Give Your 9 to 5...to God

‘So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness.’ –Colossians 2: 6-7. What does that look like in our lives? Are we truly thankful to the point where we are ‘filling a space to capacity and spreading beyond its limits?’ I originally had the idea for ‘Give Your 9 to 5…To God’ from a sermon from my home church based on Luke 17:11-19 about Jesus Healing the Ten Men with Leprosy. (Check it out!) This idea turned into an event where 10-15 CSFers spent their Saturday from 9am-5pm being thankful to God…regardless of the home football game going on!! During our day we wrote encouraging letters to a close CSF friend, personally reflected on what we were thankful for, used stones to illustrate the amount of thankfulness we express relates to how we overflow with God’s love, wrote a prayer to God with our thanks, and helped with CSF’s bake sale after the football game. 

[Written by Renee Pugh for the December 2010 Newsletter, which can be found here]

Murder Mystery

This year Murder Mystery, “The Disappearance of Death” was performed on November 6th.  The cast consisted of Jenny Suttle, Stacy Kunze, Katie Cox, Marissa Schott, Matt Law, Ryan Butler, Jarrett Riley and Alec James.  We started off the evening socializing then headed upstairs for the intro before the private detectives were allowed to start asking questions.  At the end of the night the Police Chief (Alec) announced that it was Ivan Radinski (Ryan) that murdered his cousin and Ivan was placed in custody.  The private detective that solved the case was Mr. John Kunze.  The investigation if Stacy Kunze (Baroness) had anything to do with hints was closed the minute it opened because none of the characters knew who the murder was until it was announced that night.  It was a night of relatives but the Kunze clan is clean.  Everyone had a really good time and the evening went wonderful.  The cast had a blast and they all performed amazingly.  Thank you to everyone who was involved!

[Written by Katy Riley for the December 2010 Newsletter, which can be found here]

Bake Sale!

‘BAAAKKKEEE SAAAALLLLEEEEE!!!’ yells Matt Law. It’s a cool fall day and a group of CSFers are outside CSF selling baked goods and hot dogs after the football game to raise money for our retreats. Brandon is running up and down the road among the stopped game traffic to do car side orders. Matt is playing the piano from the porch and Kim is strumming on her guitar. Katie is waving to the cars passing by with her game day wave and when traffic dies down, Gary is airmailing leftover hotdogs into the hands of lucky passengers. Yes, it’s a great day to be a Mountaineer…and a CSFer!!  

[Written by Renee Pugh for the December 2010 Newsletter, which can be found here]

tic-toc

Remember the CSF building?  Some of you helped build it, prayed for it, funded it, encouraged Sandy and Susan through the hard work.  I'm talking about and enjoying something I had no part in. 

I get to sit here now, after midnight, with a bunch of youth group kids running around CSF. They're having a youth retreat at CSF. Katy and Renee and others are around and played games and got to know them. The adult leaders were blown away because when they left home this evening two girls that don't get along and wouldn't ride in the same car....were sitting next to each other playing a game with Katy and Renee, our interns. I'll be here tomorrow morning helping cook breakfast - those adult leaders are working their back-sides off to make this happen.  They work, volunteer for the youth, married, kids, one is pregnant and they choose this stress (but they love it) of leading a group of young people on a weekend retreat.  Our CSF folks are going to spend about 2 hours with them tomorrow. Taking a tour of campus and sharing

Last week we had another group come from the Paden City area to bring their youth here.  They've invited us to help with their summer retreat the past two summers so we've gotten to know them. Young people and college folks intermingling, getting to know each other.  Young people hanging out at CSF.  Building relationships, making contact. 

If a huge percentage of young people are leaving home for college, are they ready?

Here's a quote from our Facebook page after one of the leaders, Brian Croasmun, left last week:

"I think all the kids are planning to come to WVU now! They had a great time and want to come back. You guys have a great thing going and we are glad to be part of it."

Well that's not so bad is it? Imagine a world where young people want to come to WVU because of CSF, because of Jesus. Read that again. Is that possible?  Is that needed? Does that glorify God? Is that in alignment with His will?  Young people choosing a college because of Jesus, what they can be a part of there, getting a degree while they worship and serve the King of kings!  Is your mind racing?  Goosebumps?  Does that give you pause?

Kids are still running around as I type. Thanks for allowing me to hear the stomping, walking, and pitter patter above my head right now.  Thanks for your support.  Thanks for giving so much to Sandy and Susan to make this place happen.  Thanks for this building.  Thanks for supporting Krissy and I here as well. 

Pray for these jokers,
GG

[Written by Gary Gross for the December 2010 Newsletter, which can be found here]