Mid High Cause Ladies Paintball

We were truly blessed with wonderful weather, high turnout, and the company of friends. 10 Ladies from all three grades came to enjoy each others company, get outside and well.....shoot somebody:). After the day of play we asked them what their favorite part of the day was and Alexis said "I loved watching the paintball fly through the air as you can see it's path so when it hits it's mark it was just great!" Sophie and Ashley in tandem exclaimed "I liked shooting the girls!" It seems they all thought it was fun and want to do it again so we asked if it hurt? Heather said "Sometimes more than others but once you get playing you don't feel most of them." It was also neat to see the girls bring a couple of their friends from outside the cause. Together they played for over 3 hrs and outlasted some of the games i've seen the boys play. Playing "Capture The Flag", "Center Flag", and "Attack And Defend" they played with tenacity and weren't afraid to give it right back to the other team all day long. Good job Ladies, it was a pleasure seeing you all have fun and we look forward to more games in the future.

Wed Night Cause - You're Invited

We've been having alot of fun on wednesday nights here at Cause.  We meet from 7-8.30 pm at the church so if you're in 6th, 7th or 8th grade you're invited to join us. See our website for details http://www.salemheightschurch.org/

Please continue to pray for our ministry and here are a few pics to share in the fun. 

Mid High Cause Retreat 2010

Our Mid High Cause students were excited at the first announcement that we were going to have a retreat in February. For some this was the first retreat they’ve ever been on and others it would be the last of Jr. High. With the promise of 3 days of fellowship, night games, and teaching our staff set out to build relationships and to plant seeds.

Friday night began with our arrival to Camp Tapawingo. The Camp is located in Falls City which is just outside of Dallas Oregon. It was nice that it was only about 30 mins away as that gave us enough time to have some good conversations together and not so long that questions of “are we there yet…” set in.

Friday evening consisted of teaching time with our guest speaker Dave Bertolini who covered what proved to be very impactful topics for both our students and staff. Each teaching time was followed by cabin time to discuss reflection questions from the teaching and to pray together.

Over the weekend Dave covered:

Overcoming Evil with Good

Love vs. Evil – Romans 12:9-10,21

Apathy vs. Zeal – Romans 12:11

Selfishness vs. Compassion – Romans 12:13-16

Revenge vs. Forgiveness – Romans 12:14, 17-20



Friday night was our first night game called “The Ninja Challenge”. Students had not yet seen the campus in the daylight which added to the mystery. The game involved each student individually earning up to three of the skills needed to become a “Ninja”. First was balance, then agility and finally stealth. There were three stations around campus for each person to find representing one of each skill. The tricky part was that the leaders were scattered throughout the grounds with flashlights whose job was to catch the students and take their ticket forcing them to go back to the start to get a new ticket before continuing on their journey. After many chases, escapes and battles the winners were announced and new ninja’s were born.

Saturday was filled with more teaching, cabin time, devotions time, group games, free time and another night game. Although we packed a lot in on Saturday the most unique aspect of the day was some teaching from Dan that seemed to impact not just the students but the leaders as well. Dan explored John 13 – When Jesus washed His disciple’s feet. This teaching was followed by the opportunity for each discipleship team leader to wash each student’s feet.

After the retreat was over a couple of the students were asked what impacted them:

Joey Kelly stated “I imagined the body of Christ like a symphony where each person plays their instrument, not loud but just right and that way each person combines to make a total sound as a group that couldn’t be made as an individual. I’d never thought of it like that before.”

Jerry Haney stated “When talking about good overcoming evil I see that pride is the root of much of it, even in my own life. I think a person needs to develop a certain “Humbility” that only God can bring.”

Over all, the trip went off without a hitch. We saw a lot of fun and fellowship. We experienced personal growth as well as challenging times. Friendships were built that will impact our lives in Gods work for a life time.

Thank you to the parents and donors for providing ways to bring students to this retreat. Thank you to the camp staff of Tapawingo for serving us with wonderful food and facilities. We look forward to next year’s retreat!

High School 1440 Challenge

Check out this link to get more information about the upcoming High School Cause 1440 Challenge.

Worship Team paintball

What do these dudes and dudettes do when they aren't leading the Cause in singing on Sunday mornings? They run around in the woods with the intent of shooting round projectiles at a high velocity towards each other. Sweet! Here are some pictures from the Cause A-Team paintball event last month ("A" stands for admonsiment. See Col. 3:16). Everybody got hit, somebody did get bloody, and nobody didn't have a good time.

Sumo!!!

From this past weekend's men's retreat some of us had a chance to don the suit and dance around the ring. Here are a couple of the maches to enjoy.


Pastor Carl "El Guapo" Chica vs. Matt "The Masked Man Who Instills Much Fear" MacCollin:




Tim "The Human Beat Box" Saffeels vs. AJ "The Tall Skinny Guy" Acker




Rick "Sticky Ricky" Saffeels vs Dan "The Out Of Shape Youth Guy" Steiner:

When pranks go wrong...

All you younger students take note of the following account and learn from their mistakes:

1.) Daylight is always your enemy if you are going for stealth

2.) Don't climb on the roof when the one you are wanting to prank is home (That too hinders stealth)

3.) Don't put yourself in a position where you have no escape

4.) The more you mock, the more pain you will feel

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!

In light of the white wintery wonderland outside I thought it would be fitting to take a look at some "snow moments" from classic literature. Enjoy! (You can click on the individual cartoon strip to see it enlarged in a new window)

Best sweater of the year award: Tim Gross

A little Christmas controversy

Recently there has been some controversy within the Cause (light-hearted I might add) over whether or not donkeys, sheep, cows, and even the wise men should be included in today's manger scenes. It all started with a fun-natured Christmas I.Q. test that I came across. One of the questions was phrased as such:

Which animals were present at Jesus' birth?

A. Donkeys, sheep, and goats

B. Donkeys and sheep

C. Sheep and goats

D. Lions, tigers, and bears

E. None of the above

The correct answer is "E" as the Bible does not tell us which animals were present. But, the Bible does not tell us that there weren't any animals present. Granted there is no major theological issue at stake here, but it does make for some fun debate amongst mid-highers. One student went so far as to remove the animals from her family nativity scene and hide them from her dismayed mother. Whether you have animals or not in your nativity scene it makes no matter. One thing I do know, the following manger scenes are probably not a good representation of what might or might not have been at the original Christmas scene:

I'm not sure, but I don't believe Santa was there in Bethlehem, nor was his sleigh pulled by eight tiny frogs.

Silent night, holy night, all is calm, all is bright, round yon fryer, mother and chick...

It just doesn't sound right, does it?

I really don't know what to say about this one.

I guess the wise men came from the Northwest and were not wise men, but were actually wee little leprechauns