FBC Middle School, this Sunday meet near the worship center doors because there will be an SOS recap in big church- wear your ARISE t-shirts! After the
recap we'll go into the youth room. Marty and the band are going to wait for us to get back before they start worship - so you won't miss anything. For those who didn't attend SOS, you're still encouraged to go into the worship center with us to see the video. Spread the word to those not on fb and to student leaders etc.
The site for Fellowship Middle School families to be in the know.
Thursday, June 26, 2014
Saturday, June 21, 2014
SOS Continuation
On Thursday all of the Fellowship groups stayed together and put on a block party in a large park. While some people canvassed the neighborhood inviting people to the block party others stayed in the park setting up games, food stations, and a prayer table. Although it was extremely hot during the block party the kids never complained and worked so hard.
Over 40 people stopped at the prayer table to be prayed with and many more people received prayer at the party after having conversations with our students. There were several people at the party who prayed to receive Christ! When we went to the church that night the Vineyard said it was the most well attended block party of the week with the highest number of people being prayed with. Our FBC kids are incredible. We were also told that most groups take about 45 minutes to tear down and put away all of the equipment and clean the park; our kids did it in 15 minutes. Be proud of your kids - they put all of themselves into this event to make it great for the people who attended!
Thursday night during the celebration service we were challenged live a life of integrity. After an extended time of worship the students spent time praying for and with each other and encouraging each other to have integrity in their life with Christ.
By Friday morning the kids (and leaders) were exhausted. The optional early morning Bible study that started with about 25 students at the beginning of the week had about 15 students on Friday. Let's just say we were all moving much slower by Friday! Even though the kids started the day slowly they still did a fantastic job giving out bags of food to bless people. For many groups this was challenging because many houses were vacant. This, of course, didn't stop our groups; they prayed and walked until they found people who they could bless with this food and pray with.
Friday night was so exciting 65 students from SOS were baptized and 11 from FBC! I believe that God was glorified incredibly during the baptisms. We worshiped, prayed, and celebrated with the students who were being obedient by publicly declaring that they are Christ followers!
To sum up the week: The leaders and students of Fellowship Bible Church have "loved the Lord with all their heart, sould, mind, and strength; and loved their neighbors as themselves.
Over 40 people stopped at the prayer table to be prayed with and many more people received prayer at the party after having conversations with our students. There were several people at the party who prayed to receive Christ! When we went to the church that night the Vineyard said it was the most well attended block party of the week with the highest number of people being prayed with. Our FBC kids are incredible. We were also told that most groups take about 45 minutes to tear down and put away all of the equipment and clean the park; our kids did it in 15 minutes. Be proud of your kids - they put all of themselves into this event to make it great for the people who attended!
Thursday night during the celebration service we were challenged live a life of integrity. After an extended time of worship the students spent time praying for and with each other and encouraging each other to have integrity in their life with Christ.
By Friday morning the kids (and leaders) were exhausted. The optional early morning Bible study that started with about 25 students at the beginning of the week had about 15 students on Friday. Let's just say we were all moving much slower by Friday! Even though the kids started the day slowly they still did a fantastic job giving out bags of food to bless people. For many groups this was challenging because many houses were vacant. This, of course, didn't stop our groups; they prayed and walked until they found people who they could bless with this food and pray with.
Friday night was so exciting 65 students from SOS were baptized and 11 from FBC! I believe that God was glorified incredibly during the baptisms. We worshiped, prayed, and celebrated with the students who were being obedient by publicly declaring that they are Christ followers!
To sum up the week: The leaders and students of Fellowship Bible Church have "loved the Lord with all their heart, sould, mind, and strength; and loved their neighbors as themselves.
Friday, June 20, 2014
SOS Update
Sorry there was no blog update yesterday...I was far too tired to write at 1:00 in the morning, yet I'm currently writing at 1:30am and feel ok. Praise God!
