So by now I”m sure you have heard all of the cool things that God did both corporately and incividually at Momentum this year. It was a great week!!!
Thank you for being patient those last few days with my short posts that lacked pictures. We were getting back to our dorms around 12:00am and having to be up by 6:30 am the next morning. In an effort to get you up to speed, grafically speaking, here are the pictures from the last few days.
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What am amazing two days!!! God has worked so powerfully. These days have also been long and exhausting. More details, pictures and stories will come. For now… bed
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Getting Instructions for Limited Senses
Our afternoon began with some team building games. We had a great time on the football field playing and solving puzzles together. After we played two team building games we got in a circle and encouraged one another while passing around some yarn. At the end, after each person had shared, the yarn made a really cool web, as it was stretched and connected to each person. We spent time talking about being united in one heart and one soul (Acts. 4:32) and then had a really neat time of prayer together. After that was done some guys ran the “40″ and timed themselves. I think Chris O’Hara took the gold as fastest guy in our youth group.
Kondo
Tonight Kontdo Simfukwa (sp) from Christ’s Covenant Church spoke during the main session. He spent much of his time teaching through Eph. 5 and Genesis 2 on the love that Jesus has for the church. He then challenged students to love the church as Jesus loves the church. “You cannot love the Head (Jesus) and hate the body (the church)” said Kondo. Students were then asked to do 3 things. If they do not love the church, 1. Pray and ask the Holy Spirit to cause in you a love for the church and 2. Call your pastor and tell him that you are “so in” (committed).
After the main session we had youth group time in which we brainstormed ways that we can love and serve Community Grace. After a good time of sharing I then asked the students if they indeed loved the church. Planning things to do is great, but if loving the church becuase Jesus does is not our motivation than our plans will be short lived. Zach Stichter than asked if Pastor Tom was still in the church office (mind you it is 11:15 at night at this point). I told Zach no but then told the students that Tom IS in Arizona which Cendall Ogle caught and realized that he is several hours behind us in time zones. So we called PT and one by one students told PT that they were committed to our church and appreciated him as their pastor. It was really moving and the students were more excited and energetic than I have ever seen them before.
God has so powerfully been at work in our group this week. There will be dozens of stories and God moments to share. Thank you for the time you spend praying for us. Please continue to do so. I can’t wait to see what God will do tomorrow.
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Yesterday was a fantastic day. Shawn McBride challenged our students from Hebrews to “throw off hinderances and the sin that so easily entangles.” Many students during our youth group time later on that night talked about hinderances in their lives that they are throwing off. Students also were convicted that they are more in love with their sin than their Savior. One thing that was so cool to see take place was during our youth group time students were encouraging each other and sharing Scripture with each other. Someone would share, then someone else would encourage them with Scritprue and things that God has taught them in the past. It was so neat to see and listen to them care for each other like that and to watch them take each other to the Word and Jesus.
Thank you, parents and church body, for praying and fasting for our students yesterday. God is at work in each one of their hearts. Please continue to pray for them, that God will continue to convict of sin, encourage broken hearts, and deepen their passion and love for Him.
Other Hightlights:
1. Our Girls repeated at Basketball Champs!!!
2. Both Guys B-ball teams lost in the quarter-finals
3. Students are having a great time with each other
4. The food is great!!!
5. Everyone is safe and healthy
6. Team building games today
Thanks again. Here are pictures!!!
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Today has been a great start to what we are praying is a great week. Right out of the gate tonight God hammered all of us with the reality that we haven’t spent nearly the time in His Word that we must. Shawn McBride was fantastic and challenged us all to be less consumed with the world and more consumed with the Bible.
FEE was amazing as always. Their music stirs passion, energy, excitement, and praise.
Be praying for our students as they have already made commitments to be more in the Word. Tomorrow many of them are waking up early to pray and spend time with Jesus BEFORE breakfast. Tomorrow (July 14) is also our church wide day of prayer and fasting. The focus of this day is for the entire church to pray and fast for our students as they are here at Momentum. Please join in prayer and fasting tomorrow for the students and leaders.
Here are pictures from day 1.
Categories: Ministry · Student Ministries
Tagged: student
We have arrived…unpacked…stuffed hundreds of folders…and found our beds. It’s been a good day! The folders we stuffed were for the Momentum Adult staff. They will all receive their folders at the staff meeting that happens tomorrow evening when everyone arrives. We are excited to see the rest of the youth group along with Matt, Zach, Melisa, and Lauren.
Tomorrow morning it’s up for breakfast, which is at 8:00…then whatever we can do serve the CE National Staff and help get RMU ready for Momentum.
Here are some misc pictures from the week that may/may not have been uploaded. I took around 400 pictures and some video.
Here are the other videos that I took this past week as well.
Categories: Ministry · Student Ministries
Tagged: Ministry, Student Ministry
I am currently writing from Pittsburgh, PA where we have arrived safely. It was a six hour trip, but we all slept almost the whole way. We are exhausted!!
Thursday night we went to Love Park and witnessed to the homeless. We handed out meals consisting of PB&J, a bag of chips, and a water, and also a pair of socks (we ate the same thing, minus the socks 
). It was a very cool time to connect with people that we are normally sheltered from in Warsaw. They are people who are more grateful and sacrificial than in most cases of what we are. Surprisingly, all of them are open and LOVE to simply be listened to. Another cool thing to realize was that most of them are believers….definitely something that none of us were really expecting.It was a very neat way to jump out of some of our comfort zones and share the love of Jesus to some hurting people in Philly.
Friday evening, then, we participated in Friday Night Rock, their church’s youth group. We played a game that no one really understood the rules of, but involved water balloons and water guns….and us getting soaked. When we were done, we headed back to UHTC and had a great time of fellowship with the kids in the group and each other–the teens there are awesome people with great hearts to see people come to Jesus. When it came time to go to bed, everyone was disappointed because we didn’t want to stop hanging out with anyone; however, we were all exhausted and by the time we finally crawled into bed we were out in no time The next morning was filled with packing and prepping for a long drive…we are all sad to leave, but we know that God has changed our hearts and are excited to continue our ministries at Momentum and once we get home.
Tomorrow morning we are getting up and heading over to Grace Community Church where we will join them in Worship. After Worship the plan is to come back to John Sloat’s house, eat, re-pack, head to Wal-Mart and then to Robert Morris University. Once at RMU we will help the CE staff set up and get ready for what we are praying is a great week.
Once again we are all gassed and ready to go to bed. Tell Community Grace we say “hi” tomorrow!!!
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Today was a great end to a great week. Day Camp went well, dinner was exceptional (authentic Dominican Food), and Friday Night Rock (Urban Hope Youth Group) was a lot of fun.
Right now it is very late and we have an early rise ahead of us tomorrow. Here some pictures for now. More will come tomorrow.
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Here are some photo’s from today. We are going to the homeless part of town to hand our dinner tonight. After we get back I’d like to have the students share what they experienced. At that point we’ll get some text about out day posted.
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Yesterday Bekah and I had quite the adventure as they waited at a near by hospital for a Dr. to diagnos and perscribe some medication for Bekah. She does indeed have an ear infection. Overall she is doing well and the medicine that we got last night is beginning to make a difference which is encouraging.
Below are the pictures from our journey. We happned by a fresh fruit stand and bought a pineapple for $1, which is outstanding because they are $4 at home. Nevertheless Kensington (Kenny) took on a life of his own and became a small child for Bekah. The following is Kenny’s Journey.
We did eat Kenny at the end of the night. He was delicious.
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