This past Sunday we were fortunate to take our "Gang" to the Rock n Worship Roadshow! It was such a wonderful experience and event. A few of our kids had never been to a concert before and were blown away at all that went down on this rockin' evening.
We took 8 kids with us to the concert and spent the day listening and worshiping to 10 fabulous Christian bands. I had so much fun watching the faces of these kids as they danced, laughed, sang, and cheered for all the precious music about loving Christ our Savior. They were consumed thoroughly to all that was being said. Each kid left their seat maybe once for a quick snack and restroom break, but hurried back so they would not miss a thing.
I would not give back a moment that I got to spend with these kids.....well, I take that back. The only moment that seemed to take forever was waiting in line. We had to wait in line for an hour which was not all that bad compared to a number of people in line with us. We were blessed to have help from our friends to go earlier and start standing in line 3 hours before we got there. We were so fortunate! Thank you Jesus!
When the concert was over, I could see that our Fun Gang was filled with the HOLY SPIRIT.....I felt like a proud parent as I listened to them talk about it as we made our way back up the hill. Music is definitely a positive tool to reach young minds! It was a positively, encouraging night! :)
How often do you say your prayers? Is there a correct way to pray? I know as a teenager I made it a habit to say my prayers when I knew I was in trouble! Praying on a normal basis was not something that I was taught to do as a child. As an adult I know that I am still getting use to the idea that it is okay to have a one-on-one conversation with God. Our lesson this past Wednesday was focused on teaching our teens about how to pray and what the Bible says about praying. I know that both my husband and I hoped and prayed that this message would impact our teens as much as it did us as we worked together on every aspect of it.
Our youth group meetings usually starts off with Praise and Prayer. Each of our teens are given a chance to tell us about any praises they may have and prayers that they need. Our group has learned to be very comfortable with one another and are not afraid to share their personal situations. I find that quite reassuring and I also felt that it was a positive springboard to studying what praying is all about and how powerful it is to pray.
I was extremely happy to see that the majority of our kids raised their hand when we asked them if they prayed every night before bed. We decided to open our lesson with the idea of understanding what praying really is .....a private conversation with our Lord and Savior. Knowing that we are having such an important conversation with Jesus, you would think that it is a known understanding that complete respect and humbleness is a must during this precious time. At least as an adult I understand this, but as a teenager; well this idea is not quite a reality just yet. Most likely it is because they are not understanding the impact of being disrespectful to such a high power and the fear of the Lord has not yet developed within them. Proverbs 1:1 states that the fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.
Do our teens fear the Lord? I have no idea! I know they fear getting in deep trouble and they fear upsetting their parents because of the punishment that typically follows. But do they relate any of that fear to our Heavenly Father?
Our lesson included 8 praying stations that had different ideas for our kids to learn how to pray for others in need of prayers. Praying is such a powerful tool and this lesson was equipping our kids with the knowledge to open their hearts and minds to the dynamics of praying for others. Some of our stations had them think about people that are living in poverty, people that are homeless, and people that are incarcerated. I was thoroughly impressed to see some of kids genuinely taking the time to pray for individuals that were in some sort of troubled situation. After each station was visited by our teens, we decided to close youth group with prayer. I was blessed to see the seriousness of our kids during this time of talking to Jesus. There was no giggling or acting up; which has been a norm for us each week. We had silence and we also had a couple of them speak up and say their prayers out loud. Thank you Jesus!
Our challenge for our kids this week was to continue to pray and open up their thoughts to Jesus.
Although we wonder if our lesson had any impact on our kids, I know that Jesus knows his kids hearts! I also know that Jesus was in mine and my husbands hearts when we were teaching our lesson from the Bible!
Oh so much fun this week.....It is a blessing each week to meet with our Fun Gang! We had 7 teens show up last night. Our topic for the night focused on having Faith in our Lord, Our Savior! What exactly is faith? Faith is not something that we can see, touch or even hear. Hebrews 11:1, says "Now faith is being sure of what we hope for and certain of what we do not see." It is a trust built up in your heart and with this trust you are able to recognize that you are loved, protected, and guided in the right direction through the Holy Spirit.
Many times it is hard to explain about something you cannot physically see and our goal last night was to help our kids understand that "you must have faith to believe in a God you cannot see."
