Wildside Q-zar & 10 foot Sundae

Christmas at Saint Matthew

December 23
8:00 am – “4th Sunday in Advent Worship”
9:30 am – “Carol Sing”
11:00 am – “4th Sunday in Advent Worship”

December 24
4:00 pm - “Family Christmas Eve Worship” featuring FX
7:00 pm - “Saint Matthew Christmas Eve Worship and Celebration”
9:00 pm - “Heritage Christmas Eve Worship”

New Impact Series

Join us in Impact beginning Sunday, December 2nd from 9:30-10:40 am for the New Impact Series - Adventure Management. Life is an adventure full of surprises and challenges. And there are a couple of areas in life that if they aren’t managed wisely, can steal the joy and abundance from the treasured life that Jesus promised to those who follow Him.

Wildside Pizza & Bowling

Youth Quake

Youth Quake - Middle School Youth Gathering

Depart at 5:30 pm on Friday, November 2.
Return by 12:30 pm on Sunday, November 4.

Mmmmmm Choctoberfest!

Broomball Ovenight

Goodbye Koinonia . . .

Youth Quake - Middle School Youth Gathering

November 2-4
This year's Quake is in Pleasanton and features dynamic speakers who speak the Gospel in ways that are meaningful to young people, great Youth Encounter music, meaningful small groups on hot topics and fun activities to help build community.
A $75 deposit is due before 9/30.

Broomball Overnight

September 21-22
Begins at 8 pm at the church and we'll be going to the Oakland Ice Center to play broomball. Afterwards we'll go back to church for an overnight that ends by 9 am on Saturday morning.
Cost is $15 and is due now.

Student Leadership

“. . . I urge you to live a life worthy of the calling you have received.” Ephesians 4:1

Jesus expected leaders to serve.

Jesus gave his disciples an image of leadership that we use as our standard for Student Leadership within our Middle School Ministry.

“Jesus called them [the disciples] together and said, "You know that the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their high officials exercise authority over them. Not so with you. Instead, whoever wants to become great among you must be your servant, and whoever wants to be first must be your slave—just as the Son of Man did not come to be served but to serve and to give his life as a ransom for many.” Matthew 20:25-28

Jesus shattered what most people think leadership style is all about: being in charge. He goes even further to define true leadership as serving others. “Serving others” is how we define ministry. This type of servant-leadership is not attractive to most people. It goes in direct opposition to the attitude of running to the car to ride in the front seat or being first in line to eat or telling everyone what to do.

We’re not looking to fill our leadership team with the cute, fun and popular. We’re looking for people who love Jesus and are willing to make ‘servant-leadership’ the standard their lives reflect.

If you’re in 8th grade and would like to be this kind of leader, pick up a student leadership application and turn it in by Wednesday, September 19th.

Parents Get Acquainted Dessert

Sunday, September 16th at 6:30 pm.

For the parents of Saint Matthew’s Teen Ministry (Middle and High School).

Smit’s & Trae’s House
2024 Quiet Place Dr. in Walnut Creek.

Our Children shouldn’t be the only ones having fun!

Please bring a dessert to share and get the opportunity to get to know each other better. Youth Pastor, David Dykes will also share his plans for the Middle & High School Ministries for the coming school year.

Hope to see you on Sunday night!

New Impact Series

Join us in Impact beginning this Sunday for the New Series - Road Rules for the Real World. Week one we'll be looking at how to handle stress in our lives. This year Impact will be in the Worship Center from 9:30 - 10:40 am. We'll still have donuts but you'll have to come and find out where we're serving them up. Hope that you can join us!

Impact

Student Impact resumes Sunday, September 16th from 9:30-10:40 a.m. in the Worship Center at church. Registration forms are available in the church offices and at the Welcome Center at church.
Impact is our large group meeting for Middle Schoolers and High Schoolers that’s designed to be inviting, have a friendly, fun, challenging, and exciting atmosphere. This morning program shatters the “church is boring” stereotype and will help you celebrate life. It is filled with laughter, antics, videos, singing, dramas, a message and small groups that challenge teenagers towards spiritual maturity.

Wildside

Wildside resumes Wednesday, September 5th from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Fellowship Hall at church. Registration forms are available in the church offices and at the Welcome Center at church.
Because of Middle Schoolers need for fellowship and relationships with other Christians, we meet midweek for fellowship, a devotion, small group time and prayer.

Friday Night

Final Rec. Scores
Ingimar-Team Nimvid (Heather) 10th Place
Thorlak-Team Sveld (Pam) 7th Place
Ingimar-Team Gwinst (Kathy) 6th Place
Thorlak-Team Blarg (Justin & Jay) 3rd Place
Thorlak-Team Ernst (Erock & PD) 1st Place

Friday Around Camp

Friday Afternoon

Hey friends and families! It’s our last full day here, and what an amazing week it has been! The majority of our kids are going to do the High Adventure ropes course a little later today… I think I’ll use the time to take a short nap; Oliver and I had a long day yesterday. Oliver’s eye got a pretty serious scratch on Wednesday evening, and we had to drive down to the hospital in Fresno yesterday to get him some medical attention. After 3 ½ hours in the ER (mostly spent waiting around for different doctors to show up), we were released into the waiting room, but unfortunately the injury was serious enough that Oliver couldn’t return back to camp. He’s back in Walnut Creek now, and will need to spend a full week in bed recovering. The pain has pretty much subsided and he’s doing a lot better now, but he’d definitely appreciate your prayers for a quick and full recovery; it was a pretty scary experience.
We (the counselors) have had the opportunity to meet with each camper individually by now, and it’s been awesome to get to know these guys, discuss the more important matters of life with them, and pray together. Small groups have been going well too, especially now as everyone is growing closer together and feeling more comfortable and trusting of each other. Our small group has had two of our night small group meetings outside, and have been blessed by amazing displays of God’s glory. There’s not much light pollution up here, so the stars shine with amazing clarity, plus there’s been a meteor shower this week, so the view at night is truly breathtaking.
Your prayers, letters, and e-mails have really been appreciated, and it’d be great if you would be praying for all the kids as they transition back into school in the coming few weeks, that they will uphold the commitments they’ve made, and continue to be as excited about their relationships with the Lord as they have been this week. See you soon!

