Thursday Feb 3: Deeper Bible Study
Our week 3 lesson focused on the overwhelming statistics of suffering worldwide. We broke into small groups to look at Scriptures that looked at the root causes of poverty. These discussions dug into the harder questions of why suffering exists and asks the question: How do we respond to make change? Our memory verse for this week comes from Proverbs 29:7: "The righteous care about justice for the poor, while the wicked have no such concern."
Saturday Feb 5: Church Building Dream Session
It was exciting to dream about where God is leading our church and I had the opportunity of sitting with a group of 10 students to put their ideas into a concrete building plan. We spent about 2 hours cutting out rooms, sanctuary spaces, hallways and more to create a visual of what they believe the church is designed to be about: Authentic relationships centered around using our gifts to worship and serve God. We presented our design to the rest of the room (about 100 people were in attendance) before everyone voted, and our students got a lot of great response and support!
Saturday Feb 5: Girls PJ Movie Night
What better way to enjoy a cold and wet night in February than in your pjs, wrapped up in a warm blanket,with lots of popcorn, friends, and good movies. That was the scene in the Youth Room this past Saturday night as the teen girls enjoyed Pj Movie Nite. Lots of pillows, streamers, and pink & white balloons transformed the room into a cozy, girlie pajama party. And what would a pajama party be without a friendly game of"Truth or Dare"? The girls took turns popping either a white balloon containing a "Truth" to be revealed, or a pink balloon with a "Dare" inside. The "Dares " included challenges such as choosing a partner; singing a few lines from a Taylor Swift song, being made over in 3 minutes, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance while standing on your head...Read more about their night and see pictures by clicking on the EVENT REVIEW TAB!
Sunday Feb 6: Encounter
We wrapped up our study of the introduction of Acts by combining the 4 topics from last week to give us a holistic pictures of the purpose for the book, and thus, the identity, purpose and function of church. As each group shared their responses to their topics, we summed things up as:
"Jesus is still teaching and acting in our world through His Church, who are to serve as witnesses to the world of who He is. Equipped by the presence and power of the Holy Spirit, the Church can confidently step into this mission because we do not follow a religion, but a living God who has conquered death."
Sunday Feb 6: Super Bowl Party
We had a great turnout for a night of awesome food, games and conversation as the big game played on the big screen. We packed out the Youth Room and chowed down on pizza, snacks and McDonald's chicken nuggets!! We sought a deeper purpose in our gathering than simply enjoying each other's company and did so by having each student bring a bag of canned food items as their admission to the party. We paused at halftime to discuss the issue of human trafficking. Small groups of students spent time in prayer for victims, oppressors, and God's guidance for how we can be involved in healing those situations...And in the end, most of the party was very happy with the result of the game :)
