3dyc session 4

Hey there everyone, I hope your night is going great. We have so much energy from our dodgeball victories. We didn't get the championship but we made it to the semi-finals. So much stinking fun. Then we had our 4th annual pizza party where the entire youth group gets to have some pizza and just close out a great night.

Tonight's session was all about the forgiveness of God. We talked about how in the Lords prayer it talks about how we should forgive our debtors, because God first forgave us. The speaker then took us down a path talking about how if we don't forgive others we won't be able to take our next step with Christ.

Then we did a really cool thing tonight and we took communion tonight as a entire youth group. God moved in an incredible way. Students were able to take communion and then worship. I love seeing our students worship Christ and being able to have the freedom to worship after communion when they have spent some quality time with Christ before even praising him with their voices.

Here are some questions you can ask your students when they come home tomorrow.

1. How was communion last night?
2. What do you think of our relationship with Christ effecting our relationships with others?
3. How was the worship after taking communion? Did you feel more free to worship God?
4. How was playing dodgeball with ever everyone watching?

We had such a great time here this year! We are so blessed by all our your students.

Tomorrow we will be home right around 2pm. We will have the students call you when we are about 30 minutes away. If you can please be ready to pick up your students right at 2pm. I know the leaders have not had a lot of sleep these past 2 days :)

See you tomorrow!

P.A.

3dyc session 3

Hey there everyone, I hope you got more sleep than we did last night because we didn't get much. To much fun, dodgeball, and sugar keeping us up.

This morning I believe was one of the best morning sessions we have ever had at 3dyc. The speaker read out of Ephesians, Galatians, and Matthew. He spoke on spiritual disciplines that we can gather from the lords prayer, the prodical son, and being imitators of Christ.

He challenged the group to be working towards being a replica of Christ in the nuts and bolts of living life every day.

Here are some questions you can ask your student when they get back home.

1. What do you think of approaching Christ as a Father or dad?
2. When you hear the story of the prodical son and the father waiting for him day after day, how does that remind you of Christ?
3. When we read that the Bible is God breathed, what does that mean to you?
4. When you hear the story of the speaker learning to play Jazz Trumpet and how he listened to great players and tried to replicate them, how should we be learning to replicate Jesus in our lives?
5. When you spent time alone with God after the session what did you learn from that time?

We are going to have a ton of fun today, we are going to be playing kick ball with all of our students, and we have a flash mob planned for the session tonight, then later tonight we have some teams still in the dodgeball tourny!

As I am sitting out in the hall way writing this update, I am looking at our students diving into their bibles and writing down what they are learning. It is an amazing site to see junior high and high school students calming themselves down, and spending focused time on their relationship with Christ.

Keep praying for our students tonight will be a big night for most of them!

P.A.

3dyc Session 2

Hey there everyone here are some questions that you can ask your students about session 2.

1. How did you like the description of the temptation of Christ?
2. What do you think of the genealogy of Christ going backwards?
3. When God made man and breathed life into, and then He breathed on His disciples, how do you feel about Christ breathing life into you?
4. How did you feel about the youth group time after the session?
5. Did you have fun at dodgeball?

We have a lot of pictures we are trying to load up here but the internet connection is a little bit slower, I am going to be plugging into a faster internet connection tomorrow. We will try to post a lot more tomorrow.

The students are doing amazing! Lots of awesome fun tonight. Keep praying for our students to continue listening to Christ and moving forward in there relationship with Christ. Had some students take a step forward tonight during the session. God is moving, God is moving, God is moving!

We are so thankful for these times with the students, tons of memories are being made. Pray for the conversations we will have tonight in the hotel rooms. Also pray for our leaders to get sleep!

Have a great night tonight!

P.A.

3dyc session 1

Hey there everyone! I hope things are going well for you. We are in Ft. Wayne and the students are having a ton of fun! The first session was a great session. We broke open the word of God and read in Genesis 1 about how God created the universe, and how when He created us as humans like himself. We can love others, we can create relationships, and we can point people back to the creator.

The speaker guided us through a series of questions to think about like.

- Do you live in tension with God or do you live in unison with Christ?
- Do you feel like you should be connected to something bigger than yourself?

He then dove into talking about being Holy, and how God has called us to be holy like He is holy.

I am super excited for what these students are going to learn these couple days.

Here are a couple questions that you can ask your students when they get home about session 1.

1. What did you think of the opener of the conference when people were reading different scriptures?
2. Do you feel that you live in tension with God or in Unison?
3. What do you think being holy is all about?
4. Is it hard to believe that God created the world while He can also know you personally?
5. What did you think of when the speaker talked about his grandma and the effect she has had in the speakers life?

Those are some questions from the first session, this session was more of a appetizer for what is to come tonight and the rest of the 3 days.

Please be praying for our students to open themselves up to what God has for them here in Fort Wayne. I believe God has some amazing things in store for this group of students!

To God be the Glory!

P.A.

3dyc packing list

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well with you! Tomorrow is the day we leave for 3dyc in Fort Wayne for 3 days. We are super pumped to be going to a place where the entire theme is going to be about being transformed by the power of Christ into the person that God is calling you to be.

Just a Reminder:
1. We leave at 8am tomorrow morning, so please get here a little before 8 because we will have some announcements to go over, and we will need to load up the bus.
2. Parents we are asking you for a special note of encouragement be given to Pastor Adam when you drop off your student. We have something special we really want to do with these during one of the youth group times, so please don't forget those!
3. Parents I will be updating this site twice a day debriefing what we have been doing and with pictures through out the day. I will also be uploading them to facebook so you can check my facebook page.

For those who are going to be packing tonight here is the packing list.

Packing list:

- Bible - Bring to every single Session!
- Pen - To mark in your Bible and to write in 3dyc Packet.

(You will be given when you arrive)
- Clothes
- Jeans
- T-shirts
- Shorts - to play sports in.
- underwear
- Socks
- Shoes
- Pajamas - Which will be only worn in your room to go to sleep in-

- Cell phone - We are allowing people to take cell phones with them but we don't want this to distract from the real reason we are there, so if the cell phone is an issue we will take them and give them back at the end of the trip.
- Toiletries
- Deodorant
- Shampoo
- Toothbrush
- Tooth paste
- Soap

Things not to bring:
- Ipods
-ITouch
-Anything Irelated unless its an IPhone which case I will steal it from you.

Just kidding! Or am I?
- MP3 players
- Bad attitudes
- Any weapons
- Small Children

- No X-Box’s, PS3’s, Wii’s, or gaming consoles of any sorts.

P.A.

Tonight is the night!

Hey there everyone I hope your Wednesday is going awesome! I know mine is going to crammed full of things for tonight's Christmas Party!

So here are the details you will need to know!

When: 6:30pm - 8:30pm
Where: Crystal Valley Missionary Church
What: The best Dirty Bingo Christmas Party Ever!
What to Bring: a WRAPPED, akchheeem, I said a WRAPPED gift. We are suggesting it be under 5$, but if it isn't no big deal. Also bring a snack to share with everyone!
Who to bring: ALL of your friends, but make sure they bring a wrapped, akchheeem, I said a WRAPPED gift! Also, a snack to share with everyone.
Dress attire: Tonight's theme is 70's! The winner gets a free trip to our winter camp in February!

I hope to see tons of people here tonight. Bring your friends tonight, because its going to be so stinking awesome, just a tons of fun. Octoball is set up, and we have a hilarious video before hand so don't be late!

P.A.

Disco Christmas!

Hey there everyone, I hope your Tuesday is going awesome! I know mine is super busy getting ready for our party tomorrow night, but I LOVE IT!

Today I want to type about why tomorrow night is going to be such a great opportunity for you to bring your friends to REFUGE!

About every 6 weeks or so we plan a night where every student can bring a friend to experience what Refuge is all about. Now many of those times its a party, or a night where we are doing something a little different like Bigger or Better, Harvest Party, or like tomorrow night with a Christmas Dirty Bingo Party. We create these nights specifically to allow students who regularly attend our Refuge the opportunity to take their next step with Christ in inviting someone to church. Now for some people that isn't a big deal, they invite lots of people to lots of places, but for some this opportunity is a big deal! It can be that next step in their faith journey. Another specific reason we place these nights about every six weeks apart is that it gives our students an opportunity to connect a little more deeply with their small group and small group leader. Lots of times when we have these nights you will see the small groups naturally hanging around each other. Which gives the group the possibility of growing together and having the fun memories of a party together.

So with that said tomorrow night is one of those opportunities to invite a friend or someone who just needs a little time away from the craziness of school. Take the rest of today and tonight and start praying for someone who you can invite to our party tomorrow night. You never know who God is going to put into your path!

So in closing here are the 4 things you will need to bring tomorrow to make our Dirty Bingo Party a Success:
1. Bring a WRAPPED gift that is under 5$.
2. Bring a snack to share with everyone!
3. Bring a friend, and make sure they bring #1 and #2!
4. Dress up like the 70's! Disco night at the Dirty Bingo Party. The best dressed gets a free scholarship to our winter camp in February!

