Eastview PArent Weekly, December 13-19, 2009

Dear Parents,

It’s hard to believe that 2009 is almost over. We’ve had a year filled with activities and growth. We’ve moved to a multi-night youth group, and with all change, there are positives and negatives that come because of it. I’m in the process of completing our portion of Eastview Christian Church’s annual report. I’ll post it here on the parent’s website by Wednesday. I’d love for you to take a few minutes and check it out. Here are the important dates coming up (please note that the high school opening night for youth group has CHANGED to January 10th):

Calendar:

• December 16th- middle school Christmas party at Eastview during normal youth group time.
  
  • Students, please bring a white elephant/gag gift for gift exchange.
    

• December 19th- middle school party @ Chuck E.Cheese for those who have participated in the Bible/Homework/Scripture memorization “contest”.
  

• December 20th- high school Christmas party at Mulholland’s (385 16th St, Marion) during normal youth group time (6-8).
  
  • Students, please bring a white elephant/gag gift for gift exchange.
  • Boys-please bring your favorite bottle of pop or juice
  • Girls-please bring a healthy snack
    

• December 23rd- NO middle school youth group
  

• December 27th- NO high school youth group
  

• December 30th- NO middle school youth group
  

• January 6th- middle school youth group begins
  

• January 10th- high school youth group begins
  

Have a great week!

November 1-7 Eastview Parent Weekly

Dear Parents,

What a great weekend we had on our retreat!
You can check out a TON of pictures over here.

Middle School Youth Group Update:
Last week, we gave all of our middle school students a FREE Bible. The translation is called the NIrV (New International reader’s Version) and is more easily understood. What’s the NIrV? Some of the Christianese is removed and elaborated on, and the language is a bit more modern. It should be easier to understand. It also helps us teach, because we can ask the kids to go to a specific page number and from there go to chapter and verse. We understand that some students have bibles of their own, but we’d really like all of our students to be reading from the same text. Please encourage your kids to bring these Bibles. This week, we’re starting a new message series called, “Crime Scenes of the Bible.” As part of this study, each week the kids will be given something to take home with them and do some Bible reading at home. We’re also encouraging them to memorize a scripture verse per week. To encourage them, we’re also having a contest. Over the next 5 weeks, they will have an opportunity to earn 15 stars (3 stars/week x 5 weeks = 15). They can earn one star for a) bringing their bibles to youth group, b) completing their “homework”, and c) by memorizing one of the verses from that week. At the end of this contest in December, for students that have more than 10 stars, we’ll have a party at Chuck E. Cheeses for them. Students were given an assignment for this week, so the stars go on the board starting THIS WEEK!

High School Youth Group Update
On Sunday nights, we’ve been talking about the life of Jesus as described in the Gospel of John. In a few weeks, on Sunday, November 15, we’re scheduled to talk about the sacrifice of Jesus for our sin. We are planning on showing the film “To End All Wars” on this night. The film is set in a Japanese POW camp during WW2, where the internees are building the Burma Railway. It is probably the most explicitly “Christian” film that I’ve ever seen, and does a great job of putting Christ’s sacrifice front and center. To be clear, this film is rated R, it is a war film. There is violence and war brutality. There is also some language, and brief non-sexual male nudity. It is for teens that are mature. The gospel is clearly communicated in a compelling manner, and such ultimate questions raised in this film include “Is there any higher reason to live?” “Do I have a purpose in life?” “How can I forgive those who have wronged me?” and “What would make a man once so selfish sacrifice himself for others?” As you discern what’s best for your student, I urge you to visit the following websites and read what others have written about this powerful movie:

Christianity Today
Christian Answers
Hollywood Jesus


You can watch 7 powerful clips from this movie here.

The “Human Beings” clip is amazing.

Finally, I would like to arrange a showing of this movie for you, so you can see what your kids are going to see and ask questions. We’ll also walk you through our discussion questions for the following Sunday Please join us on Thursday, November 12, at 7pm. The movie is a bit longer than 2 hours, and will be well-worth your time.

As always, I welcome questions and thoughts!

First Senior High Youth Group...

Last night was awesome! We had 16 high school students here for our first ever Sunday night youth group. We had a great time eating some pizza and just chilling out as a group. The environment was much more relaxed and we had some great conversation. We split into our new small groups, and continued the discussion there. We also introduced journaling into our group.

