Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

December 18th, 2008

Hey everyone,

Hope all of you are doing well. This Thursday was the last Connect Downtown of 2008! Next week is Christmas, and the week after is New Years, and we are closed both of those weeks. But we will be back and better than ever on January 8th, 2009! 

This Thursday, December 18th, Abbey Moore was the speaker. Her talk was titled "Worship = Service."

Worship is an everyday thing, and it's not just about going to church on Sundays and singing songs. Everything you do should be an act of worship. 

Abbey mentioned that when she was a small kid, she used to give her things away to her friends. This was especially a weird thing to do, since she says her family was "po," poorer than poor. But she would still give her things away to people who needed them more than she did. This is what serving others is all about.

Teo great examples are Mother Teresa and St. Nicholas. No not santa, St. Nicholas. Mother Teresa's whole life was about serving those who were poor, or hurting, or hungry. She dedicated her whole life to serving others, true worship.

St. Nicholas was truly a great man, but not too many people know the real guy. St Nicholas was born into a wealthy family, a very wealthy family. Both of his parents died when he was young due to the same illness. He chose to dedicate his whole life to serving people. He took all of his inheritance, and would give it away. He gave food to people who were hungry, he helped people who were in jail and wrongly accused, he would give presents to people (not through there chimney though), and he would just give his money away to those who were needy. What's amazing though is that he did most of it anonymously, all for the glory of God.

Basically, serving is something we ought to be doing. Jesus did it when He washed the feet of His disciples, He did it all the time. It's just something we should do because it's what's right.

Hope you all have a good and safe holiday season. Remember, the season is supposed to be about Jesus and serving others. 

Hello all, bringing you the Thursday update.

This week Whitney Dellinger spoke, and her topic was " The real recession." 

What she was speaking about was how we here in America think that we are in a recession, but the real issue is how people in other countries are starving, or going thirsty, or being stolen and put into militias, and how it's not right how we as Americans just sit around and let it happen. Here are some facts she gave us.

-At least 80% of humanity lives on less than $10 a day.

-More than 800 million people around the world go hungry each day.

-The United NAtions Development Program estimates that the basic health and nutrition needs of the world's poorest people could be met for an additional $13 billion a year. Animal lovers in the U.S. spend more than that each year on pet food.

-Only 8% of the world own a car.

-Each year more than 5 million people die from a water-related disease.

-84% of water-related deaths are in children ages 0 to 14.

-The average American family uses 100-176 gallons of water daily. The average African family uses 5 gallons.

What she was trying to say was that we here in America are blessed, and as Christians, and just as human beings, should try and help out the least of these. There are a lot of organizations out there, from Habitat for Humanity to the Wherehouse, Compassion Internatrional to World Vision. It may seem like there are too many out there to just pick one, but that's all you  have to do. Just pick one and start helping out someone less fortunate than yourself. 

New Thing

Hello all you out there. 

We here at Connect Downtown are going to be starting a new thing. Say you miss a thursday night, but you want to know what is going on and what the speaker of the night talked about. Well, you are in luck. We are going to post the announcement videos from each thursday, and also a small review of what the speaker talked about.

We're going to do this for those of you who may have other obligations on a Thursday or if you happen to miss a service, or if you were here and would just like to have a review. So, if all goes well we will start doing that this week. 

Thanks guys, see you this Thursday.

TWLOHA

Hey everyone how is it going?

today is write love on your arm day, and it is all based around the group To Write Love on Her Arms (TWLOHA). They are a group that is focused on helping teenagers and young adults overcome depression, overcome cutting, overcome thoughts of suicide. What they do is just great stuff, and today is a day to show your support to them. So wear a shirt of theirs if you have one, or write love on your arm, or both like I am currently doing.

Today is also a Thursday meaning we are open tonight. Last week we had special guest speaker Whitney Dellinger, and this week we have Julia Harvat speaking so come and check it out, you wont want to miss is.

Also, with the new year coming up soon, we will be announcing some new news about Connect, things y'all will want to hear. So stay tuned for some great things.

Hope you all are having a great week, and hope to see you here tonight. Peace, Love.

We're Up and Running!

Hey everybody, 

We're back from Texas and we're up and running. Currently we are only open on Thursdays for our usual time. We will be open on certain Fridays, but only when advertised. I'm not sure if these changes are permanent, no one tells me anything, but i don't think they are. We'll have to see. Here are some pics from Texas. More to come.

Yeeeehaw

Hey everyone,

Here from Texas. I'm sitting here right now in Houston Texas at the house we're staying in. Texas has been an awesome trip. For the first half of the trip we stayed in Austin. We visited San Antonio and the riverwalk, we went to a few shopping places, went to a bunch of awesome restaurants, had some awesome homeade cooking, and more (including an encounter with about 40 deer right next to our van trying to get in{we have pics and video}). Pics will be up when I get home cause internet is hard to come by here.

Then we came to Houston. You would think 3 hours wouldn't be much difference, but man two totally different towns. Austin was in the 100s every day, but little humidity and nice breezes. Houston has been in the mid 90s everyday, humidity in the high 80%s, and more rain. It is HOT here. But the town is awesome. We went to Kemah one day, which is right on the Gulf of Mexico. We ate some great food, saw some jumping mullits(fish), and jellyfish, and went to some cool stores. We also went to a cool hibachi restaurant where they cook the food in front of you. Each night while in Houston, we have also played worship for a Youth Conference here at LazyBrook Baptist Church. It has been some awesome times of worship.

