Community Blesses Bridges

This fall, Bridges was extremely fortunate to have the community help our cause. A huge thank you to all who organized and participated in the following community events that helped support and provide awareness for Bridges: “Girls Night Out,” Bikers 4 Bridges, Beatles “Concert for a Cause” (Oakbrook Church) and the 1st Annual Joe Thatcher “Pitch in for Youth” Auction/Dinner.



Casey and Travis with Superstar Joe Thatcher



A Bridges student taking a ride at "Bikers 4 Bridges." Below is a picture of all 40 bikes that participated.





Casey & Travis racing at the "High Heel Shuffle" at Girls Night Out

Big Summer for Bridges

We started our summer in Missouri at "Kids Across America"- U Know! Through a partnership with a local pastor we took our largest group to KAA. Eighteen students and three adults enjoyed the best week of our year. Our youth learned how to "Walk It Out." We had several youth make commitments to follow Jesus and start living by the Truth.

The majority of our summer was spent at "Summer Slam." This was our fourth year of this 5-week program (includes community service) and our theme was money management. We had over 30 youth learn about Biblical principals of saving, budgeting, giving, investing and spending money wisely. The youth also got to enjoy a trip to lake Manitou, an overnighter to Oakbrook Vally and a day trip to the Indianapolis Zoo.

Bridges high school students participated in a nine week Bible Study on sex and relationships. They were able to learn what the Bible says about these key issues.

We wrapped up our summer at SpringHill Camp where we had nine youth spend a week in Southern Indiana. Three students gave their lives to Christ for the first time and one even got to share her testimony at the closing ceremonies.

KAA-YOU KNOW!

For the first time ever, Bridges left behind the van in Kokomo, Indiana and ventured out on a charter bus, where the kids (& staff) were able to sleep at least a little more than we would have on the van for the 12 hour ride to Missouri. What were we doing in Missouri? We were none other than heading back to one of our favorite places: Kids Across America Kamp! Our 8 days at kamp are some of our favorite days during the summer. We had a ton of new kids join us this year, and for the first time brought high school student to kamp as well!

2009 End of Year Awards

Without even realizing it, the end of the year passed us by, and now the summer is already half over. Time has been flying by as Bridges Outreach has been extremely busy these past couple months with our end of the year awards, taking kids to camp, hosting a successful golf outing, and beginning Summer Slam.

The 2008-2009 school year has been a great success as we have served over 70 elementary students, 250 middle school students, and 50 high school students. This past Spring we extended our ministry to the kids at Lafayette Park Middle School. Next year we hope to reach out to Maple Crest as well, putting us in all 4 middle schools!

Here are some pictures from our End of Year Awards banquet.

BTC GOES TO WEST VIRGINIA & WASHINGTON D.C!!!!!!!!!!

Last week Bridges went on its first ever Spring Break Trip! Casey & Michelle took 7 of the high school BTC students out to West Virginia and Washington D.C. for a week full of fun, laughter, team building, exploration, and excitement! Meanwhile, Travis held down the fort back in Kokomo and had a chance to spend some more time with Lisa, Caleb, and the newest Taflinger addition, Micah.


We drove the well-traveled Bridges van through the night on Sunday to arrive by early Monday morning at the FLOC Outdoors Center in West Virginia where we stayed in their lodge all week long. Monday, after some of us took a short nap, we headed over to Harper's Ferry, WV to hang out in the beautiful, historic, civil war town. Tuesday, we spent the day at FLOC where Todd led us in a variety of team building activities including the "A-Frame" and "Trust Fall". Then, in the afternoon, just in time for the wind and snow we ventured out to the high ropes course where the students had a chance to conquer fears and work in partners to complete the course 40' in the air! The best part was jumping off the platform and zipping down the zipline!


Wednesday our students had a chance to ride the Metro (train for you non-city people) :) into DC for the first time! We spent the first day in D.C. visiting the Supreme Court Building, US Capitol, Library of Congress, and all the monuments & memorials. Thursday we drove into the city, which ended up being more of a hassle than we realized...let's just say it is NOT easy to find parking downtown D.C! Fortunately we managed to find free parking and merrily went on our way!
We spent Thursday checking out Obama's house (a.k.a The White House), visiting the Holocaust Museum, & enjoying the beautiful view from the Jefferson Monument. In the afternoon we headed over to the National Zoo where we did not see any tigers, BUT saw some cool pandas, seals, sting rays, & monkeys. Whew-we were exhausted after two full days of walking around D.C.

Finally, on our last day Friday we had a chance to give back to FLOC through a service project. FLOC sits on many acres of woods with trails that have been built in. We had an opportunity to help maintain the trails by raking away the leaves, and shoveling/digging in to create level paths. The students all worked extremely hard and all their hard work allowed FLOC to open up the trail for visitors!