Have a great day I hope to see you tomorrow!

P.A.

Dirty Bingo Christmas Party!

Hey there everyone I hope things are going awesome for you. I am super pumped for this weeks REFUGE! We are going to be having our annual Christmas Party and Dirty Bingo night.

Dirty Bingo is played just like regular bingo, except when you get a bingo you have a choice of stealing someone else's present, or getting a new one from the pile! It's pretty stinking fun.

So here are a couple things you will need to know for this coming Wednesday's Christmas Party.

1. You need to bring 1 wrapped! Let reemphasize that.....You need to bring 1 WRAPPED gift.
2. You need to bring a snack to share with the group, we are going to have a ton of food if everyone brings a snack, but if everyone doesn't bring a snack, well then we won't have much food to consume that night.
3. Our theme this year is DISCO! So come dressed to the tilt in your disco attire! Bell bottom jeans, tye dye shirts, long scarfs, big glasses, the works! If you win best dressed you can win a free trip to our winter camp in February called "Big Chill"

I hope you can join us this coming Wednesday night for an amazing night of fun, giveaways, and food. Have a great last week of school, and we hope to see you Wednesday night!

P.A.

Sorry for the lack of information

Hey there everyone I hope you are having a great day, sorry I haven't got to update in a little while my days have been pretty insane, but I wanted to stop some of the things I was doing today and tell you of a really awesome God moment.

Last night we finished a mini series on Renewing our Faith Christ, and we created a 40 day devotional guide for our students. I was hoping that some of them would take it home with them and really dig into it, but we had over 75 students take the challenge!

HOW AWESOME IS GOD!

So during the next 40 days will you commit to praying for these students. Here are a couple things to pray about.

1. For the the students to develop a hunger for the Word of God!
2. For the students to answer the questions honestly, and really think about what is being asked of them.
3.Against distractions that would keep them from taking the time to read the word of God.
4. For their small group leaders to continue to have wisdom when talking to the students.
5. For the students to start cultivating their own personal walk with Jesus Christ!

Thank you for those who will commit to pray for these students who are embarking on some amazing adventures in the upcoming weeks!

Praise be to God!

P.A.

Remain

hey there everyone, I hope this week is going be a great one for you. I know for me it's going to be really busy, but its going to be a great week because we have a ton of amazing things coming up for the Refuge, this week we are going to be handing out an awesome tool to help people stay committed to Christ. Also we are going to be doing the first of something this Wednesday night so make sure you are here for that! Also next Wednesday is our annual Dirty Bingo Christmas Party, and we are doing a disco themed night so make sure you get your bell bottom jeans, and your big sun glasses and all sorts of amazingness put together!

Then the Wednesday after that is the kick off to 3dyc! So I am super pumped to take a bunch of students down to Fort Wayne to have a great time down there for 3 days.

So the next couple weeks are going to be stinking crazy! But a good crazy.

I hope to see a ton of students Wednesday night at REFUGE! We start at 6:30 @ CVMC.

P.A.

Tech stuff is great.

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going awesome for you. I know last night was a ton of fun, and lots of people got cookies thanks to Mr. and Mrs. Reigsecker! They were delicious.

Last night we talked about being spiritually inconsistent, and having an honest look at where we are at with our relationship with Christ. We broke down Col 3. Where it talks about putting on the new nature of Christ. We looked at what it means to be clothed in Christ, and to be made new once again.

We also talked about being numb to the Spirit of God, and being so entangled in sin we didn't know which way was up or down. This hit home with a lot of students because many of them didn't know when the last time they actually felt close to God. We got to talk to alot of students who want to renew their relationship with Christ and really start digging into scripture.

I am super excited to see where God is going to take these students, and what He is going to do in and through them. I believe God can do some amazing things through teenagers and I believe wholeheartedly that God is going to use these students in amazing ways!

To God be the glory!

P.A.

Tomorrow night = greatness

Hey there everyone, I don't have a ton of time to update today because I am heading up to Kalamazoo for a big chill meeting with the 3 youth groups that will be there this year. Big Chill is going to be awesome. Our theme this year is "The Rebellion" It is going to be February 10th - 12th. We will begin sign ups in January! Can't wait.

Anywho,

Tomorrow night we are going to be kicking off a new series called Renew. I can't wait for it! My brain is exploding with excitement. We haven't had a REFUGE meeting in 2 weeks now and it is far to long if I must say so.

But here are a couple things you will need for tomorrow night.

1. Your Bible
2. A friend or 10.
3. Some money for cafe, because we have some new things we are offering at the cafe.....Starbucks drinks??? Maybe come find out!
4. A ton of Energy.
5. Your competitive nature, we are bringing back some of our favorite games of the 1st semester so be prepared for some fierce competition.

Well I am on my way out for most of the day. Blessings!

Don't be late tomorrow night we have some amazing video's!

P.A.

40 days

Hey there everyone, I hope you had a great time this weekend. I know for our Northridge crowd you had a good time at the Semi-formal dance. I know I have seen tons of pictures up on facebook and it looks like everyone had some good food, and good times.

We are going to be kicking something off this coming Wednesday night. It's called 40 days of renewal. We are going to be talking about what it means to restore a relationship that might have been damaged. I have been doing some praying and some questioning in my own relationship with Christ and I honestly believe that its time for us to raise the bar, and start digging deep into scripture.

As I am writing this a song came on my computer called "dry bones" by Gungor. It is talking about Ezekiel calling those who have walked away from their first love, Christ, and is in need of an awakening. There is a line in the song that says "Jesus, you make all things new. We are crying out for you"

That is what I feel like our REFUGE is in need of right now, a realignment with Christ. I believe we have been doing some great things but I believe now is the time to start inviting students to know the bible, and not just know of the bible.

I am inviting you this Wednesday night to come and worship, and be challenged to take up a 40 day devotional reading plan that is going to rock your socks off! We have created a great tool for you to use doing this time and we hope that this Wednesday night you take us up on this challenge!

JESUS CAN MAKE ALL THINGS NEW!

P.A.

REFUGE

Hey there everyone, Welcome to Thursday. I hope its a great one for ya!

I know there are a lot of things going on in lots of people's lives right now, and I know some are painful. I want to speak (type) life into your circumstance.

God is powerful, amazing, and wonderful. He wants to be close to you and wants to comfort the pain and the confusion. Don't hide anymore! Quit running the opposite way from what He is calling you to. You know exactly what He is wanting you to quit, give up, change, and destroy, but you keep holding on to the world. The world will give you nothing but pain, and hollow happiness. If you want to be satisfied, and feel something you haven't felt in a long time. Seek out Christ. Don't just sit and open your bible, but sit and BE with God. That might be hard at first, but slow and surely it will get easier and easier. Start tearing down the walls that you have built up over the years. Don't be scared if you fail, but brush yourself off and keep running toward the God who created and LOVES YOU!

Don't settle for alight, be strive for excellence. Don't accept anything less from yourself, and help others strive towards excellence. Do the same with your relationship with Christ. Don't settle for it being ok, but strive, strain, and stretch yourself to new heights in your relationship with Christ.

I know you can do it students!

Blessings,
P.A.

No Power in Late Novemeber!

Hey there everyone, We got a ton of snow last night. Whoof! I don't know about everyone else but we lost power around 9pm, and we still don't have power. It was a cold night sleep, luckily our dogs have lots of fur so they were all good last night, but man I was stinking cold.

Anyways, The snow isn't going to keep us down!

Tonight is SMALL GROUP OUTINGS!

If you have been reading the posts the last couple days you know that tonight at the church we are starting the Pass it Forward sale. Tonight is the largest night out of the 4. We will have hundreds of people here tonight, our parking lot will be packed, and there will be lots of people standing in lines. Most of the small groups are not going to be meeting here but if you are please be aware that it is going to be a mad house! A controlled mad house, but none the less, a mad house.

I hope you all have a great night tonight with your small groups! I think God has some amazing things he wants to do with your groups tonight. I have been praying for the students and the leaders all week!

If you have any questions about tonight please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com.

Have a great day!

P.A.

Small group awesomeness

Hey there everyone, Welcome to the first real snow of the season. I don't think I am ready for the first snow, I think I am ready for snow on Christmas and New Years, and then it can get right back to 70's so I can golf and play soccer :)

Ohh well, I should just get ready for a long winter.

Here are couple things you need to be aware of for tomorrow nights small group outings:

1. If you are being dropped off at the church please be aware that the church is having a pass it forward free garage sale. There will be HUNDREDS of people here tomorrow night! So please be aware of that if you are being dropped off at the church.

2. Please contact your small group leader if you don't know where you are going. Most of the small group leaders have been talking about where they are going for the past couple weeks, but I can understand if someone forgot where they are going. If you don't have your small group leaders cell phone number please email at cvmcadam@gmail.com and I can get you contact with them.

