Woot for new posts!

Hey guys! Hope all has been well with you J it has been a busy week for this Masters student so I apologize for the delayed posting of this blog. So lets see… last weeks events. This was a busy week so I’ll break it down by day.

Saturday the 28th - We packed up our van by 3pm and headed for IN. Only about 4 ½ hrs so it wasn’t too bad. We got there at around 8 or 9, I don’t remember which but anyways, we then went to Molly’s birthday party. Pretty good time. Then we went to our home-openers for the night.

Sunday the 29th - We got up and went to Sunday service. We did service at both Howe and Pretty Prairie and later at the Shed. We had such a great time! I was really happy to see everyone again and to kind of show the difference Masters has made in my life. I feel very much changed by Masters Commission and I really have a heart for my home church. Masters has really unleashed the passion that was inside me all along and I really look forward to returning to feed the fire inside the hearts at our church. I know its there, its just time to show that passion each and every Sunday. We may be a Methodist church but by no means does that mean we can’t wear our hearts for Christ on our sleeves. I hope to bring the fire to HUMC so be ready. It starts with you youth group. “Do not let them look down on you because you are young but set an example for the believers.” This was written to Timothy but it applies to each and every young person in this world. Just because you are young does not mean you don’t have a major impact on our church. You are the future of our church and its time we step up in our faith and show that we CAN lead our generation and we WILL lead our generation. The change starts now.

Monday - We left at about 11 to head to Elkhart and Micaela’s church. That night, we did a service for 120 young men at the South Bend Juvenile Correction Facility. We had to be extremely cautious about what dramas we presented and also how we presented them, but the service went extremely well. We caught their attention from the very first drama and they were hooked until the very end. Many young men gave their lives to Christ that night and I pray every day that they will continue to persevere on their walk with Christ.

Tuesday - This was basically a relax day for most of the day, but we did have a great opportunity to learn. For about two hrs, we went to a place called SPA. I don’t remember what it stands for but it is a women’s house for women recovering from drugs or alcohol. We just sat and talked with these ladies. I was so blessed by their testimonies and I really felt like Jesus would use these women and their testimony to work wonders in this world. People need stories of hope like the ones presented by these women. It was really just a great experience.

Wednesday - It was another great day. We went to Mic’s church and her pastor did a 4 hr class for us on the end times. It was by far the best class I’ve had all yr. I was so enlightened and it was explained in a way that was so understandable! It was like a 3rd grader could’ve understood it! So if any of you are interested in seeing the notes from this class, I would be more than happy to share them. But later than night, we did the actual service at her church. Now, this church likes to keep away from outside ministry so it was a miracle that they finally let Micaela come after 3 yrs of trying. They loved the service, we loved the service, it was just a great night to be in God’s house. We had so much fun in IN, it was incredible. The only downside is that I will now have to start running every morning to work off all the food we ate :P I’ve never eaten so much in my life :P

Thursday - Driving day, woo! :P We got back about noon. Most of the group went to Cincinnati for more Reds training (which got cancelled so that stunk for those who had to drive down there). Later that night, our power went out. Good thing laundry was done already J but it was fun. Jordan and David (Jordan is a good friend of mine here and David will be a first yr next yr in Masters) came over to stay the night because they were going on the weekend trip the next day.

Friday - We left for Tennessee this morning. Notice how we were only home for like half a day this week? Haha anyways, we arrived at like…3ish I think. This weekend was a youth rally kind of thing, not a Masters service. So we helped set some stuff up and then the kids started showing up. We had some worship then we did a drama and a message was given by their youth leader. Then they split up by grade to head to home-openers. Jordan and I led the group of juniors and seniors. We had about 15 guys. When we got to the house, there were 3 others leaders that helped out to lead ‘sessions’. Basically, they were long devotions. The first night we talked about sin and being a warrior. We actually had a kid in our group come to Jesus that night. Praise God.

