700th post!

Hey there everyone, I hope your Thursday is going awesome. I know my Thursday had a great start I got to spend some much needed time talking with my wife over breakfast! Love spending time with my wife she is pretty stinking awesome.

Anyways, I am going to update you on a couple things that are coming up in the near future.

1. We don't have youth group next week due to the fact that a ton of people are going to be on spring break, and a lot of our leaders are going to be on spring break. So take a night to yourself next Wednesday night and relax and enjoy a night of free time. I know that doesn't happen very often.

2. The blog will not be updated next week because I will be in West Virginia with some students whitewater rafting. So I will not be updating next week.

3. When we return in April we will be starting a new series called Identity Theft. I am so stinking pumped for this series because I believe that so many of our issues with Christ, and living out our Jesus in our every day lives stems from not understanding who we are in Jesus Christ. I hope you can join us for the series in April!

I hope you all have a wonderful spring break, and a great weekend. Take time this next week and spend some great quality time with Christ.

P.A.

Small group outings Pt 3

Hey there everyone, I know my posts have been all about these small group outings but I believe they are so important for our ministry. Here are a couple reasons we do small group outings.

1. It shakes up the schedule - The one thing I hate about schedules is that a lot of times there isn't a lot of time to just have fun and hang out. So many students go from school to practice to homework to bed. I want to be able to give 2 hours of unabashed fun!

2. Get to hang out with people who care - Students get to spend extended time with their small group leader. Someone who cares, someone who takes time away from their family to pour into a their small group of students. This a lot of times can break down walls by letting the students see their small group leader just having fun with them.

3. Allows the student to have some ownership of the night - The students and the small group leaders get to plan the night, so it gives the student a chance to voice his or her opinion on what they want to do. So some students might want to go and have fun playing laser tag, while some might want to go and help out at the mission. There are a ton of different options and it is really fun to see students get excited about their small group outings.

Those are some reasons we do Small group outings. I hope you guys have a great time tonight, please make sure you contact your small group leader if you aren't not quite sure what you are doing tonight.

P.A.

Small group outings Pt2

Hey there everyone I hope things are going well for you. Here are a couple of the small group outings that you need to be aware of

7th & 8 grade girls - Frosts house
7th grade guys - Wesleys house
8th grade guys - Wings Ect. Elkhart, and then moving to a private arcade
9th & 10th grade guys - Call Mark Metcalfe
9th grade girls - Call Charell and Kristen
10th grade girls - Call Esther for details
11th grade guys - Bowling at Maple City
11th & 12 grade girls - Panera in Goshen
12th grade guys - New York Buffet in Goshen

Those are the ones that I have for sure, the others have things they are doing but they are detailed out more then what I want to type on here!

So for any more information you want or need for the small group outings please call your small group leaders for all the fun information!

I hope you guys have a great day!

P.A.

Small group outings

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well with you today. I know for me its been a long weekend, but last night I slept like a rock! I am not sure if rocks sleep, but anyways I slept really well last night.

So this coming Wednesday night is a little bit different because we aren't having normal youth group, we are doing small group outings. This is where your small group goes out and does something totally different then what we normally do. This way you guys get to know your small group leader a little bit better and everyone in your small group gets to hang out.

Tomorrow I will be posting where all the small groups are going, but you should of heard from your small group leader already. If you haven't please contact me at cvmcadam@gmail.com and I will make sure they do or at least tell you where they are meeting and what they are doing.

I will also be posting where all the small groups are going and meeting so just in case you have a practice that goes long, you can just go and meet your group where ever they might be.

So Just another reminder that this week is small group outings, and Next week during Spring Break, we don't have youth group, because so many of you are traveling and it gives our leaders a week break to recharge their batteries as we make the final push towards the summer!

I hope you guys have a great day today!

P.A.

4 easy ways to get into and out of depression

Last night we talked about Elijah and his bout with depression.

So here are 4 ways that you can easily get into depression. Trust me!

1. Totally wear yourself out. - Seriously, do everything! Join that club, make that team, practice every single day. Then on top of that make sure you get good enough grades to impress the "ok" colleges. But if you want to impress the "great" colleges, do all that stuff plus go out and join another club so they can see that you are a well rounded person that only sleeps 1.5 hours every other day.

