It Is Almost Over!

Wow! This week has been an amazing experience! Lots of hard work, great fellowship, intense worship, and new friends made our Knoxville Launch project a huge success. Thanks to all the participants, group leaders, crew chiefs, crew encouragers, coordinators, volunteers, and all the people who made the project fabulous. Most of all, thanks be to God for His blessings on all of us and especially the people of Knoxville through World Changers!

What a Week!

ENCOURAGRAMS!

When packing for this World Changers trip, don't forget to include some colored pens, stickers, and markers for your Encouragrams! A very vital part of your World Changers week is your visit to your Encouragram envelope where friends and crew mates can place encouraging notes for you and where you may do the same. Encouragrams are a great way to give others a kind and encouraging word to make their day! You may also recieve E-Encouragrams. Tell your friends and parents to go to www.world-changer.net to find out how to get you a message. 

Why We're Here

World Changers asks that every participant ask him or herself the question -- Why am I here? As part of youth group devotions on the first night, groups will be discussing evangelism and the importance of sharing Jesus Christ with the people of Knoxville during the week. Youth Group Leaders will receive "Why We're Here" card in their packs to share with students and adults, as well as to discuss with them. There will also be guidelines for group leaders in their folders when they arrive. Please be praying for the many unsaved and unchurched people with whom World Changers will come in contact during the week in Knoxville!

Introducing Our World Changers Site Staff!

We have four wonderful new friends coming to work with us at the Knoxville Launch!  Our site staff are college students who love the Lord and World Changers, and they will be leading us as we serve Him together!  Here is a little about them:

Caroline

• Caroline Duke will be our Missions Communication Specialist.  She is a senior elementary education major, is a committee Kansas Jayhawks basketball fan, and loves Diet Dr. Pepper.
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  Brandon

Brandon Anderson is coming to be our Music Leader.  He plays basketball, works out, and likes bananas. He is going to seminary in the fall and marry his girlfriend. His guitar's name is Ava Marie, his sister can beat him up, and he is bigger than he looks. 

• Our Audio Visual Specialist is Cody Smith.  Cody is an early childhood education major at the University of West Georgia.  He does not eat anything yellow, and he loves to cook.
  
  


• 

Carly Silas will be our Office Manager at our Knoxville Launch.  She is a student at Union University, where she is studying elementary education.  Inner cities have Carly's heart, and eventually, she wants to do full time Inner City Girl's Ministry.  She could live off of yogurt, turkey sandwiches, rice krispy treats, and peanut butter.

Meet Our Wonderful Speaker for Launch Worship!

Joey Bentley will be speaking to us at worship each night at Launch.  Joey is delightfully married to Kim for nearly 7 years and has a 2 1/2 year old beautiful daughter, Bethany.   They live in Wetumpka, AL (Montgomery).  Joey has being doing World Changers for some 10 years now as a speaker, group leader, crew chief, and crew encourager. Joey is a traveling preacher and speaker as well as a seminary student.  He has been doing youth ministry for over 10 years in several churches in Alabama.   Currently, he is on a new adventure in his life as he feels called to transition to being a senior pastor.   Yet, he still maintains a great love for youth ministry! Joey loves reading, sports, and World Changers!!  He is a big Oklahoma Sooner and Boston Red Sox fan!  His favorite Scripture verse is 1 Corinthians 1:18!   Follow him on Twitter, FaceBook, or check out his blog @ www.joeybentley.blogspot.com.

What NOT to Bring!

In order to make our time together at World Changers Launch in Knoxville a huge success, please DON'T bring the following items with you:

• Shirts or dresses with no sleeves
• Shirts or dresses with spaghetti straps
• Midriff shirts
• Short shorts
• IPod, CD, or DVD players
• CDs or DVDs
• Headphones or radios
• Expensive clothing
• Expensive jewelry
• Tobacco products, alcohol, or illegal drugs
• Weapons of any kind
• Fireworks

What Do We Bring?

Since our project is almost here, many of you are asking what to bring.  Since the worksites haven't all been assigned, here is a generic packing list for students and adults. 

If this is your first experience with World Changers, it is important to remember that your clothing is part of your Christian witness, so all shirts should have sleeves (no spaghetti straps or tanks) and all shorts should be long. 

CLOTHES
For work -- 2 work teeshirts
                   1 or 2 pair work jeans or carpenter pants
                   work shoes or boots
                   socks
                   sweatshirt or jacket you don't mind getting dirty
For worship, free time, and travel --  3 or 4 teeshirts with sleeves
                                                           1 or 2 pair jeans
                                                           maybe some long shorts
                                                           athletic shoes or sandals
                                                           a hoody or jacket
                                                           sleep stuff (remember -- with sleeves!)
                                                           raincoat

STUFF
money for mission offering              paint brush and scraper
Bible and journal                              hammer
pen or pencil                                    safety glasses
hat or visor                                       work gloves
sunglasses                                       other tools as needed for the project
chapstick
sunscreen
toiletries (soap, deoderant, etc.)
mirror
hair dryer, if needed
pillow
sleeping bag or sheets
twin air mattress
2 towels/washcloths
plastic bags for dirty clothes

Our Launch Schedule

World Changer Launch projects have a unique schedule from traditional week-long projects. You will be given a hard copy of the schedule when you arrive in Knoxville, but if you want to look at it now, go to www.world-changers.net and look under the Projects tab and click on Daily Schedule. Then look for the Spring Break 3-Day Schedule.

As you will notice, it is a fast-paced, action-packed three days! World Changers plans an excellent program and expects every group, every participant to follow the schedule. It is going to be fabulous!!

Who Is Going To Be There?

We have a fabulous group of World Changers coming to Knoxville from Tennessee, Kentucky, Arkansas, and Oklahoma. Here are our churches and group leaders for March 18-21:

• Crossway Baptist, Murfreesboro, TN with Sherman Boyd
• First Baptist, Jenks, OK with Cole Hedgecock
• First Baptist, Rockwood, TN with Wesley Ford
• Grace Baptist, Tullahoma, TN with Zach Howard
• Green Hill Baptist, Mount Juliet, TN with Jerry Williams
• New Life Baptist, Alexander, AR with John Venable
• New Midway Baptist, Kingston, TN with Mindy White
• Third Baptist, Murfreesboro, TN with Adam Lickey

Churches and group leaders for March 21 -24 are:

• Cadron Ridge Baptist, Mayflower, AR with Kaitlyn Neal
• Community High School FCA, Unionville, TN with Mark Neill
• Hermitage Hills Baptist, Hermitage, TN with Johnny Gonzales

What a great experience lies ahead for all of us as we worship and serve the Lord together! I can't wait!!

Where We Will Work

We will be working on houses in the Knox County area. Our fabulous Construction Coordinator Eric Franks is already busy at work selecting work sites for us. Some possible projects would be painting houses, tearing off and rebuilding decks, building handicap ramps, roofing porches and even houses. We will provide more information as soon as it becomes available. Here are photos of two projects from last year; one is a handicap ramp, and the other is a roof job. Whatever the worksite, it will be a wonderful opportunity to serve our Lord!

Our Home Away from Home!

Sharon Baptist Church is very gracious in hosting us for our March project. The church is located between the Powell and Halls communities in Knoxville, and it is a very nice facility. We will be rooming in classrooms, dining in the gym, and worshiping in the sanctuary. Two local churches will kindly provide shower trailers for us, each of which have 6 showers with dressing areas.

Sharon Baptist is taking a very active role in our project. They will have volunteers to help us with set-up, security, and even cooking and serving our meals! What a blessing!