Beautiful day

Today is one of the nicest days in a long time. Sunny, a nice little breeze to keep ya cool. Man I love it. I am updating this right now from my back yard, and LOVING IT!

So this morning I was at a district meeting talking about lots of good things to do for the district and the youth groups all around. It got me thinking that I love being a youth pastor, and love being the youth pastor at Crystal Valley. There are sometimes where I have to do work late, and or go to long meetings, but all in all I think I have thee best job on this planet.

I love being able to have so many funny inside jokes with a lot of you, and I love being to have fun and hangout. I also love being able to worship our God, and see you worship God more and more. I love when you guys get excited about God, and starting a love revolution! I am so blessed to be your guys youth pastor. I love serving you and I love being a part of your lives. Thank you so much for all the amazing memories you guys have already given me and I am so pumped to make even more this summer.

Thank you all again for letting me be your youth pastor!

P.A.

Preztels

So last night was really fun because we had a nice visit from my friend LT, we had some amazing Auntie Anne Pretzels, Thank you again Mrs. Yoder, We had some rocking awesome Ebay guesses, and then we worshiped our Lord, and learned about Prayer.

Here are some notes from last night:

1. Make your prayers meaningful.
- don't have a junior high love relationship with God.
- Open yourself up to God
- God is not a vending machine God.
2. Don't ever stop praying
- If you are shooting up little prayers all the time we are more aware of God in our lives.
- We need to allow God to move through us by prayer
3. Prayer is where God meets us
- Ps 34:17
- God hears the cry of the afflicted
- God wants to rescue you
- The Jerk Chicken in Jamaica.

Let God marinate in you, don't be a microwave prayer. If you are resting in God then God can move through you, move in you, and then move with you!

Can't wait to see you all this Sunday for Baptism Sunday, remember we do not have NEXT this Sunday since we will be at the Middle School! See you all then.

P.A.

Tuesday Booyah

Hey there everyone! Tomorrow will be awesome, I am making a promise to you tomorrow.....Are you ready for this?


I will promise that tomorrow will be one of the most memorable Wednesday nights ever! You will not want to miss!

Also tomorrow we are going to be doing an update of our Youth Directory because we know that some people have moved or your email address has changed some tomorrow we are going to take like 3 minutes and have everyone fill out some stuff. We just want to know how to get a hold of you so we can send you cool things. So please be here tomorrow. Its gonna rock!

Here is a little video for you to enjoy.

See you all tomorrow!

P.A.

Monday

These are the best monday's because no one has school, and even some of you are already out of school! Thats awesome! For the rest of you, you are almost done! Keep it up.

So this Wednesday you do not want to miss what we are cooking up over @ CVMC~! I promise. This Wednesday is gonna be off the hook. We got a sweet and twisted surprise for you, we also have one of the best funny video's I have ever seen to show you, we have some rockin awesome worship set, and we are going to be wrapping up our spiritual training series with a talk in Prayer, and I honestly believe if you want to change your life this is the way to do it. So come this Wednesday and check out whats going on!

Also we are going to be starting some really cool new things for this summer, so come Wednesday night to hear what they are and have some imput on how things shape up. We can't wait to see you guys this Wednesday, have an awesome day off of school. Eat lots of hot dogs, and hamburgers :)

See you Wednesday

P.A.

3 day weekend!

Man this weekend is gonna rock something awesome!

So this Wednesday is gonna be off the chizzzain. Because I now have 2 suprises for you guys when you show up on Wednesday, and they are both pretty sweet!

So make sure you guys are there for our finale in our spiritual disciplines series. The discipline we are going to be talking about is so important, you will want to be there to take some notes so when you go home that night you can implement them right away.

So tomorrow for Next class Robbie and Nate are going to be teaching, and we are going to be splitting the group up, Junior high and Senior high, so when you get there tomorrow it will be a little different, but I promise you, you will not want to miss what these guys are going to be talking about its pretty awesome.

I hope you all have a great 3 day weekend, have fun camping, swimming, and hanging out. Can't wait to see all of you guys this Wednesday! See you all then.

P.A.

Friday!

Get pumped for the weekend!

Now I know some of you are already out of school, and that is awesome! Congrats on making it another year in school. For those who are done with school and are Graduating! WELL DONE!
You did it. Get ready for the time of your life at college. Its an amazing thing to get to go to college. I promise you its nothing like High school at all. So Good job on making it this far. For those who are still in high school keep pushing my friends you are almost done, and for those in Junior high, you have a little while to go, I am sorry :)

Anyways this Sunday we are splitting our next class! Booyah. This week the high school students are going to be taught by Nate hickox, and he is going to be talking about his trip to Honduras. Then Junior high students you will be taught by Robbie Rasbaugh, and he is going to be telling you about his story, and an amazing story in the bible about a demon possesed man and pigs! Its gonna rock!