3. Please remember to bring money if you are needing money for where you are going! Most of our small group leaders have some extra money but some do not and we don't want you to miss out on a great night because you might of forgot some money, so please make sure you remember to bring everything you need for the night to be a great evening!

Small Group outings are a great night for students to get a different look at our ministry. These nights are used for serving, having fun, deepening relationships, and giving out youth leaders a chance to plan a night specific to their groups needs, and wants.

Don't miss out on these nights where your small group leader has taken time to plan out something great for your group.

I hope you all have a wonderful day!

P.A.

Small Group outings

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well for you this morning. It's always hard to get back into a routine after a long weekend especially when you have a ton of time off and you then have to step right back into reality. Be encouraged that God is a big God, and that He can do some amazing things even we feel like we aren't at our best.

A couple things you will need to know for Refuge this week.

1. Small Group outings this coming Wednesday night!
- If your small group is meeting at the church please be prepared that Pass it Forward is going on that night and its the busiest night of the whole week. So please be prepared for mass amounts of people if you are meeting here to be dropped off or picked up!

2. December 21st - Dirty Bingo
- This is one of the most fun nights of the year! I would rank this right behind our Harvest Party. This is what this night entails. Everyone person brings a wrapped gift, we ask that the gift be under $5, but its up to you. The gift can be funny, but please keep it clean. Then we play a massive game of bingo, where people can steal other people's gifts. At the very end of the night we will all open up our presents and have a big laugh at what everyone got.
- This year our theme for the night is 70's disco Christmas Party. The winner for this year will win an amazing prize!

I hope you guys have a great day today.

Please be in prayer for our church this week as it is pass it forward week. This is a huge week, and I know that the enemy will want to ruin it at any chance he can get so please keep our church in prayer this week.

Thanks!

P.A.

Another funny Thanksgiving video.

Hey there everyone, I hope you have a great thanksgiving! Lets remember to be thankful for what we have!





P.A.

Thanksgiving video.

A great little video for all of you for thanksgiving!

Thanksgiving week!

Hey there everyone, I hope you have a great week. I am out of town this week so the blog spot won't be updated every day. Here is the big thing that you will need to know about this Wednesday.

There is no Refuge this Wednesday night. Spend some time with your family and spend some time with God.

I will be posting a Thanksgiving devotional sometime before Thursday.

Have a great week this week.

P.A.

Great Night at REFUGE

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well for you. I know Thursdays are always difficult for me because I put so much energy into Wednesday nights, that Thursday is like a big recovery day. The issue is I am amping up for our preteen program on Thursday so I get like 2 hours in the morning of details done, and then I am starting to create for Sunday. I wouldn't trade my job for anything though I love it!

Last nights parents meeting was awesome, some great questions, and I am so thankful that lots of parents showed up to hear about 3dyc. I can't wait to see what 3dyc is going to do for our students and our leaders! God is going to do some amazing things. So be prepared.

If you missed the meeting we are hoping to post the notes here on the blogspot for everyone to see them. We will be posting the packing list for 3dyc on here in December so just in case you lose the one we handed out last night just check back here for the list.

A couple things to be reminded about that are still coming up in November.

1. No REFUGE next Wednesday night. Enjoy getting food ready and enjoying family!
2. November 30th is small group outings. The church is going to be completely full of clothes for our Pass it Forward sale. Please make sure your student knows where their small group is going for that night. We will make sure we are texting students where they are going to heading. Most students should already know where they are going.

I hope you guys have a wonderful rest of the day.

P.A.

Wednesday = Awesome Sauce

Hey there everyone, today's post is going to be pretty brief because I am swamped with things to do before tonight kicks off. So here is the run down:

1. 3dyc Parents Meeting tonight check out yesterday's post for all the details.
2. No Refuge next week because of Thanksgiving! Enjoy Food and a Dallas Cowboys Victory!
3. Small Group outings on November 30th, we will not be at the Church because of Pass it Forward going on that Wednesday night.

I hope today is a great day for you guys! God has some awesome things in store.

Be a blessing to someone today.

P.A.

Parents Meeting tomorrow night

Hey there everyone! I hope your Tuesday is going well.

Here is the main thing I want to get across to you today.

Tomorrow night at 6pm we are having a 3dyc meeting. There are a couple things I want to get to parents. Here is some of what we are going to be talking about.
1. How to debrief with your students when they get back from 3dyc.
2. Where to go to have to check video's and pictures of the students.
3. Some of the changes that they are making to 3dyc.
4. Pick up times and drop off times.
5. A small surprise we want to give to our students that you as the parents can help us with.

We want to make this 3dyc a great time for students and we want to make it memorable for everyone. This meeting won't be more than 30 minutes long. We will have the cafe open, and we will have things for the students to do.

I hope to see you tomorrow night, also if you know some parents that might now know about this meeting please text, call or email them. We sent cards home last week, and sending an email to those we have emails for. Help us out.

Have a great day today!

P.A.

Monday can be fun!

Hey there everyone, I hope thing are going well. Here are a couple things that you need to be aware of:

1. 3dyc Parents meeting this Wednesday night at 6pm! There are a couple things that have changed since the last time we have gone, and I want to bring those to your attention. Also to let you know of how you can stay up to date with what is going on while your students are at 3dyc. So parents if you student is signed up we would love for you to be at this informational meeting.

2. No Youth Group November 23rd! Enjoy the night with your Family as you get all prepared for Thanksgiving! Please don't come to the church that evening because no one will be there and I would feel sad that you drove out to the church!

3. Small group outings on November 30th. The Church is being over taken by an amazing ministry that night called Pass it Forward! It is our annual free garage sale and they need the entire church that night. So students please talk with your small group leader this Wednesday night about when and where you will be meeting to go to your small group outing. Some groups might be helping out with pass it forward because Wednesday night is their largest night. Parents please if you have any questions about where your student should go please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com and I will make sure you get the proper information about your sons or daughters small group outing!

4. In December we do a Dirty Bingo Christmas Party, and this year its going to be amazing! It is scheduled for December 21st and we are so stinking excited for this night. Everyone needs to bring a present under 5$ preferably, and it needs to be wrapped! It doesn't need to be a good gift, it can be grandma's old sweater, or a small roll of toliet paper, or something even funnier then that. But everyone needs to bring one because, everyone gets to walk away with a present at the end of the night!

So there will be more information coming in December about that but we are dropping the idea's now so you can start preparing for that evening!

I hope you all have a fantastic day today!

P.A.

Sorry for no update yesterday!

Hey there everyone, Sorry I didn't update yesterday I was in meetings all day and I couldn't get update, but here is the down low on whats going down this week in the REFUGE!

1. We are going to be talking about integrity this coming Wednesday night! I am super pumped to talk about this, because I think this is a huge issue for students and people that are my age. Integrity has gone out the window, because if I can get a head of the game, I am going to do it by any means necessary.

Come Tomorrow night and hang out with us and have a good conversation about integrity with us!

2. If you want to help serve at the Faith Mission on the 27th, please talk with Doug Edlund tomorrow night, we are looking for like 6 students to go! So if you want to go talk with Dougie Fresh!

3. Just a reminder that we have a Parents Meeting for those students who signed up 3dyc. This will be taking place November 16th, at 6pm. We will have things for your students to do if you want to just bring them over a little bit early. But the meeting will only be a 30 minute meeting, and I just want to explain to people the new rules that are going in for 3dyc, and the transportation on how we are getting down to Ft. Wayne. I will also have a schedule to pass out to people. We will also be telling you where you can go to get updates on our 3dyc trip, and take home questions we will be preparing so you don't get the typical answer of "It was fine". We are going to supply all parents with specific questions you can ask your students when they get home, plus a "how to guide" to get the most out of your debriefing time with your students!

I hope you are all having wonderful days!

IF you have any questions please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com

P.A.

Prayer wall

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well for you today.

Last night was awesome! The games were off awesome, the worship time was great, and the prayer wall was awesome.

For those who weren't there last night we had a time of prayer where we place 2 large sheets of paper on the back wall and during worship students can write any prayer requests they have. Then once everyone has had a chance to go up and write down their prayer requests, we allow students to head up to the sheets and lay hands on the prayer request and pray for it, then they trace their hand over the request so whoever wrote the request knew it was prayed over.

Every single request had at least 2 hands over it, and some requests had almost 10 hands traced around it.

It's amazing to me to see when students get excited about prayer, now we understand this is a little bit different way of praying for people, but I believe that it can still be extremely powerful.

We also talked last night about loyalty, and when was the last time we grieved over our sin. It was a powerful night, and I am so pumped for next week!

Just a reminder November 16th we are going to be having a parents meeting for all of those who signed up to go to 3dyc! It's at 6pm and we will be talking over the schedule.

Have a great Thursday!

P.A.

