REFUGE tomorrow night!

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well with you. Last night I barely slept at all, so I am not sure how today will be going but I will definitely be drinking a coke or 8. Here are a couple things about tomorrow night you will need to remember.

1. BIG CHILL Permission slips and money are due! Don't miss out on an a great opportunity to come and hang out with us on our winter retreat! It's going to be so stinking great. Octoball, Re-ball, A game called Decision disaster! It's going to be super awesome! We will be handing out Packing list's tomorrow night at REFUGE! I promise that if you go on this trip, you will have fun! If you are unable to pay the full amount please please please contact me via email at cvmcadam@gmail.com, we don't want money to be a reason you don't go!

2. Bring a friend to tomorrow night's REFUGE time. We have some pretty amazing things planned for tomorrow. I am not confirming nor denying that Spin that Wheel might be played. I am just saying!

We are trying to get our movie night rescheduled for a later time, but its very difficult when every weekend is taken up by something either with the Refuge going some where or, the church having a massive event going on, but we are trying to look ahead and be proactive about getting that rescheduled!

I hope you guys have a great day, Hope to see you tomorrow night at REFUGE!

P.A.

Peeps from the Bury!

Hey there everyone! I hope things are going well for you today. I am super tired from yesterday, and my day got cut short because of the stupid snow. Again I am sorry for those who were planning on coming to our High school Bible study, but I would hate for something to happen to someone on the way to a REFUGE event.

Here are 2 things you will need be aware of for this coming Wednesday night at REFUGE!

1. Big Chill Permission slips and Money are due! Now if you are having any issues with Money and need some help to go to Big Chill please contact me via email at cvmcadam@gmail.com or talk to your small group leader on Wednesday night. We want as many people to be able to go as possible. We have people in our church that want to help support students to go on trips like this! But just another reminder that Permission slips and money are due this Wednesday night!

2. This is the Wednesday night to bring your friends because we are going to be talking about 10 ways the enemy tried to ruin the rebellion. It's going to be a fantastic night of great worship, some awesome games, and a great challenge for students to get ready for Big Chill 2012! So This Wednesday night start thinking of who you can bring to REFUGE. Octoball will be up, Cafe will be open, and we are going to have a ton of fun Wednesday night.

We hope to see you there! Also remember to bring your prayer request back with you with how many times you prayed for that on the card!

Our God is Greater, Our God is stronger!

P.A.

REFUGE was Spectacular

Hey there everyone, Last night was so much fun! Love being able to talk about giving our all to God, and giving everything we have to point people back towards Christ.

I am really sorry this post is going to be pretty short, but I have a ton of things going down this morning, so here is just a couple things you will need to be aware of.

1. Big Chill Permission slips and $100 is due NEXT WEEK! Please get those to me as soon as possible. We are going to have so much stinking fun. We sent out all the permission slips last night with kids, and we emailed Flyers and permission slips to all the emails we had. So if you didn't receive one please email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com and we will make sure you get one ASAP!

2. High School Bible study going down this Sunday night! 6pm - 7pm at the Sharps home. Bring snacks if you want too, but more importantly bring your bible, and bring the things you have written down from the past 2 weeks of reading. Super pumped about meeting Sunday night. Hope to see you there.

Last night we were going to show another sweet video but we didn't get to it, here is an amazing video!



Enjoy!

P.A.

Pancakes and Prayer was a blast!

Hey there everyone, I hope things went awesome for you this morning, I know it was awesome for some students because at 8am, we had about 15 students come over to the house this morning for pancakes, and prayer.

We ate a bunch of pancakes, and then we took time to pray for the day and for REFUGE tonight. It was a great way to start the day off and it was fun just getting to hang out with some great students before school. Our next Pancakes and Prayer is February 22nd! We hope to see you there.

One thing I want to remind everyone about is Big Chill.

Big Chill is our winter retreat that we do with Sugar Grove Church. We get into buses and trek 4 hours north into the wintry abyss called Michigan. We end up in a town called Mears, MI, at Grace Adventure camp. This is one of the highlights of our year, its a great time for our entire youth group to get away and spend some time hanging out having fun, but more importantly getting away from the craziness at home, and spend some quality time with God, and others that are helping us get closer to Christ.

We sent out flyers, and permission slips in emails this week, we also have flyers and Permissions slips at REFUGE tonight so if you need them or didn't get one in your email please let us know and we can get one to you. Email me at cvmcadam@gmail.com.

