The Annual AWANA Grand Prix is coming to Western Hills on Wednesday, February 29th.

At 6:30 p.m. AWANA clubbers will be starting their engines and competing for top prizes in the AWANA Club Grand Prix.

Clubbers have  carved and designed their race car out of wood blocks in a design of their choosing. They have taken their wooden car home, painted it, put on some weights and wheels, and turned it into super speedy race car!

Prizes will be awarded for fastest cars as well as best looking and most creative race cars.

Join us for this exciting event, stop by and watch with us at 6:30!

Circle this date on your calendar… Wednesday, February 29th…!

Write down this time… 6:46 p.m – 8:00 p.m. …. ( yes… 6:46…! )

Join us for some food, some laughter, some activities…and a mini concert featuring “Visitor Parking”..!!!

Western Hills Worship Center … See you there..!

]]> http://www.whillschurch.org/2012/02/hey-students/feed/ 0 http://www.whillschurch.org/2012/02/upwards-awards-night/ http://www.whillschurch.org/2012/02/upwards-awards-night/#comments Thu, 16 Feb 2012 19:13:09 +0000 Dawn http://www.whillschurch.org/?p=4982

UPWARD AWARD’S NIGHT

6:30 p.m.

Monday, February 27

We are anticipating an incredible evening!

Bring the entire family!

Our entertainment for the evening

will be the

Bruce Crevier and Family

Spin-tacular Basketball show.

Each player and cheerleader will receive an award, have the opportunity to walk across the stage,enjoy refreshments and experience a show like no other!

You won’t want to miss this!

The doors to the Western Hills Gym will open at 6:00 p.m. for families of players and cheerleaders.

Cheerleaders need to be in Room 109 and

Basketball players in the chapel at the north end of the building no later than 6:10 p.m.

        Please have your child wear their Upward uniform!

Cheerleaders wear your uniform but please leave your poms and megaphones at home.

Thank you for allowing your child to participate in

Upward Basketball and Cheerleading this year! 

Baptism Sunday on February 26, 2012.

Join us as we celebrate decisions to walk in the steps of Jesus!

__________

Are you ready to take this amazing step of obedience in your relationship with Jesus!

Are you ready to celebrate New Life through baptism?

Sign up below so we can connect with you:

I wish I could say that Whitney Houston’s death came as a surprise. When the news broke, I thought to myself – this is going to play out with typical Hollywood shallowness. Sure enough, the Grammys became part love-fest for Whitney. I wonder how many of those people really liked her. Just the night before, Whitney was escorted away from a party due to her own abrasiveness.

The real tragedy in Whitney Houston is we have seen this before, we will see this again. An artist or star who blows us away with their craft and their talents, all the while on the inside they are slowly decaying. They have this sense of longing or inadequacy that needs to be fulfilled. They are not limited in their resources in searching for this something to fulfill this void in their life. No matter how many movies they make, hit songs they sing, or famous they get, that empty void still haunts them. Since they are not limited by resources, they will try anything to fill this void – sex, drugs, cars, houses, charity, business. And for some of them, the search will kill them.

Whitney Houston’s voice was unmatched. Her rendition of the national anthem for Super Bowl XXV in 1991 will leave you speechless. In fact, I think they should just play this version from now on, I doubt any artist will ever come close to matching that performance.

As pure as her voice was, what was going on inside her wasn’t. She shocked the world with her marriage to bad boy Bobby Brown. She shocked us again by telling us she wasn’t all that different from him. Then their reality tv show removed all doubt that the Whitney image of the 80s was just that – an image. Her rocky marriage, the drug and alcohol abuse, and the violence just made most of us extremely sad for her.

And Jesus loved her.

Houston always said that was her favorite song – Jesus loves me. Despite the profane lifestyle, the failures and the escapades – she consistently said that “Jesus Loves Me” was her favorite song.