Love,
Jay

Thursday Around Camp

Thursday Afternoon

Hello Family of Faith,

Thursday afternoon is just ending. It has been a great day and a great week. We started this morning with an extra hour of sleep, woo hoo! I woke up early and so had some quiet time for myself. We have all been memorizing God’s word this week. Not only are we hiding these precious words in our hearts to benefit our spirits as we face challenges in our lives, we also get team points!!! One of the shorter passages is Titus 2:11-12 For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men. (and women, too) It teaches us to say “no” to ungodliness and worldly passions, and to live self-controlled, upright and godly lives in this present age. In the evening we have small group discussions to see how these words apply to our present lives. These talks have been great with everyone sharing their thoughts. God is alive and well and speaking to us here through his beautiful creation, music, worship, drama, and the Bible.
So, did we spend the whole day in quiet meditation, praying, memorizing scripture and sipping lattes? NO,NO,NO!!! we had a little activity called dye wars!! The camp is divided into two teams as you may already know. Everyone showed up on the field wearing a white T-shirts. Each team had three 55 gallon drums of colored water, either green or red. Campers were given little cups and counselors got huge glasses that we used to fill with colored dye and throw at each other. It was rather wet, wild, and very noisy. There is a time and place for every purpose under the sun.

Love to all,
Pam

Wednesday Around Camp

Wednesday Afternoon

Wow! Wednesday afternoon already, I can’t believe it! Things are going great! All of the kids are healthy and having a great time! So are the adults of course!! See the pictures for yourself.

So last night was the belly flop competition at the pond! Its great fun!! There is a camper round and a counselor round. The count goes like this, “One-Belly-Belly, Two-Floppy-Floppy, THREE!!!” Then the belly flopper takes the plunge on this big rope swing, and does the best they can at belly flopping from probably 15 feet up in the air. There were some amazing belly flops! You could feel their pain when they landed. My team placed 1st in the camper round. Erock’s and Heather’s team took 1st and 2nd in the counselor rounds respectively. The blob contest was another one of the competitions. The blob is a big balloon basically where a camper sits on one end, and the counselor jumps down from 10 feet up on the other end and launches the kids into the pond!! It was great!!!

Last night’s Chapel was a powerful experience! It was decision night. Dathan Brown presented the gospel and at the end of chapel, the kids get the opportunity to ask Christ into their heart for the first time. We had 2 girls and 3 guys accept Christ for the first time! I can’t articulate in words what an experience it is to see these kids do this, but it’s a very touching experience. I thought it was really special too because we had some of their peers stick around to congratulate them and support them in their decision. God is amazing, and it’s so wonderful to watch how he works through people! It just goes to show you that it doesn’t matter how old you are, but God has a plan for all of us, and uses all of us no matter what age we are.

Today has been fun! My team has risen in the standings from 8th to 5th, and PD’s team moved up from 2nd to 1st. I think Pam’s team is in 7th. Another part of recreation is cabin clean up. My cabin and PD’s cabin tied for 1st on cabin clean up this morning!! Go Saint Matthew’s!!

This morning’s chapel we got to hear from Luke Everett. He runs a school for the deaf in Mexico. His main point is that God has a purpose for all of us. At the end of his talk he did a song in sign language. It was pretty cool.

And to wrap up this entry in today’s blog, I just got back from the lake. Kathy, Pam, and myself took a bunch of kids and went kayaking, canoeing, and boating on the lake for about an hour! It was a lot of fun. The views from the lake are so incredible. You’ve got the trees, the lake, the camp, and the mountains. You often find yourself staring off at the beauty and you just lose yourself in thought or just plain daydreaming.

Well, it is now dinnertime, so I am going to sign off for now. You all know me well enough to know that I don’t miss meals!! ☺ I hope you are all doing well back home! Continue praying for all of the kids and adults for health, safety, and changed lives.

In Him,
-Justin “Bayne”

Tuesday Around Camp

Tuesday Afternoon

The competition is starting to really heat up, of course team Ingimar is going to whomp Thorlak, despite their early lead (yes, Thorlak/Ernst, PD’s cabin is in second, Pam’s Thorlak/Sveld is in 5th, Justin’s Thorlak/Blarg is in 8th. But my Ingimar/Gwinst is going to climb from 6th to dominate for Ingimar!!!!!!!!!!!!!). Rachel is our secret weapon. Tonight is the Blob and Noah’s Nightmare competition. I think we have convinced Bayne that you can’t Blob someone with a broken fibula. Hopefully, we get some good pictures for you.

Today a bunch of the guys went to play paintball- huge smiles all around upon their return. It was tough to tell who was wearing more paint Anthony or Caden.

You can see from the pictures that the kids are having a great time. All of them! We have a number of kids who don’t attend regularly or are just starting mixed with the usual suspects, but they are all smiling, all talking and all connected. A real answer to prayer.

The speakers and actors have done an amazing job of bringing the story of Daniel from 600 BC, to the Viking era, then relating it to the present. The kids have been able to relate and identify areas where they can grow their own faith.

Hi to all the families that haven’t heard from their family members. Camp is fun, drinking plenty of water, food is fine.

Go Gwinst!
-Kathy

Monday Around Camp