Big Chill is February 10th - 12th, its cost is $100. That covers all your meals, lodging and travel. The only extra money you will need is for 1 meal on the way back since we will be traveling over dinner time.

We can't wait for this weekend to get here its going to be so stinking AWESOME!

Have a great day, hope to see you tonight.

P.A.

Lots of awesomeness

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well for you on this wonderful Tuesday.

There are 2 things that are coming up that you will need to be aware of.

1. Tomorrow morning we are starting our morning prayer time called "Pancakes and Prayer". We are going to do this once a month, and each month we will have a time before school to come together as a group and focus on a certain area of life, people, and even just thanking God for what He is doing in our lives. So Join us tomorrow at 8am at the Sharp House! We will be done around 8:30-8:45am depending on how many people we have to serve pancakes to. Join us tomorrow morning its going to be awesome.

2. High school Bible study is this coming Sunday night (Jan 29th) so for those who joined us last time I hope you have done your reading, for those who couldn't join us last time you are still more then welcome to join us, we will have reading schedules available Wednesday night! High School Bible study at the Sharps house at 6pm -7pm. We hope you can join us.

Have a great Tuesday!

Hope to see you tomorrow night at REFUGE!

P.A.

Prayer and Pancakes

Hey there everyone we are starting something really cool this week! This week we are starting a prayer time on Wednesday morning where we can eat pancakes and pray together before school starts.

So here are the details.

Where: Sharps House, 14075 Claire Lane
(on the calendar it says hilltop, We can't meet at hilltop this month they are gonna be full)
When: 8:00am - 8:30am This Wednesday morning! Jan 25th.
What to bring: Yourself!
What to Expect: Lots of Pancakes, and some really awesome focused prayer time before school.

Here is the reason why we are going to be starting this pancakes and prayer. Over the past couple months there have been a number of students who have wanted to go deeper in their walk with Christ. We feel that a couple ways to be taking your next step with Christ is to start praying for others and with others. This prayer time is going to be focused on praying for others, and praying for God to start moving among the students at Northridge High school and Junior high. We believe that if we want to make a difference in this community it needs to start with us coming before God in prayer and allow God to move us as He see's fit.

We believe God is going to do some awesome things in students lives through this prayer time. We hope and pray that you will join us on Wednesday to pray with us!

If you need a ride to school we can take you over there, we will have some other high school students that can drive over as well.

Hope to see you Wednesday!

P.A.

Tuesday is my fun day

Hey there everyone, So I woke up today and started checking twitter and facebook, and I saw that Northridge had a 2 hour delay today. Sweetness, you get a 4 day weekend and then a 2 hour delay, It is my humble opinion that Northridge hates school and they are seeing how long they can go with out it. Which is fine by me, more time to hang out with people.

So here is the low down for tomorrow night.

1. It's going to be awesome, we are going to be continuing on in our Rebellion series. The question we asked last week was who are you supposed to be talking to about the Rebellion? Invite them to REFUGE tomorrow night, we are going to have a ton of fun!

2. We have some awesome games we are playing tomorrow night! 2 new games, and 2 games that just are so much fun we have to bring them back.

I hope you can join us tomorrow night to hang out and have a ton fun. We will be having our cafe open tomorrow night so you can get candy and pop!

Can't wait to see you tomorrow night!

P.A.

Welcome Monday

Hey there everyone, I hope your weekend was awesome, since most of you are getting a 4 day weekend it should be pretty awesome :)

Anyways, this coming Wednesday night is going to be stinking Phenomenal. We have some new games we are going to be playing, also we have some great worship planned for our time together. We are going to be continuing talking about the Rebellion, and what we can do to join the rebellion.

Last night we started our High school bible study, and it was great. We had a great turnout for our first night, but we still have some room if you want to join us. We have a reading plan we are going through so make sure you either email me cvmcadam@gmail.com or pick up the reading plan this coming Wednesday night. Our Next High school bible study is on January 29th, back at my house! Bring some snacks, and your own drinks for the night! We had a ton of fun last night.

Last week we asked you all who you are bringing to the Rebellion? Lets kick that off this week, so who can you bring this week? Pray about it, and see who God puts in your path!

Can't wait to hear some awesome God stories!

See you Wednesday at the REFUGE!

P.A.

Super night at the REFUGE

Hey there everyone I hope your morning before the snow is going well.

Last night was so stinking awesome I don't think it was legal! We got to play a giant game of musical chairs with a twist, we got to play toilet paper dodgeball, and then we go to play a balloon game which was actually quite difficult. So much stinking fun.

