December's 2 for 1 Day

December 12, 2009

Come join us for two events in one day!!

First up is the Callich Family 8th Annual Open House. This is a come and go event from 2-5 p.m. The address is 1503 Adams in Great Bend. Come join in the fellowship, food, and of course, the food.
Second up is the Soup Supper and Caroling starting at 6 p.m. Come to Gaye's house (or if you are there already, just stay) and enjoy a variety of soups. Then at 7:00ish, we will go caroling in the community. Anyone musically inclined and owning a guitar is greatly encouraged to come and participate. Remember to dress warm as most of our caroling will be outside.

Come and be merry with the Joy'N Us group!

Thanksgiving Lunch Potluck

Come join us for a Thanksgiving Potluck on Novemeber 21st at 1:00 pm at the CPI Annex (where the Bible study happens). Joy'N Us will be providing the turkey and ham and lemonade. Participants are asked to bring a side dish and either a dessert or relish tray. Bring your own plates and silverware (although if you forget we will have some handy so you can still eat). Bring the family. We will just fellowship after we eat. So if you like to play games, bring them. If you have any questions or need an idea of what to bring, give Gaye a call (792-5669) or email (deafedtchr@ruraltel.net).

McPherson Singles

We have been invited to the McPherson's Single group to participate in bowling and pizza fun with them September 26th. If interested in going, we will meet at Gaye's house and carpool- 1503 Adams. Send an email to the JoyN_Us@ymail.com so I can call them with a count and also if you need more information.

Joy'N Us Singles Fun Night

Ready for the next one? Ready to feel like a teenager and ride rides and eat the stuff we know better than to eat? Then come join us for the Kansas State Fair Dollar Days on September 14th. Yes, its a Monday. (Remember, you're trying to be teenagers and stay up late, then get up the next morning energetically!!) If you bring your Dillion's card, then you get free gate admission. Rides are only a ticket a ride (compared to the 2-5 normally). Come join us. We are meeting at Gaye's house- 1503 Adams, Great Bend- at as close to 4:30 p.m. as we can and leaving around 5:00 p.m. Let go eat greasy food, look at exhibits, and pet the animals. Come on ya'll.

Bible Study

Currently, we are doing another Andy Stanley Bible study called The Best Question Ever- Learning to Foolproof Your Life. We still meet at the CPI annex at 24th and Kansas at 7 p.m.

Our next Bible study will be a study on Song of Solomon slated to start on Sept. 15th. This study deals with relationships and understanding what you want in a future mate.

Come join us as we study God's word and what he has planned for us.

BOWLING ANYONE???

Do you bowl a perfect game? Do your bowling balls wind up in the gutter more than the lane? Well, you will be in perfect company with the Joy'N Us singles.

Come join us for a night of bowling at Walnut Bowl in Great Bend at 6:30 p.m. on August 15th. Cost will be $2.25 per person per game (10 frames) and $1.00 for shoe rental. Of course, the night would not be over until we celebrate our victories (or losses) over ice cream at Braums.

Send Gaye an email at JoyN_Us@ymail.com if you plan to attend so we can get some lanes reserved or leave a message at 620-792-5669.

Coming Up: Tailgating the Matthew West Conert!

We are planning to tailgate the Matthew West concert. The location is now goint to be in the parking lot at the fairgrounds, so bring a chair. We want to start tailgating @ 5:45, so we can make it to the concert line @ 6:45. Food will be a Mexican Pile-Up. If it fits anything Mexican, bring it so we can pile it on! Please indicate how many are coming in the poll to the right, so people will know how much of their ingredient to bring. Here is a list of ingredients. To tell everybody which ingredient(s) you are bringing and to see what is already covered, click on the comments under this post. (don't forget to say your name) I (Mark) will bring the meat. Probably chicken, beef, and steak, as well as fried peppers and onions. This is a family event - bring 'em all! (except great grandpa George - you know how he goes on:) Remember - hear Matthew West's top hits, read the earlier post.

Ingredients (besides meat) based on 50 people

soft tortillas 3 pkg

hard taco shells 5 pkg

cheese 10 pkg

refried beans 3 cans

sour cream 4 large

hot salsa 2 jars

medium salsa 3 jars

mild salsa 2 jars

sliced black olives 5 small cans

diced tomatoes 12

shredded lettuce 5 bags

diced onions 3

Fritos 3 bags

tortilla chips 4 bags

jalapenos 1

rice 40 servings

The Scavenger Hunt

We had a good time at our premier event. Some pictures are in the slide show. Becky and Debbie did a great job hiding poetic clues; so good we didn't find them all. But other people apparently did! I know I personally am immensely enjoying my fabulous prize. (Thanks, Debbie!) And the food was very satisfying, thanks to our great cook, Gaye. We enjoyed getting to know some new people, including a famous DJ, Vic, and more than one person from CPI. People were heard to say, "Aha, I found it!", "Where the ___ is it?", and HOW much sand do we have to dig through?"