8pm came awfully fast.

Activity:
Discussions about favorite youth group activities, rules and expectations.

Teaching Series:
God's Status

Topic:
Talked about the 4 soils that Jesus explains in Matthew 13.

Key Verses:
Matthew 13:1-10, 18-23

Attendance:
16 students, 6 adults

Main Group Testimony:
Talked about the status of our hearts toward receiving direction from God.

Small Group Time:
Talked about our favorite parts of the past summer, and journaled about the current status of out hearts toward God.


Coming up next:
Middle School Youth Group (September 3)-Youth Group 101
Sunday School (September 6)-FaithWeaver
Senior High Youth Group (Sunday 6th, pm)- "God is out changing people's names"

Eastview Parent Weekly, July 19-25

It's that time of year...our summer break is half over. 3 out of 4 summer trips and events are past. Our final trip, CIY's summer conference is right around the corners, just 6 short days away, and then...September. The weeks of August will go extremely fast. Our ministry team met on Saturday to talk about Jesus, to talk about youth ministry, to talk about Eastview and how those three things should be aligned. I'd be lying if I said I wasn't nervous. At this point, I want to get through the next 6 weeks and start.

While the notes from our ministry team meetings are available for all to read (at right), here are some highlights from this past Saturday:

• It was officially decided that beginning this Fall, our youth group will be "split", with grades 9-12 meeting on Sunday nights and grades 6-8 meeting on Wednesday nights. Specific times and more details will be out in mid-August.
• Small Group Leaders for 2009-2010 school year:
• • Middle School-
  • John Mulholland
  • Rob Frederick
  • Steve Novak
  • Monna Kreher
    
  • High School-
  • John Mulholland
  • Megan Clark
  • Betty Dickerson
• Curriculum Plan for Fall/Winter
• • Middle School
  • “Scary, Gross and Weird Stories from the Bible”
  • High School
  • Gospel of Mark-The Person of Jesus
  • What it means to follow Him

In the meantime, I hope that you'll be praying for those going to Carbondale next week. I'm anticipating God working in a big way (which He does here) in the lives of those going. Pray from open hearts and minds, for sleep and rest and patience and encouragement.

As with our recent Kansas trip, you'll be able to follow along using the Twitter feed to the right starting next Sunday, at Noon.

Final youth group for the summer

Well, last night was it. We had 27 kids and 5 adults at the Dickerson's last night for our cook out. We played games, ate food, had some s'more's...a great night. The summer schedule starts this week, no weekly youth group meeting until September. Our Fall Kick-off will be held August 26th, time and location to come. In the meantime, here's part of a blog post from tim Schmoyer, a friend of mine who happens to be a youth pastor about what can happen when you take the summer off, and split your group into 2:

"About two years ago we had around 20 jr. highers involved in our “go deep” Bible study...It sounds like a great program, except that the kids who came were only there because their parents forced them. The jr. highers felt like they were learning very little and the amount of life change we saw coming out of that Bible study was very disheartening.

So, we stopped the program for a summer and did a lot of hard evaluating, refocusing, and renewing the vision for what it should be like. In short, we decided that it was too academic and needed to be more intentional about connecting God’s Word to jr. highers’ individual lives. The plan was to take the curriculum out of the classroom and put it into small groups where two adult leaders could co-teach gender and grade specific groups of about 5 to 8 jr. highers for two years....

But two years later I can look back and say it was definitely worth it. This past year we had about 110 jr. highers actively involved, 24 adult leaders passionately teaching in small groups, and amazing stories of life-change like you wouldn’t believe!"

You can check out his whole post here.

Did you catch the increase? In 2 years, they went from 22 to 110 middle school students.


Change...is coming.

Youth Group Recap, June 3, 2009

Game:
Kickball, Middle School vs High School, High School Wins!

Teaching Series:
Wineskins, Have we grown?

Topic:
We watched "Spilt Milk", a video from 36 Parables. We talked about how we should be changed once we've encountered Jesus. We also talked about the need for our ministry to change, we're not the same group we were 2 years ago, so we should stop doing youth group the way we did it then! We also gave the kids a survey, which asked them questions about their growth over the past year.

