BTC in November...

The high school students have been busy this November. Earlier this month six students went on a college visit to Ball State University. Despite having to walk around campus in the dreary rain, everyone had a great time and learned a lot about the university. Each student that went is now one step closer to figuring out what school they want to go to and what they want to study!

Last weekend we had an early Thanksgiving celebration with some delicious ham, macaroni and cheese, and green beans. We hung out and played a new game many had never played before called Mad Gab. Everyone got the hang of it quickly and soon we were all laughing and having a great time!



The following morning we went from celebrating Thanksgiving to preparing for Christmas. We went to the We Care House to help set up and decorate their Christmas trees. The We Care House has over 100 Christmas trees throughout the house, which is open for the public to take tours through starting now until the end of December. Everyone had a great time decorating and helping the We Care House get ready for Christmas.

BTC FALL FEST!

BTC enjoyed an eventful evening at the Taflinger's, who hosted this year's FALL FEST! Our high schoolers enjoyed some delicious italian home-cookin' and treats and got to paint their very own pumpkins! All the students were quite creative in their pumpkin-painting! Everyone also enjoyed a "spooky" wagonride (a.k.a. a hayride minus the hay) hosted by a local church. It was a blast-lots of laughs. Barack Obama made his second appearance at Bridges by taking a moment out of his busy campaign schedule to join one of the wagonrides!

October Trips

This month our middle school students volunteered at the Heart Walk, went to the corn maze in Sharpsville, hung out at the "Underground" youth center, and went to The HYVE activity center at the YMCA. Here are some comments from our youth talking about our October events.

Highlight Video

NERF WARS!!!

Friday night, October 3rd, 10 BTC students entered St. Lukes Church prepared for a fierce battle. With all the lights out throughout the church Bridges & St. Lukes opened fire against one another in a huge nerf war! The church turned into a battle zone with nerf darts flying everywhere. Everyone had a blast and survived with minimal battle wounds despite some high powered nerf guns. There are a ton of thrilling stories; just ask any of our high schoolers who were there. If you weren't there you will not want to miss out on the next opportunity to join the battle at St. Lukes!

First Flight!

Friday night, September 18th, 10 of our high school students took their first ever plane ride at the Glendale Airplane Festival! Despite the nerves about flying in a small 4-seater airplane, the students had a blast checking out Kokomo from high in the sky.

The Wave

At least twice a semester Bridges goes to "The Wave" for our field trip. It is a community youth center open on the weekends. It is a ministry of Crossroads Church and our kids love it! Here is what our kids think about it:

SpringHill-Identified

This past weekend Bridges took 5 "BTC" students on their first SpringHill Fall Retreat! The girls were living large in air conditioned cabins while the guys toughed it out in non-air conditioned cabins! Everyone had a great time and many of the students overcame some enormous fears, particularly the zipline! Besides the zipline, we had fun playing Z-ball, going down the water zipline, and walking through the prayer labyrinth. One of the favorite aspects of the weekend was listening to the speaker, Eric Timm.

God used Eric to transform our student's lives and draw them closer to God not only through his incredible stories, but also through his contemporary, awe-inspiring art. Our students were challenged to examine their lives to determine what they place their identity in and to see that Christ alone can fill the hole in their hearts. God lifted some major burdens off all our hearts last weekend!

Summer Slam (Student Led)

This is our third year of Summer Slam and we decided to let our high school students be on the leadership team that would plan and implement the program. Here are our 4 student leaders. They have done an awesome job of leading and mentoring our middle school students.

Our theme this year focused on finding yourself, knowing your purpose, and career exploration. Casey and Travis have shared with them the ultimate purpose of knowing and serving Jesus Christ. From there, they have learned about relationships, teamwork, careers, and creative arts. In addition to learning we have taken the students on some great trips that include: swimming and tubing at Lake Manitou, bowling, an overnighter at "The Valley," and the new family center "Go Bananas." Next week we are reading and throwing a carnival for Kokomo Urban Outreach children, playing games with some folks at a nursing home and ending the summer with our traditional trip to Indiana Beach. Here are a couple of our students playing guitar hero.

KAA, U Know!!!

Bridges just returned from another awesome trip to Kids Across America summer camps and we had a great time. This year we took 7 students, all of them were first timers except Marquise.
The students had the opportunity to experience some awesome activities. Most of them said their favorite activities were treetops, tubing and the pool. We spent the week getting krunk and hype for Jesus. We already can't wait for next year!

Reload Conference in Indianapolis

At the end of April, Bridges took our high school students to an urban ministries conference called Reload. It was unbelievable! We learned about transforming our community, being relevant to youth of this generation, and how to make a true difference on a urban level. Pastor Harvey Carey, the picture above, was the keynote speaker and really challenged us to change the way we minister to youth. Worship was awesome and networking with urban leaders was very beneficial. Our youth talked the whole way home from Indianapolis about some of the ways we can improve Bridges. We highly recommend Reload!

Family Day at Indiana Wesleyan

Last March, Bridges took our students and their families to Indiana Wesleyan for a fun day on campus. Students, volunteers and families from both middle school progams and our high school program saw "National Treasure 2" on campus, hung out in the game room and had pizza at Mario's. It was a great experience to get our kids on a college campus and provide an opportunity to spend a day with their families. Hopefully, in the next few years we will have a few students attending IWU.

30 Hour Famine

Bridges had 26 students complete the 30 hour famine that raised money and awareness for World Hunger. Here is the Top Ten things about The Famine:

1-Witnessing teenagers not eating for 30 hours for World Vision

2-Playing Prison Dodgeball

3-Going to the YMCA friday night and hanging out in the HYVE

4-Playing Guitar Hero

5-Juice breaks every two hours

6-Playing sardines at Main Street United Methodist Church in the drak

7-Volunteering our Satudrday morning with Kokomo Urban Outreach, Howard Haven County Home & Angel Food Ministries

8-Our worship service on Saturday afternoon

9-Raising hundreds of dollars for World Vision ($1 a day feeds a child)

10-Breaking the fast with a feast (pizza & dirt pudding)

Raise money for Bridges online!

We have a simple and easy way to raise money for Bridges! There is a search engine at www.goodsearch.com that lets viewers raise money for their favorite charity (the search engine is powered by yahoo and is very similiar to google). Just go to the website, put "bridges outreach" in the charity slot and start searching for what you need. You can also put the website as your homepage and you can shop online (3%-25% of your sales go to Bridges). Everytime you search for something part of the proceeds go to Bridges. Spread the word to others that you know and hopefully it will be one more way to help us invest in the youth of our community!!