Welcome!

I want to thank all the students who joined us this past Sunday night for our special outdoor movie outreach. We had a great number of first time guests come and spend the night with us at the McDonald home. So my second thank you goes out to them (and their neighbors) for opening up their backyard! We spent the first hour listening to music, snacking out hot dogs, marshmallows and junk food before watching the movie on a wall sized screen in the backyard. After the movie was done, there were some small group discussions about the topics raised in the movie and I gotta tell you, those conversations were very significant. Our students were processing a lot of emotions brought up by the film.

If you or your child has NOT seen the powerful movie "To Save a Life" you should borrow it from me or make sure you don't miss future showings (there's some plans in the mix for winter/spring). Besides being an entertaining movie, it brings up some intense issues that are affecting our students on a day to day basis. The movie looks at cutting, teen pregnancy, parties, parents splitting up, suicide, and so much more. Some of the main messages the movie brings up is how we treat one another and the value we give to people who are different than us.

Some of the other questions raised: What do you want your life to be about? Friends, feeling good...Or is there more to life? How should a Christian community (such as a youth group) treat one another and others? Is our youth group a place of genuine love or judgmental clicks? And of course, where does God rank on our priority list if our lives aren't being changed by what we say we believe?