The Revolve Tour

To all the ladies that went to Revolve: It was awesome! The speakers were uplifting, the drama was amazing... And HN is MY BFF! I can't wait 'til next year. Don't forget what you learned. Treasure or target... which one are you? See you all Saturday. We are thanking God in advance for a wonderful year in Higher Ground.

Picnics and such.

So, we went to fellowship with the church yesterday afternoon after service.

Great time, and we had tons of fun. We had Sharpie, whose folks were off dropping her siblings at school, serving as our Navigator.

Not the smartest move.

Sharpie took us over, under, around, everywhere... before we finally got to the park. It was quite funny, but hey, we didn't know where we were, and we would not have found it without her.


Well, when we got there, Babetta asked that we drive and get some salad as our contribution. So, we turn out of the park, make a left on Bishop, and find ourselves on Euclid, literally almost visible from Regal!

The food was good, time with the church family even better. The impromptu balloon fight had Babetta and I harboring decidedly unChristian thoughts of revenge.

The highlight of my day was playing wiffle ball with my youth and stealing into third base Pete Rose-style. I do feel the pain now, but who cares?

MiMi <3

XAVIER!!

Trip to Cedar Point

So, the trip to Cedar Point today was great. Stay tuned for pictures!

I was able to lead Javier to christ .. 1st Time for me .. Will never forget that moment!!

Just Stop and Think!

Please take 15 min. out of your day to watch this it is life changing ..THANK YOU!

His Favorite Song of All

Luke 15:4-7

I am extremely happy to say that one of my favorite people has made a very important decision, a decision that literally brings tear of joy to my eyes.

Stephen made the decision to accept Christ in his life!!!

It's the best call I have received in a while.

We have been praying for Stephen, and the Lord saw it fit to prepare his heart. Praise God!!!

In the end, it's all about moments like this. It's all about developing hearts already in pursuit of God while simultaneously being a rendezvous point for our young people just starting the journey.

Please join us in praying for our new brother. Stephen, words cannot express how proud I am of you. You are an inspiration to me.

I wanna dedicate the paraphrased lyrics of the song below to Stephen. It is one of my favorites.



He loves to hear the wind sing
As it whistles through the pines on mountain peaks
He loves to hear the raindrops
As they splash to the ground in a magic melody
He smiles in sweet approval
As the waves crash to the rocks in harmony
Creation joins in unity to sing in majestic symphonies


But His favorite song of all
Is the song of the redeemed
When lost sinners now made clean
Lift their voices loud and strong
When those purchased by His blood
Lift to Him a song of love
Nothing more He'd rather hear
Nor so pleasing to His ear
As His favorite song of all

He loves to hear the angels as they sing
"Holy, holy is the Lamb"
(Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb)
Heaven's choirs sing in harmony
Lift up praises to the great "I Am"
(Hallelujah, Hallelujah)
But He lifts His hands for silence
When the weakest saved by grace begins to sing
And a million angels listen as a newborn soul sings
"I have been redeemed"

It's not just melodies and harmonies
that catches His attention
It's not clever lines and phrases
that cause Him to stop and listen
But when any heart set free
Washed and bought by Calvary begins to sing

Holy, holy, holy is the Lamb
Hallelujah, Hallelujah

-Favorite Song Of All by Brooklyn Tabernacle Choir

encore

I would LOVE to see an encore presentation of all you have learned because I missed it all :-(
I was in the nursery on Sunday and I am happy that by being there, sooo many parents got to enjoy and see and hear the gospel (there were ALOT of babies on Sunday!) but I would really love to see what you learned so anytime you want to do it again I will be your audience!

YWAM

Gotta say YWAM was a blast!. I had so much fun I was beginning to forget my age!

All in all, it was a great idea to have them. They were literally young people on a mission, and I was proud to make their acquaintance.

Anyhoo, seeing my young people dance to Mary, Mary was refreshing. All three mini-performances were phenomenal, and were made more unique by the fact that the routines were learned in less than 48 hours. Kudos to the teachers and the students.

I was looking up some stuff on YWAM. They are truly a global institution! There are even bases in Nigeria (check 'em out at www.ywam-nigeria.org. Truly, truly awesome!

And, Dave M. looks great in purple!

YIC...

THANKS!!

HELLO..

I just wanted to say thank you for the YWAM team that came out to train us i had a BLAST doing it .. i also want to say Thank You to the teens that came to learn .. it was hard work but it paid off at church this morning it was fun to do something different and change what we do in the mornings and be able to have the teens be involved !! Well i really what to say thanks to RANDY & WENDY.. for getting this put together .. i hope this ministry grows and we can really use it and change lives..Its fun and we praise God while doing it .. WEll thanks for everything .. And i loved the dance and drama ..cant wait to take it to the STREETS!

Yea!!!!

It's done! You guys rocked! I am so proud of you all. God helped us pull off a miraculous night. Thanks for being so awesome, HG. We love you all. Each of you are blessings to our lives. Have a great week. We'll provide more details about the bonfire/sleepover on Friday via email.

Final rehearsal (and a prayer).

So, we're done rehearsing. Everybody has made some phenomenal strides.

