Wednesday Nite Meetings

After careful consideration, I feel that it might be beneficial to keep updating this site about our youth ministry, and theology in general. Ashley is laughing at me as I type this out :) Tonight, being the first time together since Fuge, I wanted to create an environment where students would feel challenged to keep growing. We talked about Acts 2, and the beginning of the church. One of the main essentials that they had in the early church (right after Jesus ascended into heaven) was Community. It says "All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper), and to prayer. Looking at the whole passage (Acts 2.41-47) we pulled 5 major things that we can do that are small acts, that will make God BIG! First we talked about how they met constantly, and we need to be committed to community. Also, they shared their stuff, so we need to be committed to sharing! Third, we talked about how the early church worshiped together and how worship is so much more than just singing, that is just one piece of the pie. Worship includes singing, praying, learning the Word, communion, and even fellowship! Today, we need to be committed to Worship. The fourth thing we talked about was how they cared for others and what does that look like. So many times we care about good things such as prolife, or living green, but do we care about people? We need to be committed to caring! And the last thing that we wrestled with was how they enjoyed each other! Youth are great at this. They are able to make friends with students who aren't in the same 'social club' as them such as the wrestling team, or even the same school! As a YP I get to see this played out daily! I love it! So the last thing we need to be committed to is to be committed to friendships. Overall, the bottom line is that if we living with a community focused mind, God will become BIG! and what we saw from Acts was that when they lived this way, what happened? "And each day the Lord added to their fellowship those who were being saved" ~Acts 2.47 What a reward, we could only hope for one so good!

Well, fuge has finished and we are in the hotel for the evening. There were many commitments made on thursday and all the last goodbye's to their new friends were said and we headed out at about 11am to spend some time in Panama City Beach, FL. First stop we went to was Alvin's Island, a giant beach store equipped with live alligators! The students had a chance to pet a baby florida alligator and pick up some gifts for their families. After that, we found a taco bell/subway/burger king and got some fast food. After getting some energy, we headed down to the county pier to check out the ocean. most of the students didn't swim because all of the oil has pushed the oceans wildlife up into the shores so we didn't want to get eaten. Also the water has been filled with seaweed all week long, yuck! Following the pier, we checked into our hotel rooms and then headed out for the city. Half of the students went to the mall and the other half headed back to the beach and then the hotel swimming pool to enjoy the weather. Some of the girls will be coming home with quite a few shopping bags... fyi :) We met back up for 15 pizzas and a bunch of mountain dews in the hotel lobby and now, getting ready to fall asleep. Pray for our 6hr trip to priceville/Decatur AL tomorrow. We will be leaving around 10am. The students will have their phones in the car, so if you haven't had a chance to talk to your students, then would be a great time!

Wednesday has been a really hot day, but we still had a blast! today some of our fun events were snorkling, water sports, skimboarding, basketball and a variety show. Josh Armenta did a great job singing a worship song with a new friend from Texas. He was chosen for a spot, only 5 for the whole camp! Another big event, our guys won the Volleyball competition and even beat the fuge staff! Love having some powerful athletes! The weather was sunny most the day, got a lil' rain right after supper, but we were inside for our evening worship service so no one got wet :) Tonight's service was great! The camp pastor spoke on 1 John and is doing a great job relating with the students. They are also enjoying the worship band. Our quiet time/Bible study was on Daniel today and the students had so much to talk about in our church devotions on what they have learned about obedience. They learned so much about Daniel and were so excited to tell everyone what they are learning with their recreation games. Most of the games are centered around trust. Fortunately, we haven't had any injuries or accidents yet! Please pray for our safety and for God to continue to move in our students lives!

Volleyball Champs! 1st place! :)

Well, day 2 is almost over. We have had a great day, although we did get a lil' rain shower in the afternoon. The students are having a great time and getting the chance to meet many students from Alabama, Mississippi, and even a few from Texas! Some of the activities we have been doing are skimboarding, volleyball, water sports (soccer in the pool!), ultimate frisbee, and sand sculptures. The weather is about 90 but feels like over 100 with the humidity and we are still all getting used to it. Josh Butler has been down for the count the past few hours, but is starting to feel better after getting some good rest. Please keep Heather and her family in your prayers as they are going through a family emergency.
Today's focus was on Jonah and how we need to be listening to God and show our love to all of those who need him! Keep praying for the safety of our students so they don't overheat in this weather :)

Hey friends and family, we've had a great 2 days! Sorry I haven't been able to post yet. Last night we had no service where we were camping after rafting. We had a great day yesterday! No van trouble, and lots of laughs! The rafting was a blast and the only raft that flipped just happened to be mine with the jr highers... How ironic! :) fortunately, there was no injuries and we have something great to look back on. We were really worried about our cabin not having air conditioning but thankfully we did! Tenn was very hot, but we all had a good nights sleep!
We made it to fuge about 3pm again forunately without and vehicle trouble! The beach looks awesome and we are ready for a great week! Please pray that everyone keeps enough water in them and we don't have any exhaustion. The facilities are pretty nice and I appriciate the AC! Still have a long week ahead of us!

Hey! This is my first post here. This website is set up to help the people who are praying and supporting our youth at Cross Community stay informed at what's happening in Panama City, Fl while we are at Fuge this year. Be sure to check it out because there will be updates and pictures added daily while we are on our trip!