And the winner is...

Olivia Lindberg! We had a contest in our youth group this past month. It was guessing the games for the college basketball tournament brackets. Each person made their guesses, and you received 1 point correct for first round games, 2 for second round games, and more points for each round thereafter. Olivia, pictured above dribbling the basketball, actually ended with the same amount of points as Meredith Anderson, however, Olivia guessed more games correctly to break the tie. Below are the complete standings listed. If there was a tie, we broke it by who had the most total games correct.

1. Olivia Lindberg - 55 (38)
2. Meredith Anderson - 55 (37)
3. Cody Casper - 54 (39)
4. Erick Tunell - 54 (37)
5. Sarah Bush - 51 (36)
Grant Hanson - 51 (36)
Dave Lemaster - 51 (36)
8. Rachel Roelse - 51 (35)
9. Alex Tunell - 51 (34)
10. Shane McCotter - 49
11. Jon Lindberg - 48 (35)
12. Shawn Sislo - 48 (34)
13. Jake Roelse - 47
14. Curt Vanderstelt - 46
15. Josiah Bush - 44 (33)
16. Tom Bush - 44 (32)
17. Nolan Anderson - 42 (32)
18. Jackie Williams - 42 (29)
19. Garrison Bush - 37
20. Jason Rhoads - 36
21. Josh Clasen - 33 (27)
22. Annie Drexler - 33 (26)
23. Bryan Gibson - 19

Also, the only person in the entire contest who had any teams correctly picked into the final four was my 3 year old son, Garrison! He picked Kentucky into the final four. No one else had any teams in the final four correctly! Nice job buddy!

-PT

Another amazing retreat

Once again we had an awesome retreat. Thursday through Saturday of last week 55 students and adults went to Storybook Lodge in Gilbert, MN, for our annual youth retreat. It was powerful, fun, challenging, cool, tiring, slippery, amazing, awesome and wonderful. Thank you to everyone who made it what it was.

Above is a picture of Tony modeling the t-shirts from this year's retreat. If you missed the retreat and want a t-shirt we are selling them for $10.

I'd love to hear your favorite memories from the retreat. You could post them as a comment to this blog post, or you could email or facebook them to me. Either way I will make sure they get posted on the blog.

And thanks again for an amazing weekend!

-PT

Clean Slate

Well it has finally come...our 2011 retreat is tomorrow!!!! As you know by now, the theme this year is "Clean Slate." Recently we put together a little video with you guys telling us what clean slate was all about. After watching this video, share what your opinion is by making a comment about clean slate. Can't wait for the retreat. 1 day to go!!!

NCAA Basketball bracket standings

As many of you have heard we are having a contest in youth group. A week ago everyone had a chance to fill out a bracket from the college basketball tournament that is happening. With each correct game that you predict, you get points. And so the standings are listed below and believe it or not Olivia Lindberg (pictured above) is our current leader after the first 2 rounds. The next games begin on Thursday.

Olivia Lindberg - 46
Cody Casper - 45
Dave Lemaster - 45
Erick Tunell - 45
Jake Roelse - 44
Meredith Anderson - 43
Shane McCotter - 43
Curt Vanderstelt - 43
Shawn Sislo - 42
Sarah Bush - 42
Jon Lindberg - 42
Grant Hanson - 42
Josiah Bush - 41
Alex Tunell - 39
Nolan Anderson - 39
Rachel Roelse - 39
Tom Bush - 38
Jackie Williams - 33
Josh Clasen -33
Annie Drexler - 30
Jason Rhoads - 30
Garrison Bush - 27
Bryan Gibson - 19

Good luck everyone!
And remember - the retreat is THURSDAY!!!

-PT

Standings after Day 3

Well day three is in the books. Pictured above are Jake and Rachel Roelse. They help out with youth group during our Sunday morning Digging Deeper class and are attending the retreat later this week! Jake is currently our leader of the bracket competition, while Rachel sits in 15th place.

Here is the leaderboard:

Jake Roelse - 38
Olivia Lindberg - 36
Meredith Anderson - 35
Cody Casper - 35
Shane McCotter - 35
Dave Lemaster - 35
Curt Vanderstelt - 35
Erick Tunell - 35
Grant Hanson - 34
Sarah Bush - 34
Shawn Sislo - 32
Alex Tunell - 31
Josiah Bush - 31
Nolan Anderson - 31
Rachel Roelse - 31
Jon Lindberg - 30
Tom Bush - 30
Jackie Williams - 25
Josh Clasen - 25
Jason Rhoads - 24
Garrison Bush - 23
Annie Drexler - 22
Bryan Gibson - 15

I will post results after round 2 on Monday morning!

-PT

Round 1 Results

Here are the standings so far after the first round of games in the NCAA basketball tournament. Cody Casper still holds the lead and is off to a fast start. But it's a long tournament! I will post the standings after day 3 sometime tomorrow.

Cody Casper - 27
Curt Vanderstelt - 27
Jake Roelse - 26
Shane McCotter - 25
Olivia Lindberg - 24
Sarah Bush - 24
Grant Hanson - 24
Jon Lindberg - 24
Meredith Anderson - 23
Dave Lemaster - 23
Rachel Roelse - 23
Erick Tunell - 23
Josiah Bush - 23
Nolan Anderson - 23
Shawn Sislo - 22
Tom Bush - 22
Alex Tunell - 21
Josh Clasen - 21
Jason Rhoads - 20
Annie Drexler - 20
Jackie Williams - 19
Bryan Gibson - 15
Garrison Bush - 15

Also, on a side note just a reminder that second round games are worth 2 points each.