Yesterday the day was divided in half. In the morning we prayed and asked God for where, how, and who He wanted us to serve. This is always a challenging activity because we have no idea what to expect when we set out. After spending some time in prayer we were given different things to take with us like: rolls of quarters, window washing supplies, an assortment of gift cards, laundry detergent etc. As you can imagine each group had some ideas in mind because of the specifics supplies. The greatest thing about God is that when we think we have the day in control and believe that we have great plans God usually has something different/better in mind. That is exactly what happened during our outreach! So many of our students asked God to really show himself to them during the day, and that is exactly what happened. The kids blessed so many people by serving hem, but more importantly, they had the opportunities to pray with people and share His love with them.
We then went back to the church and participated in 10 team building challenges. These were really fun and fostered a lot of trust among the kids. During the week our church group has become known by many of the vineyard staff as the kids who are "so close, polite, spiritually mature,kind, and united." Because of this, we are often greeted with people saying "you're the group from Cleveland. We've been waiting to meet you." Well, during the team building challenges, one lady asked some of our students how they would describe our group and the girl replied, without hesitating, "family." As you can see, our team isn't only showing Jesus to the people in Cincinnati, but also to the vineyard staff and volunteers as well.
We ended the day by celebrating what God is doing in and through us!
Yesterday the day was divided in half. In the morning we prayed and asked God for where, how, and who He wanted us to serve. This is always a challenging activity because we have no idea what to expect when we set out. After spending some time in prayer we were given different things to take with us like: rolls of quarters, window washing supplies, an assortment of gift cards, laundry detergent etc. As you can imagine each group had some ideas in mind because of the specifics supplies. The greatest thing about God is that when we think we have the day in control and believe that we have great plans God usually has something different/better in mind. That is exactly what happened during our outreach! So many of our students asked God to really show himself to them during the day, and that is exactly what happened. The kids blessed so many people by serving hem, but more importantly, they had the opportunities to pray with people and share His love with them.
We then went back to the church and participated in 10 team building challenges. These were really fun and fostered a lot of trust among the kids. During the week our church group has become known by many of the vineyard staff as the kids who are "so close, polite, spiritually mature,kind, and united." Because of this, we are often greeted with people saying "you're the group from Cleveland. We've been waiting to meet you." Well, during the team building challenges, one lady asked some of our students how they would describe our group and the girl replied, without hesitating, "family." As you can see, our team isn't only showing Jesus to the people in Cincinnati, but also to the vineyard staff and volunteers as well.
We ended the day by celebrating what God is doing in and through us!
SOS Day 2
Today started early...and is ending really late. We showed God's love today by doing free carwashes and giving away free bottles of water. We were very thankful that our water day was today because it was so hot! Although it was hot the kids worked hard all day without complaining - I'm sure everyone is wishing they would do that at home!
I am always amazed at how willing complete strangers are to share their lives with people they don't know and how receptive they are to people praying with them.
The celebration service tonight focused on how God is calling everyone to be leaders and encouraged the students to spend time in prayer asking God to help them identify how God is challenging them. Seeing groups of teenage kids huddled up and praying with and for each other is amazing. Many students experienced the power of prayer tonight in a very real way!
During our evening discussion at the hotel the students shared so many God stories that if I shared them all this would become a book, not a blog post. one person shared how he had been thinking about last nights message about obeying God even when it's hard and when it costs you something. When he was giving away water today he kept feeling like he was supposed to talk to a particular person, but doing this was way out of his comfort zone. He was having one of those internal battles that we've all had when we know what God wants us to do, but we really don't want to do it. He pushed himself to obey God's prompting and not only entered into a conversation with this person but also ended up praying with him. This student got to experience the power that Christ can give us and how obedience to God can strengthen our faith.
As you pray for the SOS team please also take time to celebrate the amazing things God has already done!
Monday, June 16, 2014
SOS Day 1
At tonight's celebration service we the kids were challenged to completely surrender to God so that He can do amazing things through them. Many of the students took the challenge and had people pray with them. This was a great way to prepare for the week ahead.
Back at the hotel the kids had some free time to swim and hang out before our evening devotions.
Pray for the outreach tomorrow. We will be doing free car washes and water give aways. Pray that the kids have an opportunity to love on people and give them the hope that Jesus can give.
