UNITED STATES 2007 - FacePlant Skate Tour - Hillsboro and Beaverton

Hillsboro Skate Park ****

Hillsboro Skate Park is by far one of the best skate parks we've been to so far. A bunch of us got a chance to go to Hillsboro and Beaverton on July 21, 2007: Me, Jonas, Josh, Boomer, Codie, Collin, Jake, Caleb, Brandon, Jakoda, Dakota W., Eric, Dakota M., Austin and Aaron. We had been planning on going to Hillsboro for a couple of weeks. Then, in the weather forecast last week, it called for rain on Saturday. All of us on Team FacePlant prayed that God would hold back the rain so that we could skate Hillsboro Skate Park. God is so good. We felt a few sprinkles, but we got to skate Hillsboro the whole morning with no rain. Team FacePlant also got a chance to share their faith with other skaters at Hillsboro. They even handed out pocket gospels of John. One young man in particular, Carlos (pictured above) was very interested in knowing more about the Lord. We skated with him all morning and invited him to come out to SkateChurch on a Thursday. Hillsboro Skate Park is a great park for street skating. There are lots of cool pyramids, banks, hubbas, boxes and just a really good flow. You can skate from one side to the other really well. There is also a little pool and some quarter pipes for those who like to skate vert. We all ripped it up pretty good, landing most of our tricks. Check out the video we made of our trip to Hillsboro on this blog. I give Hillsboro Skate Park a 4 star rating.

.

Beaverton Skate Park ***

Beaverton Skate Park is on the way back from Hillsboro and is a nice park as well. After hitting Taco Bell, we decided to try to find it. I called my wife who mapquested it for me over the phone. The thing is, it was raining from Taco Bell all the way to Beaverton Skate Park. When we arrived at the skate park, it had just stopped raining, but all the ramps and concrete were wet and had puddles of rain water everywhere. So we decided to have a Bible study in the middle of the skate park on one of the cement boxes. We even invited some other young people to join us. After studying in John chapter 3, we ended by praying that God would dry up the skate park so that we could skate it the rest of the afternoon for His glory. Within an hour after we prayed the skate park was bone dry. Another group of college students pulled up as we were praying and I got to share what we were doing and how God answered our prayer with him. He was very receptive. Beaverton Skate Park has a lot of vert ramps, half-pipes, mini-ramps all made from Skate-Lite. But for some reason the Skate-Lite on these ramps was less slick than some of the other parks we have skated. The transitions all seemed pretty smooth. The coping made it easy to hit stalls and such. They also had a cool small to bigger cement box that we skated. We had a lot of fun and decided that we would leave at 2:30pm. Right as we were leaving, it started to pour down rain. Praise the Lord for caring so much about us. You can check out some of the footage from Beaverton Skate Park on video on this blog. Overall, I give Beaverton Skate Park a 3 star rating.

.

Christian Young

Youth Pastor

UNITED STATES 2007 - Team FacePlant Hillsboro and Beaverton VIDEO

UNITED STATES 2007 - FacePlant Skate Church Summer 2007 VIDEO

UNITED STATES 2007 - FacePlant Summer Events

FacePlant Summer Kickoff
.

On June 19th, we had our FacePlant Summer Kickoff. It was a combined Middle School and High School youth group meeting where headlining worship band, "Shines Like Stars," led us in some awesome worship. There were close to 100 in attendance. Our "FacePlant" house worship band (me and Jackson) started off the night with a few songs. We also had cool raffle ticket give-aways including FacePlant beanies, "Facelant" and "Shines Like Stars" CDs and an iPod Shuffle. Then "Shines Like Stars," coming all the way from Southern California, played a high energy set of both original and borrowed worship songs. Young people gathered around the front of the stage and worshipped God in their own way, including head banging and dancing. Please check out the FacePlant Summer Kickoff 2007 video found on this blog. It was an awesome night.

.

High School Summer Camp

.

From June 28th to 30th, a group of 17 of our FacePlant High School students and staff attended summer camp. This year, we had YD Adventures ran our summer camp. We stayed in tents at the Wasco County Fairgrounds. On the first day of camp, we endured a lower ropes/challenge course where we experientially learned about faith and team dynamics. On the second and third days we rafted down two different legs of the Deschutes River. It was an awesome time. We also did other various activities including a trip to an old cemetary where we pondered our lives and what kind of legacy we would leave behind. Our camp theme was : "SURVIVOR: Dead in the Water, Safe in the Boat." We focused in on three aspects of our commitment to Christ:

.

DAY #1: HAVE WE EVER COMMITTED OURSELVES TO CHRIST?

.

2 Corinthians 13:5, "Examine yourselves to see whether you are in the faith; test yourselves. Do you not realize that Christ Jesus is in you - unless, of course, you fail the test."

.

DAY #2: WILL WE CHOOSE TO COMMIT OURSELVES TO CHRIST?

.

Joshua 24:15, "But if serving the Lord seems undesirable to you, shoose for youselves this day whom you will serve...But as for me and my household, we will serve the Lord."

.

DAY #3: WILL WE STICK WITH OUR COMMITMENT TO CHRIST?

.

Luke 9:62, "Jesus replied, 'No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for service in the kingdom of God."

.

One of the highlights of High School Summer Camp was that two young people who were not yet committed to Christ invited Christ to come into their lives. We also had 3 more conversions on a Tuesday night and 1 more conversion on a Thursday night earlier in June. Through the end of June that makes 60 new believers since the beginning of 2007 and 140 new believers since FacePlant Ministries started in the beginning of 2006. PRAISE GOD!!! Please check out the FacePlant High School Summer Camp 2007 video on this blog. More cool stuff to come at FacePlant Ministries this summer.

.

Christian Young

Youth Pastor