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.