Saturday - We were at the church by like 8. The kids went to a camp to do all kinds of fun stuff for the day. We stayed back to help with the main event. The name of the weekend was ‘The Ultimate Warrior’ so this church went all out. We set up a REAL boxing ring in the middle of the youth building. No joke! Then we learned the illustrated sermon we would be helping in. Basically, it was a match between Jesus and Satan in which Satan uses people in the crowd to fight for him by making bad decisions. For example, I played the role of a party person. So with each drink I took, Jesus took a literal punch. The kids LOVED it. It was so great, it was like a real boxing match. Of course, we didn’t need to watch the match. Our Bible tells us who wins in the end! I don’t know what tactics Satan will use, but I sure know he’s gunna lose! Anyways, it was really fun to be a part of it. Then we went back to our houses for sessions again, which went quite well once again.

Sunday - Youth rally and then service. Not a lot to say really except that it was good weekend overall. I wasn’t sure what to expect from this Baptist church in Tennessee but it was a lot of fun.

If you’ve finally got this far in reading my blog, congrats J hehe I know it was long but I had a lot to say so there :P I’m gunna make another post, more of a “what’s been on my heart” kinda thing so I hope you will read that as well. Good day to you J love you all!

Schedule

Hey guys! I thought you might like to see our travel schedule so here it is :) oh and by the way, where it says "Reds game", it means workin concessions at a Reds game. Its our fundraiser :)

March 18 - Cavehill, IN
March 22-24 - Warner Robins, GA
March 28-29 - Howe, IN
March 30-April 2 - Elkhart, IN
April 2 - Reds Stand Manager Training
April 3-5 - Kingsport, TN
April 9 - Reds game
April 10 - Reds game
April 15 - Hamilton Dream Center
April 17-18 - FCA Retreat, Danville KY
April 24-25 - MCGC Preseason (you should all come :) )
April 27 - Reds game
April 28 - Reds game
April 29-30 - Pittsburgh, PA
May 1-5 - Possible New York trip
May 8 - Reds game
May 13-14 - Paducah, KY
May 19 - Reds game
May 21 - Reds game
May 22 - Reds game

Good times huh? :) Should be!

Chad

March Trip #1

Hey! :) so we just returned from our first trip of what you would call the "trip season of MCGC". I call it that because we have like a million trips between now and graduation in May along with events here that we must be at. But anyways, our trip this weekend was to Danville, KY. This is the hometown of Kate Stephens, a fellow first year.

We left around 2pm on Saturday afternoon. It was only about a 3 hr trip so the van ride wouldnt have been too bad... had we not been piled in a 15 passenger van. This is normally not a problem for a group of 9 people right? Not when you must also do worship on this trip so you must also take 3 guitars, a drum set, an amp, the drama equipment, and the sales booth. Needless to say, it was fun getting in and out. Luckily, we only stopped twice (cuz of a certain boy with a girl blatter *cough* Jordan *cough*) lol but we finally arrived around 5.

We then had a youth rally at 7... or was it 6? I'm not sure but we DID have a youth rally and it went extremely well. This church was a baptist church so they werent used to the altar call at the end but it was still a successful night. We then went with the youth leader to a pizza place to eat and then headed back to Kate's house (where we stayed) and hung out til time for bed.

The next morning we were at church by 10:15 after eating a glorious breakfast thanks to Kate's mom :) This mornings service also went very very well, just as good as the night before actually. One of the dramas had never been done before and my performance as Jesus during practice times had been sub-par at best but we pulled it together and it went excellently. We then went back to Kate's house for some amazing spaghetti, thanks again to Kate's mom. We then packed up and headed home and were home by prolly 6.

This was a great weekend. With my phone off, there was nothing to distract me from the purpose of bein there. It worked out really well and I'm super glad.

Our next trip is on Wed. to Cave Hill, IN. Its a Christian school somewhere just across the border from Ohio and will be an all-day trip. Pray that God works His will during this trip.

My next post will consist of our travel schedule. I have it, its just not on me right now so I'll get that to you all next time. I'll try to post again tomorrow.

Thats all for now. Adios!

