of Bayside are the coolest. Tonight was a fun night at youth group and I hope you all enjoyed it. The dodge ball games looked fun and the quiz was very competitive. We took a good look at the website and the blog and I truly hope that each of you take the opportunity to interact with each other as well as with me on this blog. Remember you can make a comment on the different blog posts, or you can send an email to me at baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com with a question, comment, testimony, story, or inquiry about youth group, life, the Bible, Christianity, or anything!

Tonight at youth group we talked about 2010 being a year that we do all things for the glory of God. That brought up the question and discussion about resolutions as well as God honoring goals. After hearing some scriptures and having a chance to discuss the issue and questions within small group time, what are your thoughts? Or maybe you weren't at youth group and want to chime in. What is your resolution for 2010? Do you have a God honoring goal for 2010? What is going to be different about this year for you? Post your response and thoughts in a comment or sent them to me in an email. I look forward to hearing from you and will post my personal thoughts later in the week.

-PT

Poll for this week

Hey everyone. Take a minute and check out our poll question for this week. What was your favorite youth group event during the 2009 year? You can vote only once and if you want to tell why you thought that event was the best then send an email to baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com. There are four choices. Bayside Bowl III was the football tournament in February. The Winter Retreat in March was our biggest event of the year. The summer's biggest event was the lock-in at the Encounter in Duluth. And we closed out the year with our New Year's Eve lock-in. Voting will end on Sunday.

Pictures from the New Year's Lock-In

Well I finally got some pictures to work. I hope you guys had a fun time, from the pictures it looks like you did:

This was Team #5, captained by Jessica and Zach. They took 5th place with a total of 24 points. But they were second place in the blindfolded puzzle, finishing the puzzle in 8:37!


Above is Team #4, captained by Ryan Paulson. This team took 4th place with 26 points, but absolutely dominated the ping pong rally!



Above is Team #1, captained by Alex Tunell. They finished in 3rd place with 29 points but were just mili-seconds away from victory. They finished second in two events and both were by less than a second. The untied themselves in 10 seconds and actually had the more consistent times in that event. And they did their pyramid in 11.8 seconds, but first place was 11.7 seconds. Nice tower!


Above is Team #2, captained by Luke Tunell. This team came in second place with 35 points, just missing out on victory. However, they did win two events. They untied themselves in 9 seconds and completed the blind folded puzzle in an amazing 5:15! Great job!


Above is the championship team. This is Team #3, captained by Cody Casper and Erick Tunell. They finished with 36 points, winning two events. They had the highest tower and the fastest pyramid. Each team member continued on in SURVIVOR as we eliminated one at a time every hour for the rest of the night. Eventually there were only three:

Falyn McCotter, Cody Casper, and Erick Tunell. At 5:00am they faced the foosball table and in a surprise it was Falyn winning with Cody coming in a close second as Erick was eliminated. From there it was Cody and Falyn versus the blind folded puzzle:

And here they are - the final two! What a long night! But it was all worth it as they both took home great prizes! I'll post some more pics on our youth group website. Just go to the church website at www.baysidesuperior.org, click on Students, then click on youth site. This will take you to our youth group website. Then just click on pictures and there are several folders that you can look at, including 2009 New Year's Eve Lock-In. Here's a couple more photos:





See you at youth group on Wednesday!

Sorry about the pictures...

Or lack of pictures I should say. SORRY! I had some technical difficulties in getting them on the computer today, so I am going to try on a different computer tomorrow. They should be up and running by the time you all get home from school! Sorry to remind you that school starts back up tomorrow!!!! Also, we will post lock-in pictures on the youth group website as well. I hope you all get a good night's rest because the alarm clock is going to be sounding sooner than you think!

Today was a fun day in Sunday school class. There were 13 students and we talked a lot about glory. Our hope and prayer is that everything we do in our youth group will bring glory to God, especially in 2010! I'm looking forward to a great year. Check back on Monday for lock-in pics. Later. -PT

New Year's Lock-In

Well the New Year has come and gone, and we had a great lock-in party. It was 12 hours of craziness. The night started off with the first round of "SURVIVOR." The students were put into 5 teams of 8. Each team went around to different stations where they had to work together to accomplish a goal. These stations were a ping pong rally, building a lego tower, untying themselves, putting a puzzle together blindfolded, and making a pyramid. Every team was doing really well, but in the end only one would be the winners. That team then qualified to play "SURVIVOR" the rest of the night. Every hour we eliminated members of their team until there was only one. The team members showed some amazing grit, some of them even standing quietly for 39 minutes! The last three were Cody Casper, Falyn McCotter, and Erick Tunell. At 5am at the foosball table it seemed as though Falyn's run was over, but in an amazing turn of events she scored a goal in 1.82 seconds to eliminate Erick! The final two were Cody and Falyn and they would be facing the blindfolded puzzle - ALONE! Falyn finished it in 17:09 and Cody finished in 20:28. Falyn was the winner of a duffle bag filled with over $100 in prizes. In true sporting fashion, she even gave Cody the $15 I-Tunes gift card. What a winner! Overall it was a great night. Besides the "SURVIVOR" game we also had video games, movies, a ton of games of sardines and hide and seek, as well as the usual table games. We also barely caught the last 8 seconds of the ball dropping before midnight! I'm thankful for a great bunch of students who know how to have a good time and who always behave well. You guys rock! I will be posting pictures from the lock-in on Sunday night. Remember to post a comment about your favorite memory or part of the lock-in.

2010 is here!

We started off the 2010 year with a bang as we had our second annual New Year's Eve Lock-In. I'm actually writing this blog during the lock-in. I just wanted to make sure there was at least one post on here once the new year started. 40 students showed up as we've played video games, carpet ball, ping pong, foosball, sardines, and SURVIVOR! It has been a lot of fun. So, now that it is all over (as you read this) what was your favorite part of the lock-in? Share a story or tell us what you thought was the best part by commenting on this post or sending an email to baysideyouthgroup@yahoo.com - I will post some pictures up in the next couple days. After I catch up on some sleep. -PT