Howdy everyone.

Hey there everyone I hope you are having a wonderful Monday, I know I am ready to hit the ground running after some time off with the thanksgiving holiday. Just a little reminder for this coming Wednesday night.

We don't have youth group this coming Wednesday night! Please contact your small group leaders and see what they have planned for you! If you are brand new and wanting to start hanging out with the youth group, please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com and I will hook you up with some awesome small group leaders.

The reason we are off this Wednesday is because of the massive pass it forward free garage sale going on at the church! I can't wait to start helping people get winter clothes, and loving people like Christ loves them!

But on December 8th we return with all the awesomeness that comes with the CVMC Youth Group! Then on December 15th we have our big dirty Bingo night! So bring a friend, a 5$ wrapped gift, and a snack to share with others. The night is going to be stinking awesome. We will have tons of food that night, and then we will play a massive game of Bingo.

Hope to see you guys NEXT Wednesday night.

P.A.

Being thankful!

Hey there everyone! I want you to know that I am very thankful to be your youth pastor. I love being able to get to know so many of you. So many of you I have seen grow in the Lord, and so many of you start making really awesome decisions to follow the Lord.

I am blessed to be able to call this church home!

Here is a little video about thanksgiving for ya! Have a great holiday!



P.A.

Spring Youth Group schedule

Hey there everyone I hope you are having a great day where ever you may be! So today Esther and I have placed ourselves in a sweet coffee shop here in Holland MI, and we are doing some more work. Today I really felt that God has been gearing me up the last couple weeks to start putting down in pen what we are going to be talking about this coming Spring. We normally use the spring to disciple more. For example we normally go through a book of the bible in a month, we talk about how to pray, and then we always challenge students to be pure in the month of February.

We aren't changing things alot except I believe that this spring we have a massive opportunity to grow closer to Christ! So here are the series we are going to be covering this spring!

January - Sun Stand still - This is a series we are doing on praying for the impossible to happen. This series will take us into the "Big Chill" and during the big chill weekend we will be challenging students to really start praying for the impossible!

February - Purity - This will be our 4th year we are doing a purity series, but this year we aren't breaking up guys and girls we are going to be doing some pretty intense sessions on Love. Also this year we are giving you the chance to ask anything you want anonymously with a live Q & A session with my wife and I. You guys will be able to text in your questions and all month long and we will compile them and answer as many as we can in the allotted time. We will end the month with a purity ceremony, this year will be bigger and better!

March - Elijah! - We are going to be going over this mans amazing life and learning from the experiences he went through and how we can learn to grow closer to Christ and to step out and do some crazy awesome things for Christ.

April - Stop Acting like a Christian - This is going to be a 2 week series because the month is broken up with Spring break in there, and we are going to talk about how we need to stop acting like Christians and actually BE a Christian!

May- Identity theft - We are going to be ending our year with talking about your identity in Christ. I believe this is the most important thing for our youth group and we are wanting to finish out our school year with a great series to really motivate you to take this summer and make unlike any other you have ever had! We will be talking about who you are in Christ, and the lies Satan tries to put in your mind to destroy your life.

I hope you guys are excited as I am for this Spring! Have an amazing thanksgiving everyone.

Ohh 1 last thing...........GO DALLAS!

P.A.

Truefaced

So I am reading a book right now called "truefaced" I am only a little bit into the book but man it is hitting me in the face about encouraging our students to really be bold with their faith, and be striving after what God has called them too.

A couple things I want to encourage our students with:
1. Walk with Christ! If you aren't daily putting time into your relationship with God DO IT! It might be sitting down and talking with God, it might opening up your bible and reading a chapter, it might be sticking up for those who don't have a voice at your school. But continually walk with God!
2. Dream! Don't be tied down to the generation in front of you. Some people in the generation in front of us have locked in to the ways they want to live life. Which is ok if God has called them to that, but don't be a copy cat of those around you! Dream bigger and better things in your relationship with Christ. Don't Settle! Never Stop Fighting for your relationship with Christ.

To the Parents:
1. Encourage! You have to be encouraging your students when they do things correct. I understand that its hard to sometimes look past some of the flaws, and sometimes it seems like its 2 steps forward then 1 step back but aren't we all like that at time. This is a crucial time for these students. They need encouragement, and they need love. These students go to school and get beat down by the world. They go to practices and get beat down by the world, they don't need to come home and get it over again from those closest to them. Guide, push, discipline, and correct, but never forget to come behind those actions with encouragement.
2. Model Christ to your kids. When your kids see you blowing off church, never reading your bible, not praying, never helping the poor, and talking bad about others. That is what they are going to do. Be authentic with your kids, tell them your questions about God, Tell them SOME things you wrestle with in your life. Be transparent with them in some cases. (obviously use discretion) I see all the time kids following in their parents footsteps, especially in the church realm. Model Christ to these students!

