Thankfulness- What Are You Thankful For?

As part of the Thanksgiving Club, I spoke on being thankful. We also talked about what we are thankful for. At the end of the talk, we had everyone take a piece of paper and a crayon and draw or write what they are thankful for. The things that came out of the time are amazing. Leaders got to go around and help our students express their thoughts and feelings in pictures and words. Below are some of those expressions....

Success, so simple and yet so profound. We forget about the little things.

Being thankful for everything and God and Jesus

Family & God Forgave Me

This last one is extra touching, especially right now...

Thankful to be ALIVE......

This last one is from one of our friend's Andrew. Andrew has gone under many many surgeries. In fact he shouldn't be alive even today. He is literally beating the clock everyday he wakes up.

Andrew had to have another surgery on Thanksgiving day, while visiting family in Chicago. He is still there now. He is doing good but isn't well enough to fly home. Please be praying for Andrew and his family.

Andrew isn't our only friend who is beating the clock. We have numerous friends in Young Life who are a living miracle.

Thank You for helping us reach out to these friends.

Thank You for making an impact.

We at Young Life are especially THANKFUL for you!!

Thanksgiving Mega Club

In November we had our Thanksgiving Mega Club. We had both of our Young Life Club's as well as inviting Lighthouse to join us. We had a night of fun. We had Turkey Bowling, full band, and a message.

In case your wondering what Turkey Bowling is check out the photo's below....

Turkey Bowling is simple......throw the frozen turkey at the liter bottles and hit as many as you can.

Here are a couple videos from the night. The first one of Kevin Turkey Bowling. The second is of everyone singing, "Lean on Me."

Turkey Bowling

Lean on Me

The night was a great time for all our friends and the leaders to connect. The band rocked and Turkey Bowling was super fun. As the night went on, one of the leaders tried counting the # of people in the room and gave up after 140!!!! Praise God that we are reaching way beyond our greatest imagination.

Look for our next post to be on our friends responses of being Thankful.

Mikey Show

This morning a group of us left at about 6am to go and sit-in on San Diego's FM 94.9 Mikey Show. We had contacted the Mikey Show about getting some tickets to have in raffle at the banquet. So we headed down to San Diego to use our tickets. It was a great morning with lots of fun and laughter. While we were there one of the other guests proposed to his now fiance. It was really cool to see that.

Here is a group shot with one of the stars of the Mikey Show, Lauren O'Brien.

Here is one of Karina enjoying her delicious California Burrito.

A big THANK YOU to the Mikey Show for being so generous and allowing us to come and see the show live!! You guys were so generous and nice!

Club Club Club

Club Club Club

We have been having a great year so far in Young Life. Last week we had 7 new adults at our Young Life Beyond Club. It is so incredible to see God working so rapidly within that group!!

Our High Rollers Club is having consistently about 35 kids each week. We are having new kids coming to check out High Rollers also.

God is definitely present and working!!!

Below are some pics from club this week......

The first one is from Young Life Beyond as our adult friends listen to a leader give a talk about Jesus walking on water.

The next one is from High Rollers as a leader gives a talk about Jesus healing the bleeding woman.

Thank You for supporting this ministry and helping us to LOVE on our friends with special Needs!!!!

Clubs Back

Club is going GREAT!! We launched the first ever Young Life Beyond Club for this area. We are holding our Beyond Club at Geneva Presbyterian Church in Laguna Hills. We are so blessed to have them behind us in this ministry. The Beyond Club was designed specifically for our friends who are 23 years of age and beyond. The goal of this club is to give them a place to belong and a place to grow for our adult friends.

High Rollers is also going on currently. High Rollers is still the club for our friends who are in jr high to 22 years of age. Both clubs have been going good and the students are having tons of fun.

Please come and check out Bravo Burger in SJC on Wednesday, October 19th to eat and be with us. Any questions please call me.