Key Verses:
Matthew 9:9-19

Attendance:
31, 124% of same week last year.

Main Group Testimony:
See Topic (above).

Small Group Time:
We went through the survey, and then had prayer time with our students. I'll be posting some results from our survey in next Monday's parent email, as well as some correlations.

Closing Challenge:
Change is coming. Be ready for it.

Questions You Can Ask:
Whe is the last time you did not change something because you've "always done it that way"?

Coming up next:
Sunday School (June 7)
Youth Group (June 10, @ Dickerson's)

Eastview Parent Weekly, May 31-June 6 2009

Dear Parents,

Today is the day! If you are hoping to get your kids to NEICSC sometime this summer, TODAY is the last day that the cheaper rates apply. Remember, if you want to use student accounts or scholarship funds, I MUST sign the registration form. Registration forms MUST be postmarked with today’s date. There are great things being planned at camp. We hope your kids will be joining us!

Today is also the due date for scholarship requests to be turned in for CIY Summer Conference. I’ll be here at Eastview most of the afternoon. Please get these turned in to me TODAY!

Next Wednesday night, June 10, is our final youth group for the year. We’ll be traveling to Alburnett for a year-end cookout at the home of one of our youth leaders, Betty Dickerson. Transportation will leave Eastview at 5:30 and we’ll be back by 8:30. If you cannot be here by 5:30, you’re welcome to join us in Alburnett. If it rains, we’ll meet at Eastview and eat here.

Over the past few weeks, I’ve dropped all sorts of hints about changes coming to our youth program for the 2009-2010 school year. We are looking at separating our group, and moving high school youth group night to Sunday night from 6-8, and keeping middle school youth group night on Wednesday night at it’s current time. This would eliminate our Sunday night d-group study. To see the thoughts behind the switch, click on the “Change is Coming” link to the right. I would love to hear your thoughts, questions and concerns. I was asked the other day if this was a “done deal”. The honest answer is “no”. Our ministry team is meeting this Saturday, from 9am-noon. While we have many things on the agenda, this will be a large part of the meeting. After the conversation, our ministry team members will decide if we are going to pursue it further and make a recommendation to that effect. After that, we’ll take a few weeks to pray through it, and a decision will be made by our July ministry team meeting so we can communicate these changes. Again, we would love to hear your thoughts, so please, contact me this week, prior to Saturday. If you’d like to attend the meeting and be a part of the discussion, please let me know that as well.

Have a great week.

Eastview Parent Weekly, the CAMP Edition

Just a few reminders about some upcoming dates:

Saturday, May 30 (this Saturday)-10am-Noon-Meeting for our upcoming Kansas Mission Trip.
-Students who wish to attend and their parents must attend this meeting.
-After this meeting, our group will be set.

Monday, June 1 (NEXT Monday)-deadline for early-bird rates at our summer camp
-registration forms and checks must be mailed by this day TO camp.
-for those of you wishing to use student account funds and/or scholarship funds, please -remember that I MUST sign your registration form. To date, I’ve only singed one or two of these.

Speaking of camp:
I am going to be in a Dean’s position at both Middle School week 1 (June 14-19), and High School camp (July 5-11), I will need to leave for camp on those Sundays, right after church. In order for us to provide transportation for those weeks of camp, I REALLY need to know if your student is attending, so we leave no student behind. Please send me an email THIS week, letting me know which week your student will be attending.

I’ve been asked a time or two about swimsuits for girls. The camp policy is one-piece suits. I understand that it is difficult to find them. In the past, tanktini’s have been allowed, with students wearing a t-shirt over them. HOWEVER, it is up to the individual pool policy over whether or not they allow t-shirts to be worn. Again, I understand that this is frustrating, but there’s not much I can do about this. If possible, find a one-piece. If not, understand that they may not be allowed to swim.

We’ll be collecting cell phones and iPods at the registration table this year. Once I know who is going to camp, I will get you contact phone numbers to call in case of an emergency.

Wednesday, June 10-our final youth group for summer
-at the home of one of our youth leaders, Betty Dickerson
-car pooling/ride leaves Eastview at 5:30 pm, and returns by 8:30
-invitations going in the mail tomorrow with more specifics
-parents are welcome to join us.