Chad

Randomness

Hey! Just some updates for my weekend. Tonight is servant leadership awards banquet, or SLAB. Basically its a dinner for the volunteers at church. Masters is workin drink tables and other random jobs during this event.

Tomorrow morning is Leadership Day. Breakfast is at nine and then there will stuff going on til like noon. We again will be working this event. Shouldnt be too bad actually.

Tomorrow is also my 19th birthday, woot! So tomorrow night John, Kyle, Jordan, and I will be going to Dave and Busters to hang out and have some fun. Should be a really great time to just kick back and hang out.

Thats about it for now. Keep in touch! :) God bless.

Chad

Comments!!!

Hey hey! Well, another week had gone by in Masters and I don't have too much to tell you guys so I'll just get started.

First off, we had Night With MCGC on Friday night. Basically, we showed this church what Masters is all about. We did 6 dramas and also had a little meet and greet thing. It was alot of fun and we put alot of effort into it last week to make sure it would be perfect. I think this church knows what this yrs Masters has to offer.

Speaking of what we have to offer, we will be in Howe the last weekend of March so everyone make sure to write it down and make sure to be there! :) We are gunna rock your world :) lol

So I would appreciate some comments every once in awhile so I know you guys are actually readin the updates I post. I apologize again for not posting in a very long time, but I will be sure to post at least once a week now to keep you guys updated.

And finally, I want you all to know that I am really looking forward to starting up the youth group this summer. A regularly scheduled youth group service will be the first thing on my agenda to arrange. Also, I want to focus our youth group on the same thing the church as a whole is focusing on, which for this year would be outreach. I feel like the talents our youth have been blessed with are countless. Like anything else, these gifts can always be worked to give praise to God. If I can get the response, I would love to work on some worship music with the musically-inclined portion of our youth :) They are all so so talented!

That is all for now. I gotta get to drama practice now so I'll probably post again later. I want to gear my posts more towards my thoughts and ideas along with what I'm doin. I love you all!

Chad

Masters Conference '09

Hey guys! I'm finally postin again after such a very very very long time. I could feed you an excuse about bein busy but we havent been too busy so I wont. But I will say that I havent had internet since I crashed my computer in December so that didnt help me any. Anyways, the only big news is that conference was last week, Feb. 9th throuth the 14th in Orlando, FL. It was alot of fun so I will break it down for you by day.

Monday - This was driving day. 7 Masters students and 2 directors in a van for 16 hours. You can imagine the enjoyment this entailed for us. We finally arrived at our Days Inn at around 10. This would be our home for the week.

Tuesday - Since conference didnt start til Thursday, we had fun the first few days. On this day, we went to Downtown Disney. Its basically a Disney shopping center right outside Disney World. We spent a few hours there, had alot of fun roaming around but nothing significant happened. Then we went back to our hotel and changed for church service at Faithworld. This wasnt a Masters service but we went because John and Joey (our directors) used to work there as childrens pastors and they wanted to see everyone again. So anyways, it started with worship, which most of the people at our methodist churches would probably not get into because it was more of a hip hop/ r&b beat. Very modern. It was really amazing though and we really got into it as a group. Then we went to youth group after worship because the previous MCGC director Rob Fee is the youth pastor there now. We were definitely the minority there because in a group of 40, they had 2 white kids. But it was Orlando so we didnt expect any less. They had a speaker named Bishop Tremmel or something like that. He was pretty good and we'd see more of him later. Then we went back to the hotel and hung out in our room til we fell asleep.

Wednesday - We slept til 9 then left for Tampa Bay at 10. Its a two hour drive from Orlando so we just took in the sights on the way there. When we got there, we first met with John's mom and grandparents then went shopping so that John and Joey could get new cell phones. Then we headed out to the beach for 3 hours or so. It was fun bein in the ocean again, I hadnt been in a very long time. It was freezing though! Then we went to some beach shops for awhile, just because we could I guess. Then we left for our hotel again. It was a tiring ride but when we got back, the fun didnt end. Basically, our hotel had an outdoor pool but they had been in the 30s recently so it was freezing. But Kyle dared me to jump in so we all headed to the pool and long story short, we all ended up jumping in. It was alot of fun despite being cold and we ended up swimming for like 15 minutes before calling it a night.

