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.