Saunders
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Senior Sendoff
We celebrated our senior sendoff this past Wednesday and had a great time. It's a sad time knowing that our awesome seniors are moving on and yet it is a great time to remember all the times we have shared together. We had the seniors share with the rest of the Varsity some "advice" for all of them to follow and two main themes came up.
1. Don't forget the character of God
2. Don't forget to maintain your walk with God
What great advice and it's that advice we hope that these seniors will take with them.
I shared a short challenge with them from Phil. 3:12-14 and then we shared some memories and the majority of these memories were created on our last Varsity Retreat during Easter. They talked about the fun times that they had, but they also talked about our Easter Sunday sunrise service down on the beach. What a great weekend we had as we revisited the Last Supper, we experienced what it was like to wash each others feet, sit at the same supper table, and then wake up at 6am on Sunday (yes parents, your teens got up early and not a single one of them was late getting up!) to walk to the beach to praise our God for rising from the dead. It was memories like this that all of us will not forget sharing together.
As a youth pastor I was grinning from ear to ear listening to their advice and their memories...now it is our turn to as a church family to hold these seniors up in prayer as they venture off to a new stage in life. May God give them grace to not forget His character and to maintain their personal walk with our Great Savior Jesus Christ.
A Proud Moment
So you're reading my BLOG to find out what my proud moment was. Let me say this before you read on, there were actually two proud moments. So you are getting an extra "bonus" BLOG at no cost to you. Next week, however, that could change as I am thinking of charging people...just kidding.
Okay, proud moment number one. My son said, "Da-Da." That was cool. We still believe he has no clue what he is saying since he has called everything "Da-Da", but the point is that he said it. Maybe he's just really smart and every time he sees something it reminds him of his "Da-Da" so he says it...like when he sees my picture, a ball, his food, grass, the wall...ok, maybe he doesn't know yet! Ha
The second proud moment, which actually deals with the church, was Sunday night. Our teens were awesome. Brian E. and Sarah C. (a summer intern) put together an awesome program and our teens were great. I wish I could take the credit, but I cannot. The credit goes to God, first and foremost, who gave them the ability, then their parents who urged them on, and then Brian and Sarah for coming up with the program for them to serve in. I watched as students gave testimonies, sang specials, played an offertory, performed a skit, and sang as a group...and I was just beaming with joy. What an awesome thing to watch teens give of themselves for God's glory.
Many of you didn't see them struggle...you didn't see the fear. Some of these students were quaking in their boots before the service...and yet they got up with all boldness through the power of Christ. They got to see God work in them and through them. Pray that this will be something they never forgot. God can use you if you'll only let Him. These teens saw that and it encouraged me and yet challenged me at the same time. I walk away asking myself, am I doing that? I am getting out of my comfort zone for God's glory? Am I doing things that only He can get credit for?
Thank you teens; for doing things only God has gotten the credit for...may we follow in that example.
Looking Back, Looking Forward
As I look back through the last year I am encouraged to see what God has done. In the last month alone, we have been able to see 2 teens come to Christ! On top of that we have been encouraged as the number of teens coming has continued to rise. This is all God's doing and we are thankful for His faithfulness to us.
We are also looking forward to this summer. Summer is one of the slowest times for teens...do you remember full days when you did nothing? Anyway, we have packed in a busy schedule for our teens and college students to provide them opportunities to grow and make a wise use of their time. Pray that God will give us wisdom as we have a great opportunity in front of us...that lives would change as we focus on our walk with God. So be praying for these weekly events for the youth group:
1. College Berean Hangouts (every Tuesday night) these are casual times to get together, mess around, and they will be ending every hangout with a study in the Bible (this year they are working through Philippians)
2. JV/Varsity Hangout @ the SMUH (every Friday night) this will start on June 18th after school is out and we will study Psalms each week.
3. College Berean Wednesday night = The Bereans are currently going through a study of "world religions" to know how to better defend their faith.
4. JV/Varsity Wednesday night = This is a more relaxed atmosphere than during the school year. We will start off with some type of game that makes them look really weird and then continue our study from last summer on attributes of God.
On top of that we have summer activities for each group so the schedule for the youth staff looks a bit like this: Sunday (regular church), Tuesday (CB Hangouts), Wednesday (regular Wed. night church), Friday (JV/Varsity Hangout), & Saturday (this is the day we'll usually have our other activities for the summer)! So as you can see, it's busy, but a good busy at that. It's a great opportunity that you can be apart of through prayer every day.