So I hope to see you all this Sunday I will be popping into both classes to see how things are going and whats going on. So I will be around to hang out and chill and learn with all of you guys!

I hope you all have an amazing weekend. Come this Wednesday for a surprise! I promise you, You will not want to miss this amazing surprise. I will just say its a little TWISTED :)

P.A.

Rebel in the name of Love

So last night we got a good chance to look at how to be a rebel by loving.

I really hope you all had a good time last night hanging out and trying to Gargle tunes :) It was pretty awesome. Anyways, here are some notes from last night.

1. Find the narrow Gate in life!
- Matthew 7:13
- When everyone is doing something, be worried and try to find another way out!
2. The key to Rebellion is Love
- Ask yourself this question "how in this situation am I bringing myself, and this person closer to Christ"
- Loving people can change lives!
3. Start with your family
- If you can love the people closest to you, that see you all the time, then you can start loving others that don't you as well.
- Rebel by doing the exact opposite of this world! Love people till it hurts!

I can't wait till next week when get a chance to meet again.

Love! Love! Love!

P.A.

Youth to the Group

So tonight we are going to be continuing on our adventures down the road of Spiritual gifts. We are going to be talking about a gift that I think gets often over looked alot.

We are going to be diving into Matthew 7:13 tonight, so I will need you guys to bring your Bibles, Journals, and pens tonight because we will be rocking it notes style tonight! I don't want you to miss anything that we are doing tonight.

Robbie and Nate start their internships tonight with us so you will be seeing alot more of them this summer running things, and helping me out alot! So make sure you give them a hug and tell they rock.

I am pumped tonight to see all of ya, make sure you are ready for some sweet games, and some awesome pumped up Worship. We are going to be doing worship some 'Roids tonight :) Just kidding we don't enhance our worship through unnatural chemicals, we just get pumped to worship Christ!

Can't wait to see ya all tonight!

P.A.

These are hilarious! Drive thru pranks are the best things ever. Sorry to those who work drive thru!

Hope to see you all tomorrow~!

P.A.

Booyah!

I should have done this my first day as Youth Pastor at CVMC!

Can't wait to see you all this Wednesday. Sorry I haven't been able to update the past few days I have been wicked busy, and gone! So I will update some more tomorrow!

Nate and Robbie will be officially starting on Wednesday so Get excited!

P.A.

Silence with over 70 students

So last night was really fun, and I hope that you guys understand the importance of what we did last night.

Taking time to read's Gods word and then sit in silence thinking about what it says. That is something that we need to do way more often. If you are searching for a way to grow deeper in Christ, and further your relationship with God. That is how you start that journey, by reading short passages of the Bible and sitting in silence thinking them over and allowing God to speak through His word.

Now I know some of you might not know where to begin with reading the Bible and that's totally normal. So I want to help you. These are some great places to start reading your bible:

1. The Gospels: Matthew, Mark, Luke, John - Learn about what Jesus did while He was here on earth. See how the Son of God interacted with people, criticism, Love, hurt, pain, happiness, and even more.
2. Proverbs: 31 chapters of wisdom at your disposal. Read through Proverbs and just let is soak into your mind and soul.
3. Ephesians: You wanna take a challenge and take on some writing by Paul, do it! This book will help you grow into a Man or Woman of God and challenge you in your thinking!

There are 3 places to go to right away. Now what we did last night was just a little nugget of what you can do on your own. Normally I would tell you to take an hour and do what we did last night. Sit for sometimes up to 15 minutes in silence just thinking about a verse in Scripture.

I can't wait for next week my friends we are going to be rocking this spiritual training!

P.A.

Agreat video on the way God can restore

Tonight we are going to be talking about the power of God in a real way. God power to speak to us through His words that were written down over 2000 years ago! That is powerful, this video shows Gods power of restoring lives, and changing hearts.

Come tonight and see how God can change your heart just by read and listening!





P.A.

American Idol tonight!

So tonight is gonna rock for us American Idol fanatics! Top 3 with homecoming stuff, I am pumped.

So tomorrow is Youth Group and I hope that a lot of you can all make it. Its gonna rock because we are going to switch gears with a new series, and I think this is gonna be one of the most helpful series we can do because tomorrow we are going to be talking about how you can take the bible, read it and listen to what God is trying to say to you! Its gonna be awesome.

