wed night wrap up – 05.30.07

attendance: above average (32 students, 6 leaders)
topic: senior night
fun factor: above average
game: steal the bacon & stuff the car (who knew you could get 14 people in a Jeep in 8 seconds?!)
music: n/a
lesson quality: Hershey Park slide show; AYF year in review video; senior gifts presentation
student response: above average

We had a GREAT night at AYF last night. It was awesome to see so many faces out to honor our seniors who are getting ready to graduate from State High. Our first slideshow was to showcase a game we did at Hershey Park two weeks ago:the group was divided into 5 teams, each with a camera & plastic army men. The mission: who can get the best pictures! We had some great ones. That was followed by a video of our events over the past year,  culminating with presenting gifts to our seniors. Parents, make sure they’re in church on Sunday, because we’ll be presenting another gift that morning. And who’s kid doesn’t love gifts? Finally, the night wouldn’t be complete without a cookout on the grill – thanks to our new leader Jill Zeger for cooking up some grilling goodness!

week of 05.28.07

Here’s what’s coming up!

• If you’re selling hoagies for LIFE, your forms are due tomorrow night!

• Speaking of Wed., this Wed @ AYF is our senior recognition night. come join us in sending our awesome seniors off!

• LIFE car wash this Saturday @ the Benner Pike Wal-Mart. We have two shifts: 8am-12pm & 12pm – 4pm. Sign up for one or both shifts.

• The deadline for Jr. High Camp is quickly approaching. If you’re interested in camp this summer (July 23-27) or still have questions, email Karl. Click here for a registration form.

wed night wrap up

attendance: below average
topic: Life Together : growing to be like Jesus
fun factor: average
game: n/a
music: only one love – Yvonne Parks; getting closer – bridge band; son of God – starfield
lesson quality: above average
student response: average

Our focus scripture Wed. night was John 15:1-8, “the Vine & the Branches”. From this we talked about how just showing up to church and growing spiritually are not the same thing; that spiritual growth often requires developing habits, such as prayer and studying scripture. We also touched on what pruning is – the cutting off of the old to encourage life. Pruning can be painful & difficult, but is often necessary. And what better what to illustrate pruning that hacking off my beard?

week of 05.21.07

some items for this week:

• this is a new website we’re testing for AYF. check it out and leave a comment on what you think of it. let us know if there are things that would help you stay connected to AYF through this website.
• time is running out to sign up for Jr. High Camp 2007! cost for the week is only $250 – don’t miss it! you can download & print a registration form by clicking here.
• we’ll be continuing our Life Together series on wed. night – don’t miss it!
• there are NO Small Groups this weekend. it’s memorial day – go bbq with charcoal.

wed night wrap up – 05.16.07

attendance: 30 students, 0 new students, 4 leaders (1 new leader, Jill Zeger)
topic: Guest Speaker Roberta Clogg :: missionary apprentice in Kosovo
fun factor: average
game: flags
music: made to worship; mighty to save; you never let go; show me your glory
lesson quality: above average
student response: average

We’re in a week or so at the church of our Antioch missions program, so everything is buzzing with international missions. We had a flag ID game – the student to correctly ID the most if the 21 flags in the sanctuary won an iTunes gift card. Roberta Clogg, a good friend of mine from college and an alum of AYF shared about her time this past year in Kosovo. She’s serving in a country where 1/10th of 1% of the population are Christian. Crazy. Recently, she’s been doing a lot of work in her community meeting students/youth and sharing the gospel relationally with them. It was a great night, and had some great questions from our students about Roberta’s time & ministry.

wed night wrap up – 05.09.07

attendance: 25 students, 0 new students, 3 leaders
topic: Life Together : Connecting Your Heart to Others’
fun factor: average
game: lightning ball
music: n/a
lesson quality: average
student response: average

Last night was the second week of our Life Together series. Our focus passage was Hebrews 10:23-25, and how God created life to be done together. In fact, the first time in scripture that God said something was not good was when he saw that Adam was alone! When the author of Hebrews tells us to spur one another on, we realize that growing and getting on the right track can often come with pain and discomfort – you never saw a horse thank its rider for kicking it with spurs, but it was to get the horse going in the right direction.

Next week one of our missionaries will be speaking at AYF. Roberta Clogg is a missionary apprentice to the Balkans, and is a good friend of mine and an AYF alum. Don’t miss next week!

The new Alliance Youth Fellowship blog

Welcome to the new home of the AYF blog! The transition is begin made to this web address because this blog allows us to offer downloads such as camp registration forms, sign up sheets, calendar cards, etc! We’ll even have photos and video of AYF events as they happen.

Additionally, a Wednesday Night Wrap will be posted every Thursday for parents to see what happened at AYF mid-week, and use that as a place to engage your student at home. This is a resource for both parents and students, so we encourage you to use it!

Feel free to leave comments about questions you have or improvements we can make. Thank you for all that you do!