Over the past few weeks, we’ve had a few incidents with students using phones during our lesson and small group times to text friends, and even having conversations in the middle of a teaching time. This is completely unacceptable. These items are not welcome at our youth events. We expect students to leave them home. If they bring them, we’re going to collect them. If there is an EMERGENCY, please contact the church at 319-393-9570, or call me at 319-389-5384.

And last but not least...our ministry team is in the process of making some BIG changes to our weekly youth group (Wednesday night) program. To see what’s being considered, you can download a file here. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Youth Group Recap, April 13 2009

Game:
Indoor crab soccer, high school versus middle school, high school won

Teaching Series:
Worthless-A Study in Ecclesiastes

Topic:
Vows-keeping our word and the importance of God keeping His

Key Verses:
Ecclesiastes 5:1-7, Judges 11:21-40, Genesis 18:16-33, Genesis 19:15-29

Attendance:
35-140% of same week last year

Main Group Testimony:
We played "gross games". Five boys had a contest to see who could finish off a jar of artichoke hearts first, and five girls had an anchovy eating contest. The winner of each was promised a great prize. In fact, the "losers" received the better of the gifts. this lead into our discussion of how God always keeps His word. He is both merciful and just.

Small Group Time:
We went through the above verses and talked about why God must keep his word to His people. We talked about what the world would be like if God were not merciful, and also what it would be like if He were not just.

Closing Challenge:
Do you keep your word?
How has God kept his in your life?

Questions You Can Ask:
What would the world be like if God were not merciful? (hopeless)
What would the world be like if God were not just? (more evil and wicked than it is)

Coming up next:
Sunday School (May 17)
Youth Group (April 20- Wealth)

May 6, 2009 Youth Group Recap

Game:
Ultimate Frisbee, high school boys/middle school girls vs high school girls/middle school boys

Teaching Series:
Worthless-A Study in Ecclesiastes

Topic:
Friends and friendship with God

Key Verses:
Ecclesiastes 4:8-12

Attendance:
30-111% of same week last year

Main Group Testimony:
John told a true to life story about a friend who was lost in a mountainous area in Mexico with another person and lived out Ecclesiastes 4:11.

Small Group Time:
The small groups talked about how we can be friends of God by doing what He asks of us. We also talked about a benefit of being God's friend: He gives us the inside track into what is going on in our lives and what our purpose is for being here.

Closing Challenge:
Be a friend of God.

Questions You Can Ask:
How can we be a friend of God? (By doing what He says)
Why should we be a friend of God? ( He loves us and wants to be our friend)
How can we know if we are a friend of God? (Are we doing what He says?)

Coming up next:
Sunday School (May 10)
Youth Group (April 13- Keep your word)

Eastview Parent Weekly, Summer 2009 Calendar

Thanks to those of you who came to our parent’s night last Wednesday. It was great spending time with you, and I know the kids loved seeing you play 7-base kickball!

30 Hour Famine Recap Video:




We’re in the home stretch for our Spring youth activities. As a reminder, our final youth group for the summer will be June 10; this means we will not be meeting regularly through June or July. We are planning on starting up again in August, we’ll communicate the date as soon as it is firm. Why do we stop meeting in June and July? We have a full summer of events.

Please read these dates CAREFULLY:

May 10th- cut-off date for Scholarship applications for High School Summer Camp

May 15th- Cedar Rapids Kernels Fundraiser- meet at Eastview by 9pm

May 17th- cut-off date for Scholarship applications for Middle School Summer Camp #2

May 20th- cut-off date for Kansas Mission trip registrations

May 22nd- Cedar Rapids Kernels Fundraiser- meet at Eastview by 9pm

May 30th- Mission:Kansas meeting at Eastview

June 1st- cut-off date for scholarship applications for CIY Summer Conference
cut-off for EARLY-BIRD rates for our Summer camp

June 14-19- Middle school camp week at NEICSC #1
-most of our middle school students will be at this camp week
-I am co-deaning at this week of camp

June 28-July 4- Middle school Kansas Mission Trip (Students may still register for this trip, cost is now $200)

July 5-11- High school camp week at NEICSC
-I am co-deaning at this week of camp

July 12-17- Middle school camp week at NEICSC #2

July 19-23 5th & 6th grade camp week at NEICSC
-there is at least one student attending this week from Eastview

July 27-Aug 1- CIY Summer Conference for high school students


About camp, while you will send your registration forms and checks directly to the camp, Big Purple will be running to/from camp for Middle School #1 and the High School week, so we can get your kids there!