OC Capernaum Banquet

OC Capernaum had its first banquet on the 23rd of September. It was a chance for the area to celebrate the victories of this past year. We celebrated at Crossline Church with nearly 100 people. We were able to talk about the lives that have been changed forever due to this ministry. One particular life we talked about was Bailey Nippell. See a few pictures of Bailey below.

Bailey was a shy and very introverted person before coming to Young Life. After she had been coming for a bit, she was invited to come to camp. After coming to camp she was forever changed. She has since become very extroverted and dances all around club.

The night was awesome! We also got to hear from Linda Matulis talk about how Young Life has changed her and her son's life. Ben Kauffman also spoke on why they support Young Life. Overall the evening went very smooth.

Thanks for supporting Young Life!!!

Club is coming back Oct. 5th

CLUB IS COMING BACK OCTOBER 5TH!!!!!!!!

We are super pumped to be getting back in gear with club again. This year is also super exciting because we are starting out brand new club. We are launching our Young Life Beyond Club in 2 weeks.

This year we will have 2 clubs going on Wednesday nights. We will have "High Rollers Club" on Wednesday nights at 7pm -8:30pm at the Laguna Hills Community Center. This club is specifically for Jr High- 22 years old.

Our "Young Life Beyond Club" will be at Geneva Presbyterian Church from 7pm- 8:30pm on Wednesdays as well. This club is specifically for our friends who are 23 and beyond.

We would love to have you come and visit club and see what we are doing and the fun we have!

Thanks for supporting Young Life and what we are doing in South Orange County.

Check out OCCapernaum.YoungLife.org to find out more info about anything we're doing.

CAMP CAMP CAMP

Lost Canyon was AMAZING!!

We took 21 Students and 18 Leaders. We all were blessed by such an amazing week! Thank You for helping make this awesome week happen!! We had 1 student particularly who comes from an especially rough home life come to the Lord this past week. She fully understood what she was doing and jumped in with both feet in front of her. What a blessing it was to watch her transform all week. Thank You for helping make this happen!!

When words fail to explain how great of a week it was I just post some photos......

One Rowdy Good-Looking Group

The Camp help us get kids on the zip-line with their forklift that wouldn-t have been able to do the zip otherwise.

The Giant Swing brought all sorts of fun emotions out of our students (& the leaders)

Messy Games....always a good time guarantee!!!

Our group all dressed up for Tacky Prom

Daniel was having an amazing time at camp, especially when surrounded by beautiful women!

The 2 pictures above are extra special to me because both of these students had never been on the blob before. They are both handicapped and always have heard no before this week for the blob. The leaders who helped make this a possibility will always have a special place in my heart!

Victory after finally being able to jump off the blob tower onto the blob.

As you can see we were quite tired after an amazing week of fun and excitement.

Praise God for what an amazing week!!!

To see more amazing pics from the week go to the link below

OC Capernaum Camp 2011

Thank You for helping make camp happen for these 21 students

Camp Starts Tomorrow

Hey Everyone, We are off to Lost Canyon tomorrow at 630 am with 38 people. We are taking 21 Students and 17 leaders. Please pray for safety as we drive to and spend a week at camp. Please also pray for our students and leaders to stay healthy and especially energized. Also please pray for the families of the students who are attending that are being given a break. Pray that this will be a time of rest and relaxation. A lot of times parents take advantage of this time and are able to do things they normally aren't able to do. Thank you for those who bought raffle tickets to help make camp happen and also those who support OC Capernaum financially. We really could not do this with out you! We are going to Lost Canyon in Williams, AZ. This is one of the many properties Young Life owns. You can check it out at LostCanyon.YoungLife.org. You can also check out this video of a camp tour below and really see what were going to be doing this next week. Lost Canyon: The Eric Scofield Tour from W. Ashley Maddox on Vimeo. Thanks for praying and supporting what we do!! In Him,

Bravo Burger

Hey Young Life is going to be at Bravo Burger on June 29th from 630pm-8pm.

Everyone one who comes and says, "I'm with Young Life" will help raise money for OC Capernaum. Bravo Burger is going to give a % of each dollar made that night to us. So please spread the word and we'll see ya there on June 29th.

