Bayside Bowl Results

Well the Bayside Bowl has come and gone and once again it was a fantastic event! We had a great turn out, with about 30 students showing up to hang out and play games. We had video games, table games, youtube videos, and of course - the football tournament!

Every year I am amazed that the championship game is so close. All 5 Bayside Bowl championships have come down to the final plays. This year we had three teams in the tournament and in the first round each team played each other once. Here are the first round results:

Team Sparky - 19
The Terminators - 14

The Terminators - 20
Pink Panthers - 12

Pink Panthers - 24
Team Sparky - 20

Each team ended up winning one game and losing one game, so we had to go to the tie breaker system. The Terminators had a (+3) point differential and that clinched them a spot in the Bayside Bowl Championship. The Pink Panthers would face off against Team Sparky in a playoff to go to the championship. It was a rematch of a game that was just finished and the Pink Panthers had won by 4 points on a late touchdown. In the rematch it was a different story! The final score:

Team Sparky - 21
Pink Panthers - 7

So the Bayside Bowl was set - Team Sparky vs. The Terminators. It was a close game throughout. Each team scoring on their first posession, but The Terminators got an edge by scoring right before halftime to lead 14-6 at the break. However, Team Sparky fought through adversity and was able to tie the game up with a touchdown and two point conversion early in the second half. Both teams defenses held strong until The Terminators broke through and scored with about 5 minutes left to take a 21-14 lead. But Team Sparky came back fast and scored with about 2:30 left in the game. Down by 1 point they chose to go for 2 and take the lead. After converting in a dramatic moment Team Sparky took a 22-21 lead. The Terminators drove down the field and with less than 30 seconds left faced fourth down and one last shot at the end zone. However, Team Sparky knocked the pass down to clinch the Bayside Bowl. Final Score:

Team Sparky - 22
The Terminators - 21

Once again it was another great Bayside Bowl. Each of the players on Team Sparky will have their name inscribed on the Bayside Bowl in permanent marker. After the win, they celebrated by hoisting the coveted Bayside Bowl trophy. Below are some pictures from the day, and stay tuned for another post on the history of the Bayside Bowl!

Megan Tunell was voted the Most Valuable Player of the Bayside Bowl. Megan had several amazing catches and played some very tough defense. Team Sparky even had one drive where Megan caught three passes for about 50 yards and a touchdown! Great job Megan!!!

Hope everybody had fun. See you again next year - for Bayside Bowl VI!

-PT

Bayside Bowl on Saturday

Are you ready for some football? Tomorrow is our 5th Annual Bayside Bowl. It will be from 11:00am until 3:00pm. It's FREE and we will have FOOD. There will be indoor games, video games, table games, and of course the football tournament for the Bayside Bowl! So come on out for a great day - even if it snows we will still be playing!

Here are some pictures from last year's Bayside Bowl:

Erick Tunell launches a long pass

Team Yesterday

Luke

And how can we not have some pictures of the great Bayside Bowl trophy?

Garrison holding the coveted Bayside Bowl

-PT

Are you hungry?

Well we had an awesome night last night at youth group. If you weren't there here is what you missed:

-20 crazy 5th and 6th graders at AMP!
-awesome french bread pizzas
-JR HIGH couch pile - 10 on a loveseat!
-a review of the LOST parables - Luke chapter 15
-Megan Tunell (pictured above) was there
-and a fantastic game of floor hockey where the underdog RED team defeated the stacked BLUE team by a score of 5-4 with a game-winning goal from the most unexpected and ultimate secret weapon! (Guess who?) Game MVP turned out to be Noah Schottenbauer who scored a hat trick in a losing effort for the BLUE team!

It indeed was a fun night. Earlier in the day as I was preparing for youth group I was walking around the building and our custodian Craig had some worship music playing in the hallways. It inspired me to sing and worship as I prepared for youth group, but I desired even more - I was hungry to worship yesterday. As I was heading home last night I got into my car and tried finding some worship music on the radio. There was good music, but it wasn't necessarily worship. I was hungry to worship God! I then looked in the glove box of my car only to find some secular CDs that just weren't going to do it. But then underneath all that and even under some other junk there was a blank CD by itself that said 'worship' on it. I don't know where it came from or why it was there, but I popped it into my CD player because I was hungry for worship. The first song I did not recognize and was kind of slow so I decided to search to the next song. When I hit the next button the song started and I realized it was "We are Hungry" by Chris Tomlin. As I drove along Belknap right down the heart of Superior I sang with all of my heart and had my very own worship service with God. I was thankful that God provided me that opportunity and did so with a song that was so relevant to that very moment of my life. I was hungry to worship. The song was "We are Hungry." I sang with all of my heart and it was powerful. I lasted only 5-10 minutes and was over by the time I pulled my car in the garage. But it filled me up and was just so right to spend those moments in worship with God. Have you worshiped God lately? Even on your own? And are you hungry for more of HIM?

Lord, I want more of you
Living Water, rain down on me
Lord, I need more of you
Living Breath of Life, come fill me up

We are hungry
We are hungry
We are hungry for more of you
We are thirsty, oh Jesus
We are thirsty for more of you

We lift our holy hands up
We want to touch you
We lift our voices higher
And higher and higher to you

ARE YOU HUNGRY?

-PT

Help

This is a call to all senior high students. I need some help. We are looking for about 6 senior high students to help us out on Wednesday night with the meal. From 4:30pm until when dinner is served at 6:00pm we will be putting together the dinner for tomorrow night and then serving it when people show up. There will be an adult directing and giving you stuff to do, but we need some extra hands.

If you are willing to come and help us out please let me know ASAP. I actually need to know by tonight (Tuesday night). You can tell me by posting a comment on this blog post, sending me a message on facebook, or texting/calling me on my cell phone. The message in a bottle probably will take too long, sorry!