April 29 Youth Group Recap

What an awesome night last night! We had EIGHT new 5th graders graduate out of E-Klub.

Game:
Multi-base kickball, boys vs girls. Boys won.

Teaching Series:
Worthless-A Study in Ecclesiastes

Topic:
There is a time for everything, good and bad.

Key Verses:
Ecclesiastes 3:1-22

Attendance:
29-120% of same week last year

Main Group Testimony:
John Mulholland talked about a "time for everything", God has it all under control. all of the bad things will be made right by God.

Small Group Time:
The small groups talked about how God has placed "eternity in our hearts", meaning, God has created in each of us a desire for more that just eating, drinking and making money.

Closing Challenge:
At the end of our lives, all we are left with is our relationship, or lack of relationship with God

Questions You Can Ask:
What kinds of things are you working for?
What things in your life would you change if you took these verses 100% seriously?

Coming up next:
Sunday School (May 3)
Youth Group (April 29)

Eastview Parent Weekly-April 12-18

I hope that you all had a great Easter weekend.

This is the “busy summer ahead” edition.

CIY Summer Conference-High School Students

• This morning, I registered 15 people for our upcoming high school trip. If you do not see the name of your student on this list, and they are supposed to be, I need to know immediately. As of this morning, there were only 240 spots left.
• Here’s who got registered:
  
• Student List: Samantha Holley, Jenai Holley, Brittany Kiley, Katie Mulholland, Nathan Mulholland, Amanda Williams, Nickie Smith, Breanna Smith, Dillon Bisig, Heidi Dickerson, Courtney Des Forge, Kayla Buffington.
• Adult List: Betty Dickerson, John Mulholland, Steve Novak
• $50 deposit is due NEXT Wednesday night (the 22nd) along with the registration forms. Scholarship applications are due no later than June 1, but I’d sure like to know earlier than that if you are going to apply for help. All of these forms are available on the parent website.
  

Kansas Mission Trip-Middle School Students

• Registrations and $35 deposit are due no later than April 29th.
• Scholarship applications are due no later than Sunday, May 3.
  

Parents night is Wednesday April 29th

• Please join us at 5:45!

Wednesday June 10

• Final Youth Group meeting for Summer

Summer camp dates and cost-for all students

Date
June 14-19 6th-8th Grade #1
By June 1st cost $155
After June 1st $180
(I am at this camp week)

June 21-24 4th-5th Grade
By June 1st cost $95
After June 1st $120

June 26-27 2nd-3rd Grade
By June 1st cost $35
After June 1st cost $45
(Parent goes with child)

July 5-11 High School
Before June 1st cost $185
After June 1st cost $210(I am at this camp week)

July 12-17 6th-8th Grade
Before June 1st cost $155
After June 1st cost $180

July 19-23 5th-6th Grade Camp
Before June 1st cost $125
After June 1st cost $150

This week at youth group and e-klub, we’ll be handing out camp brochures and registration packets. If your son or daughter is planning on going to camp this summer, would you please give me a heads-up? Scholarship applications for MS week 1 (June 14-19) are due THIS Sunday (April 19). High school week scholarship applications are due by Sunday, May 10.

Have a great week!

Parent Weekly, April 5-11

Coming up this week:

Wednesday night, were beginning a study series from the book of Ecclesiastes in the Old Testament. We’re calling the series “Worthless”. Biblically, we intend to show that life without God is no life at all. We hope to see all of our students there!

Friday &Saturday: Kernels fundraiser. We need at least 10-12 students and adults to help us clean Kernels stadium after their games.
Friday- Meet at Stadium by 9:30
Saturday- Meet at the Stadium by 5pm
Big Purple will leave the church parking lot at 9pm on Friday night, and 4:30pm on Saturday if you would like to drop off/pick up at Eastview. We’ll call both evenings when we leave the stadium. If you or your student is planning on being there, please let me know asap.