Pictures of all these events and more will be up as soon as I get home and get a chance to get online. We'll be home soon. Thanks for all of your prayers.

John W.

It's That Time

Hey everyone,

How's it going? Good? Good. Well, it's that time right now. We're closed for tonight, and for next 2 weeks. We have decided, however, that we are going to open back up August 21st. Our Grand Re-Opening is still September 5th though, I think. I dunno, the boss never tells me anything. Great news though. the connect band, minus Justin, is going to be doing some shows and conferences down in Texas in a couple weeks. That will be awesome. We'll post some pictures from our adventures while we're down there. 

I think that's about it for now. Thanks to everyone who showed up to the art affair again, and thanks to everyone who shows up to support Connect. We'll see you in a few weeks.

Review

Hey everybody,

What's going on? It's John here telling you all how the art affair went this past Saturday. We had a good turnout. We had a lot of people coming in and out, especially for the free mini-iced lattes during the bands. Speaking of the bands, they all did awesome. We had 4 or 5 throughout the day, and they played for as long as they wanted to. Thanks to everyone who came and stopped by, and thanks to everyone who bid on the art. 

Reminder: All of August we are going to be closed. We are closing to remodel some stuff and revamp Connect, so that when we open back up it will be awesome. We will post a few blogs during the closed down period so you all will know what's going on, maybe a few pictures. We'll also be visiting a few coffee shops in other states to see how they are doing things.

September 5th is going to be our re-grand opening. Make sure you come that night, for it will be grand. Some secrets in store for that night that you won't want to miss. Well that's it for me, come on down to Connect tonight if you have nothing else to do.

John W.

Welcome Back

Hey everybody,

Obviously it's been a while since the last blog (april 15th sheesh), but we've been revamping some stuff and its all going good now. We will be blogging more often (I promise) and letting y'all know whats coming up in the life of Connect.

First announcement. This Saturday is the Art Affair, and we are Open. We open up at 8:30, so everybody can come in early and get some coffee to wake themselves up, and we are open till 5:30. Several things are happening that day also. We are having 5 bands, yes 5 bands, come and play throughout the day. They are all going to be awesome, I promise, so you won't want to miss that. The bands start playing at noon, and they play until we close. Also happening that day, is an art auction here at connect. Several local artists who frequent connect will have their art up and showing, and you all can bid on what you like.  Part of the proceeds go to Connect Outreach Ministries, and the rest goes to the artist. The auction closes at 5:30, so make sure you get what you want. There is going to be some awesome stuff there.

Now on to the good and bad news. We are going to be closed for the month of August, almost the whole month. We open back up August 28th, and we have a Re-Grand Opening September 5th. You won't want to miss the 5th. We are revamping what we do here to make it better. We strive to be the best at what we do, and that is why we are going to be closed for a bit; so we can make what we do here better.

Don't forget that we are open Thursdays and Fridays, until August that is. I expect to see you all out here. 

Gracias, Merci, Thanks,

John W.

Hey everyone! Its been a bit since any of us have blogged. connect is going awesome, and we are super excited to see everyone digging connect. we really just want to be there, not only to have a sweet place to hang, but to get to know each other. Last week Julia Harvat talked about focusing-and focusing on God so you can stay on track in life. That is hard sometimes, but if we really just treat each other like Jesus did, it will be much easier.

Good News

Hey everyone, got some news for y'all. On April 4th, a Friday night, we're having an awesome artist come play at Connect. Her name is Julie Roth, and she plays acoustic rock/pop. The show starts at 8:30 I believe, so come early to make sure you get a good seat. Plus stay tuned, we may have some big news coming up about future bands/artists to play at Connect. You will be excited when you hear who we may be having play at Connect. So make sure you stay tuned, and come to Connect on Thursdays and Fridays to hear the latest.

Looking?!

Hey this is Justin, here at connect we are trying to have local and even national acts come in and play friday nights. If you are a musician or are in a band, or whatever, just contact us and hopefully we can hook you up with a show. We really want to get involved with local music scene and help support those artists that are around the Urbana/Springfield area. So you all need to come and help us rock this summer as we book some shows. God Bless- Justin

March Madness

Hello everyone,

What nice warm weather we've had this past week. So nice to be getting into spring finally. Tonight at Connect, we may be having a band playing called Leaving Cleveland. We are not sure yet if they will be able to make it, but if they do this will be a show you will not want to miss. These guys are awesome. So come anyways; either way it will be a good time. Plus its warm out so get out of the house and have some fun. If you know of any bands that would like to play at Connect, have them contact us at connectdowntown@gmail.com. Hope to see you all at connect tonight.

Hello Everyone

Hey all, 

Coming to you from the middle of a ginormous snow storm, and yes, we are still open. The weather is pretty bad out so we will probably be closing early, but we're all here as of right now. If anyone plans on coming out, be safe. Hope to see some of you here.

The Wii Me

Hello everyone,

John w here with the first Connect Downtown blog. Tonight we start our new series titled "The Wii Me" and it deals with discovering our potential. It is going to be an awesome series, so make sure you all come and check it out on Thursday nights. We open at 7p.m. and the service starts at 8:15p.m. Also, don't forget that we are open on Fridays from 6p.m.-11p.m. just to have fun, hang out, and drink some coffee. In case you all don't know, we are located at 223 N. Main Street in Urbana between Mayflowers and Bills Flowers. We're sandwiched by flowers. Hope to see you all here tonight. Later.

Go here for the image of our new series.