Flame (continued)

A beautiful crisp fall evening and brilliant orange sunset greeted us as we built a fire out behind the church. The youth roasted (burned) marshmallows and some made smores, and we had hot chocolate. For the entire time Kathleen simply asked questions about some issues that the kids are facing. As usual, the discussion was lively and diverse, to say the least.

I want to say a special thanks to Rachel for inviting a friend a couple months back who invited a couple more friends, and another and another. In all, eight kids have visited in the past couple months. Way to go Rachel.

Last Friday night we had our first Activity Nite. What a blast! Lots of snacks and games and music was had by all. The messy games involved whipped cream, gummi worms, balloons and shaving cream, and spam. Nothing says fun like a can of Spam. Stay tuned for pictures from the event.

Don't Forget~ NO GROUP NEXT WEEK, it's Halloween. See you on November 7th.

Flame

Ironically, the night's theme was "Flame" and we were planning to have a fire outside, but we were greeted by a downpour. So, we'll do the fire next week (weather permitting).

But inside (on the big screen) things heated up with a lesson on love. We viewed a short video (NOOMA Flame 002, by Rob Bell) which described three Hebrew words for love;

Raya - Friendship

Ahava - Commitment (Marriage)

Dod - Physical (Sex)

Here's a synopsis of the lesson;

'We love our jobs, we love our kids, we love a good burrito.

When love is defined so broadly, it loses its significance. We may confuse friendship, commitment with lust with love, but God intended us to experience something far deeper.

We shared that unless we have all three - and in the right order, we really miss out on all the wonderful things God has planned for us on our Journey.

Next week; we'll give the fire another shot. S'mores anyone??

Baby Food, YUM!!!

A Journey: toward spiritual maturity

Luke 2:39-40When they finished everything required by God in the Law, they returned to Galilee and their own town, Nazareth. There the child grew strong in body and wise in spirit. And the grace of God was on him.

First of all, spiritual maturity has no correlation to age. Jesus was twelve when he was teaching in the temple. And I find it quite interesting that the only record of Jesus between his birth and the beginning of his ministry, when he was thirty, was when he was twelve years old (and causing his parent's much grief!!).

in 1 Timothy 4:12, it says, "Don't let anyone look down on you because you are young. Set an example for the believers in what you say and in how you live. Also set an example in how you love and in what you believe. Show the believers how to be pure. "

In short, if your reading this, you are certainly old enough to start growing deeper in your faith. Move quickly from baby food to the the wonderful "Old Country Buffet" God has waiting for you! Or would you rather eat Gerber's pureed peas for the rest of your life! (please say no).

So, to emphasize the point we had a Baby Food Taste Test!! The youth had ten different baby food varieties with the labels removed and a spoon.

Ten jars of Gerber baby food; $5.00

The look of a middle school youth tasting "Ham" baby food; Priceless.

did you know...

that in Africa, since most people can't read, most food packaging has a picture of what the food's made from on the outside of the packaging. That's why when Gerber baby food was introduced in Africa, people were - to borrow the words of Bob the Tomato - "shocked, and slightly embarrassed" why there was a picture of a baby on the food jar. I guess they wouldn't like "Girl Scout cookies" either??

New this week! Our first installment of the Q&A show; "Question Mark & Kate!"
Here's how it works. Mark and Kate on barstools. Ask anything. We'll be completely open and honest. Here are a few of the questions from episode 1;

Q: Do women in Germany shave their armpits?

Q: What was your scariest moment? most embarrassing?

Q: Where do babies come from? (inside joke)

and many others...

Getting to know you, Part II. Kate had the kids change seats and get with others who they didn't know very well and spend a few minutes learning about each other.

COMING UP...

Plan for next week (Fire! Fire!) Weenie / Marshmallow Roast!! bring a chair, bug spray and a jacket. (Lesson on Love)

Activity Night - OCTOBER 19th!!

Other scriptures to think about:

Hebrews 5:11-14
have a lot more to say about this, but it is hard to get it across to you since you've picked up this bad habit of not listening. By this time you ought to be teachers yourselves, yet here I find you need someone to sit down with you and go over the basics on God again, starting from square one—baby's milk, when you should have been on solid food long ago! Milk is for beginners, inexperienced in God's ways; solid food is for the mature, who have some practice in telling right from wrong.

2 Timothy 3:14-17 (The Message)But don't let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother's milk! There's nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God's way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.

What's in your suitcase?

As we continue with the theme "Journey", this week we talked about how as we travel this road of life, sometimes we carry with us baggage that can slow us down. our scripture verse was in Hebrews 12.

To illustrate, we had a relay race with two suitcases. One large and one small. the small suitcase, however, was loaded down with real heavy stuff like a concrete block, a dumbell, an old license plate, a broken brick, and metal clamp, etc. to symbolize things in our life that weigh us down and keep us from enjoying our journey with others and with God.

We played "Freeze" again, and had snacks / drinks and sang happy birthday for the October birthdays.

Hebrews 12: 1

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles, and let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us. 2Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and perfecter of our faith,