Hope you guys have a great week! 2 day school weeks always rock.

P.A.

Voting!

Hey there everyone, I am sorry we haven't gotten the voting polls up yet. We are still working on getting those up and around, I have been out of the state since Thursday and won't be back till Wednesday night, so please be patient. I will make sure I text everyone, and post it on facebook with a link when the polls are up and going!

I hope things are going well for you, I am praying for you this week to finish strong. And then have a great time with families during Thanksgiving!

Just a reminder we don't have youth group this week because of Thanksgiving break! Isn't that insane, before you know it December 15th will be here and we will be having our Dirty Bingo Night! Gonna be awesome.

Have a great week guys!

P.A.

Letters to God.

Wow, I was reading through some of the letters last night, and man some students poured their heart out to God! Like in a majorly awesome way. God is so stinking awesome.

Be praying for Esther and I as we are out of town the next couple days. I won't be on my phone much so if you call or text I might not get back to you all that quickly. Hope you guys have a wonderful thanksgiving. I can't wait to eat some turkey with family, and then watch my boys dominate the Saints!

I will leave you with this awesome video!




P.A.

Tonight's gonna Rock your face off!

Hey there everyone, I hope your day is going well. I know mine is going to be a little different. Keep Esther in your prayers this week she lost her Grandma yesterday unexpectedly, and so she will be gone tonight through probably Sunday with her family. So Keep her in your prayers during this hard time.

Tonight will be a pretty fun because we have some new things planned for ya, and we are going to have some good dialogue tonight about 1 verse in particular but we are going to be talking in small groups tonight about some different people we want to help.

So come tonight ready to serve in one aspect, experience Christ in another, and then have a ton of fun on the other hand. We have a whole slew of Jesus at ya tonight :) So when Jesus is around you know its going to be a party, and a good one at that!

Hope to see you tonight at 6:30pm.

P.A.

Really long but productive day.

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well for you so far today. I know for me my day has been really long but also really tiring so I am ready for a good work out tonight and some time of rest before tomorrow night!

So this is what is going down for tomorrow night. We are going to be be having a sweet time with some new school and old school games, then we are going to have a worship session that is a little different then normal. Then we are going to be having a dialogue around being an Activist. We have some pretty sweet things going down for tomorrow night.

Also for those Junior High students who still want to go on the Junior High Retreat for this Friday I need money tomorrow night! As of right now we need a lot of students to sign up for us to have this retreat. I know a lot of you are busy but think about it and if you have any questions talk with me tomorrow night. We would love to still have this retreat.

Just a little reminder we don't have youth group next week because of Thanksgiving! So Enjoy some time with your families and eat some turkey and watch the Cowboys for me!

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

P.A.

Wow, I can't belive it

Hey there everyone I can't believe that next week is thanksgiving! Can you honestly believe that. Like this time next week people will be shopping for turkeys and my favorite the Stuffing! HMMMMM

Anyways that is just insane to me! Anywho, this coming Wednesday is going to be stinking awesome people! We have some really cool new things planned for you to take some time to slow down and be with God. We are going to be having a worship Experience this Wednesday night where we are going to be having stations set up around the sanctuary during worship time so you guys can not only sing to worship God, but maybe write him a letter, or Journal, or draw. You get to choose or you can just sit and listen to the worship music and just be in the presence of God.

So this Wednesday night during our worship time that is what we are planning on doing.

Also this Wednesday we are going to be giving you a time to talk about what type of ministries we want to come behind and help out. Whether that be Tiny Hands, TOMS shoes, fair trade coffee, compassion international, or something else.

So come this Wednesday ready to discuss in your small groups maybe something you would want to do.

Last but not least. This Friday and Saturday is the Junior high retreat, We need to have more Junior high students sign up for this trip or we might have to cancel it. We only have 2 students signed up so far and we need a bunch more to make this work so Junior High students bring 25$ this Wednesday night for the last day to sign up and get in on this Retreat its going to be so much fun guys! I can't wait.

See you on Wednesday night brothers and sisters.

P.A.

Destination unknown Pt 2

Hey there everyone I hope you had an amazing Saturday I know we had an awesome day down here in Gatlinburg.

We started the day off with some Egg casserole and hang out time in the cabin, and then we took a hike up to grotto falls. We posted pictures up on facebook of the trip. Then we can back to the cabin and at some stromboli that Esther and Kristi made. Then we spent the afternoon here at the cabin as the men played a game of football and the ladies played games in the cabin. Then tonight we went to the Dixie Stamped. We laughed a ton tonight and yelled a lot at the south (we were seated in the North) Then we came home to the cabin and now the students are getting packed up for heading back tomorrow.