Why couldn’t she grasp that in a deeper way that translated into a different lifestyle? The same reason so many of us can’t. It is difficult to see Jesus among the deadly distractions this life has to offer. My distractions may not be prescription pain killers or alcohol, but I’ve got them. And so do you if you are honest with yourself.

One conversation my kids and I constantly have when an artist comes on tv and mentions God is – “So you think he’s a Christian? You think she’s a Christian?”

It breaks a parent’s heart to tell their kid that their hero or favorite artist is just a broken, messed up person trying to figure out life. The only difference is they have the money to make some really, really bad mistakes that last forever. But if the music and entertainment industry has taught us anything – that is it. Fallen, messed up people are fallen, messed up people no matter what their income is.

And one of Houston’s songs seems to sum it up fairly well – Didn’t We Almost Have It All? Almost is still NOT having it all. Houston’s distractions cost her life. For whatever reasons, it never seemed she allowed Jesus to have the last word in her life. It’s easy to see this in her life, harder to see it in our own. But are our distractions of kids or marriage or success or titles or houses or money any less deadly? Is our obsession with our own happiness any different than Houston’s?

Scale – maybe. The question is still valid for us all – What does it profit a person to gain the whole world but lose his soul?

Then Jesus declared, “I am the bread of life. Whoever comes to me will never go hungry, and whoever believes in me will never be thirsty. (John 6:35 NIV)

Learn how to make authentic Indian Fry Bread!
(Just like you get at the POWWOW!)

Authentic Indian Fry Bread Tacos Demo
Sunday, February 19 (after second service)
Cost is $3 per person and requires a RSVP by February 16.

Signup in foyer this Sunday or sign up on form below.

When you signup, we would love for you to commit to assist and help with the upcoming church-wide Indian Taco luncheon this spring to benefit the Kansas Reservation Ministry program.

Demonstration offered by Kim Goombi.
Questions directed to
Kim Goombi at 785.218.6042 or
Edie Smith at 785.478.3580.

This has been one heck of week for our family. My ongoing battle with the pinched nerve in my neck has sort hit a stand still. I got better but I still have sporadic shots of pain down my arm depending on what position I get my neck in. I haven’t been able to play basketball in over a month and my exercise plan has sort been non-existant.

So the doctor ordered an MRI. Easy peasy, right?

I’m not claustrophobic. So the idea of laying down in huge magnetic coffin isn’t all that terrifying to me. The problem is they lie me flat on my back, strap my head down on the board exactly in the position where that nerve is pinched and it sends this flaming stream of pain down my right arm.

The pain was intense. Couldn’t finish it. Tried it again yesterday with some hydrocodone — lasted all of 5 minutes when the tech said – “This isn’t going to work.”

So today, we upped it to Valium. The last time I took Valium…well the nurse said I was extremely funny and ought to think about a career in public speaking. And that was how I got started in ministry…

In fact, I’m starting to feel the effects right now as I type this. jfkla;sdifq9′j’m3ic Just kidding…sort of.

Yet for all the bravado and macho talk, I hate pain. I realize that most of us do…

More to come after the Valium wears off…

LATER: The valium didn’t work. Well…it sort of worked. It made me sick at my stomach and groggy but could not cut through that pain once I got on the table. So now they are going to schedule me for an IV sedation. I’m not confident this will work either but hey…

My point? My point is that we spend an inordinate amount of time avoiding pain. A friend of mine told me yesterday (he just got done with a knee surgery) that pain was God’s way of reminding us that we are still alive. As we talked, we joked that between the two of us there was one whole, healthy person. We enjoyed a good laugh but he reminded me of another famous person’s perspective on pain.

C.S. Lewis said “Pain is God’s megaphone.”

Pain is inevitable. It has been that way since Genesis 3. I don’t believe that all pain is God’s fault but I do believe that he USES all pain. That’s the subtle message of Romans 8:28 – ALL things work for good…, not all things ARE good.

So the real question for the Christ follower in the middle of their pain is this – what good is God going to work out in all of this? Hard question to deal with at times because not all pain is equal. But…all pain is painful.

