Sitting in my office

Today was one of those days where my mind is drained and my brain is mush. But the issue is I am speaking 4 times next week, running youth group, and setting up countless meetings to prep for tons of upcoming events! And as I sit back and I look at what my life is comprised of, I smile because I know for a lot of our students here at cvmc we are a part of their story.

See your story is so key in your life! As I prep for one of my speaking engagements I am looking back over my story and I have had some major highs and some major lows. So low that they cause my to honestly stop whatever I am doing and just think back to those points and just ask why! Why did I do that? Then I think to those highs and I honestly just smile.

Guys you are writing a beautiful story with Jesus Christ every single day! You will have to look back one day and I want the times where you can just smile and be so incredibly happy where your life has taken you, but I also want you to look at those low times and say to yourself. Yeah they were low, but I grew so much in those times with my God that they turned into good times.

Don't let your story be someone else's. So many times we say we want to be like this person or that person. God has created each and everything single one of you for a specific purpose.

Check out Ephesians 2:10

There is a song by Mainstay called "becoming who you are" and there is a line in there that says

"I am chasing all the wrong things, but now I am chasing you"

I feel that in our youth group we sometimes chase the wrong things, guys let me tell you I am the first to admit that I chase the wrong things too, but I want to encourage you to chase after God and what He has for you!

So I say all this tonight because the next days I will be out of town so I will see you all Sunday Morning!

P.A.

Great night!

Wow, last night was really really fun! Thank you all for making last night so much fun. All the delicious desserts and the fun games man that was fun.

The really amazing thing last night was when all the families got together and prayed it was an amazing time. I know for some students that was one of the first times they have prayed openly with their parents in a long time. Also for students to see that the parents take this very seriously, it puts that much more importance on dating and making sure that investment comes back in a positive way.

So last night was a great night, I will hopefully post pictures on here or do a slide show on a Sunday and Wednesday!

Hope everyone had a great time last night!

P.A.

It's finally here

Tonight is the 3rd annual Purity ceremony. Tonight we are going to be celebrating this last month of diving into dating relationships, and sexuality.

Now we had sign ups this last Sunday, but the only reason we had sign ups is to see how many chairs we needed and for food. So if you didn't sign up its ok! Still come tonight! We want as many people here tonight as possible.

Tonight we are going to have some time for students and parents to pray together about their relationships with the opposite gender. Tonight is a great time for Fathers to talk with their daughters about relationship issues, and take time to pray with one another. Fathers don't miss this opportunity with your daughters. For those who have sons tonight is a great night to bring them have some fun with them and then pray for them to be Godly leaders in the relationships. Mom and Dad this is a perfect time to sit with your son and bestow wisdom upon him about relationships. That is what tonight is about! To worship, to learn and to strive toward Godly relationships.

Let me tell you that last year when we did this we had such a good response that we wanted to repeat last year but improve and to be completely honest I believe we did that this year.

So come tonight and share with us in this awesome experience!

also tonight if you are planning on coming please bring a dessert to share!

P.A.

Excited would be the right word

MAN I AM EXCITED!

Tomorrow night, we are going to be having a rocking good time with everyone that will be here. I am excited for a couple of the games we are playing, of course they will be parents vs students, which is always a fun time. We get to worship our God and get to sing together as one body!

Then we get to hear a great speaker challenge us about our relationships and dating, and then we get to devour some deliciousness that everyone will be bringing!

How can tomorrow be bad?

Ohh I know, if you don't come!

tomorrow night has the possibility of being one of those nights you never forget. It has the chance but the only way that will be is if you come with a heart wanting to hear from God, and wanting to worship God with everything you got!

So tomorrow night invite your parents, bring a dessert, and come hungry to learn more about God!

I can't wait for tomorrow, so Excited would be the right word!

P.A.

USA USA USA

Man last nights hockey game between USA and Canada, was amazing! If you didn't watch you need to because it was wicked awesome!

Anyways, this week for the crystal valley youth group is a busy one! We have our 3rd Annual Purity Ceremony this week and I am so excited for it. I hope that everyone who is reading this will be a part of this amazing time. This year we are going to be running it a little bit differently. We aren't going to be giving anything out as a youth group, because we really want to have families making the investment into their son/daughters purity.

