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Happy Thanksgiving!

Just a reminder that there is no Merge this Wednesday because it's Thanksgiving! Go home and help your parents cook up a sweet Thanksgiving meal! So what do you plan on doing for Turkey Day? The best plan wins Comment of the Week next week!!!!

WayFest 2007

This Saturday a bunch of us headed out to Sound Advice Amphitheater for WayFest 2007. We arrived just when things were getting started and marathon-ed it until the last band played. Basically, we were there for 10 hours of just pure rock n'roll. One of the coolest things about the day was the fact that all of the musicians gave praise to Jesus and rocked in His name. So, if you attended, who was your favorite band? Did you have fun? Please comment.

WAYFest 2007

Do you like concerts? Music fesivals? All day? Then you DO NOT want to miss this annual event at Sound Advice Ampitheater in West Palm Beach.
What Time: Leave the church office at 11 AM and return at 12 AM
How Much: $25 (plus money for lunch and snacks at concert)
Who: Anyone in grades 7-12
Sign Up: at MERGE or post a comment below (just click on Comment)

To purchase tickets RIGHT NOW call Ticketmaster at 561-966-3309 or visit ticketmaster.com.

High School Campout

The campout was pretty much amazing!! We got there on Friday around 5-6pm and the immediate response of everyone there "No civilization..no AC...YEAHH!!" We were next to a cow pasture, so if you listened real carefully during the night you would hear a nice "moooo". The Parris' are a part of "In Tents" which is the ministry that allowed this all to happen.
THANK YOU PARRIS FAMILY!!
Everyone got their tents situated while avoiding spiders the size of your palm, then we sat around a campfire and ate hamburgers, beans and corn. Aaron lead the lesson about setting your priorities and making time for God, while Adam lead in worship on his acoustic guitar along with Addison on the drums. After dinner and the lesson, we played manhunt with a majority of the guys dressed head to toe in camo, and the girls in the brightest colors you can possibly imagine.

We woke to the sound of a bell calling us out to breakfast which was a selection of radio-actively huge muffins (which were absolutely amazing by the way) and had a shaving cream fight straight after. It ended up with everybody doing their hair the craziest way they could possibly think of and taking some pictures. We then had free time with options of chilling at the campground, kayaking, jumping off the rope swing and swimming in the water. And if you were Kiwi and me, we found the muckiest dirt/algae/twig/grass mixture and put it on people when they were least expecting (sorry to Tim and Addison, our main targets).
Kayaking was fun, but people in the canoes were less fortunate due to the fact that some had small (or slightly larger) holes in them, and therefore filled with water after an extended period of time in the water. The water was calm with very little current and some people saw the occasional alligator and bird. After everybody got back from kayaking, we had this HUGE slip-and-slide covered with soap and water (because it obviously can't be dry...that would hurt). Adam and Aaron lathered themselves from head to toe in shaving cream and soap (to see who could slide the farthest) while trying to make it appear that they had chest hair. For the record I'm pretty sure that Adam won, but don't quote me on that. Addison went the farthest, resulting in hitting the one part of the slip-and-slide that wasn't quite as...well, wet (the hose couldn't reach that far).

Mr. Parris had repelling lines set up hanging from thick branches that were about 20-25ft. in the air. Some people put the harnesses on backwards and did the "superman" which made you feel like you were flying, and others, like Aaron and myself, that actually scooted our way up to the top (with the harnesses on the right way of course).

We left around 5-6pm on our way home and stopped at Subway/Wendy's. Our driver Mr. Ross had his pitbull-mix dog named Bobby (it was a girl, don't let the name fool you) who got PLENTY of attention from everybody on the bus. Some of us came home with bruises and aches from the slip-and-slide, others with sunburns, arm pains from kayaking, bug bites, and maybe even spider bites (none fatal of course) but it was an amazing trip, and I can't wait for the middle school campout for all you youngin's to enjoy, and for the High School campout next year!!

For more campout pictures CLICK HERE

By Laura Wise