Busy Youth-Workers

Well it sure has been a busy month for Samantha and I, as well as our youth/school group. We have been so busy that we finally have been able to update the blog. 

Ice Skating

On the 4th of November our Christian Academy had a ice skating field trip. Samantha and I drove the boys van while the girls followed in another van. This trip was to celebrate all those who made honor roll.


Normally one of the jobs of being a married couple is to drive the ladies to games and events, (they like the idea of having a male around for safety), but this time we had the ... privilege... of driving the boys.


If you have ever been in van with all teenage boys, then you know just how different of an experience it can be, compared to driving with all girls. There is usually a lot of rough housing, belching and other things. Now keep in mind these are pretty good kids, however as the old adage goes, "boys will be boys."


Before we went skating we stopped at Pizza Hut to fill all those empty bellies.

Once we were all done eating we headed over to the Skating Rink

Everyone is hanging on to the wall for dear life!

Yup, I cant skate 

Skating like a pro!

Saturday Teen Fellowship

Then the next day, being Saturday we took a small group to a youth fellowship in Taos, NM at Pastor Estevan Montoya's church.

This church is currently in a building program, because of this they are currently having servies in this apartment complex.

Time for a little belching contest!

This next game involved catching M&M's in your mouth.

Even though, (or because) it was a small group we all had a really good time. We played games and sang songs and enjoyed pizza.


After the pizza Pastor Montoya, preached a powerful message on "Choices". The heart of the message was: The choices you make right now as a teen, can and will affect what you become.


It seemed like everyone that was there was at the altar. We hope to have a bigger group next month.

Monday-Tuesday Volleyball Tournament

Then monday and Tuesday (November 6th and 7th), we (Samantha and I) had the privilege to dive our school's volleyball team to a tournament in Albuquerque. There were 9 teams, and a few of them were from out of state,as far away as California.

We had to get up at 5 AM to leave the church by 6 to make it to the tournament at 9. It was a long but good day.

Getting up so early and then having to drive for a little over an hour, our girls needed to run around and wake up. Even during the game you could see that they were still groggy.

It was a blessing to see some of our older girls, step up as leaders. Here one is being a line judge for another game.

 Lunch Time

Yummy, Subway!

One of the hard things of having a large tournaments is the time between the games. We would play then have to wait a few hours before we would play again. This gave us all a change to watch some of the others teams.

Pledge Time!

Pledge to the American Flag

Pledge to the Christian Flag

Pledge to the Bible

Our girls got off to a tough start, losing their first game (day one), which put us in the losers bracket. This ment they would have to win every game they played after that to make sure they were not eliminated.

And they did win their next two games that day. But the next day, they were defeated in a really close match. 

I really thought this was funny, this care had three apple stickers and one Android.

All in all they played their hearts out and we ended up with fourth place.

Third place went to the hosting team, Christian Heritage Academy

Second Place went to Cornerstone Baptist Academy from Colorado Springs, Co

We were very proud of  one of our players winning one of 6 MVP/Sportsmanship awards.

The winning team was from Rio Grande Baptist Church

On the ride home we all signed the banner and left it on our pastors desk as a surprise.

Whatsoever thy hand findeth to do, do [it] with thy might; ...

Ecclesiastes 9:10a