Attention: New photos up on Photobucket from this year's rafting trip. Check out the link to the right of this page! (Sorry it took so long.)

A few things of importance...

Hi everyone! Just wanted to remind folks of a few things:

• Sign up to get your EYC 06-07 T-shirt by this Sunday!! It's a totally hot design - put together by Tina Akunwafor, Chas Sharp, and Mark A-G. They'll be in a baseball tee short-sleeve design - with blue on the sleeves and white on the front/back. They're $11 - don't miss out!!
• The Senior Highs are going to San Francisco!! Next summer, we'll head to the West Coast for our Annual Mission trip from June 17-22. The group we'll be working with is called YouthWorks, and you can check out their ministry philosophy, trip details, and safety policies at www.youthworks.com. The cost is $600 and the first $50 is due in the next two weeks to express a firm commitment. We are stressing that you must be an active participant with the EYC all year long if you wish to go - any friends of friends are welcome, but they must join our group and be active for the 06-07 year. Sign up now! It's going to be a great trip!!
• Confirmation students: Come to a meeting on Oct. 29th at the beginning of the Sunday school hour. You'll get your all-important materials for the class, and we'll figure out times to meet and stuff. Bring your parents.
• Halloween party this Sunday at the Hendrickson's!! Wear your most creative costume for the contest, and bring $5 per person for pizza and snacks. Families are welcome; bring $15 for food for the whole family. We'll have haunted hayrides, bobbing for apples, lots of food, and great fellowship, so join in on the festivities. Contact Sara if you need a ride from the church.

You guys are awesome. What a fun group we have this year! I'm looking forward to seeing you all soon! Love, Sara

All of life is grace

With all the stress of school, tests, jobs, parties, friends and church, we sometimes forget that God is present in the midst of all this. Luckily, whether we're aware or unaware of him, God is with us. We just don't always recognize God when we see him. There's a lot to distract us, and a lot that makes us forget who we are (and whose we are).

The quote below is by Frederick Buechner, a fantastic writer and Presbyterian preacher from Vermont. Read it, meditate on it, and comment. How do you forget God's presence? How can we listen to our lives in order to see God?

Listen to your life. All moments are key moments.

"I discovered that if you keep your eye peeled to it and your ears open, if you really pay attention to it, even such a limited and limiting life as the one I was living on Rupert Mountain opened up extraordinary vistas. Taking your children to school and kissing your wife goodbye. Eating lunch with a friend. Trying to do a decent day's work. Hearing the rain patter against the window. There is no event so commonplace but that God is present within it, always hiddenly, always leaving you room to recognize him or not recognize him, but all the more fascinatingly because of that, all the more compellingly and hauntingly. If I were called upon to state in a few words the essence of everything I was trying to say both as a novelist and as a preacher, it would be something like this: Listen to your life. See it for the fathomless mystery that it is. In the boredom and pain of it no less than in the excitement and gladness: touch, taste, smell your way to the holy and hidden heart of it because in the last analysis all moments are key moments, and life itself is grace."

These are some good lookin' people...

Good Shepherd has entered the blogosphere

Hey everyone!

This is the first EYC blogger post. I'm just doing a quick test to see if this works.

For now, just enjoy the cartoon above.