Then we got to do some awesome worship songs, and worship our hearts out to God! Then we got to dive into the 4 things that make a rebellion work, Unity, Love, Trust, Faith. We tied those together while talking about being one unit working together for the purpose of spreading the Gospel to everyone you know!

It was a great night.

We sent home Calendars with students last night for the next 3 months of ministry, we are going to be placing those calendars out in the foyer for those whose students couldn't make it last night.

The next thing coming up for our students is this Sunday night from 6pm -7pm we are kicking off our high school bible study! We hope that a ton of high school students will join us this Sunday night. We are super pumped to be kicking off off this bible study.

I hope you have a great day! I hope we don't get to much snow :)

P.A.

5 Reasons to be at REFUGE tonight!

Hey there everyone today is extremely busy so here is the low down:

1. Tonight is going to be awesome don't miss out. We start at 6:30pm, don't be late because we have some awesome funny video's you will not want to miss.

2. We have calendars and the information for Big Chill going out tonight!

3. We also have our 40 day devotional that we will be handing out tonight so if you are keeping up with the reading, we have your next week. And if you haven't kept up, you can start by rocking this week!

4. We have 2 brand new games we are playing tonight!

5. We are starting our new series called "The Rebellion". This is our series leading up to Big Chill, which is our winter retreat.

We hope to see you there tonight, Seriously I believe tonight is going to rock you socks off!

P.A.

Refuge awesomeness

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going great with you today. I slept in a little bit to late today and I missed my morning workout, so my morning work is now becoming a lunch time work out. Oh well, got to pound that treadmill!

Tomorrow night we have some amazing things planned for our time together. God has some amazing things He has put on my heart to share with you guys, and I honestly believe that for some of you, you will really need to hear what is going to be talking about tomorrow night.

We are going to be discussing the 4 things that bind the Rebellion together. Unity, Faith, Love, and truth. I believe that even in our own REFUGE, we need to work on being united! So come tomorrow night and join our discussion.

A couple dates to keep in mind:

1. This Sunday night we are having high school students over to our house for the beginning of our High school bible study. Make sure you bring a bible, or make sure the bible is downloaded on your phone!

2. Big Chill 2012 - Dates are February 10th - 12th! Permission slips, and flyer are going home tomorrow with the students! We are so pumped for our winter retreat. It's going to be amazing.

We hope to see a ton of students tomorrow night at REFUGE!

P.A.

Video of Inspriration

Last night we talked about starting something amazing with your friends, and taking your relationship with Christ to a new level by speaking out about what God is doing in your life. This video inspires me to continue to preach and to teach students how to do something amazing in their lives.

The only thing this video doesn't mention is that God is at the center of this creativeness! So keep striving after Christ and He will help you start something amazing!





P.A.

Monday Monday ohhhh Monday

Hey there everyone, I hope your Monday is going super Awesome! I know mine is going a little fast, because there is so much to do. So this post will be quick and to the point.

1. This coming Wednesday night is going to be sweet, we are going to be kicking off our 1st message about the Rebellion, which is our big chill theme. We are pairing up with 2 other churches to rock an amazing winter camp. We are going to be talking about the early church and how they started a rebellion against the ways of this world. Christ has called us to so much more, and I am super pumped to start talking about how we can start making a huge difference in our communities. We hope to see you at 6:30pm here at CVMC!

2. We are handing out calendars for the first 3 months this coming Wednesday, we are also going to be having them on the Crystal Valley website which is icrystalvalley.org You will be able to check it out there in just a couple days.

3. We have a couple things we are starting new this year,
1. High school bible study at Esther and I's house starting this Sunday night, from 7pm - 8pm. We will be walking through the bible and expecting students to be reading through the bible and we will be discussing this as a group. Super pumped!
2. We are starting a prayer time on Wednesday mornings at Hilltop at 8am. We want to start having our students meet together and eat breakfast and start their days off with prayer and recognizing they aren't in this fight alone!
3. Also we are going to be starting monthly movie nights at Esther and I's house, we want to also have fun with students. We need to have students understand that we can also have a ton of fun as Christians! So we will be having monthly movie nights on Friday nights!

All of these events are on the calendars that we are handing out!

I hope you guys have a great week. I can't wait to kick off the new year at the REFUGE this coming Wednesday night!

Mix up!

Hey there guys I messed up with the dates for this Sunday.

This Sunday we are going to Sugar Grove.

The High school Bible study starts next Sunday JAN 15!

Sorry I messed up that date.

