The Graze

6:30 to 8:00. See you there!

Guess who’s back at Breakaway this week? Rudy Prins (Annie was MIA) and boy has he grown. Older students continued their study on the Life of Peter and Wednesday we looked at the denial of Christ shortly before Christ’s crucifixion. Younger children broke into small groups to continue their 25 Basic Bible Studies. Check out the link for photos form the classic baby shower game we played and knockout basketball.

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Often on Sunday nights when there are suggestions for hymns to sing the youth will suggest, “Were You There?” Over time we’ve been rejected by Pastor Nathan, which of course led to their having various respectable adults request the hymn for them. Now even that has failed us, but tonight we will stand and sing this great song together as we consider the death of Christ and look to Sunday when we celebrate the resurrection of our great Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. For you history buffs, this Spiritual was written in 1926 by James Weldon Johnson, but certainly is much older than that. The words of the version we sing is below, there is another version that ends with, “Were you there when God raised him from the tomb?Oh, sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.” God willing I will be standing with you tonight as we sing this great song together.

(Verse 1)

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they crucified my Lord?

(Verse 2)

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they nailed Him to the tree?

(Verse 3)

Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

Oh! Sometimes it causes me to tremble, tremble, tremble.

Were you there when they laid Him in the tomb?

(Verse 4)

Were you there when He rose up from the grave?

Were you there when He rose up from the grave?

Oh! Sometimes I want to shout, “Glory, Glory, Glory!

Were you there when He rose up from the grave?

Here is the music for the song (midi)

I know this is not exactly youth related, but you’d be surprised just how similar hanging out with the Men of Redeemer is to hanging out with the Junior High boys of Redeemer. At some point after midnight I found myself dodging ping pong balls being fired at me in rapid succession by Elder Ubuntu. A bit earlier I was listening to another pastor get excited after he had defeated “Yo Mama” (I was using Emily Vesper’s screen name on Todd’s Halo video game). There were many moments to laugh out loud this weekend with brothers in Christ and there were just as many times we were praying with our brothers in Chris this weekend. Our speaker Mark did a wonderful job challenging the Men of Redeemer as the Kingpin’s of the Church. Want to know more ask someone who went. Follow the link below to see more from the weekend. Including a picture of men who said they would rather spend a night out with their wife rather than alone at home with nothing to do.

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I thought it might be fun to see what Pastor Tony’s office looked like for those of you who have never been in there. At first it almost seems respectable, but once the details have been absorbed you realize that there are indeed rednecks living among us. Above is a deer behind that resides behind the door. It’s a real stuffed deer behind. Follow link to see all the photos.

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