Hope to see many of you on Sunday morning!

-PT

Day 1 Results

Here are the results for day one of the bracket tournament. 1st round games are worth 1 point each.

Cody Casper - 14

Curt Vanderstelt - 14

Meredith Anderson - 13

Olivia Lindberg - 13

Shane McCotter - 13

Shawn Sislo - 12

Sarah Bush - 12

Jake Roelse - 12

Rachel Roelse - 12

Grant Hanson - 12

Nolan Anderson - 12

Josiah Bush - 11

Erick Tunell - 11

Jon Lindberg - 11

Alex Tunell - 10

Dave Lemaster - 10

Jackie Williams - 10

Tom Bush - 10

Garrison Bush - 10

Josh Clasen - 10

Annie Drexler - 9

Jason Rhoads - 8

Bryan Gibson - 7

I will post an updated tomorrow with the second day results and the total first round standings.

Good luck everyone!

-PT

Let the madness begin!

Many of you filled out a basketball bracket for the NCAA college basketball tournament. The action begins today and the madness continues throughout the weekend. I always love this time of year because I love the basketball tournament, but also because it means our retreat is upon us! I can't wait until next week! But for the brackets I will keep you posted on here as to who is winning. It looks like we will have about 20-25 competing to be the winner.

As you can see from the picture above - my pick is Duke. They are the defending national champions and if they stay hot no one can beat them. The only way they will lose is if they start missing a lot of 3s.

I hope you all have fun watching the games this weekend. And I look forward to seeing many of you on Sunday morning.

AND remember - 1 week from today we have our retreat!!!!!

-PT

Last night

Well we had an AWESOME night at senior high youth group last night! We played a game of "Crack the Safe." The winners were Falyn, Natalie, and Hailey. They barely beat the time of the winning junior high team from the new year's eve lock-in. They finished in just over 25 minutes. We also played dodge ball and Becca Tunell (pictured above) was there!

Here's what is happening:

-Our biggest event of the year is next week! If you are planning on going to the retreat (March 24-26) you need to sign up by this Thursday, March 17! That means getting me a permission slip on file and the $60. Again, your friends are welcome to come - but you got to get them signed up! So bring it this Wednesday or stop by the church by Thursday! Contact me ASAP if you have any questions.

-Also we are having another March Madness bracket contest this year. If you are interested get a bracket filled out and handed in to me by Wednesday night. The college basketball tournament starts this Thursday. Even if you don't know or don't care about college basketball - it still can be fun and you can still do good. My wife, Sarah, has beaten me several times. And FYI - both my boys will be filling out brackets again this year!

-On Wednesday night we will be having AMP and Junior High like normal. Just wanted to remind you and tell you that if you are coming I look forward to seeing you there!

-PT

what's happening...

Well if you weren't at church last night - you missed out! Here are some of the things that you would have been able to be a part of:

-awesome spaghetti dinner
-quiz won by Grant Hanson (pictured above with Hunter Tunell)
-crazy night in AMP - and we love them!
-a parable about prayer
-dodge ball!

Some other things that you should be aware of:

-this Sunday in Digging Deeper class (11am in the youth room) we will be watching a video starring many of you!
-this Sunday at Senior High youth group on Sunday night we will have a fun surprise for you - it will be different and it will be fun!
-our annual retreat is just 2 weeks from today! You have only 1 week to get signed up, so bring your money in on Sunday or Wednesday!

Let me know if you have any other questions!

-PT

Sign up for the retreat!

I just wanted to remind you all to sign up for this year's youth retreat. By now you have all heard the details and know that is coming fast! We will be having our retreat just 17 days from today!!! I want to encourage you to sign up as soon as possible - and to invite a friend!

If you are in JUNIOR HIGH you have a great opportunity to sign up this Wednesday. Bring your permission slip (if you don't have one already handed in) and the $60. JR HIGHERS you only have 1 more Wednesday to sign up. The last day to sign up is Thursday, March 17. So get signed up, and then think about a friend you can invite - and invite them!

If you have any questions, just let me know.

-PT

3 weeks until our retreat!

I can't believe it but we are getting THAT close to our annual youth retreat for 7th-12th grade. By now you must have heard about it - but let me remind you! On Thursday, March 24, we are heading up to Storybook Lodge for a great 3 day adventure. There will be games, great food, prizes, powerful worship, challenging speakers and messages, and so much more. We hope to have sledding (if there is snow) and we also will have night games, basketball tournaments, dodge ball, and tons more fun things for you to do!

Now is the time to start signing up. To register you must have a 2011 permission slip on file with the church and the cost is $60 per student. This includes a retreat t-shirt designed by James Alan Hall! Your friends are welcome and we are encouraging and challenging you to invite and bring a friend with you. We want as many students there as possible. You only have 2 more weeks to sign up as the deadline is Thursday, March 17. Let me know ASAP if you would like to register.

Pictured above is Mark Somerville from the country of Belize. He is our featured guest speaker. This picture is from last year's retreat as he led several of the students to the dining hall. In the background is the "King's Court" - where they have a full basketball court and game room! I hope you are planning on coming - and if you are see me ASAP to get signed up!

-PT