Round house kick to the face awesome tonight!

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well. Here is whats going down for tonight!

1. 3dyc forms are due, I think everyone should know that now!
2. The cafe has all new candy, and drinks! We will also have Hot dogs for tonight on sale! WAHOOO!
3. Bring a friend tonight because we are talking about loyalty and we are going to have an extended time of worship tonight because we want to give some time for people to spend with God!


So those are 3 things you need to know about tonight.

We start at 6:30pm and we will be done at 8:30pm. It's going to be great.

Hope to see you tonight.

P.A.

A couple items of importance!

Hey there everyone, I hope your nights went well. I know mine was busy, but it was great. I have been struggling in the mornings to get up and get my workouts in, but I have been getting them in at night, but still need to buckle down and get disciplined, anyways....Sorry my mind wanders sometimes while I am typing.

Here are some things that you need to be aware of:

1. 3dyc forms and money are all due this Wednesday night!
- There will be a Parents meeting November 16th to talk about the details to 3dyc, because there are a couple of changes that parents need to be aware of.
2. We don't have Refuge on November 23rd, because we know that some students, and families will be traveling that night to go see families for thanksgiving, and we also want our leaders to have night where they can be with their families.
3. On November 30th, we are having a small group outing night. Now this is a little bit different because that is the first night of Pass It Forward. The free garage sale our church puts on the first week of December ever year. We can't have REFUGE that night because our youth room/sanctuary is packed wall to wall with so many items to give away. So that night we have given the small group leaders a couple options. They can either get their small group to help out that night with carrying boxes, and helping people. They can take their small group out somewhere else and have a fun night, or they can talk with their small group to help on another night of the week for Pass It Forward.

So those are the 3 big things coming up this month for REFUGE.

I hope your day goes swimmingly!

Hope to see a ton of students tomorrow night!

Forgotten Virtues

Hey there everyone, we are in a new series called forgotten virtues. We are going to be talking about Loyalty this coming Wednesday, as I am sitting here praying and preparing for the message it brings me back to how we can need to be loyal to each other, but more importantly God.

We are going to be talking about how disloyalty begins with a divided heart. We can't love our stuff, and God at the same time. It doesn't work! We are going to discuss a very difficult verse in James 4:8-9. Tough verse I am dealing with today.

We hope to see you here this Wednesday night for some awesome games, great worship time, a special prayer time, and some great discussion on loyalty.

Here are a couple things you guys need to be aware of for the month of November.

1. 3dyc Registrations are all due this Wednesday night with Money!
2. There is no youth group on November 23rd! Enjoy time with your family preparing for Turkey day.
3. We are having small group outings on November 30th, because that is the first night of Pass it forward. That night the small group leader might want to take his/her group to work at pass it forward or they might go do something else, but the youth room/sanctuary will be in use for pass it forward.

Those are the main things coming up in November! I hope you guys have a great day!

P.A.

Awesome sauce = giant maze

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well for you on this Tuesday. I know things are going well for me, yesterday put in a good long day getting things set up here at the church for the harvest party that is going down TOMORROW!

WHOAA!

So here are the details you will need to know!

What: Harvest Party
Where: Crystal Valley Missionary Church
When: This Wednesday night, October26th, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
What to bring: Bring a dessert to share, FRIENDS!
What to expect: We are creating a giant blacked out Maze through out most of the church. We will have lots of other games you can play while you are here, our Famous Octaball will be out, we are going to create some 6 square boxes, and we will have Angry birds set out so you can practice your angry bird shots. During this time we will be having groups of 5 students at a time go through the maze! We will have food, music, and tons of games you can play while you are! Its going to be a great time.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at Cvmcadam@gmail.com

Also we are going to be parking in the gravel part of the parking lot, because the main doors will be blackout, we will be going in the old boys and girls club entrance for this week!

There is a chance for rain tomorrow so we are going to bring it inside for that reason, so bring a friend and a dessert to share!

Hope to see you tomorrow!

P.A.

Harvest Party is in 3 days!

Hey there everyone, I am so pumped for this coming Wednesday night, we have our 5th annual harvest Party! This is one of our biggest Wednesday's of the year, and I am super pumped. This year we are turning our church into a massive maze! and I so stinking pumped for that.

Here are the Details!

What: Harvest Party
Where: Crystal Valley Missionary Church
When: This Wednesday night, October26th, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
What to bring: Bring a dessert to share, FRIENDS!
What to expect: We are creating a giant blacked out Maze through out most of the church. We will have lots of other games you can play while you are here, our Famous Octaball will be out, we are going to create some 6 square boxes, and we will have Angry birds set out so you can practice your angry bird shots. During this time we will be having groups of 5 students at a time go through the maze! We will have food, music, and tons of games you can play while you are! Its going to be a great time.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at Cvmcadam@gmail.com

We are hoping to be outside for this event so please make sure you dress for the occasion! That is going to be super important! We will notify everyone on this Blogspot on Wednesday morning if we are going to be outside or not! So check here early and often for that information.

I hope you have a wonderful week, I know we will be setting up most of the week for Wednesday night so please keep the REFUGE staff in your prayers!

P.A.

Friday Round up!

Hey there everyone! I hope things are going well for you, this coming week we have one of our biggest nights of the year. And I am super pumped about it. So I wanted to give you guys a little bit more information.

What: Harvest Party
Where: Crystal Valley Missionary Church
When: This Wednesday night, October26th, 6:30pm - 8:30pm
What to bring: Bring a dessert to share, FRIENDS!
What to expect: We are creating a giant blacked out Maze through out most of the church. As of right now we are planning on being inside because it looks like rain. We will have lots of other games you can play while you are here, our Famous Octaball will be out, we are going to create some 6 square boxes, and we will have Angry birds set out so you can practice your angry bird shots. During this time we will be having groups of 5 students at a time go through the maze! We will have food, music, and tons of games you can play while you are! Its going to be a great time.

If you have any questions please feel free to email me at Cvmcadam@gmail.com

Another reminder that 3dyc registrations and money are due November 2nd! Don't miss out on this amazing event. Parents meeting will be November 16th for this event.

Here is a little funny video for you to enjoy! Have a great weekend.



P.A.

REFUGE recap

Hey there everyone, I hope your Thursday is going well. I know mine is going ok, lots of awesome things going down for our REFUGE students. Here is a couple things that we did last night.

1. Had some great funny video's we watched! Love watching people fall, and funny pranks we can do for Thanksgiving.

2. We had a game that flopped horribly! Which is fine we had a good laugh and then we went on our way, but then we busted out the goods with ANGRY BIRDS LIVE! We had a bunch of boxes, and a water balloon launcher and we launched angry birds at the green pigs! It was awesome, we had each small group send 3 students up each to try to knock them over! It was a blast.

3. Then we got to dance around in worship, and then ended our worship time with some let it rain, one of my favorite worship songs!

4. Then we talked about how we can tell people about Jesus without looking weird. A lot of good things we talked about but here are the 3 main points I want you to all walk away with.
1. We don't accidentally tell people about Jesus, we have to be purposeful with our evangelism.
2. We have to know scripture! It helps so much when we can point people to Jesus through the Bible!
3. You can make a difference! Don't ever forget that you can make a difference in someone's life! Be bold, Be Unstoppable!

I hope you all have a fantastic day, there are some amazing things coming up for REFUGE students. The big one is next week with our HARVEST PARTY! The party is at crystal valley at 6:30pm! Bring a ton of friends. We hope to see you all here!

P.A.

Couple things to know for tonight!

Hey there everyone this post is going to be a little shorter than normal because today is a super busy day.

1. Tonight we are going to be doing a little bit longer teaching time with small groups sprinkled in there, so be aware of that tonight, I promise you it won't be boring, but you will learn a ton of information tonight about how to talk with your friends about Jesus and not look weird!

2. The cafe will be open tonight and we have NACHOS! So be prepared!

3. 3dyc registrations are available, also Esther will be here tonight with all the totals from the Auction, so if you need to know how much you owe for 3dyc find Esther so she can let you know!

4. Next week is the Harvest Party! We are turning our entire church into a Blacked out, Black lit maze through out the entire church so don't miss out!

Alright everyone thats what we have for you today.

Refuge starts at 6:30pm tonight At Crystal Valley Missionary Church. Hope we see you there.

P.A.

How to talk with your friends without looking weird!

Hey there everyone, I hope your Tuesday is fantastic! I know mine started out with a workout, and then got some good time in the Bible reading through Romans! So stinking powerful, LOVE IT!

Tomorrow night is going to be a little different. We are going to be doing an extended teaching night on how to talk with your friends about Jesus. Because in 8 days we are going to be turning our church in a massive blacked out maze, and using it as analogy to talk to students about Jesus and how He has saved us from the darkness because of our sin, and He rescued us and wants an intimate relationship with us. It's going to be so awesome, but the issue is if we don't how to talk with our friends about Christ then we are missing some amazing opportunities to point people to Jesus!