In a few weeks (after the Go! series) we will start a series called Beyond Pain. We’ll get to explore these kinds of questions and more by studying how some of heroes in scripture dealt with pain. Some of the insights are going to be very, very surprising. We’re going to see that God Himself is not immune to pain.

In the meantime…hang in there. And find a friend to laugh with.

Join us for pizza and a movie!

Friday, February 10th, 6-8pm

for Kindergartners – 6th graders

Bring $3 for pizza, drink, and dessert

We will enjoy pizza and then watch Cars 2 on the big screen.  Bring your sleeping bag and pillow if you would like!

Register here or sign-up on Sunday during KidStyle Worship.

As Mari was teaching this past weekend about the Ark and the people of Israel consecrating themselves for the journey ahead (Joshua 3), I started thinking about my tub. I had to fix mine this past weekend and it’s been rumored that the average home repair takes 3 trips to the local hardware store. Personally, I’d love it if it only took me 3 visits. Fortunately for me, I didn’t need any trips to the store for this fix. We had a slow drain.

The big decision I had to make was this – should I lug my whole, heavy toolbox upstairs or just grab the tools that I need? Obviously, I don’t want to be carry all that weight and all those tools upstairs. Besides that, I’ve done this job before so I know what I’m doing.

Trip Downstairs #1: I grabbed my channel-lock pliers, a screwdriver, and a wire coat hanger. Why the coat hanger? Ask someone who has daughters or a wife with long hair. They can tell you the gross details.

I get back upstairs to the tub, grip the top of the drain with the channel-locks and quickly realize that I cannot hold on to the bottom part of the drain. It’s too slippery. I need another set of channel-locks.

Trip Downstairs #2: Get second set of channel-locks.

Back upstairs to the tub, grip the bottom of drain. Top turns right off with little problem. Grab screwdriver to completely remove drain when I notice I have a Phillips head and I need a flathead.

Trip Downstairs #3: Grab flathead screwdriver.

Back upstairs to the tub, put screwdriver into tub drain and now see that this particular flathead is too narrow. I need a wider flathead.

Trip Downstairs #4: Grab fatter flathead screwdriver.

Back upstairs to the tub, fatter flathead works like a charm. Drain comes right off. Grab wire hanger to clean out drain. Realize I don’t have my plastic trash bag to put treasure that I am digging up.

Trip Downstairs #5: Grab plastic trash bag. Grab rubber gloves. Pat myself on back for avoiding Trip Downstairs #6.

Back upstairs to the tub, clean out drain with no problem. Put…stuff in bag and then tie bag up.

Put drain drain back together and realize that during Trip Downstairs #5, I took the fat flathead out of my pocket to answer the phone. Fat Flathead is now sitting on downstairs kitchen counter.

Trip Downstairs #6: Grab fatter flathead.

Back upstairs to the tub, put the drain back in with no problem. Grab bag to throw. Bask in the glory of a job done.

Trip Downstairs #7: Grab an ice tea and some peanuts. Amy asks – did you test to see if that solved the problem?

Back upstairs to the tub. Turn on water. Drains like a…well…not really sure what simile to use here. It works great.

Trip Downstairs #8: Tell Amy yes. Realize I left my drink on the bathroom counter upstairs.

Sell the house for a single floor, ranch style home.

I am curious how many of us approach our faith like this? We show up to a task bringing the bare minimum of what we think is required for the job. After all, we’ve done this before. We know what we are doing. We just want to get this done so that we can go on with the rest of our day/week/life.

Instead, our lack of CONSECRATION to the task at hand turns a simple job into a lot of work, a lot of frustration, and at times makes the accomplishment of the task impossible.

I loved Mari’s definition of Consecration she taught us this week – to make ready, to get prepared. When God told the Israelites to Go!, He first told them to GET READY – to consecrate themselves. Do what you know to do, what you need to do to be in a place to obey, to get the job done.

Next time you hear a GO! from the Lord, consecrate yourself. Bring the whole tool box.