One thing that I am recognizing each week that passes is that our kids have faith in my husband and I that we will be at Youth Group to lead them in a Bible Study. They have faith and depend on us.....much like we all depend on God to help us through every aspect of life. With this growing trust in mind, we had our kids participate an exercise that tested their Faith in believing what we were telling them. We had three of our kids step outside the room, each one came in at different times blindfolded. We took an orange, a lemon, and apple and fed them each one, but the clincher of the exercise was that when they were told they were going to eat an orange they were given a lemon. So when they were given the other two items we watched to see if there was a hesitation in believing what they were really being given to eat.
The outcome of the exercise revealed that there was only one of the three that had complete faith in what was being fed to them and did not waver even when they were tricked. The other two were scared to even attempt to eat anything after they were given the lemon in place of the orange. This exercise brought to light how we questioned many situations in life instead of just having Faith!
I pray that our kids got something out of last night's lesson and have less issues of doubt in their lives!
What does Jesus have in store for us next week.....
Our Fun Gang weekly meeting was successful. Thank you Lord! We had 7 kids show up last night which is basically our core group. I was just so happy to start off our year with a great turnout and a captive audience.
Last night's topic was "Killer Tunes"........we all know that teens love music and are typically plugged in listening to some kind of tune throughout some portion of their day. Our lesson focused on popular music that is so widespread through the media and specifically the hits that made the charts in 2011. As expected, all the songs that we mentioned that made the top ten chart, our kids had heard before and even some admitted that they really enjoyed listening to them. Our question to them was "are these songs good to listen and what kind of message are they receiving from them?"
We let them read through some of the lyrics of some of the songs. They were stunned at the amount of negative messages that these songs presented. A few of them had mentioned that they had no idea how bad they were, which is understandable especially when the song has a catchy beat or rhythm. I have to say I am guilty of liking a song or two and not even realizing how wrong the lyrics are which most likely are promoting sex, drugs, or some sort of obscene profanity! The devil has his sneaky ways to grab us and draw us closer to him......so why not do it through music!
The key verse for last night was Proverbs 4:23...."Guard your heart above all else, for it determines the course of your life." This verse guides you in remembering the fact that it is important to be aware of the worldly influences that have the ability to change our spiritual focus. We had our kids write this verse down on an index card and on the other side write down the influences that impact them negatively in their daily life. When they are faced with situations or instances that have the power to sway their focus; they can remind themselves of this verse which is a powerful tool to remind them of what is right in the eyes of their Heavenly Father.
God is Awesome! Our teens were so interested and captivated through the night. My husband presented visual material to help them understand clearly how poisonous certain types of music can be and followed it up with supportive scriptures to reflect God's thoughts on music. We showed them two short videos that gave them insight on rock stars that got caught up with fame and money.
Our first video presented a musician from Korn and how he walked away from fame and fortune to turn his heart to Jesus!
This next video is Lady Gaga before her monumental performance at Madison Square Garden. She expresses her weaknesses and her concerns outwardly. She also takes the time to pray....our question to our kids was concerning her focus and her beliefs....Is Lady Gaga lost?
What is such a blessing is that so far this morning I have gotten a few responses from kids and a parent on how great our lesson was last night! We owe this Glory to our Savior for helping us present this message to our kids!
I am excited to find out what our Father God, Jesus Christ, has in store for us next week!
Hello and Happy New Year! I am a co-leader of the The Fun Gang @ Shaver Lake! I lead this awesome group of teens with my husband Alec. We are so happy to have this opportunity to work with these teens and are honored to teach them the Word of God. We see it as a blessing and we are proud to work together as a team.
We started teaching our youth in May 2011. It has been an exciting adventure thus far. We cannot be more blessed to have this opportunity to work with this group of kids. Our group is not large, but we do have a consistent core of about six teens. Each week we challenge ourselves to introduce these kids to subjects they are familiar with but we work hard to tie them in with Bible.
The name of youth group, The Fun Gang, is an acronym for Fired Up Now....God's Anointed New Generation. We felt that this name best described our kids a group. Each member of the group is amazing in their own unique ways. I am hoping through this blog you will get to know them through our adventures and journey of learning about our Savior Jesus Christ.
We have an exciting year ahead of us! We pray that we can reach out to more teens to join our fun group! I look forward to inviting you to follow our journey each week with these amazing kids. I want to share with you our studies, events, and all the wonderful blessings that come out from our time spent together with these kids.
As for this moment in time, I want to wish you a blessed new year and I hope to peak your interest with our experiences with the Fun Gang!