So tomorrow night at REFUGE, we are still going to play some awesome games, we are still going to rock worship out, but we are going to take some extended teaching time to inform and train you guys how to talk with your friends about Jesus without looking weird! We will be in our small groups, and you will be able to talk with them during the time so it won't be a lecture but it will be interactive.

We hope to see everyone there, because I believe that October 26th can be a night where we see students walk from darkness into the light!

Hope to see you tomorrow night!

P.A.

Talking to your Friends about Jesus

Hey there everyone, I hope your Monday is going awesomely! Mine started out early and will end late, but I am excited that I will be with people all day today working on our Harvest Party, and getting ready for this Wednesday night!

This coming Wednesday night is our first ever teaching night. We are going to be talking about how to talk with your friends without looking weird. We are going to take a little bit longer on our teaching time and give you some practical tools to invite and talk with your friends about Jesus!
We will still be doing games, and worship, and we will be having small groups in a little different way. We will still have all the elements that make up our REFUGE, but they will look just a little different this Wednesday night.

Here are a couple things you need to be aware of:
1. 3dyc registration forms are due November 2nd, and that is with the money! If you were auctioned off take that amount of money off from 150$ and that is how much you owe. We will have everyone who was Auctioned off and for what on Wednesday night if you have any Questions.

2. Harvest Party October 26th! We are turning our church into a blackout Maze! It's going to be awesome, so invite your friends and get ready to have a ton of fun. If we get over 200 people here that night, I will wax my eye brows off, and hopefully we can get Gareth to cut his hair into a mullet! That Harvest Party is here at Crystal Valley, and we will be outside that night so please dress warm!

If you have any questions about anything please contact Pastor Adam at cvmcadam@gmail.com

P.A.

Youth Group Recap

Hey there everyone I am sorry I didn't update yesterday, I was swamped with getting the last minute details done. Also I had an important meeting for our harvest Party yesterday where we laid out the design for our Maze that we are going to be building in 2 weeks!

So if you couldn't make it last night, we missed you! So here is what you missed.

We read through the first 5 verses of Mark 6. Where Jesus went back to his hometown of Nazareth and was greeted without honor. Jesus couldn't do any miracles except for a few because He wasn't honored and they didn't have any faith. So we asked the question, Are you valuing your relationship with Christ? Is He able to do things in your life because you are honoring Him?

Then we explored who we are supposed to honor. Then we talked about how do we honor our parents, and those who teach the word of God. So we got to pray for our small group leaders, and honor them with pie.

Then we gave a challenge to the students to try to out due one another in loving on their small group leader this week.

So Students love on your small group leader this week!

I hope you have a fantastic day today!

2 Reminders:

1. Harvest Party October 26th! 6:30pm - 9pm! Don't Miss out!
2. 3dyc Registration sheets are out, They are due November 2nd!

Youth Group EVE!

Hey there everyone, I hope your Tuesday is going swimmingly! Mine has started out with a good work out, then a great devotion time looking out over a golf course with a ton of fog on it. It was pretty stinking cool, there is a picture of it in my facebook! So Check it out there.

Tomorrow night is going to be stinking awesome. We have some great games we are going to play, 2 of them are brand new! We have some new worship songs we are going to be introducing, and we are starting a new Series called Forgotten Virtues! It's going to be a great night. So don't miss out.

Also, we have our New REFUGE CAFE! We will be having Taco's available again for you guys to eat, also chips, candy, pop, water, and hopefully this week some NACHOS! So bring some money so you can get some food before youth group.

Hopefully we will see you all here Wednesday night. God has some amazing things in store for you on Wednesday night!

Also remember October 26th, the Harvest Party and Blacked out Maze! Get over 200 people here and you get to wax my eye brows, and possibly get to cut Gareths hair into a mullet!

Have a great Tuesday!

P.A.

Student Auction was GREAT!

Thank you to all those who helped out with the Student Auction! Thank you Thank you Thank you.

And to those who came and supported the students by buying them on Auction, plus bid in the silent Auction thank you so much, you are all my hero's because you are supporting students who are going to hear and learn about Jesus Christ in way that students can understand, comprehend, and relate to! So Thank you again from the bottom of my heart.

We raised just around $5000.00 last night! And all of that money is going to be distributed to students! So Thank you again.

Now to the next item on our Agenda!

October 26th we are going to be doing a Black lite and blacked out Maze through out the church! This is our Annual Harvest Party we have, and its going to be great. We are going to be having a Bon fire, food, and tons of awesome fun! So make sure students you put down on your calendars October 26th, because its going to be so stinking awesome!

Also we made the bet that if you get 200 students to this event, you can wax my eyebrows! And Possibly but Gareths Hair into a Mullet! So get talking with students, because this night is going to be stinking awesome.

We hope to see you this coming Wednesday night!

Lots of fun stuff planned, we kick off a new series called Forgotten Virtues!

Have a great week everyone!

P.A.

Welcome to the best Sunday EVER

Hey there everyone, hope your Thursday is going great. I am extremely tired, but excited for what is going to be going down this coming Sunday night.

Last night we took time to work on our auction that is coming up this Sunday night. All the students got signed up for what they are going to be Auctioned off for, and the small groups started making their baskets! It's going to be a great night on Sunday.

So here are the details:

WHEN: Sunday Night 5:30pm - 7:30pm
WHAT TO BRING: A Dessert to Share
WHAT TO EXPECT: Worship and Testimonies, and Silent & Student Auction.
WHERE: Crystal Valley Missionary Church

We hope everyone can join us and help raise money for some great students to have an amazing experience with Christ at 3dyc!

P.A.

The Auction to beat all Auctions!

Hey there everyone I hope your day is going fantastic!

A couple things to make you aware of before this coming Sunday night.

1. Tomorrow night Refuge is kicking off our own cafe! We will have some nacho's, pop, chips, candy, and some Tacos! Bring some money and help students raise money for a missions trip!

2. Student Auction is going down on Sunday at 5:30pm, we will have some of the things out on sunday morning for people to bid on as well, but come back for the Auction that night to help the students raise money to for 3dyc! We will be having worship, testimonies and a lot of fun. We hope to see you here on Sunday.

3. Students come ready to have a ton of fun this Wednesday night we are playing some games we have never played before, but we are also bringing back a favorite! We hope to see you all there.

We are still accepting donations for the silent Auction. If you can think of any items that you have that you would want to put into the silent Auction please contact me at cvmcadam@gmail.com

Hope you have a great Tuesday!

P.A.

Student Auction

Hey there everyone I hope you are all having a great day. I know I am super pumped about this coming week. Here are a couple things you can do to help out for the student auction that is coming up this Sunday night at 5:30pm!

1. If you have a donation we would love to Auction it off. We are still looking for a few more donations, if you are interested please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com. We have every small group making a themed basket that is going into the silent Auction. If you are interested in donating an item please feel free to email me.

2. Come and bid on a silent Auction item and Students. We have lots of students that are going to be auctioned off and wanting to raise money to go on our 3dyc trip in December. Come on out and bid on a student or a couple of students. All proceeds are going straight to the students trip to 3dyc!

We really hope you will consider coming out and supporting Refuge students in going to 3dyc.

If you want to check out the website for 3dyc you can click here.

We have been seeing some amazing things going on at the Refuge this year and this is going to be a great night to add to an already amazing year. Please come out and support these students.

Have an amazing week!

P.A.

Bigger and Better Recap!

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well for you this morning. I know I a little tired from last night, but man please make sure you thank your small group leaders for doing a great job last night that are stinking amazing!

So the winners last night got a 1986 Goldwing motorcycle!

INSANE!

Their are pictures up on my facebook site http://www.facebook.com/adamsharp

We are so thankful for everyone who helped out last night, and helped the students have a great time. We collected a TON of food for the food pantry and they are going to be able to help so many people! So Great Job last night guys!

The Next Big Refuge Event is Oct 9th, from 5:30pm - 7:30pm. It is our Silent Auction and Student Auction to raise money for students to go to 3dyc! Check out what the students are going to be doing, its going to be an amazing journey with them. So please come on out and support these students who are going to be Auctioning themselves off to raise money to go and be trained, encouraged, and challenged by the word of God!

I hope you all have a great Thursday!

P.A.

Bigger and Better will ROCK!

Here are a couple things you need to know for tonight to be the best night:

1. Dress warm! Make sure you come ready to take on the elements, We are going to be heading out because it is not going to be thunder storming! Bring an umbrella.

2. Invite your friends. This is a time where you can invite your friends and have them come have a ton of fun! This is a great way for them to connect to our small group leaders, and see that Christians can have a ton of fun!

3. We have 2 contests going on tonight, obviously Bigger and Better, and a scavenger hunt for the food pantry. So you have 2 chances to win a pizza party for your small group next week!

4. Come ready to have a ton of fun! Tonight is a great night, yeah its going to be a little rainy but still you can have a great time gathering things for people for pass it forward, and the food pantry.