Bravo Burger

31722 Rancho Viejo Road

San Juan Cpstrno, CA 92675-2771

(949) 487-2728

Any time from Noon- 8pm

Remember to say, "I'm with Young Life"

Graduation Club

On June 1st, 2011 OC Capernaum had its first graduation! It was an amazing night. We had 25+ kids be part of the ceremony. The graduation signified that they would be going to the new club that is going to start this fall. This new club is going to be a place specifically for 23 and up. This new club is going to a place where these students can belong.

Overall the night was super fun. We started the night with playing a mixer with all the students and all the parents. After that Michelle Eastman and Dylan Stevenson gave graduation speeches. Following the amazing words, the commencement started. As names were called, each student proudly walked up and received a custom High Roller Graduation shirt.

Once the ceremony was complete we enjoyed amazing desserts and hung out with each other.

Thank you for those who were able to come and make it such a special night. The way each students eyes light up when their name was called and they heard the applause breaking the air for them was incredible to see. Each student was so proud to receive their shirt.

Thank you for making this possibly. Thank you for supporting Young Life!!!

Michelle Eastman Speaking To A Packed House

Miracle Receiving Her Shirt, Adam Raises His Proudly

Full House

OC Capernaum Raffle Winners

OC Capernaum was part of a regional raffle that helped raise money to send our kids to camp. We were able to raise over $2000 and camp participants raised another $3000!!!

Among our raffle ticket purchasers OC Capernaum cleaned up in the drawing. We won 4 out of the 7 prizes. Here is what we won....

Beach Bikes Blitz: It does not matter where you live, these truly SoCal beach bikes will make you the envy of your neighborhood. Go Green, save gas, and get healthy on these two cruisers. Valued at $350!

Experience San Diego: The day starts with breakfast on the water at Torrey Pines Lodge... from there a spa treatment at La Valencia... 1 hour Helicopter Tour of San Diego... followed by wine and appetizers while watching the sunset. Valued at $750!

Shopping Extravaganza: Dinner and overnight accommodations in La Jolla for two, with a next day lunch and Nordstrom's $500 shopping spree at Fashion Valley in San Diego. Shop 'til you drop! Valued at $1000!

Fix it up!: $500 Home Depot gift card to finally start that project that you have put off forever. Valued at $500.

A huge Thank You to everyone who bought tickets and helped the High Rollers get to camp!!

American Idol Club VIdeo

The "American Idol Club" video is now up and viewable below is the link....

American Idol Club

A BIG BIG thank you to Abner Albino for creating this video!!!!

Graduation Club

Next week is the last club of the year. This is also a very special club because it marks a 1st for OC Capernaum. Next weeks club will the first over High Rollers Graduation. Each participant is going to receive a shirt with the design below on it. A special thanks to Scott Andrews who created this design. Also a special thanks to a particular donor who helped fund the shirt cost. We couldn't have done this without you!

We sent this to every family that has a participant who was 23 or older. In the fall we will be launching a new club to better suit the needs of our friends who are 23 and up. We are super excited for this transition and about how many more young adults we will be able to reach because of it. If you can pray for the transition, leaders specifically for this club, and a location to have club it would be greatly appreciated.

Feel free to come and enjoy the Graduation and celebration of the next step for many of our High Rollers!

OC Capernaum Raffle

OC Capernaum Raffle to help Kids get to camp Cheaper!!!!

Camp will be at Lost Canyon: July 23rd - 29th.

Camp cost over $1000 dollars for each student. The cost helps cover the student camp cost, leader camp cost (1:1 ratio) and the bus ride to Arizona.

We've got a great opportunity to make a big fundraising push over the next 5 weeks thanks to some great prizes that have been donated. The details are summarized below. For every $25 we raise, $22 will go directly to helping us send kids and leaders to camp! What a great way to help send our friends to camp while still getting a shot at some AWESOME prizes!! Let's make the most of this great opportunity!!

