Baccalaureate service was great (VIDEO)

The B-B-E Class of 2024 had a terrific Baccalaureate worship service tonight in Brooten. Of the class of 39 graduates, 26 were in attendance tonight with numerous siblings, parents, stepparents and grandparents. This is always a marvelous event to take in. I am always immensely proud of our community - and more specifically our faith community - on Baccalaureate night.

Video is uploading, and I plan to get it posted right away online for others to watch.

Here's the worship service video from tonight:


After worship tonight, I enjoyed visiting with a handful of B-B-E baseball seniors about how the season is going. They were excited to host Paynesville, but that seems unlikely with tomorrow's forecast of additional rain and wind. The Bulldogs won their home tournament on Saturday with a 10-1 win against Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg and then a 5-4 win over St. Cloud Cathedral. They are now 8-1 overall and 5-1 in the Central Minnesota Conference.

Monday updates to follow here...
11:30 a.m...about an hour ago, the home JV golf meet at Prairie View in Brooten was postponed one full week to Monday, May 6. As it stands, across the past 80 hours, the Brooten area has received between 3.5 and 4 inches of rainfall. Much of the ground is waterlogged for the time being.

Today's fastpitch game with Paynesville has been postponed to May 14 in Paynesville. For the baseball team, their game against Paynesville has been moved to tomorrow in Elrosa.

Happy Christmas Eve (VIDEOS*)

This is Christmas Eve.

In the words of Suzy Tensen, "This is the best night of the whole year!"

Yes, adults can enjoy Christmas Eve too!

I thoroughly enjoyed visiting with Suzy and Tim, and the rest of the Tensen family, following worship tonight at Brooten Community Church. Their family has had my family's backs for a long, long time. Our hearts continue to ache with sadness from the loss of Josey and Remington, which was almost three years ago.

Here's the last 30 seconds of singing at Christmas Eve worship tonight at the Brooten Community Church:


I had pork chops on the grill right about when worship started at the Brooten Community Church tonight. I had high hopes they would've been good to go by about 6:15. I mistakenly thought 20 minutes would have been long enough to get them grilled. The grill was full side to side with 7 pork chops, and a light breeze from the northwest hampered efforts. It ended up taking nearly a half hour to properly grill them. This threw off getting to worship for the last few songs at the Brooten Community Church. So it goes. The good news: I got there in time for Pastor Krasky's final prayer. This concluded my Christmas season coverage of events in the Bonanza Valley area for 2023. This list was the shortest it has ever been since I bought the newspaper and took over operations on January 1, 2015. Coverage narrowed this month due to this country's awful recession that seems to have no end.

Because my Friday and Saturday were quite upside-down days, it's taken extra time to get caught up on the accident that took place Wednesday morning on Highway 71 east of Padua where a woman struck a car driven by Kyle Lieser, a 2008 B-B-E graduate. All that I have learned is not good. He is the son of Allen and Bev Lieser of Belgrade and a former B-B-E Jaguar baseball player. Please pray for him and his recovery.

In case you missed it...and it appears that almost everyone has missed it so far because it only has 3 views as I type this...the Brooten lighted Christmas parade video has been posted to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website. You can find it by clicking here: https://rb.gy/56v19e.

And! Here's another video from Lucky Shots Bowling Alley in Brooten during the Santa Day evening on December 9:


Other Christmas videos have been added to the blog post that I put up yesterday (Saturday)...you can click back to them here: https://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2023/12/its-been-quite-weekend-so-far.html. I hope your family has much to be grateful for this Christmas season. Mine does.

Class of 2023 Baccalaureate service and Elrosa Saints news!

They had an outstanding unofficial turnout of 41! I counted at least 41 before they dispersed following the worship service at the Brooten Community Church. Pastor Rick Krasky provided a marvelous sermon. It was a wonderful evening, and the full sunshine outside was icing on the cake! Video is uploading.

Here's a video featuring part of the final song performed tonight...before the camera battery died:


In Stearns County League baseball news...
The Elrosa Saints amateur baseball team won their season opener today by a 3-2 score at Richmond. Ethan Vogt started and pitched 5 2/3 innings, and Wyatt Steffensen closed and got the win. In spite of being held to just 3 hits overall, the Saints pushed three runs across in the top of the 8th inning to erase a 2-0 deficit. NEXT: the Saints travel to Meire Grove for a Mother's Day contest on Sunday, May 14 at 1:30 p.m. Elrosa's home opener is set for Sunday, May 21 at 1:30 p.m. against Spring Hill.

That's all I've got for now. I still haven't gotten a chance to go back and work on spring concert video.

Good Friday worship (VIDEO)

Here's video from the Good Friday worship at the Brooten Community church held last night:


Pastor Rick Krasky's sermon begins at about the 34-minute mark.

Today is the Brooten Easter Egg hunt!

(VIDEO) Let's go to church

Here's Pastor Rick Krasky preaching on July 25 at the Brooten Community Church:


I'm up in North Shore country in Duluth this weekend. It is amazing! We're getting a good, healthy dose of sunshine today.

It's been thoroughly enjoyable and exciting to cover the B-B-E Jaguars varsity teams so far this fall. The three varsity teams don't have many games to this point, but they are all meeting or exceeding expectations to this point. That is a testimony to the dedication and hard work of the student-athletes at B-B-E. Bravo! I hope during this upcoming week you can take in a volleyball or tennis match or make the trip to Maple Lake for Friday Night Lights II. Scheduling information will be posted on Labor Day on this blog. The varsity team schedules were published in the August 26 issue (girls' tennis) and the September 2 issue (volleyball and football) of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. The schedules were printed in easy-to-cut-out format and sponsored by Heidi's Bar of Sedan and Coop's Corner of Belgrade.  

ICYMI: worship at Brooten Community Church (VIDEO)

Here's video featuring part of Pastor Rick Krasky's sermon at Brooten Community Church on July 25:


Go get your sunshine today! If you don't over-do it, the Vitamin D you get from sunshine will do wonders for you.

Here's a video clip from the top of the first inning last Sunday, July 25 at Roscoe:


The Saints and Rangers battled in the Stearns County League Little Dipper championship game.

(VIDEO) Easter Sunday worship

Here's video for Easter Sunday worship at the Brooten Community Church today:


Pastor Rick Krasky gave a terrific sermon!

Today we are reaching near 80 degrees for a high across the Bonanza Valley area.

Go outside! Get some sun on your face. You will feel better for it. (Notice I said "some" sun!)

Church news

Everyone is invited to listen to Brooten Community Church Pastor Rick Krasky's twice-weekly radio messages every Wednesday at 6 p.m. and Sunday at 10 a.m. on KMGK 107.1 FM radio of Glenwood.

Live streaming at church!!!

Here's the link to watch today's church service (morning service) at the Brooten Community (Christian Reformed) church at 9:30 a.m. This worship service broadcast is brought to you by the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper and its business advertisers. Feature sponsors of newspaper and Internet coverage of the Brooten Community Church 100th anniversary weekend will be announced in the coming days.

http://citylinktv.com/channel/brooten-bonanza-valley-voice


If you missed last night's Internet broadcast of their Hymn Sing, here's a short video clip showing what you missed. It was nothing short of incredible!!!

The full schedule of activities this weekend at the Brooten Community Church was found on page 12 of the June 30 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper.

Celebrating 100 years!

This is at what is historically known as the Christian Reformed church of Brooten.

I am scheduled to live stream the Saturday night Sing-a-Long "Hymn Sing" at 7 p.m. from the church's sanctuary.

Here's the link:

http://citylinktv.com/channel/brooten-bonanza-valley-voice