So if you come ready and with a willing heart, I think tomorrow could blow your mind. So bring your Bible, a pen and your journals again. Because we are going way back to some sacred readings, and some things that monks did back in the day to hear from God. Its gonna be awesome.

I hope you can all make it.

Get outside today at some point because its amazing outside!

See you tomorrow.

P.A.

New Series

So this week we are starting a new series, its called Spiritual Training, and we are going to be looking at how again we can step up our game again.

I was originally going to start off our talks with how to live like Christ, but as I was praying about this up coming week I kept feeling in my Spirit that God was pulling me in another direction, so last night I was praying again about it and the word sacred kept coming to mind. So I started looking up Sacred for Spiritual disciplines and training, and I ran across Lectio Devina which means Sacred Reading. I believe that a lot of us sometimes have trouble in where to read in the Bible, and when we do read we don't get much out of the bible because we don't know how to study the bible at all.

So this Wednesday we are going to be talking about Lectio Devina and we are going to be practicing this on Wednesday. It is going to be awesome the things that I think God is going to do in this time.

So come ready for this Wednesday to be blown away by God.

I hope you all have a great week! I can't wait to see you all on Wednesday.

P.A.

A look through the years

Another note about tonight

Bring your bibles tonight
Bring your journals
Bring pens for tonight

I promise you will not want to miss the notes from tonight they are going to Rock your world!

ICE CREAM PARTY!

So tonight is the ice cream party with Cornerstone University! So make sure you all come tonight to have some wicked awesome ice cream, some giveaways, some sweet worship, and the Finale of our lesser known personalities series. So tonight is a huge night so make sure if you can come be there.

So this whole week if have been keeping up with the blog you know that each day we are leading up to tonight because we are wanting our hearts to be prepared to hear God tonight. So today is going to be a fun one. Today I want to encourage you to once again get alone and I want you to spend some time in prayer. While you are in prayer take some time to just listen to God. Be silent before him for 5 minutes at some point today. It can even be here at the church, but just sit and listen to God. To open it up you can read the story of Samuel in 1st Samuel 3. Listen to what Samuel says to God before God speaks.

For the Parents: Tonight I will put the notes from the message up on here tomorrow and also some pictures of the night. Please keep praying for the leaders that volunteer there time here on Wednesday nights. Also please be in prayer for new volunteers. We have so many positions that are opening and being created because we have so many students coming on a Wednesday night.

Hope you all have an amazing week.

P.A.

Tuesday

Hey there everyone!

Today's blog is gonna be a little short, so I am sorry.

A few reminders then I have a video for ya'll to watch.

1. Tomorrow Cornerstone University is coming into Town! They are bringing ICE CREAM! So make sure to invite everyone you know! They will not be disappointed.
2. Tomorrow night is the last night for our Lesser known Characters in the Bible series and we are ending with a Bang! So make sure you are there for that also.

Alright if you are keeping up with what was said yesterday we are preparing our hearts for this Wednesday because we want to step up our game. So today the thing I want you to do is to watch this video and then take some time to pray afterward and reflect on what you just watched.

I hope this will help you understand how amazing our God is.

Moday Mornings......

So I hope everyone had a great weekend, Proms were this weekend, fun times had by all. I hope everyone has some sweet pics up so I can see them and also some good stories on Wednesday to tell me!

This Wednesday Cornerstone University is coming to the Valley! They are going to be talking about their college and what they have to offer. Also they are going to be bringing us Ice cream! So we need to invite our friends because Wednesday night is going to be off the chain. So come ready to party at the valley.

So this week I have told you all that since we are wrapping up our series on Lesser known people in the Bible. That there are going to be some things for you to before you get here on Wednesday. So here is today's

Today I would really encourage you to go outside since is going to be amazing out. And take a walk with God. Take like a little half mile walk around the neighborhood, or down the road, or maybe you can't very far, but go on a walk with God today. And what I want ya to do is to just start talking to God. It doesn't have to be out loud so you look crazy but you are more then welcome too. Take this time to ask questions to God, Thank Him for the blessings in your life, ask forgiveness of sin, and then be silent. Listen to what God might tell you. Maybe all He wants to do is whisper that He loves you.

This exercise will help us for Wednesday because we want to experience God in a new way, and the only way we experience Him in a new way is if we start today preparing our hearts to hear from Him!

Hope you guys enjoy this exercise, let me know how it goes!

P.A.

One of the greatest movies of all time!