One of the best ways to do this is to come on Wednesday night and pray together with your son/daughter. Now so many people come to these purity ceremony nights and think its all about confessing sins and saying we aren't going to have sex till you are married. This year is going to be different, because I know we have had some students this year stay pure in their relationships, I know we have had some students come through really hard stuff this year and we can celebrate that on Wednesday night so don't think that this is all come confess your sins and feel guilty, but if you have made it an entire year and you have stayed pure lets celebrate that!

So this coming Wednesday night parents and students come to CVMC at 6:30 and bring a dessert to share. It will be a night to remember!

P.A.

Saturday Suprise!

hey there everyone! I hope your Saturday's going well. I know we have people all over the place right now, Some at Show choir competitions, some at swimming sectionals, others at soccer, and even other students who are working!

So this will be short so you can get back to whatever you are doing today!

This coming Wednesday night is the purity ceremony. We are inviting all parents to come out that night and participate in Youth Group! I hope that you make this a priority on Wednesday night. We are wanting to get as many parents out as we can.

If you are coming to this event, we are asking you to bring a dessert to share with everyone.

We hope to see you there on Wednesday night!

P.A.

Special Friday Blog

Hey there everyone! I hope you all had an amazing thursday night I know I did, hanging out at the high school with people watching the swim team......swim. So it was a great night of yelling for people and hanging out with some students.

Anyways the reason why I am updating on Friday is that, I want to stress the importance of this purity Ceremony. For the last 3 weeks we have been discussing lots of different things about purity and relationships and I am going to be honest the last 3 weeks have been amazing. We have really talked about some cool things are students are retaining what we are talking about. Which always makes a youth pastor happy. But we want to end this series with the whole family coming out to worship and pray together.

Now I understand that some of you have been coming to these purity ceremonies for the past 2 years and you are asking yourself why do I want to come to another purity ceremony.

Because as a parent, you are telling your student that it is important for you to stay pure until you are married, and place it at a very high priority. By you allowing students to stay home because you have already gone through this before, tells them that purity is a one and done deal. Which it isn't. Just thought I should point that out. Also by you sending your student without you coming is saying I have other things more important then coming along side you and helping you in your future relationships.

Now I know that sounds a little bit harsh but let me tell you I have seen students broken these last few weeks and they are going to need their parents to help them in this journey. So I am asking once again, please come on Feb 24th, from 6:30 - 8:30 with your students. We will have desserts and coffee afterwords for people to come together and talk and hang out.

If you are planning on attending we are asking that you bring a dessert to share, we are planning on having a lot of students and parents at this. So please help us out :)

Have a great day!

P.A.

3rd week wrap up

Hey there everyone I hope you are all rocking out at your jobs and school today.

Last night was wicked fun! Going on a bear hunt, taking some time to play chicken on the roof, and then learning a ton about Subway. Good times.

Last night when we broke up into our groups to listen and discuss different area's of sexuality I was praying like a ton, and I was a little nervous because its always a little weird to talk about that stuff with people, but man last night was great. From the feedback I heard from the ladies and the junior high guys it was just awesome. I know for the Senior high men we had some knowledge nuggets dropped on us, but it was still a really good time of reading the bible and talking about what we can do to keep ourselves pure before God in the realm of sexuality.

Let me encourage you as parents to attend the Purity Ceremony next Wednesday. It will be awesome I promise. We are going to be doing worship together and listening to a great speaker named Seth Bartlett, he is the youth pastor at St. Marks Missionary church and he has a heart for students to come closer to God in everything that they do. So when you come next week please bring a dessert to share! It will be a really cool time to spend with your teens and celebrate all they have learned through this series.

I hope you all have a great rest of the day. Talk with you all later.

P.A.

3rd week of our Purity Series

Hey there everyone tonight we are going to be splitting up guys and girls tonight to talk more directly about relationships and other issues that guys and girls go through.

For the ladies you are going to be discussing in groups tonight 6 questions about sexuality, and relationships. Now this time isn't going to be us bashing you over the head with "Dont have sex" You ladies get that enough, tonight you are going to be discussing a lot of different topics inside of sexuality, so come tonight and join in the discussion.

For the men, The junior high students are going to be taught tonight by Mark Metcalfe! He is going to be bringing it tonight, He has got some amazing things he wants to share with you all.