Thank you Stef for making me aware of that :)

P.A.

Sunday night. Big Chill Kick off

Hey there everyone!

Here are the details for this coming Sunday night.

Where: Meet at CVMC @ 5pm. We will be taking a bus over to Sugar Grove, and then we will be back to CVMC at 8pm.

What: We are kicking off our Big Chill season! We are going to be going through a collective series called "Rebellion" we are going to be talking about how we need to live differently in this world. We are tired of students being sucked away be the world, and the false promises this world makes. We have something a gajillion times better in Christ! It's time to join together and support each other in this rebellion against the evils of this world.

When: This Sunday night.

What we will be doing: We will be having pizza, games, worship, and a message! We are joining others in this fight because its not just Crystal Valley, but its the Church of Christ in this world! So we are going to join another church to worship our God together. We are going to be preparing for the next month of messages and challenging the students to see who they can invite to the Big Chill!

This event is open to everyone!

On January 8th we are starting a High school only bible study, but this Sunday night we are inviting everyone who is part of the Refuge!

Hope to see you there!

P.A.

1. Having students be able to tell others about Jesus.

Hey there everyone I hope things are going great with you today, this Thursday is going to rock I just know it.

A couple days ago I wrote a blog about our goals for 2012 for our youth group called the REFUGE, I want to expound on number 1. Having students articulate their relationship with Jesus to others.

This year we are going to be training students, and modeling to students how you can spread the Gospel of Jesus to people without freaking them out.

One of the ways we are going to teach students to tell people about Jesus is simply tell their story of redemption. Teaching the students that they were once spiritually dead, and Jesus Christ died a substitutionary death so we could spend eternity with God the father. We are going to teach our students to pick out points in their lives where they have gotten it right and other points where God showed grace to them. We want to show others that we aren't perfect and still need to ask for forgiveness at times!

Another way we are going to teach our students to spread the gospel is to ask questions to their friends about where they are at with Christ, and if they have a story they could share about God in their life. Asking questions, and genuinely caring for others, is a great way to spread the Gospel of Jesus. If you look in the scriptures Christ asks lots of questions, because He wants them to start thinking differently. We want our students to do the same thing. We want our students to start challenging the status quo in High school and Junior high.

The last step we will be training out students in is sharing Jesus story with their friends. How Jesus came to this earth and became a servant to others, then dying on the cross for our sins. Then rising up 3 days later and defeating death! As we begin to share our story with others, then we ask about their story, and then we share the greatest story of them all!

We want our students to start having the boldness to start this process with their friends, and with their families who might not know Christ.

That is number 1 out of 5!

See you guys next week at the REFUGE!

P.A.

No REFUGE tonight

Hey there everyone, I just wanted to let you know that we don't have REFUGE tonight.

We will kick back into gear next week! We will be passing out Calendars with all the amazing things coming up in the next 3 months! Big thing that is coming up is Big Chill! Don't miss out. It is February 10th -12th. If you want to know more about it, this Sunday night we are going to be hanging out with Sugar Grove down the road, and we are going to be explaining what Big Chill is all about.

So meet at Crystal Valley at 5:30pm, and we will be back at 8:00pm at Crystal Valley. We will be taking a bus over to Sugar Grove, and then we will bring everyone back :)

I hope you guys are keeping up with your 40 day devotionals, we have the next round next week!

hope to see you then!

P.A.

Reminder!!

Hey there everyone, I just want to post a reminder that we don't have Refuge tomorrow night, with the students still on break, and people getting back into town, and giving our adult volunteers a week to get their bearings back together after being off work for a little bit. We are going to be hitting the year running!

So Just a reminder we don't have Refuge tomorrow night. But here is a funny little video to tide you over till next week!

A new year

Hey there everyone I hope things are going great for everyone, man these past couple weeks have just flown by. I can't believe that we are into 2012. God has done some amazing things over the past year, but I know that this coming year is going to be a fantastic year. Here are some of the youth group goals that we have for this coming year.

1. Help students be able to articulate their relationship with Jesus to others.
2. Train our students in why Jesus Christ is the only way.
3. To help our students realize that there are people around the world that need Jesus.
4. Recruit and train an amazing adult leadership team.
5. Continue to grow our Wednesday night services into an actual REFUGE!

Over the next week or so I will be going into detail on why we are going to be going after these 5 area's in our youth ministry. God is an amazing God, and He is going to do some amazing things this coming year.

Join us for praying for the students of Crystal Valley, and also Middlebury, Goshen, and Elkhart.

P.A.