A little further out:

April 22- CIY Summer conference deposit of for 8th graders-graduating senior is due by April 22. The deposit is $50. Currently, the week we are planning on attending is 77% full. I cannot guarantee that students will be able to attend if we do not register by April 22. All information is available in the “forms” section at the parent website. Sponsors for this trip are myself, Steve Novak, and Betty Dickerson.

April 24 & 25- 30 Hour Famine at Eastview. All details are on the registration sheet, over at the parent website.

April 29-
Parents night at Eastview Student Ministry. We hope to see you there!
Kansas Mission Trip (Middle School Students) registration forms are due with $35 deposit. Sponsors for this trip are myself, Rob Frederick, and Kathy
Thomas.

Eastview Parent Weekly, March 29-April 4

Well, I guess winter is not done with us yet! I actually went into the ditch Saturday night coming home from a friends house, the tow truck was out and everything. Here are some updates:

Kansas Mission Trip
It looks like this will be a smaller trip than originally envisioned, which is great. If you were unable to attend our meeting this past Saturday, please contact me by THIS Wednesday, so I can arrange to meet with you and your students to discuss the trip personally. I’m contacting Morning Star Ranch to talk about work projects for our group, and would like to have a head count by mid-April.

Wednesday Youth Group
This week will be our final week from 1 Timothy 4:12. Beginning next Wednesday, we’ll begin “Worthless”, our study on the the book of Ecclesiastes. The Ecclesiastes study will take us through the end of May. Our final “official” youth group for this school year will be June 10. We have a summer calendar full of camps and trips; there will also be a few “casual” events that may happen as well. We’ll let you know when they’re coming up!

April 29th Parent’s Night
Please join us on April 29th! This will also be the night that our 5th graders are promoted into youth group. We’ll be contacting you over the next few weeks so we have all the food that we need. We hope that you will come and see what goes on at Eastview on Wednesday nights.

A few other things:
Fundraisers:
Because we have summer events scheduled that cost money, we seek to provide fundraising opportunities for our students. We’ve tried a number of different things in the past, from car washes to bake sales. We have found that while there are many fundraisers out there, many simply do not make sense compared to the work put into them. We have reduced our fundraisers to 2 (two) main ones: 1-we clean at the Kernels Stadium throughout the summer, and 2-our Fall spaghetti dinner/dessert auction/talent show. We may do a few other “small” ones as well, these require a few students and usually are on short notice-yard raking/cleaning, spring cleaning at the homes of people in our church, etc. It’s important for our students to understand that our fundraisers are WORK. We certainly have fun while working, but we are working.

Kernels Stadium: As long as we have 10-15 students and adults who are willing to work HARD...this should take an hour and a half at the most. Here’s the schedule for our upcoming Kernels clean-up days and when we need to be there:
Friday, April 10 by 9:30pm
Saturday, April 11 by 5:00pm
Friday May 1 by 3:00pm
Saturday May 2 by 9:30pm
Friday May 15 by 9:30pm
Friday May 22 by 9:30pm

Scholarships:
We do have a scholarship fund! Due to the number of MAJOR activities planned for the summer, please get your applications in EARLY. That way, we know what our needs will be. Please check out the form and policy over to the right. Here are the due dates for scholarship requests for our summer activities:
Event: Applications due by:
Middle School Camp Week #1 April 19th
Kansas Mission Trip May 3rd
High School Camp Week May 10th
Middle School Camp Week #2 May 17th
CIY Summer Conference June 1st


Please be on the look out for the April Parent letter, coming home this Wednesday night!

March 25 Youth Group Recap

Game:
Drop Dead

Teaching Series:
Set an example...

Topic:
Set an example with your PURITY

Key Verse:
1 Timothy 4:12

Attendance:
22-88% of same week last year, With Spring Break week, many kids are going to their "other" families.

Main Group Testimony:
Nicole smith, one of our graduating seniors, gave the main group talk. Not only did she talk about sexual purity, but purity of thoughts, actions, motivations, words. She did a great job.

Small Group Time:
The girls small group followed up with Nicole. They talked a lot about modesty.
During the guy's small group time, we watched a video on dealing with sexual temptation, talked about pornography and God's plan for sexuality.

Closing Challenge:
In the guy's small group, I challenged the guys that if they were struggling with pornography that they needed to get into an accountability relationship with someone who can encourage them.