For the high school guys tonight we are going to be sitting down and reading over a story in the Bible. Its going to be discussion oriented and in a smaller group where we can talk openly about male issues and talk about how we can hold each other up in a world that really tries to bring us down.

I hope to see you tonight at 6:30 we have a slideshow of our Big Chill retreat tonight, and a new game we are going to be trying out! I hope you had a great day, see you tonight

P.A.

big Chill stinking Rocked!

Hey there everyone I hope you all had a great day off from school! But now its time to go back to reality. School is here, The snow is back, and we all have to get back into our normal routine......Or do we?

I know a lot students this weekend had made commitments, and are really wanting to be different when they got back home, so here is your chance students! This can be the start of a new you, a new person at school, a new person dedicated to following after Christ in every circumstance. I really really hope those who made commitments follow through on them starting today.

To God be the Glory!

I will see you all this coming wednesday. We will have a slideshow of our big Chill adventure.

P.A.

The Down low for the drive home

Hey there everyone, I hope you are all having a great valentines day. We are having a great one up here at Camp! So this is the down low for the ride home

We are going to take off as soon as the bus drivers get up here to drive, we will be stopping for some dinner on the way home but we will hopefully make it quick but again we have around 130ish people to eat and get through so we will go as quickly as we can.

I will have the students give you all a call when we are about 30 minutes away from Sugar Grove.
Please remember that we are going to be dropping the students off at Sugar Grove and not at Crystal Valley. Please try to be on time because I know that everyone is tired and the leaders would like to get home and rest a little :)

We love your students a bunch but we also love getting sleep so please try to be on time!

We will be putting a slide show together hopefully soon to play on a Sunday Morning so be looking for that coming soon!

Be praying for safe travel!

P.A.

Some pics from yesterday

Great night leading up to a great morning

Hey there everyone who was praying for us last night it was great! God was here and moved among our students, There are some really amazing stories coming out of last night, but please keep praying for us because we are not yet done hearing from God!

This morning we have a packed sessions where we are giving a bunch of things away, and where we get to speak into these students lives for one last time!

We will hopefully we be leaving a little bit earlier then we thought but I will post more about that later this morning after Brunch :)

Hope you all have an amazing day!

P.A.

To the prayer Warriors.

Tonights sessions will be powerful, truth will be taught and students lives will be changed tonight. That is the leaderships prayer for tonight's session we are asking for those who read this and are keeping up with us up here at camp, that you would pray for God's mercy and love to flow down on these students tonight, for God to show up in such a mighty way that these students will never be the same.

Please pray for us tonight, we start our night off at 7:30. The band is warming up, the slides are done, the video's uploaded, and the students ready! We understand that if tonight comes and goes that we still have an insurmountable things that we can praise God for, but we honestly believe that tonight we will see students rescued from the pits of hell, and brought into the light of Christ. And only Jesus Christ can do that and that is why we are fully relying on Jesus to move tonight in our mist.

Please be praying, please be excited for your students to come home tomorrow. Your students have heard truth this weekend and we know that what we sow, so shall we reap. And we want to reap a harvest of students lives changed, and a generation moving towards Christ.

To God be the Glory!

P.A.

Pictures from this afternoon

1st Game and Lunch

From our 1 session today

We are getting ready to head to the gym for a game! Keep praying for our students!

P.A.

1st night

So we got up here with out any problems so its already going better then 3dyc :)

Last night we got up here and got the students packed away into the retreat center which is amazing, we filled up all the rooms and then some. After we got all the students in their cabins we filed them into the main area where we will be singing and listening to the amazing messages brought to us by Justin Alib, a very gifted speaker.

He spoke on the importance of truth and being a truthful person. He brought up the stories of Bernie Madoff, Tiger Woods, and Joseph. He tied together how Joseph even in the midst of all the craziness of his life, He still never lied, and always told the truth and always ran away from evil.

So these are some questions you can ask your students when they get home.
1. What do you think of people who live double lives?
2. Do you think that Joseph lived a double life ever?
3. What is the best way to strive after truth?
4. Do you think you live a double life?

These are some things you can be praying for this weekend
1. For our students to come closer to Christ - That is always our prayer as a youth team
2. For our students to come together more and form more unity in the youth group
3. For safety with all the activities we are doing today we need people to be safe
4. For our students to have tons of fun!