Thanks. And just a reminder that AMP and Junior High have youth group tomorrow! Senior High has youth group on Sunday night!

-PT

Sorry it's been so long...

It was kind of a crazy week! I noticed the last post was on Monday of last week and a lot has happened since then. Youth group last week was a blast - as always. It was the last time senior high youth group was on Wednesday night. But we had a good night. I was also busy preparing for the CYIA/CEF Winter Retreat. This is an annual retreat for students who have been a part of CEF ministries in the past or who are interested in becoming a part of them in the future. This year I was asked to speak at the retreat, which was Friday and Saturday. So that kept me busy over the weekend. It was a fun retreat and 4 of our youth group students attended. Julianna, Hunter, Ryan and Luke. We had a great time and I enjoyed getting away and speaking to these students. There were about 50 students there in all, from all over Wisconsin and some from Minnesota. Unfortunately while we were on the retreat I was starting to feel sick. By the time we got back on Saturday night I was feeling pretty miserable. I was running a fever and had chills/sweats. Sunday morning was the same, so I stayed home from church. And even though Sunday night was our first ever senior high youth group on Sunday night, I also had to stay home from that as well. Sorry I missed it! I am feeling a little bit better but still pretty sick, hope to be back to normal here in the next couple days. And hopefully I will be able to post a little more often now that it's not so crazy busy like last week...

Senior High Changes

As many of you have heard by now, our Senior High youth group is going through a major change. Beginning Sunday, January 23 (NEXT SUNDAY!) our Senior High youth group (grades 9-12) will be meeting on Sunday nights from 6:30pm - 8:00pm. This coming Wednesday is the final Wednesday night for Senior Highers. Then this Sunday we will begin a new era.

So what does this all mean? Maybe you are asking why? If you have questions about these changes please contact me personally. You can email me, text me, call me, or facebook me. For AMP students and JR HIGH students nothing is changing. The only thing to keep in mind is that if you are in 8th grade then you need to start preparing yourself for Sunday night youth group when you start 9th grade in the fall.

For senior highers this change means a lot. On Wednesday nights you will still be welcome to join us and will have some options as to what you can do. You can come to our family dinner and stay for the adult Bible study. You can also help in the kitchen for the family dinner. Or you could come to dinner and be a helper with our AMP group, in the nursery, or with the children's group Parable Quest. Please let me know if you are a senior higher and you are interested in helping out on Wednesday nights.

We have been praying and strategically thinking about making this change for almost 5 years now. We are very excited to see how it will impact our youth ministry, our church, and most importantly YOU - the students!

-PT

Garrison Brian Bush

This was Garrison tonight after I told him tomorrow was his birthday

It was three years ago today that my first child was born. On Saturday, January 12, 2008 - Sarah and I drove to the hospital around 8am. At 4:42 Sarah delivered our new baby and we named him Garrison Brian Bush. It is amazing to think that it has been three years since then! We love Garrison so much and enjoy watching him grow and develop a personality every single day.

Here is Garrison minutes after he was born

I also want to thank the students of our youth group for welcoming Garrison into the world. You have always shown him love and acceptance and I have no doubts you all will have a great impact on his life. When he is older he will remember how much he loved going to the youth room to hang out with you, watch you play games, and wish he was old enough to be you. So thanks.

Garrison at 1 year old

Happy Birthday Garrison!

Garrison at 2 years old

-PT

An update on Curt

I wanted to post an update about Pastor Curt from North Bay Church. (If you are unaware what was happening read my earlier post from December about his situation.)

Curt is getting better every day. It seems like he will be making a full recovery and that God has answered our prayers! It has been such a cool testimony of how God works through prayer. Curt even preached at their church in the midst of his recovery. God is so good! Thank you all for praying for him and continue to pray that his recovery will be complete. Pray also for his family and their church. And just praise God for what he has done!

-PT

Jeopardy

That's right, Jeopardy is back. We will be playing Jeopardy in Digging Deeper class tomorrow morning. 11:00am until noon in the youth room. So come out for a fun time. There will be some great questions and of course prizes for the winners!

Hope to see you there!

-PT

What you missed last night

We had a fun night at youth group, here's what you missed...

-if you weren't at dinner you missed beef stroganoff and cake for dessert

-if you weren't at AMP you missed me getting slapped in the face by Dave Lemaster

-if you weren't at SR HIGH you missed absolute domination of dodgeball by the fluffy team (?)

-if you weren't at JR HIGH you missed a quiz on cartoon phrases won by Bryan Gibson

-if you weren't at church at all then you missed seeing Falyn and Jaycie (pictured above) - they are cool

-AND if you weren't here at all then you missed a great lesson on the parable of the mustard seed.

How are you advancing/helping the kingdom of God to grow?

-PT

Welcome to 2011

Well the new year is in and it is time to get back to the normal routines of life. School is back in session today (sorry) and this week we will be back to our normal Wednesday night schedule. Come for dinner at 6:00pm and then we have our three groups meeting at 6:30. AMP (5-6 grade), JR HIGH (7-8 grade), and SR HIGH (9-12 grade).

Also, you will note the color change in the blog. Each month I have been trying out different color schemes. We had these colors once before as suggested by someone last summer. Obviously they are Packers colors. And while I am a Vikings fan at heart, and hate the Packers very much - I actually like these colors on our blog more than the Vikings colors. And since the Packers made the playoffs (which start this Sunday) then I figured January can be Packers colors. Because we won't be seeing any purple in the playoffs this year (unless you are a fan of the Baltimore Ravens - Cody Casper).

Hope to see you all on Wednesday night!

-PT