We hope to see you all here tonight! Be here right at 6:30, because we will leaving as close to 6:30 as possible. We want you guys to have as much time as possible!

Hope to see you all tonight!

P.A.

Tomorrow is going to be EPIC!

Hey there everyone, I hope you are having a good day. I love rainy days for some reason, I feel like I get more done because I am not tempted at spending time outside. So today is all about getting the final details done for tomorrow.

Here are 2 things you need to know for Bigger and Better:

1. We are still meeting rain or shine: The only reason we aren't going to be sending students out tomorrow night is if its THUNDERSTORMING, even if its raining we are still going to send students out, you will be in cars and vans and you can run out from door to door. So bring an umbrella, and bring a rain jacket. A little rain isn't going to slow us down!

2. Invite your friends: Tomorrow night is a perfect night to invite your friends to REFUGE! We are going to be having a ton of fun, and they will get to see our heart of serving, hanging out, and having some awesome fun in the name of Christ. Christians can still have a ton of fun! So invite your friends tomorrow at school we will have plenty of rides for people to get out to their neighborhoods!

So have a great rest of the day!

BIGGER AND BETTER is tomorrow!

P.A.

Bigger and Better

Hey there everyone, Welcome to the best week EVER! Well I don't know if that is going to be true, but I do know that Bigger and Better is going down this Wednesday night.

Here are the Details:

1. You need to be here at like 6:15pm! We start at 6:30, but you want as much time as you can to get out there and get going.
2. Your team will need to be back no later then 8:15pm. With Everything you got inside the sanctuary!
3. We are doing a scavenger hunt as well for the Middlebury Food pantry, so there will be a prize for the biggest and best thing, and the most food collected! So you have 2 chances to win a prize.
4. Parents, this is the one night I am almost positive we will go a little late, we will try our best to be done by 8:30pm, but it will be more like 8:45, when we let everyone out. Just because we will have so much stuff to move. But I will try my best to get everyone out on time!

We hope to see a ton of students there, we are going to have a ton of fun, and we are going to be helping out a ton of people in the process!

If you have any questions please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com.

P.A.

Duct tape, Mind Ninja's, and Broken Hearts

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going great for you on this Thursday!

Last night our Battle of the sexes night was nothing short of EPIC! We had so much stinking fun that I honest don't think it is legal in 14 states.

So here is the run down of what we talked about last night in wrapping up our Friends with Benefits series:

1. Honor God with your body: When we aren't honoring God with our body we are telling God that we know best and that He doesn't. Simply as that. The issue is God does know what is best for us, and we are thrown by our emotions all the time, especially when it comes to relationships. So lets honor God with our body by being pure, and leaving the big decisions up to God to guide us through,

2. Wake up your Mind Ninja's: "Take every thought Captive, and make it obedient to Christ!" 2 Corinthians 10:5. We need to be aware that our mind is the at the front lines of us being pure. If we are constantly bringing junk into our mind, we don't stand a chance on being pure. That is why last night we had to talk about waking up our mind ninja's to capture all the thoughts and kick out the one's that shouldn't be there. Being pure starts with your mind!

3. Be careful little eyes what you see: Matthew 6:22 talks about how our eyes are super important. When we are constantly looking at things we shouldn't its going to affect the way we live! We have to guard our eyes from things that we shouldn't be looking at. Song of Solomon 8:4, talks about not stirring up love before its time. Junior high students need to be pouring themselves into friends, family, and God! They don't need to be bombarded with sexual images, so be aware of what you are putting into your mind, because you don't want to stir up love or lust for something that isn't of God!

Next Week is bigger and better, so I hope that you guys will join us for that night!

Hope to see you then!

P.A.

Battle of the Sexes, and Powderpuff pt. 2

Hey there everyone. Hope your day is going awesome, here are 2 things you need to know about tonight's Refuge!

1. Junior high students you need to invite everyone you know, because its going to be so much fun tonight, that you might never want to go home. Battle of the sexes tonight, I believe we will finally figure out who rules and who drools!

We are having a pizza party tonight in the middle of the Madness, so come on out and help us decide who is the dominate gender!

2. High school students are going to be heading over to the powder puff game over at NR tonight, lots and lots of our students are involved in that over there tonight, so we are going to join the fun over there. So high school students please contact your Small group leader, and they will let you know where you are meeting, and what is all going on.

For all High school students who want to help with the Junior high battle of the sexes are more then welcome to stay but you will be around lots of Junior High students! So Be AWARE! :)

Hope to see you all tonight!

P.A.

Student Auction

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going really well!

I want to give you the updates on the student auction:

The student Auction is October 9th! It's coming up quick, we are still in need of donations, to auction off in our Silent Auction so if you are still considering placing something in the Auction for that day please contact me and let me know what you are going to be donating.

Email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com

During the student auction we already have tons of students who are wanting to be Auctioned off. So we are asking everyone to come out and bid on these students, and help us raise money to get these students to 3dyc! We are so excited about what we the students are going to experience this year at 3dyc. We have a goal of taking 200 students this year to 3dyc, because we want as many students to hear the story of Jesus Christ as possible!

So come out on October 9th, and help us raise money for these students wanting to go to 3dyc in December.

We hope to see you there.

P.A.

Battle of the Sexes, and Powderpuff

Hey there everyone, I hope your Monday is going well. Mine is a mixture of excitement and sleepiness, so it makes for a great day of laughing at stupid things, but also planning some great games and agenda for Wednesday night.

Here are 2 things you need to know about this coming Wednesday night.

1. High school students, you are all heading over to Northridge to watch the powderpuff games, lots of our guys are being cheerleaders, and lots of our girls are playing in the game, so we are going to be sending all of our high school students over there with their small group leaders. So get a hold of your small group leader and see where you are meeting at and when!

2. Junior high students we are having a battle of the sexes night! We are going to have a pizza party, while also determining who rules and who drools! We have a great night planned out, while we wrap up our Friends with Benefits series.

1 for the Road:

Next Wednesday night is Bigger and Better! We hope to see you hear for this night! This is one of the most fun nights of the year so invite all your friends, and come help us raise support for our local food pantry!

Have a great week!

P.A.

Funny Video Friday

Hey there everyone, 1 thing you need to know about:

Tonight we are going to celebrate Middlebury Fall Festival by watching the fireworks at the church, since they shoot them off right across the street. So come out at 7:30 and show some support for your Youth Mission Team! We have hotdogs, pop, candy, chips, and some hot chocolate!

Hope you guys have a great day!

This is a little song to get you pumped to come out tonight and hang out with us!

Prayer of protection.

Man if you missed last nights youth group, you missed a good one! There was one part in all the craziness of a great worship time, where THEE Sheila miller stepped up to the Mic, and delivered one of the most powerful prayers I have heard in a long time.

She prayed the armor of God over our students, her prayer was filled with passion, love, and encouragement. I honestly believe God is going to do some great things through that prayer. Our students received it and then continued to worship. I hope that last night meant a lot to all the students as it did to me.

Last night we also talked about compromise, and how we are never called to compromise ourselves for another person, or a sexual act.

"Don't settle for a cheeseburger, when you can have a steak!"

We finished the night talking about being extremely different in our dating. I challenged the students to pursue after Christ with everything they have, and not settle for Mr. or Mrs. Right now, and wait for Mr. and Mrs. Right.

Last night was a great night, and I am super pumped for next week when we have our Junior high night, Battle of the Sexes! Get excited people!

Junior high students invite everyone you know! Because you do not want to miss next week I promise you!

Hope to see you then!

P.A.

Missing the target

Hey there everyone, I hope your Wednesday is going great, I know mine is kind of insane but still I am excited about what is going to be going down tonight.

Tonight we are going to be talking the 4 things you need to watch out for when you are dating. We are going to be looking at what the bible says about compromise, moving to fast, changing your identity, and seeking the advice from the wrong people.

The crazy awesome thing is that God talks about all these things! So come ready to hang out with some awesome students, hear from awesome leaders, and then play some great games!

God has a major plan for your life and I believe that He wants to do some amazing things in your life, but the enemy knows that dating is a major deal in lots of people's lives. So tonight lets have an honest conversation about our lives, and lets help each other live out our lives for Christ!

We would love to see you here tonight.

P.A.

Tuesday is Youth Group Eve!

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well for you today! I know I am a little lethargic today, but I am going to power through my tiredness, and do work today.

I am hoping to get out to the boys soccer game tonight at NR, so if you all want to come join we can yell for a lot of our students that come to the REFUGE! I will be out there for both games so come cheer on the JV men with me tonight!

Here are a couple things you will need for tomorrow night's youth group to go awesome!

1. Yourself - Make the commitment to come to youth group tomorrow night, its going to be stinking awesome, a lot of really fun things we are going do, and we got to rock out for God tomorrow night.

