React & Respond

28 Senior High youth! That's the amazing group we had present tonight for Andy's "React and Respond" program. We started tonight with two rounds of a favorite game, "Egg, Chicken, Dinosaur." Our dominating dinosaurs were Katie and Michael. Andy then had us do "human graphs" in which we decided which of two situation choices described how we would most likely react or respond. Next, we "became" different animals and made the animal's sound (ducks who say "Aflac!") in order to find others like us and break into our small groups. In our groups, we discussed the following scriptures and how the biblical figures reacted to their situations:

• Jacob marries Leah and Rachel, Genesis 29:15-30
  
• Moses and the Rock, Numbers 20:1-13
  
• Jesus and the Money Changers, Mark 11:15–19, 11:27–33
  
• Peter denies Christ, John 18: 12-27

We came back together for summary of our group discussions and then wrapped up the evening with Pow's and Wow's. We were relieved to find out Anneka's mole that she was worried about is non-cancerous.

Next Saturday morning is our first service project, "NC Big Sweep." Meet @ CPC at 8:30am. See you there!

Ups, Downs, and Service

Tonight we had an awesome group of 26 youth gathered for fellowship. We started off with a game of "Would You Rather?" led by Brandon, in which we found out that more of us would rather be "new car smell" scented than pine scented, and that quite a lot of us would prefer to have our noses where our belly buttons are, instead of having our ears where our eyebrows are. Luckily, no crutches were broken during the playing of this game! After this game of choices, some silly and some serious, we got right into Laura's program by dividing into 5 groups and discussing 5 different scriptures: Psalm 100, Psalm 20, Romans 12:9-16, Hebrews10:19-25 and Joshua 22:1-5. We also discussed the ups and downs faced by many different Biblical figures, and how we should serve God by serving others, which was a central theme of all of their stories.

We wrapped up our program with Pows & Wows. We give thanks for Abby's friend recovering her memory after a severe concussion, and we pray for Becca's family friend whose cancer has returned for the third time. Anneka will be in our prayers as she has a worrisome mole checked out by a doctor. We'll pray that Dan's friends learn from their mistakes and begin to make better choices, and for all of those who are struggling with their schoolwork. We pray for peace and strength for Andy's friend's family, as they struggle with grief over the loss of a husband who died suddenly from a brain aneurysm, and also the loss of a father-in-law, all of this while anxiously expecting the delivery of a second child. Some seriously tragic "downs", while preparing for the beautiful "up" of welcoming a new child into the world.

No meeting next week, as many folks will be attending the CPC Family Retreat. See you all on Sept. 30th, when Andy will lead our program!

Kick-Off Meeting: Riding Life's Up's and Down's With God

What Energy! What a blast! We were so excited to have 25 senior high youth present tonight at our kick-off meeting. We had a getting to know you segment at the beginning to get us caught up a little on where we went this summer, and found out that several youth participated in ASP and a lot of others went to some fabulous places on vacation, including Italy, Vermont, and Washington, DC, just to name a few. We also found out what type of pets we have or would like to have, and in doing so learned that Mick would like to have a wildebeest that he would name "Chik-Fil-A", and that Andy, one of our new advisors, would have a velociraptor named "Earl".

We discussed some of our trips and events that we will do this year, including our annual Ski Trip, our Beach Trip, as well as our service commitment that requires participation in at least one project per semester to qualify for attending that semester's big trip. Several youth expressed interest in participating in the "Food for the Journey" service project with First Pres again, which the advisors will look into.

Scott led us in a game that I'll call "Off to the Races with Shoeless Joe/Josephine" or "Stinky Footrace." We then had a timeless battle of the Davids in a game of "Human Checkers." There were some high-flying and strategic plays, as evidenced by Checker Dan's move pictured above, but, in the end, and as luck would have it, the game was won by, you guessed it...David's team.

We handed out our "Getting To Know Your Senior High Advisors" packets and then Gair closed us with prayer in our usual "Amoebic"circle, but we used a new "Being Uplifted and Lifting Other's Up" handholding technique.