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.