2. A friend - Bring a friend tomorrow night to come and experience Refuge! Then you can also invite them to Bigger and Better! Because that is coming up on the 28th of September, and they will love being able to go and have a ton of fun.

3. Energy - This coming Wednesday night, Ted and Wes are doing the games. Now everytime they do games it gets a little bit crazy! So come with lots of energy, and it will be glorious.

Those are a couple things you can do to make youth group amazing tomorrow night!

We are going to be doing week 2 of friends with benefits, so ready to hear some great biblical dating advice, and some more stories of how I screwed dating up!

Hope to see you at Refuge tomorrow night!

P.A.

September in Review

Hey there everyone, welcome to Monday. Man I stinking tired from yesterday, but mainly because I stayed up to watch my cowboys give a win to the Jets. I couldn't believe it, oh well.

Here are a couple things you need to be aware of this week.

1. Bigger and Better is coming up soon! So get pumped up. Start inviting friends. We will have cards you can hand out to your friends available this Wednesday night. I can't wait till the 28th to see what everyone brings back!

2. SYATP - See you at the Pole - September 28th as well, CVMC will be leading the NORTHRIDGE junior high prayer time, so if you guys want to come and show up at 8:30 that would be awesome! NORTHRIDGE High school, Raiders for Christ is putting that on, so you guys will need to check with them when they are doing theirs. Normally its an hour before school starts.

3. On September 21st, it is going to be a Junior High only night, where we are going to be having battle of the Sexes! You guys need to invite a ton of friends, because we are going to have games, pizza, and a ton of fun! The high schoolers are going to be gone so we are going to just go crazy! High school students will be at the powderpuff game over at Northridge with their small groups.

I hope you guys have an awesome Monday, Check back here tomorrow for some more information about this coming Wednesday night.

P.A.

Funny Video Friday

Hey there everyone just 1 little announcement for you.

October 9th we are having a student/Silent Auction fundraiser for our students to go to our districts youth conference called REPLICA (3dyc). Its a 3 day conference where students go and hang out with 2000 other students where they are challenged all day long to seek and serve Christ in different area's. They have made some amazing changes to this conference in the past couple years, and I love taking our students to it. So please come out that night and support our youth. The time is 5:30pm - 7:30pm.

Thank you!

This is an oldie, but a goodie, One of my favorite Video's



P.A.

Refuge update

Hey there everyone last night we kicked off our new Series called "Friends with Benefits" if you couldn't come here is a little recap.

1. Stop being Selfish

When we are selfish, no one wins. When you place yourself in the middle, and start worshiping you, everyone loses. We need to keep Christ in the middle of our relationships, and start focusing more of our relational energy striving after what He wants for us in our lives.

Also, when we are selfish in the physical end of the relationship no one wins there either. When that is the only thing you are in that relationship for, you need to get out, or if that is all you find yourself doing is being physical with that person, you need to get out of that relationship in a hurry.

2. Set a good foundation

When you are single, you need to be setting a good foundation by pouring yourself out before Christ. You need to be straining after what God wants for you. When you do that when you are single you will hopefully be doing that when you are in a relationship, because that is your foundation that you will be standing on.

Also, you need a good set of friends that are going to keep you accountable for your actions. When you are single you need to be spending time with same gender friends and connecting on a deep level, so when one of you starts dating the others will be able to serve as a sounding board, and a support for when things get rough or as a group who can celebrate with you through the triumphs.

God has called each of us to live in His truth, and be learning all the time from the Holy Spirit.

Keep working on striving after God in everything you do!

P.A.

Refuge is the place to be

Hey there everyone, I hope your Wednesday is going swimmingly!

Tonight we kick off a new series called "Friends with Benefits". We are going to be hitting biblical dating, and how to rock your singleness for God.

We start at 6:30pm tonight. And we will be all done at 8:30pm. For those who like to come early, at 6:00pm we always gather people to pray. We pray for the night, and for any requests that people have around the group. So if you want to join us, that would be great.

Check out this funny video, we hope to see you tonight!



P.A.

Labor day is over can we rest now?

Hey there everyone, I hope you had a great 3 day weekend, but now it feels like the real work begins. We don't have any more breaks for a little while, which I think is ok. We have to start to make the push to start off this year strong.

A little illustration from my weekend. Esther and I every labor day weekend spend it on a tandem bicycle for many miles. On these rides, there are rest stops about every 20 miles or so. The problem I have is like 2 miles after a break I am ready for another one, because my butt is soar, or my legs are soar, or I just don't want to be on a bike anymore. But after a couple miles in you start focusing on how fast we are going, and then your mind goes to "oh wow, we are over half way to the next stop" I can do this, I can do this!

I think that is the same way with Refuge, we are a couple weeks into it, its been really fun and challenging but now I am getting tired and wanting my summer schedule. Can I give you 3 things to help you focus on the goal:

1. Be honest: Don't shy away from your emotions, talk with someone about them. That is why we have small group leaders, and a youth pastor who wants to see you succeed, and we can come around you and lift you up in prayer and encouragement. Have an honest conversation with your small group leader this week.

2. Get in your bible: One of the things that I did this weekend when I was really struggling on the bible is I started quoting scripture, and for some reason that took my mind off my current struggle and it reminded me of Christ and what He did for me. Work hard to put scripture in your mind, so when times get tough scripture comes to mind and not your fleshly desires!

3. Serve someone: The best way I got over my soar butt, or my soar legs, was to start talking with my wife about how she is feeling, and if there is anything I needed to do for her. When we start serving others it awakens something in us, something that gets us outside of ourselves, and places our needs aside so we can focus on someone else.

I hope those things help, and we hope to see you here on Wednesday night at REFUGE! We are going to have a great time learning about "Friends with Benefits" Come and get some great biblical dating tips for this school year.

P.A.

Powerful steps

Hey there everyone, I hope you are all having a super awesome day! I know I am super tired from last night, but that is great! I will gladly take being wiped on Thursday knowing that students got to hear from God the night before. So here is a couple things to re-cap on from last night.

1. Are you walking towards Christ or away from Christ?
2. Are you continually "believing" in Christ, or have you stopped?
3. Are you keeping your eyes on Christ, or are your eyes wondering towards worldly things?

As we wrap up this IDK series, I just want to let you all know that the questions you guys have asked are awesome. We are going to be answering them here on the blog, and on Wednesday nights.

I hope to see you all back here Wednesday night! Have a great 3 day weekend everyone.

We will be starting the Daily Devotionals on Monday, September 5th!

Can't wait!

P.A.

5 Things for you to bring tonight

Hey there everyone here are some things that you should bring to Refuge tonight!

1. Your Bible, we are going to be dissecting John 3 tonight. It would be good for everyone to have a bible. So you can mark in it, and make notes.

2. A friend, we are going to have a ton of fun tonight, and we are going to be having some really good worship, bringing someone along with you is a ton more fun then just coming by yourself. So today at Lunch or after school invite a friend to come over and then head over to Refuge at 6:30!

3. A good attitude, I understand that everyone is tired and busy, but tonight when you come before you walk in the doors, take some time to pray and get ready to experience God on a brand new level.

4. Energy, We have some really awesome games we are going to be playing tonight, we have some great video's, and some pumping worship tonight. So bring the energy tonight, and we are all going to have a great night!

5. A heart ready to learn, tonight we are going to in our bibles a ton, and we are going to be breaking down what the scripture means and how we can apply that to our lives. God has some great plans for us tonight, but it won't work unless you bring a heart ready to learn.

So those are the 5 things you need to bring tonight!

We hope to see you here tonight.

P.A.

2 Important Dates to write down

Hey there everyone, Welcome to Tuesday. Here are a couple dates you guys need to be aware of!

1. September 28th, 6:30pm - 8:30pm. This is our Bigger and Better event. Here is how this works. Every small group will meet at the church, and they will have a truck, and couple vans. They will be given a neighborhood, paper clip, and a scavenger hunt list. They will be heading out door to door looking to trade items up from the paper clip, they will also be collecting non-perishable food items for the middlebury food pantry. The small group with the most non-perishable food items, and the biggest or best item from trading up will win a pizza part for their small group that next week.

You don't want to miss this night, when we survey students at the end of the year, this consistently comes up as one of their most favorite events of the year. It's a really fun way to connect with their leaders, and friends in their small groups, but more importantly we are collecting things the food pantry, and our CVMC pass it forward sale.

All the items collected will be donated to the Pass it Forward sale or Goodwill.

2. October 9th, 5pm - 7:30pm This night we will having out 2nd student and silent Auction. This is a fundraiser for our students to raise money for our district conference in Fort Wayne IN. This conference is called 3DYC. During the month of September we will be collecting items from the church and students to Auction off in a silent auction, then the students will auction off themselves for raking leaves, babysitting, house work, and many other talents they have. So we are inviting everyone to come and bid and bid often on all sorts of fun things, and great students.