God has given us some pretty cool memories and some unifying experiences. Everyone has had a pretty good trip. There are a lot of really tired students, and sore students. A lot of the guys are sore from football. So for tomorrow please be praying for safe travel as Doug and I are driving, and for good weather.

Questions to ask your students tomorrow when they get home.
1. What was your favorite part of the hike?
2. Did you walk behind the waterfall?
3. How awesome was the chicken dance at the Dixie Stampede?
4. Did you eat all the food you got at the Dixie Stampede?
5. Would you go again on a trip like this?

Destination unknown Pt 1

Hey there everyone I hope you are having a great evening, we are having a great time here in the smokey mountains. We got here late so we don't have any pictures of the cabin but we will post some tomorrow when we update.

It took a little bit longer to get down here then normal so we are just starting our Movie night with the students. Luckily for us we can move our schedule around if needed, so one thing that you can be praying for us this weekend is for students to sleep well the next couple nights! We need to have students in good moods. Also if you can be praying for God to move in our students with unity. We have some really fun things planned to help create unity for tomorrow

Everyone is here and accounted for and everyone is really tired from traveling all day. So when you get your students back on Sunday, they will be a tired bunch.

Here are a couple questions to ask your students about the first day.

1. What funny stories do you have from lexington and the scavenger hunt.
2. How awesome was the cabin?
3. What room did you sleep in and who were your cabin buddies?
4. How was the mexican meal the first night?
5. How tired were you during the movie?

Hope these questions help you navigate your way through this weekend experience with your student coming home!

We are having a ton of fun! Your prayers are appreciated.

P.A.

Activist of Choice

Last night we talked about being an activist of choice, everyone has a choice of where to spend their money, who to hang out with, and what to do with their time. We went global with our decisions first, with helping with fair trade coffee, rice, banana's, and lots of other products. Then we went local with our choices to party or not to party because of the lifestyle you are choosing to spend your time, then we went in your face of saying we have a choice to love Christ or to love ourselves.

It was a really fun night last night. We had probably one of the best games ever last night! Shooting oyster crackers out of someone's nose and into someone's mouth! Big shout out to Caleb and Graham Morris for accomplishing the goal and earning some Cash Money :)

Tomorrow morning we are leaving for Destination unknown at 8am, we will be updating where we are at, and I will be updating on here during our trip. So if you want to see pictures, check out my facebook, twitter, and here on the blogspot.

I hope you are having a great day! Can't wait till tomorrow.

P.A.

Wednesday is the best day ever!

Hey there everyone! I hope things are going well for you today. I am sorry that these posts have been more information these past few days but its because I have been super busy with the destination unknown trip coming up, plus getting Wednesday nights put together, plus Sunday nights, plus Junior High retreat on November 19th-20th, plus speaking last weekend for another church, plus my family!

So this month is kinda insane, so these posts have been taking a back seat to some other things that are more on the important side. Anywho, tonight's youth group is going to be spectacular! I can't wait to hang out with you guys tonight and have a ton of fun. We are going to be talking about being an activist of Choice. We are going to be talking about Global choices we make, Local choices we make and then right in front of us choices we make! I know when I was planning this message God was really rocking my world in the things I spend my money on and what I spend my time doing. Tonight's catch phrase is "Every choice has a price tag"

You will hear that alot.

Can't wait to hang out with ya tonight. So be here at 6:30pm!

We will be meeting tonight with the Destination unknown team. We have a couple more things for you guys to pack and be prepared for!

P.A.

Youth Group tomorrow

Hey there everyone, sorry this post is coming so late in the day but I have been in a staff meeting for the day so here is a run down on the things for this week!

1. Youth Group tomorrow night is going to be stinking awesome so come on out and hang out with us for a little while. We start at 6:30 and we will be done at 8:30. We are in the middle of this series called "Activist" and we are going to be talking about 3 levels of choices we can make to change the world! So come on out and have a ton of fun with us.

2. The High School Destination unknown trip is FULL! For those who signed up but never got their deposit in by the first week of November you are out of luck my friends. If someone backs out we will start a waiting list which we already have about 5 people on. So I am sorry for those who missed out but we will hopefully be doing this again next year! Make sure you don't miss out then.

Hope you guys have a great rest of the day!

P.A.

Monday = Craziness

Hey there everyone I hope you are having a great day, and I hope you had a great weekend. I know mine was pretty intense with speaking at a retreat, helping with worship, and then teaching some junior high and senior high students yesterday. So much fun, but kinda busy.

So anyways, I was planning this Wednesday out and man is it good! We have some really funny games we are going to be playing this Wednesday night and then we are going to be continuing on in our Activist series about being an Activist of choice! It's pretty cool somethings that we can do just by making the right choices and by thinking about the choices we are making. Its so crazy to think about the things I took for granted or the things I wasn't aware of because I just didn't think.