Thursday - First day of conference. It started with worship done by Frontline. This is a popular worship group which is actually all Masters alumni from Phoenix. They are basically excellent. I'd love to do some of their songs in church this summer if we can convince the youth group to work on it :) So anyways, after that Bishop Tremmel spoke to all of Masters for 45 minutes or so then we broke up for lunch. Then we had a session where everyone split up by what year of Masters you are in. Ours was titled "3 Keys to Being a First Year" and was actually very informative and helpful. Then we went to dinner and came back for evening service, with the message delivered by none other than Clint Brown. He spoke from Romans 12 so it was definitely relative to us Masters kids. It was a very powerful sermon and I enjoyed it very much. I feel better off for hearing it. Then it was time to go get sleep for the next day.

Friday - Day two of conference. Once again we started with worship, this time it was done by Interface, a Masters worship band from Fort Meyers Masters. Then we broke up into morning sessions. But I must change the angle of this now and go more toward an emotional side. When I woke up that morning, I was in a bad mood for no reason. I didnt wanna go to conference, I didnt wanna be in Masters, I didnt feel God at all. I couldnt get into worship and I felt really out of it. So I skipped morning session (which woulda been drama training by the way) and I went behind the church and just prayed for an hour. I knew I couldnt get everything God had for me this day if I didnt get these things straightened out right away. So I did before lunch and the rest of the day was great. We went to lunch with a Masters group thats from about an hour from where we are in Hamilton. Then we went back for afternoon sessions. I went to the one on street evangelism (if anyone is interested in seeing my notes from this, let me know). Then it was dinner time. Nothing exciting. But then it was evening service time. The message was done by Lloyd Ziegler, who basically birthed Masters Commission. He is one of those guys who just sweats awesomeness. Like he wears his heart on his sleeves. Really cool guy. But anyway, that ended conference. Great great great time.

Saturday - Drive home. Lots worse than the drive there because we were all crazy tired. But it was okay :)

Thats about it. Ill leave you with this comment: pics from conference are through this link down there :) take a look please. Thanks! I love you all! Til next time...

Photobucket Album

Free time!? WOO!

Hey hey! So first things first: service this morning... wow! It was basically amazing! The third yrs actually said it was the best service they had ever been a part of in Masters! We did three dramas and the third one really... hits people. Its a really... deep drama that our director Joey wrote to the song "Mighty Is The Power Of The Cross" by Chris Tomlin. I won't give details cuz you'll just have to have us in church to see it :) But other than service, nothin is planned for today, we're just hangin out at the church. So... random thoughts. I will be home 5 days for Thanksgiving, Mon-Fri so I wont get to preach to you :P lol but I would like to see everyone so I want to try and setup a weekday service or somethin that week so I can see everyone. Hmmm... oh! Masters can come basically whenever we get called by ppl so we could make multiple trips home if many churchs want us so the more churchs that call, the more I get to see you all ;) hint hint! lol And...hmmm...I know there is somethin else I need to tell you all but I'm totally blanking right now so if I think of it... oh! I remember! Don't hesitate to text me sometime, my phone is always on. I havent talked to many ppl from back home, I would love to hear from you sometime. You can also write me a letter. My address is:

Masters Commission
Attn: Chad Yoder
1940 Millville Ave.
Hamilton, OH 45013

One last thing... I feel this change welling up inside me. Its crazy and I cant explain it but I feel...different. In a good way. I found myself quoting scripture to Whit last week. I used to worry about just about everything but now, I don't worry. Cuz everytime somethin comes up, I pray about it... all the time. Sometimes its the most random times... like today, when I was posing during a drama, waiting for my part to come up. I love that my relationship with God is so... strong... close...rejuvenated. I now read my Bible not becuz I have to for the next assignment, but becuz I enjoy it and becuz everytime... my view of Jesus becomes clearer and clearer. Its like gettin to know ur classmate, only on a so much more personal level...