Parents Update for 2/24/10

// February 25th, 2010 // No Comments » // Youth News

This week at Ignite we continued our To Save A Life series. The purpose of the night was to equip students to not just know about their hurting and lonely peers, but to serve them and be Jesus hands and feet.

We started the night by playing beach ball volleyball and then we watched winter retreat highlight video (if your child went on the retreat we have a cd for them with the video and a bunch of pictures from the trip). Jason then talked about the lessons he is learning from the Darfur diet challenge especially about how we so often get so upset about our own problems and do not think about the rest of the world. He reminded everyone about what things are like for everyone in Haiti and how many of them are still praising God.

We then watched a clip from the movie where Jake (the main character) challenges the the rest of the youth at youth group. We then had the privilege of having two of our youth share stories from their lives.

The youth were then asked to quietly reflect on a series of questions including of thinking of people that they have thought of as “less then” themselves. We then got in our family groups and had some discussion. One thing we discussed was about what we are passionate about and how we can use that to serve God.

Next Jason gave a message encouraging the youth to be actively be searching for ways to serve God. Following Jason’s message the youth were given the opportunity to tell everyone how they were going to take what they are passionate about and use it to serve God.

The youth were then given the opportunity to take a challenge card again this week and to write notes of encouragement to each other.

Next week the purpose will be to empower students to meet their peers in their hurt and to help others rewrite their stories based on how God sees them.

I personally would like to thank everyone for the great support you all showed at the Wild Game Feed last weekend. It means the world to us and the youth that you are so willing to help them grow. Thank you again so much.

-Geoffrey Bazuin-

Parents Update for 2/17/10

// February 18th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Youth News

So this week the purpose was to help students notice and respond to their hurting and lonely peers in their sphere of influence. Also, as leaders we have really seen many of us and our students being attacked by the devil and we wanted the youth to be aware that as soon as we are Christians, we are a soldier in God’s army and that we have a fight on our hands.

After introducing what we were doing for the night and going through announcements we played Musical Chairs of Death. Next, we had the youth walk across the youth room in complete darkness with chairs as obstacles. The goal was for the youth to feel what it can be like to be alone in the dark and that there are those around them feel like they are in dark. We then watched Roger’s monologue about how he felt so alone.

We then had two of our youth talk about who they are and about some of the tough times in their lives. Jason then gave the group teaching lesson where he talked about how we are all pennies; some of us know it but others of us think we are $20 bills. It is important that we treat everyone the same way because none of us is better then anyone else around us.

In small group time we were all challenged to think of those who we look down on and were encouraged to change how we treat them and to ask for forgiveness. We then sang a couple of songs and the youth were given the opportunity to take a challenge card and to write encouraging notes to each other.

Jason would like everyones prayers for him this lenten season because he has decided to go on the Darfur diet. This diet consits of him eating only the foods that the Darfur refugees eat (and at their portions) and drinking only water. Pray that he is able to keep with the diet and he is able to gain from this experience.

-Geoffrey Bazuin-

SERVE Registration

// February 17th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Youth News

Our SERVE registration forms are due on March 1st this year (Here is a link to download the form). We won’t know the final cost to go on SERVE until after the Wild Game Feed this Saturday but you can start filling out the forms ahead of time. As soon as we get the final tally of fundraised money and get the hours calculated we will inform each family of what their final total will be.  We will have to move relatively fast after the Game Feed to make sure that we get forms turned in on time. I am asking that all SERVE registration forms be turned in next Wednesday on March 24th. I will be working like crazy to get the final numbers crunched by Monday or Tuesday that week so you can turn in checks at the same time (please make checks out to Bethel Youth).  I know it ends up being a time crunch every year but this week in February works the best for the Game Feed and we need this event to be successful.

Wild Game Feed Info

// February 14th, 2010 // No Comments » // Youth News

We are doing things a little differently this year with the Wild Game Feed. Along with the expectations listed in the previous post we will also be breaking the fundraising down into an hourly rate. We will take our total money raised and divide it by total hours worked to come up with an hourly rate. Each youth will receive fund raised money based on hours worked at the hourly rate. We are also offering an incentive where a youth will receive an extra 1hr per business they receive a donation from.

We are really excited about how this fundraiser will help send our youth on SERVE and LQ this summer. The more involved the youth and parents are in helping get donations (food, silent auction, and door prizes), the more successful it will be. You can also help by spreading the word as much as you can. Tell all of your friends and family about it and keep it visible on Facebook as well. The more the merrier.

Don’t forget that if we hit our goal of $3,000 dollars, Jason will be wearing a dress to church the next morning!!! (We are hoping that is incentive…lol)

Parents Update for 2/10/10

// February 10th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Youth News

This week, as we continue to go through the To Save a Life series we focused on helping the youth to understand that they are not the only one struggling through different issues. We started the session reviewing the four rules (1. Be real 2. Take risks 3. Confidentiality is crucial 4. Show lots of love). Next we discussed hug-ology. There are four kinds of hugs: The side hug, the A frame hug, the love hug, and the man hug. The youth will be helping their peers through many struggles in the following weeks and hugs are a great way to comfort each other.

We watched a clip from the movie where Roger (the kid who commits suicide) talks about being alone and how he feels like he is the only one in the world who feels that way and that it doesn’t matter to anyone around him. To show our youth that they are not alone in what they are going through we lined everyone (youth and leaders) up on line and Jason read some statements. If they related to the statement they were to “cross the river” to the other line. The statements included; you stressed out, you been betrayed, you feel pressure to conform, or you know someone who has tried to commit suicide. By the end of the exercise the youth were able to see that they were never the only one who has or is dealing with issues.