So come this Wednesday as we continue to challenge ourselves to think differently, and to really explore how we can make a global impact for the Kingdom of God.

Alright, another thing we need to talk about is this coming Friday morning we are leaving on our Destination unknown trip and the trip is full! So for those who didn't get there deposit in I am sorry but you are too late to sign up for this trip. We will hopefully be doing another trip next year around the same time! So make sure you get signed up for that one! You can follow our adventures on here the blogspot, but also my twitter page as well. We hopefully we will be posting pictures of where we are at, and what is going on.

Be praying for us with safe travels, and good weather!

Hope to see you guys here Wednesday night!

P.A.

Being an Activist

Hey there everybody! Man last night was great. We had 2 great speakers come in and lead us on being an activist.

A big Thank you goes out to Kim Frost and Jon Andrews for coming in and helping us out. They are stinking awesome.

So last night we split up our Junior High and Senior high for the night. The Junior high were lead in a discussion of what it means to help and be an activist by talking over the story of the good Samaritan (Luke 10). They were challenged that even if we go out and do some awesome stuff for others but then come home and jerks to our parents, or we lie, cheat and steal. Then we are missing the point of being a Christian, we can't do good works for others, but then being a complete poopface at the same time. Doesn't work that way.

The High school students learned about human trafficking last night from Jon Andrews. We learned about Tiny Hands international who help with rescuing girls and guys from sex trafficking all over the world. It was a pretty intense night, and we are looking forward to creating something to help out. We learned that we need to be part of something bigger then ourselves, and take the focus off of me, and point it towards Christ while helping those in need.

Can't wait for next week when we go further into the activist series and talk about other organizations that we possibly could come along side.

Next week is our Destination unknown trip and we are looking forward to it. The trip is all set and ready to rock and roll, and the students are set and ready!

Please be praying for good travel weather and good times with our students!

Have an amazing day today!

P.A.

Youth Group tonight.

Hey there everyone tonight's youth group is going to be a blast! We have got 2 different speakers tonight.

Junior High students tonight you are going to be learning what it means to love another human being when there is nothing in it for you besides you have been called to love people by God. We have a sweet discussion time planned for you tonight with your small group leaders.

Senior High students we are going to be meeting here at CVMC like normal we are going to be playing games, and watching funny video's together but then we are going to be moving you over to the pretty place tonight to listen to Jon Andrews talk to you about Tiny Hands international. It's going to be a great time tonight.

We are starting a new series called Activist tonight. Where we are going to be challenging students and leaders to get involved in the injustices in the World. Whether that be providing water to those who have none, to be the voice for those who have lost theirs due to government
oppression, or those who have lost everything and need help. We are called to be the hands and feet of Jesus, and thats what this series is all about.

We hope to see you tonight at 6:30!

P.A.

Voting day!

Yahoo its finally here, Voting day!

Ok well now on to the more important stuff! YOUTH GROUP!

Tomorrow night we have some awesome awesome awesome things going down. We are actually going to be splitting up the high school and Junior high tomorrow night for our speaking time. The High school students are going to be meeting here at the Church and playing some games with us and hanging out but then they are going to be moving over to the Pretty Place down like a quarter mile down the road while the Junior high stay at the church and do worship and hear another speaker! Its going to be stinking awesome.

We are starting a new series called "Activist" where we are going to be challenging students and leaders to really get involved with stopping injustices in the world. So we are going to be talking about and praying about what group and what cause we as a youth group want to come behind and help out. So for the next 3 weeks we are going to be talking about what it means to love people like Christ loves people, and helping those in need!

I hope you all have an amazing day!

See you tomorrow.

P.A.

November is here!

Ohh my word do you guys realize how close we are to thanksgiving? Insane!

So here is the run down for November and the Youth Group.

1. We start a new series called "Activist" where we are going to be talking about injustice in the world, and we are going to be partnering with people all around the world to be and help make a difference. So come this Wednesday to have your socks rocked by Jon Andrews for High school students, and Junior High student we have special speaker for ya'll!

2. We have 2 MASSIVE retreats for High school and Junior High!
- High school students November 12th-14th we are taking you on a destination unknown trip. It is going to be awesome, we still have spots available so if you are wanting to go get me 150$ by this Wednesday and you are in.
- Junior High students November 19th - 20th, we are taking you guys over to Elkhart to a retreat center where we are going to be bringing in a speaker from Ohio who is going to be talking about unexpected expectations! We are going to challenge you guys as Junior High students to be more then just typical Junior High students but be world changers, school changers, family changers, and most all Christ Followers! So if you want to go its only 25$ to go and you need the money in by November 10th!

So that is the scope for CVMC youth group. We hope you can join us this Wednesday for some great conversation, and eye opening experiences. Hope to see you here Wednesday night for Youth Group.

P.A.