Details:

Tickets: $25 each, 5 for $100, or 12 for $200

Date of Drawing: June 15th

(Winner Need Not Be Present)

Need tickets back by end of May to ensure chance of winning!!!

Prizes:

Beach Bikes Blitz: It does not matter where you live, these truly SoCal beach bikes will make you the envy of your neighborhood. Go Green, save gas, and get healthy on these two cruisers. Valued at $350!

Sweet or "Tweet?": This is the latest Apple iPad2 and it comes with $100 to get every App you can imagine. No matter where you go, you can be connected with this must have gadget of 2011! Valued at $1000!

Experience San Diego: The day starts with breakfast on the water at Torrey Pines Lodge... from there a spa treatment at La Valencia... 1 hour Helicopter Tour of San Diego... followed by wine and appetizers while watching the sunset. Valued at $750!

Aloha: Relax on the beaches Kauai. Enjoy a 5-night stay for 2 at Kiuhana Plantation Resort. $500 airfare voucher included. Dates subject to availability. Valued at $1500!

Shopping Extravaganza: Dinner and overnight accommodations in La Jolla for two, with a next day lunch and Nordstrom's $500 shopping spree at Fashion Valley in San Diego. Shop 'til you drop! Valued at $1000!

Fix it up!: $500 Home Depot gift card to finally start that project that you have put off forever. Valued at $500.

Bueno!: Get away to Old Mexico for a 3 night stay for up to 6 people in a beautiful beach housewith private stairs to great surfing, and miles of sandy beaches. Private Chef is included, but meals are extra. 45 minutes north of Puerto Vallarta. Valued at $1400!

Make checks payable to NPC or Northminster Presbyterian Church.

If you would like to purchase a raffle ticket or receive some to sell to family, friends, or coworkers please contact me at 949-291-7818

p.s. these are a great Mother's Day gift! What mother wouldn't be proud of their child helping send a kid to camp in their name AND a shot at Hawaii??

Facebook Event Link

Soul Surfer

Last Week OC Capernaum went and watched Soul Surfer at the San Juan Capistrano Regency Theater. It is an amazing story that our students can relate to. It is an movie about a girl who becomes disabled and how she overcome adversity. If you haven't seen it, you should go and see it ASAP!!

American Idol Club

American Idol Club was another great success!!!

The room was packed full of students, parents, donors, and leaders. Each student who wanted a chance to perform did. Each students got to sing along their favorite song. After that the crowd would erupt with an applause loud enough to knock your socks off!! After that the student would get an opportunity to be praised by our 3 judges. Overall it was an amazing night filled with fun, love, and enthusiasm. Below is just a glimpse of what happened that night.........

Video coming soon!!!

American Idol Club

Hey Everyone,

Big things happening in OC Capernaum!! Last month we did a 100 Hole Golf Marathon and was able to raise about $9000!!! Praise God!

I want to invite all of you to club this Wednesday. This week we are having the infamous and highly anticipated American Idol Club. The students look forward to this club all year. I have had frantic calls and emails from parents making sure their kid can participate.

We are going to be doing this at the Laguna Hills Community Center @ 7-830pm.

The address is

25555 Alicia Pkwy
Laguna Hills, CA 92653

This is an awesome time to see why you are supporting OC Capernaum, I am putting a good time guarantee on this!! Please consider coming and bringing your friends.

Golf Marathon

This past week OC Capernaum did a 100-Hole Golf Marathon to raise money. We had a foursome consisting of Brian "Hole-in-One" Dubia, Trevor Cummings, Mike Matulis, and myself.

It was awesome day for golf!

Thank You for supporting OC Capernaum!

Below are some pictures from the day

Thanks again for supporting whats going on in Young Life,

check out OCCapernaum.Younglife.org for more info

Photo Scavenger Hunt

On March 23rd the High Rollers played a Photo Scavenger Hunt at the mall. Each team was handed a list of things or people to take pictures of in the mall. Everyone had a blast!!

Special thanks to "The Shoreline" High School youth group helping in being different characters to search for in the mall.