2. Shut out everyone - When things do get tough, simply stiff arm people out of the way. Wall yourself in with your own emotions, and deal with things on your own. Because lets be honest even if you told your best friend what was wrong they really wouldn't understand what you are going through. So deal with this one on your own.

3. Focus on the Negative - When things go wrong make sure you only look at the negative in every situation. That is the only way you are ever going to figure things out is if you look at the negative stuff and totally leave out the positive things that you can learn from this problem. Just keep going over and over and over it in your head its the only way things will get worked out.

4. Totally forget God - Forget everything God has ever blessed you with in your life. If God wants you to be happy then He obviously wouldn't have placed this situation in your life! So forget all about everything He has ever done!

Now obviously I don't want any of you to actually go through with those steps, but the issue is a lot of us end up doing those exact steps and wonder why we aren't happy, or are relationship with Jesus feels distant.

Here are 4 ways to avoid/remove depression from your life.

1. Eat and Rest - When the Angel of the Lord came to Elijah, the angel told him to get up eat this meal, and then rest. We have to understand that rest is a vital part of our relationship with Jesus. We can't use all our energy pouring ourselves out onto all sorts of projects, games, practices, and clubs and then expect to press repeat every single week. You have rest your body and your mind!

2. Replace our lies with Gods truths. - We go into Self pity mode all the time, where our mind just exaggerates everything that could and will go wrong. We get into a downward spiral after something we just think about too long. We have to take our lies with believe in our head, and replace them with Gods truths. We have to remember what God has done in and through our lives, and we need to understand that Jesus Christ loves us so much that He can remove shame, doubt, and any other emotions that can hinder.

3. God speaks in a still small voice. - God spoke to Elijah through bringing fire down from the sky and burning up the alter, God spoke to Elijah through no rain for 3 years, God spoke to Elijah when he was eating from birds. God spoke to Elijah through some pretty BIG events, but God wanted to speak to Elijah in a new way, through a gentle whisper. God wants to speak to us today but sometimes its going to come through a channel we might not be ready for.

4. God has given us divine opportunities. - God told Elijah to go back and do what prophets do. God has given us certain people, and certain opportunities that we need to take advantage of and talk with people about what God has done in our lives.


This what the students learned about last night! I am excited about small group outings next week! Have a great day today.

P.A.

Crazyness shall begin soon

So tonight is our final night studying the awesome life of Elijah. Tonight we get to see that he is actually human and struggles with life just like we do. So tonight come and hear how we can defeat depression and how even the hero's of the faith deal with emotions and junk that comes up in their lives!

A couple things to remember about tonight:

1. Bring a friend with you tonight, ask them after practice if they want to come join you at youth group. Its going to be a blast tonight! I promise you that.
2. Bring a bible because tonight we are going to circling things and writing things in our bibles, I know some people don't like to do that, but I think it helps me remember points when I go back and read the story again.
3. Urban plunge and Student Impact applications are out! Junior High students don't miss out on this great opportunity to go and serve. Also all students are able to apply for student impact so if you want to talk with your small group leader about getting an application.

We hope to see you tonight here at Crystal Valley at 6:30pm and we will wrap up right around 8:30pm tonight. Can't wait to see you guys tonight!

P.A.

Elijah runs away

Hey there everyone, I hope things are going well for ya today. I know for me I have a long day ahead of me and I am already tired. Is that bad?

Oh well!

On to the important things of the day.

1. Tomorrow nights youth group is going to be so stinking awesome. We have a new game we are going to unveil! We have some awesome worship planned, and then we get to talk about depression! SUPER FUN :) No, but we really are talking about depression because Elijah went into a deep depression in 1st King 19, and that's what we are going to be looking at tomorrow night.
2. Small Group outings are next week~! So please make sure you know where you are going, please ask your small group leader tonight for all the details! I will also be posting all where all the small groups are going on the blogspot next Wednesday so just in case you forget!
3. Urban plunge and Student Leadership forms are due the week after Spring Break. So if you want to go on the Junior high missions trip or you want to apply for our student leadership please make sure you pick up an application Wednesday night!

I hope to see you guys tomorrow night! Praying for you guys today. Tomorrow night can be a life changing event, so who are you going to invite to come out to youth group?

P.A.