UpFront Christmas Party 2012



UpFront Christmas Party 2012

This past week we celebrated the last youth group of 2012! We celebrated by having our UpFront Christmas Party. We had games, music, food and great fun! We also had an Ugly Sweater contest and it did not disappoint. It has been such a great and we are looking forward to another one. God is so faithful and will continue to be. Kaylyn and I are so thankful to have the jobs that we have. We enjoy every moment hanging out with our students. We feel blessed beyond measure -- we love you all! Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!

Blessings,
Danny & Kaylyn

The Nativity

This week we concluded our Jesus in Reverse series. Instead of teaching on the birth of Christ, we decided that we could get a better picture of his birth by watching The Nativity. The film did a wonderful job of putting the story of Jesus' birth in the context of reality. We often read over Mary conceiving by the Holy Spirit and all that entails with such ease, but this was not as easy for Mary and Joseph. There are often times in our walk with God that He calls us to do things that people with not understand and will even judge us wrongly. This movie was a great way to see scripture come to life and to celebrate the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!
Just a reminder that next week is our UpFront Christmas party. Wear your ugly sweater and be ready to have some fun! Last names A-M bring something salty, last names N-Z bring something sweet. See you then!

Blessings,

Danny & Kaylyn

Jesus in Reverse: Miracles

This past week we continued our Jesus in Reverse series. Kaylyn taught about the miracles of Jesus and it was such a great reminder of how amazing Jesus is. She talked about how Jesus did miracles to show that He was who He claimed to be, that He did miracles because He cares about people and that He did miracles because He is capable of doing them (all-powerful). Jesus changed peoples lives in crazy ways when He was doing His earthly ministry and He still wants to work in our lives today! Our God is all-knowing, all-present and all-powerful, but do we really believe this? When we start to really believe this our lives will be changed. That is the kind of stuff we talked about at UpFront this past week -- it was amazing!

Jesus in Reverse

Last week we started a new series called Jesus in Reverse.  Kaylyn came up with this great idea of teaching the life of Jesus but in reverse so that when we end the series in December, we are ending with His birth which we will be celebrating!  We started last week with the Ascension, Resurrection and Death of Jesus -- a lot to talk about it one week.  But, I think we got through it and tried to answer the question "What is the point?"  And I think that is where we need to start.  The life of Jesus is not just an historical event, it means more than that.  When we start to understand what His life really means, our lives will change, they must.  So with that in mind, we are talking about The Last Supper tonight.  Most of the time will be spent in small groups where we can tackle it on a small scale.  I am so excited and thankful for all our Savior has done for us!

words.matter.

This past week we finished up our Taming the Tongue series. We had a great time of worship and teaching. Kaylyn spoke about the various dangers within social media. She explained how our words go much further than the things we say-- they include the things we put on Facebook, Instagram, blogs, etc. This even includes pictures and any other way we express ourselves online. It was a powerful message and one that none of us that were in the room will forget. It was a word of warning that we are accountable for our words -- words matter. Use your words for good!

Taming the Tongue -- small groups

This past week we had small groups, continuing with our series Taming the Tongue, and it was amazing! It is always nice to just sit down in a group and talk about life. We focused on 'words' and the good and bad we use them for in our lives. One of the reasons we are doing small groups this years is because we want to make the teachings practical. The reality is that if we do not think we can apply the things we learn to our lives, they are not going to impact us. This week we made the connection between the bible and our everyday lives. We have an opportunity to worship God in the things that we say to poeple everyday. It was a good night!

Blessings,

Danny & Kaylyn

Six Flags

This summer has been a blast so far!  Things we have been doing: beach trips every Monday, service project at Isaiah's Rock, pool parties, Camp Dunamis, BBQ/Movie night at our house, broomball, Six Flags, and more to come.  The best part is just getting to hang out with everyone.  Laughing when someone almost falls in broomball (and when they do), watching people collect a million sand crabs and not knowing what to do with them, watching kids almost in tears of joy after riding X2, these are the makings of a great summer.  And we can see God working in all these things, we really can.  God uses all these events to draw our youth group closer together.  I am so thankful to all the students who have come out to these events so far, but my heart is getting excited to start a new school year again.  Worship, teaching, small groups... that is good stuff!