Two of our youth then got up and shared some of their struggles and how they were able to overcome them. Following the stories we got into our family groups and had an extended discussion about many of the things that the youth have been struggling with.

We finished the night with Troy sharing a poem and song that really touched him. Lastly the youth were again given the opportunity to take a challenge card and to write a note to fellow youth.

We passed out packets for making prayer bracelets for the youth afterward unfortunately I was misunderstood what was going on and sent some kids home with incomplete packets. If your youth brought home a kit that had only one color please have them bring back the kit to one of the leaders and we will give them the correct materials. To learn how to make the bracelets there is an informational video on our website.

Next week we will be trying to help the youth identify the hurting and then be equipping the youth to help the hurting by being Jesus’ hands and feet.

-Geoff Bazuin-

Wild Game Feed

// February 8th, 2010 // 1 Comment » // Youth News

We are starting to get things ready for the our annual Wild Game Feed. The date is set for Saturday February 20th at 6:00pm. This event raises money to help students go on one of our summer trips (SERVE or LQ). All students that are going on either of these trips are required to help out with this event. They are expected to assist in finding donations (either food, silent auction, or door prize), show up early to set-up on Saturday (time will be announced later), help serve and clean during the event, stay after to clean up and reset the church. We also ask parents to assist by bringing a meal, finding donations (either food, silent auction, or door prize), and encouraging enthusiasm from their child.

There will be a sign-up sheet in the foyer on Sunday morning or you can click here and sign-up online. Thanks for all of your support!!

Leadership Quest

// February 8th, 2010 // No Comments » // Youth News

The time is coming closer where we need to start nailing down our list for Leadership Quest this summer. We will be attending Leadership Quest during Week 1 (June 6-12, 2010). This is an awesome week and I have definitely seen many lives changes as a result of attending this camp (mine being one of them). You can check out their website for more information or you can e-mail or talk to me about it. It is well worth the time and money!!!

The registration deadline is March 15th and the form is available on the Tentmaker website.

Parents update for 2/3/10

// February 4th, 2010 // No Comments » // Youth News

This week we started working through a series that goes with the movie To Save a Life. It uses themes and video clips from the movie to help the youth learn. In order for this series to be a success we had the youth commit to four rules: 1. Be real (we do not want the youth being fake) 2. Take risks (we want the youth to get out of their comfort zones) 3. Confidentiality is crucial (we want the youth to share but we want them to know that others will not be spreading rumors or gossiping to others about what people revealed of themselves) 4. Show lots of love (we do not want youth judging each other, we will love each other unconditionally). I feel that it is important share these rules with you so that if your youth do not want to share specifics about what is happening this is why.

This week the purpose was to “Help students realize that if they are going to love the hurting and lonely, then they first need to know how much God loves them.” To start the discussion we talked about icebergs and how you can only see about 10% of what the iceberg really looks like. We then had discussed how we, as humans, often put masks on so that people do not really know what we are like.

Two of our youth were asked to talk about their masks and shared with the group what they had been hiding. We then split into our family (or small) groups. Each person in each of the families then shared with their families facts about themselves that the others in the group might not have known about them including some masks that they were waring.

Jason then gave his message about how in the Roman city of Ephesus people who were to have a deformity (including being the wrong gender) were destined to be no more then a slave or a prostitute. Paul writes to Ephesus “For he chose us in him before the creation of the world to be holy and blameless in his sight. In love he predestined us to be adopted as his sons and daughters through Jesus Christ, in accordance with his pleasure end will – to the praise of his glorious grace, which he has freely given us in the One he loves.” This was God saying, “you are mine and you are loved.” The youth were reminded that God’s love amazing and never failing. We were then given the opportunity to hear from another of the youth share their story.

To finish up the night the kids got back in their family groups and were reminded that even when we screw up God still loves us and he is not afraid to show it. Lastly the youth were given the opportunity to take a challenge card. They did not know what the card had on it but if they took it they were committing themselves to complete the task on the card.

One other opportunity the youth have in this series is to write notes of encouragement to each other. The notes are given to the leaders to distribute at the beginning of the following week.

We look forward to next week when we will help the youth identify those who are the most in need.

-Geoff Bazuin-

Funds for Haiti

// February 3rd, 2010 // No Comments » // Youth News

This month we will be donating all of our profits from the Fuel Station to help with the crisis in Haiti. We will be donating to Habitat for Humanity as they continue helping out the people of Haiti by providing shelter for them. Here is what they are doing:

Major earthquake in January, 2010
An earthquake with a magnitude of 7.0 struck the Caribbean nation of Haiti on January 12, 2010—just 10 miles west of the capital, Port-au-Prince. Thousands of buildings and homes were destroyed, and the number of those affected is in the millions.

Habitat’s response
Habitat has begun to respond by addressing immediate relief efforts and long-term shelter solutions for low-income families.

Habitat is planning a multiphase strategy to the Haiti earthquake that includes early recovery and mid- and long-term responses.

How you can help victims of the earthquake
Habitat is not sending volunteers to Haiti at this time. However, for Habitat to respond effectively to this disaster, please donate to our Haiti earthquake work.

Keep monitoring www.Habitat.org for news and updates on our plans and activities in Haiti.

ATTENTION IGNITE PARENTS

// February 1st, 2010 // No Comments » // Youth News

Heard about the movie “To Save a Life”? Not only did the majority of our youth see this film on Jan. 23; they are now following a curriculum based on this movie on Wednesday nights. Any adults who would like to go see the movie can meet at Bethel next Saturday, Feb. 6. Time will be announced closer to the date when we have show times available. We will be looking for a late afternoon matinee. If participants are interested, we can meet at church afterwards and discuss what we saw. If you have questions, please feel free to contact Joel or Julie De Haan 320-983-6673.