Questions You Can Ask:
What does purity mean to you?
Discuss the following thought: Instead of asking "How far can we go?", what if we asked "How pure can we be?"

Coming up next:
Sunday School (March 29)
Youth Group (April 1): 1 Timothy 4:12- Why should we set an example?

Eastview Parent Weekly, March 22-28

Dear Parents,

Here are some important dates that you should be aware of...

March 28th (this Saturday) 10am-Noon

• Kansas Mission Trip meeting for students and their parents
• This for those entering grades 6-9 for the 2009-2010 school year
• You can see a recap video of last years trip here.
  

April 10 & 11 9:30-11:30pm

• Kernels Stadium Fundraiser
• We need 10-15 students and adults to clean quickly and thoroughly
  

April 22nd

• $50 CIY Summer Conference Deposit and Registration Forms due
• This is for students entering grades 9-12 for the 2009-2010 school year and 2009 graduates
• Registration Forms are up. Just click on the link to the right
  

April 24th-25th

• 30 Hour Famine
• Details at the right
  

April 29th

• $35 Kansas Mission Trip Deposit and Registrations Forms due for early-bird trip cost of $150
• From April 30-May 20 the trip cost is $200/student
• Students wishing to use scholarship funds MUST register by the early-bird date
  

Summer camp dates and cost

Date By June 1st cost After June 1st
June 14-19 6th-8th Grade #1 $155 $180
(I am at this camp week)

June 21-24 4th-5th Grade $95 $120
June 26-27 2nd-3rd Grade $35 $45
(Parent goes with child)
July 5-11 High School $185 $210
(I am at this camp week)

July 12-17 6th-8th Grade #2 $155 $180
July 19-23 5th-6th Grade Camp $125 $150

As above, students wishing to use scholarship funds must register by the early-bird (June 1st) date. I’ll post the registration form on the website as soon as I get them from camp.

Be sure to check our parent’s website for frequent lesson updates, as well as all the forms, registration sheets, pictures that you can handle!

Have a great week!

March 11 Youth Group Follow-up

Teaching Series:
Set an example...

Topic:
Set an example with your LOVE

Key Verse:
1 Timothy 4:12

Attendance:
31, +55% over same week last year

Main Group Testimony:
Samantha Holley (one of our seniors) gave the main group testimony. She spoke about her own discovery that God loved her over the past few years, and what that meant. She shared that the Greek word we define simply as "love" used in this verse was agape and it means "an active love from God towards His Son and His people, and our active love for God, His people and our enemies". Some of the guys in our group had some issues with respecting Samantha as she spoke (see below).

Small Group Time:
The girls small group followed up on Samantha's testimony.
During the guy's small group time, we talked about respect and why it was important. We talked about God's love and how He demonstrated it by sending His Son to pay for our sin. We talked about how, if we love one another, we'll respect one another.

Closing Challenge:
In the guy's small group, we have some students whose spiritual growth is being hindered by the disrespect of others, and I let those hindering students know that if they were not interested in coming on Wednesday nights, that they were not required to be there.

Questions You Can Ask:
How does God show love for you?
How can you be an example in your love towards other people?

Coming up next:
Sunday School (March 22)
Youth Group (March 18): Set an example in your Faith-We'll be interviewing some of our seniors who will talk about how their faith has grown and changed over their years in youth group.

March 4 Youth Group Review

Teaching Series:
Set an example...

Topic:
Set an example with your LIFE (behavior)

Key Verse:
1 Timothy 4:12

Attendance:
29, + 20% over same week last year

Main Group time:
We shared announcements about our summer trips, and encouraged the kids to get their March letters home to you (did you get it?) If not, click here.
We talked about why we were doing this message series, and I (John Mulholland) gave the big group message.

Small Groups:
We focused in our small groups on a several verses: Matthew 4:1-11, Luke 14:25-27 and John 10:7-10.

Closing Challenge:
The kids were challenged to be example to their younger siblings specifically, and to other people in general.

Questions you can ask:
How have you been an example to your younger brother/sister today?
How can I (the parent) be a better example to you?

Coming up next:
Sunday School (March 8)
Youth Group (March 11): Set an example in your Love-Samantha Holley will be leading our big group teaching next week.

Wednesday, January 14

All evening activities (EKLUB, Youth Group) have been canceled tonight due to weather.