This conference has changed lives, and has called some students into full time ministry. This is a 3 day event where they will be surrounded by other students, and leaders that will be encouraging them in their walk with Christ. There will also be main sessions where they will have great worship, and a great speaker that will challenge the students. They also have break out sessions, where they can get some specific training, like talking to their friends about Christ, Evolution vs Creation, Junior high Leadership, and much more.

You can check more out here at their Website.

We hope you will put those 2 dates on your calendar!

Have a great day.

P.A.

Monday is my fun day!

Hey there guys, hope you are all having great day. I know I am because Monday and Tuesday are my days to get REFUGE all planned out, and its a ton of fun!

Here are some things you can look forward to this Wednesday night:
1. Small Groups get to start planning their bigger and better plans.
2. Student Auction is Oct. 9th, we get to talk about that.
3. Some really fun games that involve food, wheelbarrows, and moving really fast.
4. Series finale on IDK, we are going to look at a great story about Nicodemus.

We have so many fun things planned. Tomorrow I am going to be giving more details on the Bigger or Better and our Student Auction and what we are going to be raising money for.

Also in September we are going to be starting the early morning Text Devotionals so make sure you guys give us your cell numbers so we can text you a little devotional every morning during the week of December.

Have a great day!

P.A.

What a great night

Hey there everyone, Last night was a blast! The games were so stinking awesome, and there was such a great energy in the room so well done everyone!

Here is a little recap of last nights messages:

1. The relationship you need to work on the most is yours with Christ.
2. Repair broken relationships, before you bring your sacrifice to Christ. (Matt 5:23-24)
3. Don't run away from a hard conversation.

Don't be a lazy Christ follower. If there are things that you need to make right between you and another person go and do it! Don't wait any longer.

Last night we discussed the REFUGE mentality. Our Refuge mentality is to make a place where students can come and ask honest questions, have honest and open relationships with caring adults, and have a ton of fun while doing it all.

But that all crumbles and falls apart if we have distention between people in our own youth group. Don't let that happen because you are afraid of what a person might say, or because you are just not wanting to do it.

God has some majorly awesome things in store for all of us.

Keep seeking Christ with everything you have!

P.A.

REFUGE tonight!

Hey there everyone, tonight is the night, we are bringing everyone together. Junior High, and Senior high to have the first ever combined REFUGE night!

I honestly believe God has some amazing things He wants to do tonight in our lives, so come ready to hear from God in a powerful way. Tonight we are going to be tackling some hard questions about relationships. We aren't going to be just talking about Boyfriend/girlfriend relationships but friendships, family, and other relationships that will pop up in your life.

Before you come to REFUGE tonight, take some time to read over Matthew 5:23-24. We will be going all around the bible, but stopping at this verse tonight.

We hope that everyone can make it tonight. We are going to be having a ton fun as well. I am feeling in a very generous mood, so we be giving some things away tonight!

God has some major things He wants to do in your life, are you ready to hear from Him? The REFUGE is a place where you can rest, ask honest questions, and pray honest prayers. We have adult and student leaders who want to encourage, pray for, and have a ton of fun with you. We hope you might consider checking out the REFUGE tonight at 6:30pm at Crystal Valley Missionary Church.

Hope to see you here tonight!

P.A.

Looking ahead

Have you ever been so excited for something it makes you unable to sleep? That is how excited I am for youth group this Wednesday night! I believe God is setting this night up to rock some people's lives, so this is your mission for this Wednesday night.

1. Put coming to REFUGE a priority this week.
2. Read Matthew 5:23-24 before you come.
3. Invite a good friend to come with you.

If you do those 3 things before you come to REFUGE tomorrow we will have a great night.

My prayer for this Wednesday night is that the walls can't contain the Love and Restoration that God wants to rain down tomorrow night at REFUGE.

So lets be praying for tomorrow night in a real and passionate way. God wants to restore relationships, but the one relationship He wants to restore the most is the one between You and Him! So prepare your hearts, and allow God to do something amazing tomorrow night.

We would love to see everyone there!

Have a great Tuesday.

P.A.

Wednesday is just around tuesday

Hey there everyone, Greetings and salutations!

I hope your Monday is going swimmingly, I know mine is packed to the gills with things to do but I wanted to take some time out and let you know what is going down for youth group this coming Wednesday night.

A few words I would describe this Wednesday night would be:
EPIC, AWESOME, PEE YOUR PANTS FUNNY, and PUNCH A BABY HILARIOUS!

You don't want to miss this Wednesday night because we are continuing with our "IDK" series, we are breaking out a new game, we are going to have great discussions in small group, and there is a part in the night where we could see some Jedi's!

That is how much awesomeness is packed into Wednesday night! So don't miss out, and bring a friend!

Did I mention you also might be able to win some food, and that might be Rise and Roll Donuts. Maybe, I don't know, maybe though!

Hope to see you here at CVMC at 6:30! Junior High and Senior High.

P.A.

Funny video Friday!

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well for you on this awesome Friday. I hoping to get out to the football game tonight, so if you are going look for Esther and I.

Here is a pretty awesome Video!





P.A.

Great kick off

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going awesome for you! I know I am extremely tired from last but man, what a great way to kick off our new name! REFUGE!

Next week we will all be together at the church so it will be a really fun time getting to see everyone.

I hope you all great time last night, if you are new here to this site, on Thursdays I normally give a devotional so you can start the end of your week on a great note.

After an accident, a woman stepped forward and began to help the victim. She was pushed aside by a man who announced,

"I've had a course in first aid and I'm trained in CPR."

The woman watched his procedures for a few moments, then tapped him on the shoulder.

"When you get to the part about calling a doctor," she said, "I'm already here."

Have you had any accidents lately? I'm not talking about automobile wrecks, what I mean are those periods in life where you feel like you just got run over. It could be relationship trouble, financial difficulties, poor health, or any other number of misfortunes that blindside us and leave a mess of things.

But that's o.k. - right? We've all been trained in the First Aid Kit of life. We know how to handle our own problems, fix our own messes, and heal our own injuries. In fact, if we don't help ourselves, who knows what might happen? We may just be left in the street, because other people are so preoccupied with themselves- they'll probably just step right over us.

We're just like the guy in the story. As soon as we detect a problem, we rush right to it, pull out the First Aid Kit, and get to work.

Meanwhile, there is Someone else standing right by, watching you try desperately to "fix" the issues of your life. In fact, you probably shoved Him out of the way in your ambitious attempt to get your stuff together.

Who am I talking about? Jesus- the Great Physician. His specialty is putting the pieces of life's accidents back together. Let me give you a few examples:

Then Jesus said to the centurion, "Go! It will be done just as you believed it would." And his servant was healed at that very hour. (Matthew 8:13)

Jesus turned and saw her. "Take heart, daughter," he said, "your faith has healed you." And the woman was healed from that moment. (Matthew 9:22)

When Jesus landed and saw a large crowd, he had compassion on them and healed their sick. (Matthew 14:14)

Things are no different now. He has compassion on us, and He knows what we need before we even ask, but sometimes we never get to asking because we're too focused on the difficulty at hand.

Meanwhile, Jesus is whispering to us: "When you get to the part about calling a doctor, I'm already here."

P.A.

Today is the Day!

Hey there everyone. It is here. The first day of school, and the REGUGE kick off! I am so stinking excited. We have so many fun games planned for everyone, and some great teaching time and small group times.

Here is the 411 that you will need to know about tonight:

1. Junior high students: You will be going to the cruises house tonight, at 6:30pm.
You will need:
- A swim suit
- A Towel
- And bring a ton of your friends!

Pick up at the Cruises is at 8:00pm, A little earlier then a normal youth group time, so just remember its a little earlier tonight.

This event is happening rain or shine at the Cruises house!

Cruises address is: 56603 St. Rd 15, Bristol, IN, 46507.

2. High school students: We have a kickoff event at the Church tonight, we will be starting at 6:30pm and we will be going to 8:30pm. We have some really fun things planned for tonight. We have some new games, some new leaders, and a NEW NAME for the youth group. So come hear about that tonight.

We hope to see you all out tonight!

Be blessed today at school!

P.A.

Kick off Tomorrow

Hey there everyone! I hope your day is awesome, I know mine has been pretty good so far. Here are a couple things you will need to know about tomorrow.

1. Junior High school students are meeting at the Cruises house at 6:30pm for a pool/pizza party! So bring a swim suit, towel, and a bunch of friends! The night ends a little bit earlier then normal, 8pm is pick up at the Cruises.

Cruises address is: 56603 St. Rd 15, Bristol, IN, 46507.

Junior High students don't miss out on this great night!

2. High school students we are meeting at the church for a really fun kick off as well. We start at 6:30pm and we will be done at 8:30pm. Don't miss out on a really fun night. We are starting a new series called "IDK" and we are going to be talking about questions, and the importance of questions.

So come ready to have a great time!

If you have any questions please give email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com

P.A.