Matthew West Tickets

The Fair Board came through for the Joy'N Us Singles group. We will be given discounted adult tickets at $13 each. You will need to contact Gaye with a number count and money since these will need to be purchased separate from the ticket places. Gaye's number is 620-792-5669 (has answering machine). Tickets will be handed out at the tail-gate party and at the concert gate.

Hays, KS Wild West Days

I understand that on July 1-5 Hays is having its 15th annual Wild West Festival. There are concerts and activities in downtown Hays. The admission is $12 for all events as long as you have a WWF ticket (which you can get from Dillons). If you get the tickets at the gate, they are $20 per event. I have heard that Tommy James and the Shondells will be there one evening but am not sure which evening. Let us know if some of you'd like to go and we'll connect you with other wild and wooly adventurers who are heading west!

Meet Gaye

Okay. Mark told us to do a blog update so everyone would know the leadership core team for Joy'N Us, so here goes....

I am an itinerant deaf education teacher. That means I get to travel around to many schools working with deaf and hard of hearing students. I've been in Great Bend for 15 years, I think (time flies when I'm doing a job I love). I love working with sign language. It constantly changes with the new slang developed by young people, the new meanings given to current words, etc. I started preparing for my career field when I was 8 years old. It's been a blast ever since learning, and re-learning, and re-learning........

I started taking a leadership class this fall and a few months ago was 'nudged' by God to look into a Singles Ministry. Of course being a special education teacher, I needed all the data I could to try and decide if this was really what I was meant for. My eyes were opened big time! I was thinking of only developing this ministry for my church until the bigger picture evolved that this needed to be a community wide Singles Ministry. I started working on getting a leadership core team collected and here we are.

I firmly believe that a single person must accept their singleness in order for God to freely use them for His purpose. Ecclesiastes 3 expresses states there is a time for everything. What we are convinced is a marriage door that needs to be opened may not be in God's plan and not in His timing yet. One thing I have learned over the years is patience to wait for the right door to open. It makes life easier when we follow God's purpose for our lives, not our purposes.

Blessings to each one of you.

Our Mission / small group study

Our mission is to develop the single's heart through the love of God in community. We want to help each other grow in our relationship to God, and he does that best when we are in community, i.e. not alone. To make that happen we will be having a small group study. We are going to begin with an 6 week DVD/book by Andy Stanley, "Take it to the Limit: How to get the Most out of Life." We are planning on meeting at the CPI building at 1809 24th St. in Great Bend on Tuesday evenings at 7:00. We will get to know each other better, talk about what God says about our use of time, and pray for each other. I (Mark) will be guiding the discussion. The books will run around $8.00, but will be available free for those that can't afford them. Again, let us know if you will need child care, and we'll see what we can work out. More later.

Matthew West concert

If you haven't heard, Matthew West is going to be at the Barton County fair on July 10!  We thought about having a "13" party (Next Thing You Know), but decided to have a tailgate party instead.  We're planning on meating at Fuller Grove park (south of Fuller Brush) at 5:30, so we can get in line around 6:30-6:45. (gates open at 7:00).  You'll want to purchase tickets ahead of time, because if you don't, you'll have Only Grace.  I would try Everything Under the Son Christian bookstore.  We want you there, because You Are Everything to us.  We'll, maybe not everything, but you do mean More to us than you know!

Scavenger Hunt - June 12, 2009

Our first get-together-and-have-some-fun event is going to be a scavenger in Vet's Park in Great Bend.  We'll start off at 6:00 at the shelters by the playground equipment on the SE corner with a hamburger feed.  (If you can spare a $5 donation for the food, we'd really appreciate it!)  Then we'll do the scavenger hunt.  I would suggest you get plenty of sleep the night before, so that you can really be on your game.  There are some FABULOUS prizes.  Well, maybe fabulous prizes.  You can have some fun, find out what's going on, meet some people going through the same stage of life that you are, and have some fun.  If you need childcare, please contact one of us and we'll see if we can help.  We'd love to have you there.  We have contacts in most of the churches, so if you ask around, you'll probably find someone else who's already planning on coming.  Gaye (our cook!) would like to know about how many are coming.  You can email her up at the top, or call her at 792-5669.

Welcome

Welcome!  Joy'N Us is a new central Kansas singles' group started by seven singles who follow Christ and want to start a community where singles can come together as the body of Christ, ministering to and helping one another as a family.  We are planning monthly activities as well as a small group study.  Our kickoff event will be a hamburger/hot dog feed with a scavenger hunt at Vet's Park in Great Bend on June the 12th.  Bring $5, a hungry appetite, a lawn chair, and your witts at 6:00.  If you have any questions, you can call or email anyone on the leadership team.   Have a great day.  We hope you will join us!