Overall we had a blast, took lots of pics, played lots of Dutch Blitz, ate lots of s'mores, respected Mr. Commissioner Sir, & listened to Arquan & Duakeen's amazing singing abilities (especially when it comes to Disney songs from "The Hunchback of Notre Dame"). We took tons of pictures, but here are just a few to give you an idea of what our week was like!

IGNITE Youth Rally

Friday, March 13th our youth joined hundreds of other youth from around Indiana to experience Indiana Wesleyan University's IGNITE Youth Rally. This sold out event was well put together and included a variety of Christian bands from "Nevertheless" to "Connersvine" to "Pillar". We had a ton of fun listening to these high energy bands!! Most of our students enjoyed rocking out with Pillar, which was one of the great highlights of the night. Another highlight was getting to hear the speaker Darren Whitehead from Willow Creek Church in Chicago. Darren, who's originally from Australia, challenged the students to develop a deeper understanding of God's love for all them. He shared with the students how it doesn't matter how filthy you think you are on the inside or outside, God's arms are open wide waiting for us to just accept His love. Our students left challenged to think about their lives and how God cleans up the junk!

There's Nothing Like Nerf Wars!

This past weekend, the BTC high school students ventured out to St. Luke's UMC to once again join their youth in an intense battle of Nerf Wars. Nerf Wars is a high-intense battle fought in the darkness of the church with nothing but protective goggles and a nerf gun. Running around, dodging bullets, leaping behind barriers is what Nerf Wars is all about. Check out the pictures below, which capture the intense preparations for battle!!!!

30 Hour Famine

The 30 Hour Famine is an international event put on by World Vision to raise awareness about world hunger. To learn more about the 30 Hour Famine and how it's making a huge impact to feed starving people all over the world check out their website: http://www.30hourfamine.org/

Last weekend, our junior high and high school students partnered with the youth at First Church of God to participate in this event. To get even a minimal idea of what it's like to starve we took part in a fast for 30 hours. The fast allowed us to gain a glimpse into how difficult it is to not have food. Another part of the 30 Hour Famine included actually raising money to send to starving children. Bridges helped raise $425! Saturday, we had an opportunity to help out Kokomo Urban Outreach's local food pantry by going into local neighborhoods to collect canned food. After collecting food and the closing ceremony we broke the fast together with some delicious nachos and ice cream sundaes for dessert! Overall, it was a humbling but fun weekend for our students.

Beyond the serious side we also got to have a little fun! Here are some pics from the weekend...

BTC Survives The Winter!

Despite the cold, crazy winter weather we've had in '08-'09, BTC has survived the winter storms! Although our ice skating trip had to be postponed due to a snowstorm, we've had a blast at some of our other events! In January we hooked up with St. Luke's Church for our 2nd NERF WARS!!!! We had 18 high school kids show up for a crazy night of nerf wars in the dark. The last weekend in January the guys had a guys night at Casey's place, playing video games and just hanging out, and the girls had a girls night at Michelle's, playing the Wii and watching a movie!

In February, the Taflinger's had us over to their house for a Winter/Valentine Party! As always, we had some amazingly delicious food! We played BTC's new favorite game: MAD GAB! Mad Gab always provides tons of laughs-if you've never played-you gotta try it!!! BTC joined up with the middle school students and headed out to Franklin, IN for a rollerskating party...check out these picks...on the way home, as you can see, everyone tired themselves out.



BTC had a busy weekend February 20th-22nd. It all started when the bands Vertical Focus, starring Tony Vent, and Connersvine, starring Hunter the punter from the Indy Colts, put on a show in the tiny town of Sweetser, IN. We took 7 students out to enjoy the concert. Sunday afternoon we headed down to Indy for the Pacers vs. Bulls game. Although we live in Indiana, most of us were chearing for the Bulls and were disappointed when they lost the game. Check out these pics from the concert and b-ball game!!!

8th Graders Go Tubing!!!

This past weekend, January 23rd-24th, 10 of our 8th graders joined us for a tubing trip near Kalamazoo, MI! Everyone had a blast and we didn't even have any injuries, minus a couple bruises! For most of the students, it was their first time ever tubing and first visit to Michigan.

Friday night, we hung out at the hotel swimming, playing the Wii, and just hanging out. Saturday we got up early, enjoyed some delicious waffles from the hotel's breakfast bar, and made our way to Timber Ridge! Although we had to wait a couple hours until the tubing hill opened, we entertained ourselves with most of us playing Phrase 10. As soon as the tubing hill opened we were on it, quickly getting sprayed with snow as we raced each other down the hill!!! Here are a few pics from the trip! We'd love to hear your comments!

Bridges Christmas Bash

This year marked our 4th Christmas Bash Party. We had a great turnout, giving presents to around 150 students and feeding close to 250 Bridges youth and families. Sorry we ran out of pizza. Here is what our students thought about the party: