Carly Hinds update from Honduras

     Carly Hinds just graduated high school this past year. And for her next step in her life she decided to devote 9 months on the mission field in Tegucigalpa, Honduras. That's Awesome!!  Like Carly we believe if you seek first the Kingdom of God then all else will be added to you. So we are really proud of her for stepping out and being so passionate for the things of God.. GO CARLY!! 

She has also agreed to blog for us during her stay. So here is her first blogged!! We are praying for you Carly!!

Carly Hinds Blog:

When I decided to come to Honduras, I thought God would instantaneously and dramatically change me. I thought I would go from this flawed, ugly person and suddenly transform into this startling beautiful butterfly, inside and out. I thought all my problems would be solved and all my pain, stress, and weaknesses would be taken away. That didn't happen. That's not how God works, not exactly. I didn't realize that each change in me would be subtle enough to the point that I was blind to it. I didn't realize how hard this new life would be, not hard in the dramatic surreal ways but hard in the mundane ways. I'm still struggling with self worth, I'm still struggling with conflicting people, I'm still struggling with my work ethic. I'm just in a different location. I thought that every single day I would be changing lives, and aware of the fact that I was changing lives. And yet again, God doesn't always work that way. I am changing lives, I just don't realize it most of the time.

       Now let me tell you about my children. When I came down here, they threw me in the Kindergarten room. I was terrified. Terrified of being incompetent. Terrified of the fact that I knew no Spanish and they knew no English. Terrified of the fact that people were counting on me to teach their children and I had no experience whatsoever. I'm only 18, for Heaven's sake! When I agreed to the position of Kindergarten teacher, I wasn't thinking of details. I wasn't thinking of what it would entail. I was only thinking that this is what God was calling me to do, which I guess is a good thing. But as the first day of school came closer, I got more and more terrified. "I can't do this. I'm incompetent. I don't have any experience. I don't know Spanish. I'm only 18. I'm the youngest one here." All these thoughts constantly spiraled in my head. The devil is getting his revenge on me for making this decision, by attacking my peace of mind. The devil can be petty, but sometimes that's all it takes. Then the first day rolled around. It was a nightmare. It was everything I had feared. For almost the entire day, my children were giving me confused and frustrated stares. And I was giving them the same thing back. That tiny hope that I had stashed away was gone. I honestly didn't see how I could do it. In my mind, the language barrier was so large that this task was impossible. So what did I do about it? I do what I always do in a situation where I'm stressed out. I prayed. I vented to my mom. And I went to sleep at 7pm. The next day, there was dread. A whole bunch. Like a monsoon was hanging over my head. So what did I do? I prayed. The entire hour long trip to school, I prayed. I wasn't giving up! I prayed for strength, I prayed for wisdom, I prayed for understanding, and most of all - I prayed for patience. Which I have learned, is a terrible thing to pray for. When you pray for patience, God puts you in situations to test your patience. And tested, my patience certainly has been. My kids drive me insane! They know exactly what to do, to drive me crazy, to make me go insane. But now, two months later, my patience has grown. My self confidence has grown. My teaching skills have grown. My ability to love has grown. And even my Spanish has grown. While my kids are learning English, they are teaching me Spanish. After two months, they understand nearly everything I say and they are piecing together sentences. They are communicating in English where two months prior, they didn't know a single English word. And my kids.. They are changing my heart. I love each and everyone of them and their little sweet hearts. And their capacity to love and their eagerness to please.. Is astounding! Yes, they drive me crazy but they are mine and I would never wish them away. I have realized that I am changing their lives in ways that I can't necessarily imagine. But I know how I want to change their lives. I want to be the constant love in their ever changing lives. I want to be the person that builds the foundation for their wonderful futures. I want to teach them who God is and how much he loves them. I want to teach them the things my parents taught me, the things that formed me into a strong woman of God. Even if I'm not changing hundreds of lives every day, or even every month, I am changing the lives of eight special little girls and boys. Girls and boys who have a future that is already planned out by God. It's not easy living here in Honduras, it's hard in the most mundane ways as possible but it's home. And the feeling of home is magnified every time one of my kids give me a big hug, a kiss on the cheek, and a whispered, "I love you, Miss" in English. I wouldn't wish it away. They're perfect. The people I live with are perfect. Honduras is perfect. And it's home. My home.

                                                                                                Carly Hinds

Beach Trip

So I know everyone is talking about the up coming beach trip to PCB well here are the details!!!


When: July 19-23
Where: PCB (Panama City Beach)
Cost: 359.00 (don't worry about the price too much we will have fundraisers to bring down the price)

If you would like to look up the place we are staying the info is below:

Boardwalk Beach Resort

9600 S Thomas Dr

Panama City Beach, FL 32408

1-800-224-Gulf

Can You Hear Me

Series Description

Can You Hear Me is the second series in the Andy Stanley Collection, a collection of series and teaching scripts that provide powerful, simple truths delivered in a style that is straight-forward and conversational. Here is the premise of the Can You Hear Me? series:

Doesn't it seem like there should be more to prayer than just our typical "Help me, bless me, protect me, give to me" prayers? That prayer has to be more than just us making our requests known to God--because doesn't God already know everything that's going on in our lives? It's like there's some secret, some mystery we have to unlock so we can "get through" to God. If we can just say the right words, maybe we can break the code and get a "yes" to all our requests. But what if prayer was something much bigger than that? What if prayer went beyond us getting what we wanted, and became how we grew closer to God's heart? What if prayer wasn't just about changing our present situation, what if it was about changing us?

Session 1: CUL8R (see you later) 
Bottom Line: Intentional prayer paves the way for intimacy and relationship.

Session 2: WAN2TLK (want to talk?) 
Bottom Line: When we pray, we are to acknowledge God's greatness, surrender our will and declare our dependency.

Session 3: BBT (be back tomorrow) 
Bottom Line: Your persistence in prayer has the potential to move the heart of God.

The XP: The XP for this series is an individual experience, encouraged by the small group leaders. We are making the XP for this series available only as a Word doc since small group leaders will need to cut/paste questions and e-mail them to their students. 

Fake I.D.

Series Description

It’s an age-old problem—one that begins to plague us around the time adolescence hits and, if we aren’t careful, follows us around the rest of our lives. It is the question of who we are—what makes up our identity, what defines us, what makes us, us. But imagine if, instead of wrestling with these questions in the complexity of adulthood, we started to tackle them in the formative teenage years? What if we took a good, long, hard look at some of the foundational questions during the years that shape us more than any others? Who am I? Where do I belong? What is my purpose? We are going to begin to scratch the surface of identity tackling the difficult to ask—and even more difficult to answer—questions that ultimately end up defining who we are.

Session One: Born Identity
Bottom Line: Who we are is determined by Who created us.
Who am I? Culture has no problem attempting to answer this question for us. Unfortunately, the loudest and most obvious messages aren’t always the most accurate—which is why God made sure that at the very start of Scripture we got the right understanding about who we are. We are made in His image. With intention. With care. With value. And with worth. Resting in the understanding of God’s purposeful creation of us, will steer us in the right direction and allow us to live with more freedom and less insecurity than we may have ever imagined possible.

Session Two: Neighborhood Watch
Bottom Line: It is only in community that we can be made the best version of ourselves—and have a greater understanding of our individual identity.
When it comes to figuring out our identity and what makes us unique, it is tempting to think this question’s answer concerns us—and only us—as individuals. But we would be left with one self-involved person if we only made this quest for self-awareness all about us. Which is why when it comes to forming our identity, we have to involve other people—not to define us, but in order to make us better, and for us to serve and lift up from a stance of humility and modesty. Community, relationships, friendships are where the messy stuff of identity is named and dealt with. If we want to know where we belong—following an understanding of who we are—it is with other people where we can be reminded of where we fit in the grander scheme of things.

Session Three: Imitators
Bottom Line: Discovering and doing our purpose—in light of who we are—completes our identity in a way nothing else can.
These days it is easy to confuse busyness with purpose. Our days feel full, exhausting, and packed. But that doesn’t mean we end the day feeling full in the right sense—with a greater understanding of why we exist on the planet and what our aim in life ought to be. When it comes to our identity, we would fall very short in defining it if we never addressed what life is all about—what our lives are all about as followers of Jesus. What if in figuring out our identity we discovered what it was we were created to do? And what if Scripture tells us exactly what kind of doing will better define our purpose—and in so doing—us as individuals?
The Fake I.D. downloadable podcast provides training for you and your volunteers regarding this series. You can download the podcast and make it available to your small group leaders either via a disc or electronically. Also, the series checklist provides suggestions on how to implement this series in your environment. Both the podcast and checklist are found in the "Getting Started” section of the Fake I.D. series downloads.

Parent Cue: The Parent Cue is designed to cue parents to talk about faith with their child. The “Be a Student of What They are Learning” section provides a way for you to give parents info about this series and how you will unpack it over the course of the three weeks. In addition to the summary of each session, there are questions that both parents and students can use to interact with one another. Also, the Parent Cue provides a “Be a Student of Your Student” section to help parents connect with where their students are developmentally. See the Parent Cue document in your series downloads for more information.
THE XP: The XP for the Fake I.D. series gives students the opportunity to tackle the faith skill of Scripture memorization using specific Bible verses having to do with various areas of identity we talked about.

"Success No Matter the Test!"

(1) What is the definition of success in your own life?

(2) What does God see success as?

• Jeremiah 29:11

• Psalm 37:4

• 1 Corinthians 2:9

• Joshua 1: 5-9

• How can I bring God into my success to equal OUR success?

• Test aren't meant to show us how bad we can fail, but how much we have learned through everything we have been through!

(3) How bad do u want it?
• Luke 14:28

• What are u willing to sacrifice so that God can reward you with what you can not even fathom?????

What Else Is Going On In December!!!!!!

December 19- Fun Christmas Party!!!!!

December 23-Perform Our Christmas Song 

Remember Our Big Day of Serving??

hvarvell@wordalive.org

XP3 Students: Through the Window Parent Cue

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT:

Here is an overview of what we’re talking about. Listed below the summary is a parent cue to help you dialog with your child about the session. These questions are intended not just to be asked by you, but to be responded to by BOTH of you. Use this opportunity to find out what God is teaching your child, and allow your child to see what God is teaching you as well.

Through the Window:

Series Overview

What comes to mind when you think of the word “worship?” Whether it’s choir robes or skinny jeans, we all have some idea of what worship looks like. For most of us, worship is pretty personal, even if it’s something we have experienced with lots of other people around us. For others, worship is nothing more than singing a few songs every week before hearing a message. But what would happen if we took this idea of worship and blew it up? What if we could rearrange our picture of what worship is and get a fuller view of how we can worship God with our lives, even in the midst of some messy circumstances? Worship can be about expressing praise to God through music but it’s really about so much more. It’s about community. It’s about identity. It’s about letting who God is speak into every part of our wonderful and sometimes complicated lives.

Session 1: We Are Together (Nov. 7)

We sit in rows, week after week, singing songs, listening to messages and “doing” church. But what happens when we go home? What happens when real life hits and all of the sudden the idea of “worship” needs to be broader—your definition of who God is needs to be broader? Worship is about us and God, but it’s about so much more. It’s about the past. It’s about the people in our present life and it’s about the activity of our day in and day out world. Worship isn’t just singing songs. Worship is how we live our lives.

Session 1 Parent Cue: How would you define worship? How have you experienced worship, both privately and publicly? Is worship something you enjoy? What do you think of the idea that we can worship God with both music and also with our lives?

Session 2: We Are His (Nov. 13)

Have you ever thought of your anger, pain and sadness as an avenue for worship? We often think that worship is only about expressing our feelings to God when we are happy and life is going just as we want it to. But, God is big enough to hear our complaints too! As a matter of fact, God wants us to be honest with Him—and not just kind of honest, completely honest. Worship is about other people and it’s also about the beautiful, authentic relationship we have with the One who made us and knows us inside and out. Authentic worship is what reminds us that we belong to God.

Session 2 Parent Cue: What do you think about the idea that even our angry feelings can be used as worship? How does knowing that God can handle that part of you change your view of Him?

Session 3: We Are Grateful (Nov. 27)

When we see our worship as more than just a few minutes on Sunday morning and learn to be honest with God in our worship, we begin to get a more complete picture of who God is and who we are. But once we have broken into an authentic view of worship and learned that it’s ok to express the deepest parts of ourselves to God, where do we go? How do we move forward and not get stuck in the process of pain and hurt? When we remember the former things—when we remember who God has been to us in the past—we allow God to rearrange our broken window into something new and beautiful.

Session 3 Parent Cue: Do you think you tend to see life through the lens of your pain or through who you know God to be? What are the characteristics of God you have seen when He came through for you in some really tough times? How would seeing God this way all the time change the way you handle more difficult times?

Widening the Circle

Invite others to invest in your teen, so your sons and daughters have other voices that will help shape and determine the direction of their lives.

We all filter the experiences in our lives through our emotions. They are the God–given lens we use to process the everyday occurrences that challenge us, hurt us and give us hope. For your student, the world is a cycle of experiences, emotions and responses. Sometimes they can feel alone in what they are experiencing. As we have been walking through this three-week series on worship, we have been talking about worship as a communal act—something we do with the community of God, both past and present. Your students have been invited to participate in a blog where they have been responding to different Psalms in order to try to understand what the writer was feeling and use those Psalms to create their own expression of worship through writing a response to those Psalms. Their worship expression can be one of joy, lament, grief or praise, recognizing that God accepts our worship no matter what emotional state we are in.

Now, it is your turn to get online and participate in the dialogue. As you read through what different students have written, you are invited to comment in an encouraging manner. This is a place for you to recognize what the student community is feeling and encourage them that God is for them and so are you. The students will be logging on under “student” so that they can write with freedom. As well, when you log on to comment, be sure to comment under the label “parent.” This is an opportunity for you as the parent community to invest in and encourage your student community. Celebrate the life changes you have seen in your students! Tell them where you see God at work in them.

Our Blog address for this is:  www.respondingtothepsalms.blogspot.com

Note for middle school parents: Developmentally, your student is in a place of “multiple personalities,” meaning they have many different sides of their personalities that are still synthesizing into who they will become. With this in mind, if you read something that seems oddly intense or unlike the students you see on Sunday, recognize that they may be “trying on” a particular side of their personality. See your comments as an opportunity to affirm who they are and give voice to what they are going through rather than to try to stamp out what you might perceive as an inauthentic representation of who they are.

Note for high school parents: Developmentally, your student is in a phase of awakening. They are starting to see outside of themselves and are beginning to understand that they indeed have an impact on the world around them. Because of this developmental shift, they not only feel things quite deeply but also have a greater sense of and desire for open and honest discussion. This is a great opportunity to encourage their developing sense of self and the thought processes and emotional processes they are going through. Rather than “challenge” them in your comments, try to remember what it was like to be a teenager and empathize with what they are writing.

© 2011 Orange. All rights reserved. 

Get connected to a wider community of parents at www.orangeparents.org. 

hvarvell@wordalive.org

Missions Trip to Atlanta Nov 10th!

We're going to The Big Day of Serving in Atlanta Ga Nov 10th.

 It costs $29 to go which includes their lunch! 
This money has to be turned in by Wed Oct. 31st or the cost goes up to $40.

How would you like to share life, food, and stories with people from Colombia, Burma, Nepal, Iraq, Ethiopia and Sudan? That is exactly what happens every day for people that come to serve in the Clarkston area of Atlanta, GA.  You'll be able to literally meet the needs of the world by being the hands and feet of Jesus in just one community of Atlanta.

In the past 10 years over one million people have immigrated to Atlanta from all over the world. TIME magazine called Clarkston the most diverse square mile in America.  Clarkston has also been highlighted in the news and media as well in several short films because of its diversity. It's a place where your students can experience locally, what global missions looks like and feels like!

Rain or shine, The Big Day is happening November 10!

*****What should I bring with me to The Big Day?

Each participant should be prepared with the following items.

• Release of Liability form
• Emergency Medical Authorization form
• Water jug/bottle
• Work gloves
• Rain gear
• Sunscreen
• Long pants
• Close-toed shoes

Here's the schedule once we get there:

hvarvell@wordalive.org

Parent Cue for October Series

1. Be a Student of What They are Learning

In the dog-eat-dog world of middle school and high school, survival of the fittest often seems like the law of the land. And when we’re on the bottom of the food chain, this idea of a pecking order can start to affect the way we understand God—and maybe even the way we believe God sees us. But what if we were able to reverse this idea? What if something in Scripture allowed us to turn survival of the fittest on its head? Maybe we can start to flip the idea of “only the strong survive” and live in the reality that God has a bigger purpose and a better picture in mind—and this purpose and picture involves all of us—the strong, the weak, the in, the out, those you would expect, and those you wouldn't. Maybe in an effort to reverse Darwin, we need to start by understanding who God created us to be and how to live like it matters. 

2. Be a Student of Your Student

Take a moment to think back—way, way back—to those first days of middle school. Or to the moments and memories that still define your high school experience. Or, get really bold and break out an old yearbook and see what you find. Feathered bangs? Side ponytails? Maybe even a mullet? Or, maybe seeing those old pictures brings back memories of who you thought you would one day be and all the adventures you hoped to have. Maybe you envisioned getting out of your small town and attending college in a bustling urban center, or studying abroad and soaking in the European culture. But even if those hopes and dreams didn’t pan out, they probably helped you dig deeper to define who you were, sometimes by simply figuring out who you were are not.

And for many of us, this process is still an ongoing part of our lives. It may even be that we were more sure of who we were at 18 than we are now that we have children, a job, a mortgage and a “life.” But why is it that we are still working so hard at figuring this out? Sometimes it seems that in our now grown-up lives we are working harder to convince other people of who we are. Whether on our Facebook profiles (yep, our students aren’t the only ones) or through conversations with friends, family and even other parents we are often caught up in a PR battle … with ourselves. We try to define ourselves by the way we represent ourselves to the world and in the process, we end up forgetting who we really are. Throw in 24/7 parenting duties, work tasks, daily household management, church and family life and any other threads of schedules and responsibilities and we get lost in the mix altogether!

And, as you may have noticed, we usually realize the weight of figuring out who we are in times of crisis or great change. Often, we find that somewhere along the line we have “activating events” that trigger us to shatter the image of who we think we are and dig deep again to find our true selves, to rediscover who we truly are.

And for our students, these activating events happen on a daily or maybe even hourly basis. They don’t make the team. They fail a test. They get dropped by a group of friends that were once their whole world. And like us, when this happens to our students, they get to pause, reflect, pick up the pieces and walk away in their new—or maybe just dusted off—identity.

3. Action Point

Sit down with your teenager and talk about a time when something happened to you that redefined who you are. Maybe it was a divorce, or even some defining moment that occurred before they were ever born. Whatever it is, talk about how it changed you and led you to better understand yourself.

Then, ask them if anything has happened this week that has caused them to feel “less than.” What was it? How did it make them feel? Did it make them want to change something about themselves? Did it make them feel like they don’t really know who they are or where they belong?

Now speak into that place of vulnerability and insecurity. What do you see in your student that is unique? What would be lost if they changed themselves in order to fit in? Why does it matter that they strive to be just who God created them to be?

Be sure to carve out some intentional time to sit down and wrestle through these questions with your student. And remember, even if they don’t open up as much as you would hope or like, the fact that you took the time and cared enough to ask will pay huge dividends in the future. Because just knowing what they are going through means the world to your student, even if they aren’t able to show it. 

 2012 The reThink Group, Inc. All Rights Reserved

Get connected to a wider community of parents at www.orangeparents.org. 

hvarvell@wordalive.org

Reversing Darwin

Series Description

In the dog-eat-dog world of middle school and high school, survival of the fittest often seems like the law of the land. And when we’re on the bottom of the food chain, this idea of a pecking order can start to affect the way we understand God—and maybe even the way we believe God sees us. But what if we were able to reverse this idea? What if something in Scripture allowed us to turn survival of the fittest on its head? Maybe we can start to flip the idea of “only the strong survive” and live in the reality that God has a bigger purpose and a better picture in mind—and this purpose and picture involves all of us—the strong, the weak, the in, the out, those you would expect, and those you wouldn't. Maybe in an effort to reverse Darwin, we need to start by understanding who God created us to be and how to live like it matters.

Session One: Survive
Bottom Line: When the world seems to favor the strong, God is present with the weak. 
Weak. Powerless. Abandoned. Overlooked. We’ve all felt this way at one time or another. And when we feel like the world doesn’t see us and we are less than fit to make it, we start to believe that only the strong survive. But God doesn’t work that way. Because God sees the hurt, the neglect and the times that we have been ignored and taken advantage of. God sees past the labels we give ourselves—and others. And because God sees, we are no longer powerless. Because God sees, God will act on our behalf.

Session Two: Classify
Bottom Line: We tend to see categories but Jesus came to abolish them.  
We’ve said that God sees and cares for the weak. But if this is true, doesn’t it mean that God favors the weak over the strong? It’s easy to set up oppositions; it’s easy to take sides. Especially when we are the ones who feel weak. We want God to be against the strong—against those who are hurting us. But in Jesus, we see the picture of a God who can see the weak and love the strong at the same time. Jesus is The Great Equalizer. And because of this, we can live beyond the “us versus them” mentality and start to see everyone we come in contact with as God’s favorite. 

Session Three: Adapt
Bottom Line: When we adapt to survive, we misrepresent ourselves—and God—to the world around us. 
Everyday our students are making choices. Choices about what to wear, what to say, where to go and how to act. And these choices often reflect the herd mentality that says they have to be, say and do the same as everyone else in order to survive. In other words, they have to adapt. And while this may feel like the best way to make it through middle school and high school, ultimately it isn’t. Because when we learn who God made us to be—nothing more and nothing less—we allow people to get a glimpse of who we really are. And, ultimately, who God is as well.

The Reversing Darwin downloadable podcast provides training for you and your volunteers regarding this series. You can download the podcast and make it available to your small group leaders either via a disc or electronically. Also, the series checklist provides suggestions on how to implement this series in your environment. Both the podcast and checklist are found in the "Getting Started” section of the Reversing Darwin series downloads.

Parent CUE: The Parent CUE for the Reversing Darwin series includes three sections: “Be a Student of What They are Learning,” which provides a way for parents to know what you are talking about this series, “Be a Student of Your Student,” which highlights the battle we all constantly fight to define who we are, both to ourselves and to the world around us and an “Action Point” which encourages parents to sit with their student and talk about some life moments that led them to redefine who they are. See the Parent CUE document in your series downloads for more information.

THE XP: The XP for the Reversing Darwin series involves creating the “perfectly adapted student” as a youth group and then talking about the cost of adapting to fit in.  ©2010 The reThink Group. All rights reserved.

hvarvell@wordalive.org

September Series-Babel

Series Description

What does a tower in ancient times built to reach the heavens and a cell phone have in common? A lot more than you think. The people responsible for the tower of Babel, the uh Babel-ers we'll call them, took the technology, the tools of their day and used them in a way that elevated themselves and took God out of the picture. And the reality is that you and I have tools in our hands, the technology of our day, that we take and use in similar ways. The technology itself isn't bad or good. It's neutral. But like the people of Babel, how we choose to use the technology is important - it reflects the kind of relationship we have with it. And the right kind of relationship with technology will help us to do the right kinds of things with it.

Session 1: I ♥ Technology 
Bottom Line: Every one of us has a relationship with technology.

Session 2: My Profile
Bottom Line: Your relationship with technology can distort your view of who you really are.

Session 3: Social Network
Bottom Line: The way we treat technology can help or hurt our relationship with others.

THE XP: The XP for the Babel series was created to help students answer the question posed in Session 1 of the series, "What is your relationship with technology?" The XP is a technology detox in which students will choose to go on a technology fast for the week from a specific piece of technology to help them determine their true relationship with it. Encourage your leaders and parents to participate as well. For more information, see the Babel XP document in your series downloads.

©2010 The reThink Group. All rights reserved.
hvarvell@wordalive.org

Look to the column at the right side of this blog to see what goes on for youth on Sundays!