Also dropping another word of prayer for Patty Liner, who is in hospital. Get better soon!!!

Random thoughts on the mystery dinner...

Talk about patience!

The preparation for our performance has been an exercise in just that for the entire team of students and staff.

I have to say that I am blessed with the best in the business. Babetta is the best co-director out there. Really, the whole script was tweaked to workability by her, spending late nights after days of mothering and working.

Geary has been instrumental in acting and helping with the songs. The band, as you'll see, has Barbie's unique stamp on it. Dawn has worked tirelessly behind the scenes, re-thinking lines and directing.

The best folks, are the youth. Patient and understanding, even when I haven't always been. Kudos to our parents as well, who have been good sports, bringing the young folks to extra practices, even while being in the dark about the whole show.

As we get ready to do some to glorify His name, we are counting on your support.

Re: Lisa's graduation...

So...

We went to Lisa's graduation, and it was fun. Lisa looked radiantly regal, and we could not have been prouder.

Pastor Randy spoke about focusing on the Beautiful One (to paraphrase a bit). It was also nice to see members of our church family in attendance.

It was also a blessing to see some of our other youth that attend Mentor Heritage (hey Charles, Raymond and Amelia). All in all, a beautiful ceremony hosted by a nice people that attend what seems to be a nice church.

Now, with Lisa graduating, we are gonna have an age gap, and may go a while without upperclassmen. However, for now, we are just going to bask in the blessing of her graduation.

Lisa, this post is green (your favorite color) as a tribute to you and thanksgiving to God.

Stay blessed.

Haha .. I HAD TO DO IT!! I Love you TRE!! haha.
See Yall Tomorrow Night & be prepared for what God has in store!!

Congratulations, Lisa!!!

Join us all in congratulating Lisa on her graduation today.

Some people influence you and make you better no matter how old they are. Lisa is one of those people, and we have been extremely blessed to have known her.

As tough as it is to be losing our entire senior class, it is exciting to mark this milestone in the life of this wonderful scholar, lady and Christian.

Lisa, we thank God for you everyday, and we look forward to more celebrations!

Congratulations to the Lutz family also.

Thanking God for Tre and Babetta!

I just want to say - "Thanks!" - to Tre and Babetta for all they do to make the youth ministry happen. Your love of the leaders and the teens is evident, and I am thankful to God for you.

I also want to thank you for getting this blog up and running, and I pray that your celebration dinner goes well. Just so you know, I will have my body guards with me, so please do not try anything foolish. It may be your last move!


Go ahead and make my day!
Randy

Memorial Day

I hope you all are enjoying or have enjoyed your holiday.

I wanted to ask you to do something if possible. Do you know someone who has served in the military? Ask them to tell you some stories about it. If you take the time to ask and listen you will learn all kinds of things. If you have a grandparent (or for many of you) a great grandparent who served during war time that would be especially great. They have all kinds of stories and most wont tell you about the actual battles so much as they will about that era and the friendships they shared. You will be very blessed if you take the time out to really get to know more about a veteran in your life.

Accidents Happen?

If Someone wets there self just tell them, "All the cool Kids wet thereselves, SEE!"

Who could it be?

Who did the dastardly act? Was it the disgruntled opera lover? Or the talentless girl band?

Or could it be that the prim and proper southern belle had an ax to grind? How about the jocks?

How about the son?

Come assist the bumbling Detective Archibald Sterns and the sharp-witted Detective Roxanne Foster solve this crime...

Optional Cost of Admission: one teenager per adult (teen cannot already be a member of Higher Ground).

Que' Pasa!!

Hi Everyone. I'm so excited about this blog. I am really encouraged by the response from everyone. You are all such a blessing. Thanks for letting us be a part of your lives.

The importance of respect and relationships

I have been thinking today about the argument that occurred this morning on "The View" between Rosie O'Donnell and Elisabeth Hasselback. That then brought to mind a recent debate between Kirk Cameron and some atheists. I realize that while you are in school or work you will run into people who disagree with you and sometimes those people will be very angry and hurtful toward you. I think that it is OK to defend yourself and your beliefs, but remember that you will almost never win the argument. No one ever really wins and rarely even turns anyone to their point of view. If you are respectful, however, and try not to succumb to the anger you probably feel, you may have a positive effect on someone who is listening.
The most important thing is and will always be the relationships you form with people. They will always be more willing to listen to you if they know you care about them and have invested your time in them.

Mysterious happenings at Lake Ridge Church...

Who? Why? How?

Think you have what it takes to be Sherlock Holmes? Seen more than your fair share of CSI episodes? Or, do you just like to have fun and couldn't care less what happens to whom as long as there's a good meal?

Be a part of The Cloth Kidnapping, a kidnap mystery hosted by Higher Ground, at Mentor Ridge Middle School on Sunday, June 3rd at 5.30pm.

Welcome to the Lake Ridge Youth blog

Welcome to the the Higher Ground blog site! Higher Ground is the youth ministry of Lake Ridge Church, Lake County Ohio.

We hope this will be a place of expression and revelation that uplifts and edifies our God.

Tre & Babetta