Back at the hotel the kids had some free time to swim and hang out before our evening devotions.
Pray for the outreach tomorrow. We will be doing free car washes and water give aways. Pray that the kids have an opportunity to love on people and give them the hope that Jesus can give.
Monday, June 9, 2014
SOS info with corrected return dates
Hello SOS participant and
family,
I hope you are all getting
excited for SOS which is now less than two weeks away! As a reminder, the dates
are June 16th-21st. This
letter will hopefully contain everything you need to know to prepare for the
trip.
We will be staying at the LivInn Hotel (11385 Chester Road,
Sharonville, OH 45246,) which is about 1.5 miles from the Vineyard Church where we will spend each morning and evening being
spiritually fed and prepared for our daily work projects.
Students get much more out
of this trip when they have as few distractions as possible so therefore, they
are Not Allowed
to bring their phones! You will have
a list of each leader’s phone number and the students are allowed to call home
using a leader’s phone. We appreciate
your support on this rule. You may bring an ipod to listen to in the vans
if you so choose, but we ask that you take it with you to the church or to any
of the work projects. We will encourage students not to use their ipods during
free time, because we prefer if they socialize with others. My recommendation
is for kids not to bring electronic devices of any kind for fear of them
getting lost or stolen, but I’ll leave the ipod decision up to you. (Again, No phones)!
Departure
information:
Arrive at FBC at 9:30am to check in. If you have any medicines that you need
us to administer then turn it in at the Meds table.
When you arrive at
Fellowship, keep your carry-on bag
(1 bag that you can keep with you as you travel) with you and put your bag that
will be packed in the designated area.
You will need to bring a lunch to eat at the rest area on our way to Cincinnati. Keep this in your carry on!
You will need to bring a lunch to eat at the rest area on our way to Cincinnati. Keep this in your carry on!
The vans we rent have VERY LITTLE storage space so please
pack in a soft bag (a duffle style) that is flexible, and pack only what you
need! See the packing list.
Return
information:
We will arrive back at
Fellowship on June 21st between 12:00pm and 1:00pm. We will try to
have the kids call as we get closer.
During the trip I will try
to update the blog as much as I can with some highlights from the trip. The
wifi tends to be a bit problematic at the hotel so please understand that there
may be some days when I won’t be able to update it. http://www.fbcuth-middleschool.blogspot.com
The
Vineyard live streams many of their morning and evening services so if you’d
like to see and experience it go to https://www.summerofservice.com and at the top of that page and
click on the tab that says “streaming.” Kids will have an opportunity to get
baptized on Friday night. If your child wants to get baptized you will be
called and parental consent (over the phone) must be given. Parents of students
getting baptized can watch the baptisms being steamed or you can come to the
Vineyard and watch it live if you would like.
Thursday, June 5, 2014
SOS Packing List
What to bring:
Packed lunch for
the way to Cincinnati
Clothes:
·
Shorts – no short
shorts. We will ask you to change if your shorts are too short
·
Shirts – enough
for the week – no spaghetti strap shirts or camis
·
Sweatshirt
·
Pajamas
·
Swimsuit – No
bikinis – if that’s all you have then please wear a shirt over it.
·
Tennis shoes – MUST be worn to the work projects
·
Other shoes
Toiletries:
·
Soap
·
Shampoo
·
Toothpaste
·
Toothbrush
·
Contacts/glasses
Bible and Pen
Sunscreen
Water bottle
Drawstring bag – (You’ll
need to take things with you to each work project)
Towel – For the pool
Snacks - that can be
easily packed and taken to work projects
Spending money – The
amount is up to you. They may want to buy snack/drinks. Students will sometimes
purchase things that different ministries might be selling (ball caps, jewelry,
etc.).
*******Space is limited*******
No phones, lap tops, or gaming systems.
Tuesday, June 3, 2014
Final SOS training.
The final SOS training will be this Saturday, June 7th, from 10:00am to 12:00pm in the youth room. Please make every effort to attend!
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