Thank you for all who are praying, keep it up! Pictures will hopefully be up later.

P.A.

Big Chill Info

Hey there all you excited students and Parents! I hope you are all ready for today. Because pretty much as soon as you get out of school we are leaving :)

Here is the down low:

I will be posting every day on the blogspot what we are doing, how things are going and Pictures to go along with that. I will also be posting questions and things for you as parents to ask your students when they get home. So Parents please take advantage of this blog while your students are gone. I will hopefully post twice a day, they have told us they have wireless internet up there for us leaders to use so as long as that is working properly we should be good to go.

When we get up there I will be taking Cell phones from students because there is really bad Cell coverage up there. What I will do when I get up there is get an emergency number and post it on the blogspot just in case you guys need to get a hold of me while we are up there. I will post that as soon as I get it. If you need to get a hold of me call my cell phone 574-370-2094 and leave a message and I will get it as soon as I can.

I hope you all have a great weekend, please be praying for us as we travel, and as we stay up there in Michigan

Keep looking on here for posts. I will try to post somethings tonight!

P.A.

Youth Group is ON!

Hey there everyone, I know you all Enjoyed a nice day off of school except (Concord and Goshen) but we feel that the roads aren't good, but aren't bad enough to keep us from Worshiping God tonight so!

YOUTH GROUP IS ON!

Parents if you feel that its to dangerous for student to drive we totally respect that and feel free to keep them home and hang out with you tonight!

For those students who are driving please give yourself enough time to get here, and please please please be careful!

See you all tonight!

P.A.

Snow you are NO Fun!

Hey there everyone I hope you all get out of school early Today its kinda crazy out there!

So Here is the Down low for tomorrow, as of right now we still have Youth Group! Plan on coming to youth group, I am so excited about tomorrow, we have 3 brand new games we are going to play, awesome worship, and we will be digging into what you need to know before you date the ladies Edition. So ladies you won't want to miss tomorrow night!

If for some reason God wants us to stay home tomorrow I will be updating the blog, facebook, and TV sites if we are canceled. I will only post on the Blog, and Facebook if Youth Group is still on. Please understand that I hate canceling Youth Group! I do not want to at all, but I also want to keep you all safe as possible. So if School cancels tomorrow that doesn't mean we automatically cancel, but it doesn't help the situation. So please don't send me a bunch of texts just look on here tomorrow at 4pm, and I will have it all updated I promise!

Big Chill weekend is this coming Weekend, guys please dress warm for this weekend! Please do not forget a coat or anything because it will be very cold and we will be outside playing games, and different things. so please pack accordingly!

Also for all the parents I will be updating the blog every night with things you can ask your students when they get home, so you don't get the typical "fine" answer. I also plan on posting pictures and video's if possible. So for those parents whose students are going on the trip make this a frequent site to check on!

Be safe getting home today!

P.A.

Monday morning craziness!

Hey there everyone! I hope you all had an amazing Super Sunday, I know I did when the Colts lost. Ohh man I am so excited for Wednesday night with Wes miller :)

Anyways this coming Wednesday we might run into some complications. There is supposedly some major snow storm rolling are way so please look on here for the latest information if we have to cancel. I am not wanting to at all but us as leaders will talk right around 4 in the afternoon and see what we will do. If your school cancels that day, that doesn't mean necessarily we will cancel but that doesn't look good when we are deciding. So look on here for all information.

Ok enough with that Junk!

This Wednesday we are talking to the ladies about what they need to know before they date. WE beat up on the guys a little last week now its the ladies turn to get the spotlight. So come this week and bring your bibles, and a journal to take notes in because Guys the things I am going to be talking about will the attributes in a lady you will want to be looking for. And ladies these are the attributes that you will want to bring out and work on while you are striving to be closer to Christ.

So Come Wedneday night!

The big chill is this weekend! I again can't get the packing list to get into the format we need so I will just put the Major's on here and you should be able to pack for a weekend with out a detialed packing list :)
1. Warm Clothes - Its going to be cold and we will be outside in the snow
2. Toiletries - You will need these!
3. A sleeping bag and pellow :)
4. Bible and journal!
5. Money for 1 meal on the way home
6. Shoes to wear inside a gym, these need to be different then the ones you wear outside!

