Canoeing Rock Creek

As a grand finale to a grand summer, we went on a canoe trip yesterday. It was great fun (all except for the one canoe that capsized).

The Kayakers

Austin and Lindsay

Aha! Caught you Deborah.

Canoeing Rock Creek

A nice photo of Rock Creek
Benjamin and Leah

Laying down on the job are you, Keegan?
An egret at the creek's mouth

Youth Retreat 2007 - Cultivating in Christ

The Youth Retreat this year went really well, and many thanks to Matt for putting it all together. Here are a few pictures from the retreat:

Picturesque Lake Mineral Wells

Down to Penitentiary Hollow!

Youth Retreat - Cultivating in Christ

A few more pictures...

Deborah, Elizabeth, and Leah

That's an amazing specimen of a six-lined racerunner there! Do you think you could catch it, Austin?

The whole group

Bible Search essays

Both Deborah and I put our essays from this last Bible Search on our blogs, so I thought y'all might be interested in reading them. (The near-identical titles are totally coincidental.)

• BenjaBlog - Samson and the Nazarite Vow
• Nonsublunary - Samson and the Nazirite Vow
  

Austin Bible Search

The Bible Search hosted by the South West congregation in Austin went very well! It was lots of fun, and it was great to see how many people have been studying the book of Judges. Here are the scores that we got:

Essay

• Benjamin, 1st place

Memory Verses

• Deborah, 1st place
• Benjamin, 5th place

Individual Test

• Benjamin, 1st place (11th grade)
• Deborah, 2nd place (10th grade)

Great job everyone! We had a really good number of young people who went, and hopefully we'll have even more next year. Keep studying God's Word!

Granbury Street Bible Search is Over!

We had a great time at Bible Search in Cleburne today, and everyone did very well! It is so great to see so many young people (including ourselves) who have dedicated their time to the study of God's word.

The test this year was harder than in years past, with 150 questions for the high school division! Everybody did great though, and here are the scores for everyone from Highland:

Team Events

We had two teams this year:

• High School — Deborah, Benjamin, and Leah

Head to Head Competition

• High School team
  
  • 2nd Place in high school division
• 6-8 Grade team
  
  • 2nd Place in 6-8 grade division: 6-8 Grade Team

Team Test

• High School team
  
  • 1st Place in high school division, with 91% correct

Individual Events

Individual Test

• Benjamin
  
  • 1st Place in 11th grade division, with 87% correct
• Deborah
  
  • 1st Place in 10th grade division, with 85% correct
• Leah
  
  • 2nd Place in 11th grade division, with 77% correct

Memory Verses (high school division)

• Tie for 1st place: Benjamin and Deborah
• 2nd place: Leah

Essay (high school division)

• Leah – first place
• Deborah – third place

Sermon

• Benjamin – third place

All-Around

This was a combination of the scores from all the events we were involved in (the test, memory verses, essay, etc.), with the highest ones being the overall champions. It was all Highland this year!

• Leah – first place
• Benjamin – second place
• Deborah – third place

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Good job everyone! Now we can start getting ready for the Eisenhower Bible Search...

Get ready for Bible Search!

The Granbury Street Bible Search will be November the 18th in Cleburne! Be sure to be studying Judges and Ruth, and don't forget those memory verses! I hope we have a good number going this year from Highland, as it's a great opportunity to study God's word.

We will also be going to the Bible Search in Odessa sometime around January. It's going to be good!

A year later...

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole year! Now it's 2006, and we've already been on another retreat (excuse me Josh, "CHARGE") at the Bostons' cabin in Oklahoma. I think everyone had a great time in spite of the rain, and it was really a good chance to grow spiritually. Thank you for your hospitality, Dr. Don! Lord willing we'll be able to do it again.