And then all the other obvious stuff ok guys!

I hope you have an awesome day!

P.A.

Stepping up to be real men!

Hey there everyone I hope you all had a great night last night here at youth group! I know the leaders had a good time hanging out with ya'll and getting to talk with everyone.

Recap from last night
1. Don't start dating until you have a real relationship with Jesus Christ!
- If you aren't loving God you will have no idea how to be in a relationship with someone else.
- If you don't know Jesus Christ as your personal Savior why in the world are you chasing girls when you should be chasing after God!
2. Don't start dating until you know how to pursue a girl in Godly ways!
- Step up and be a man and don't text her to ask her out!
- Step up and plan dates that don't start or end with a movie and dinner
- Get to know her parents before you do anything
- Before you start pursuing her, Check point Number 1
3. Dont start dating until you learn how to fight the good fight
- If you are losing the battle to sexual immorality already, then you shouldn't try to date
- If you are not fighting to get closer to Jesus Christ every single day, you don't need to be dating anyone!

Next week we are going to be talking to the ladies, and we are going to talking about the things you need to know before you start dating!

It will be good!

Remember guys that if you are going to the big chill we aren't meeting here at CVMC we are meeting at Sugar Grove which is located on Old CR 17 down the street from the Concord little league baseball fields, and Soccer fields. Also make sure you have your 50 dollar deposit in, and you picked up a permission slip.

If you have any questions about the Big Chill please email me at cvmcadam@verizon.net

Have an awesome Thursday!

P.A.

things you need to know before you date!

Man I am so pumped for tonight guys, mainly because we get to come together and have tons of fun together, but most importantly Worship God and hear from God tonight!

Tonight we kick off our Relationship series! I am so excited to talking with you guys about this because it actually is a huge passion of mine to see students have healthy relationships with Jesus Christ and in their dating lives. God has some amazing things planned for us tonight. So here are a couple things you need to bring tonight!

1. A Journal to take notes in!
2. a Bible to mark in
3. An attitude ready to learn

Ladies tonight we are going to be talking guys but tonight isn't a night for you to skip because you need to learn what took for in guys and I will be giving you a ton of things to look for tonight! So come ready to hear from God, and to have a ton of fun! Bring a friend tonight.

If you are dating someone you need to bring them to this whole series because it will give you a lot to talk about when you leave youth group that night! So bring them if you can.

Parents another reminder about the Purity Ceremony we are having where all parents are invited on the 24th of February from 6:30 - 8:30! you will be getting an invitation soon! So be on the look out!

The big chill permission slip will be handed out tonight! I am sorry that we couldn't get it placed on the blogspot, the formats wouldn't fit and I am not that computer savy to figure it out!

Hope to see you tonight!

P.A.

Feb1st, 2010

Holy stinking cow, its February already! How insane is that? You have only 5 months left of this school year, You only have 2 more months of cold weather, and you only have 2 more days till we kick off one of the greatest series of all time!

The Relationships Series! - Big explosion, Cool Fire Pillars, Confetti, Sparklers! Wahoo! The crowd is cheering :)

Alright you get the point, this coming wednesday we are going to be running straight into relationships with the opposite sex. The first two weeks we are going to be dropping some knowledge on the men on what you need to know before you date, now for the ladies this doesn't mean you don't come because when we are talking to the men about this stuff, the qualities we talk about you need to be looking for in a man!

We have got some awesome stuff planned, and some really challenging issues we are going to be facing head on as a youth group of 1!

So come and hang out this Wednesday with us and I encourage you to bring your significant other to this series, because you both will have a lot to talk about these series so bring them. If you are afraid to bring them to a series like this, I would pose the question why? Because we are going to give you the tools to bring your relationship front and center with God! If you don't want that there is no way you should be dating you should be on your knees crying out to God!

We are going to bring it like it has never been braughten (I know don't judge the spelling) before!

Also we are going to be having our Purity Ceremony on Feb 24th with a guest speaker coming in, and we are inviting all Parents to be part of this ceremony! Be looking for an invitation coming your way.

I am still working on the Permission slip ordeal, if we don't have it up by tomorrow. I will be printing them out and handing them out on Wednesday night! Thank you for being patient!

P.A.