Christmas at Saint Matthew

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”

MS Teen Center Inaugural Overnight

MS Christmas Mystery Dinner

The Christmas Mystery Dinner is on Wednesday, December 17 from 7-8:30 pm in the Fellowship Hall. The cost is $3 and is due 12/10.

New Impact Series

In this series we'll take a faith journey and talk about some habits that, if you and I take the time to develop, they can and will change us. There are very few times when I guarantee anything, but this is one I really believe I could guarantee—not only based on God’s promises, but based on what I’ve lived experientially.

Acolyte Training & Pizza

Wildside on October 8

New Impact Series

At some point in your life you've probably asked yourself the question, "What on earth am I here for? In this series we'll discover God's biblical purposes for our existence-worship, fellowship, discipleship, ministry and evangelism. God wants these purposed planted in your heart. Each week you'll go deeper with your understanding (if you aren't yet a Christian) and deeper with your application of the purposes (if you are a follower of Jesus Christ).

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 17.

Parent's Get Acquainted Dessert

Sunday, September 14 at 7:00 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!

Impact

Student Impact resumes Sunday, September 14 from 11:00 am-12:15 pm in the Fellowship Hall 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.

Youth Quake - Middle School Youth Gathering

November 7-9
This year's Quake is in San Jose 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 $50 early-bird deposit is due by September 10.

Broomball Overnight

September 12-13
Begins at 7:00 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 9:00 am on Saturday morning.
Cost is $17 and is due 9/10.

Wildside

Wildside resumes Wednesday, September 10 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.

Saturday Around Camp

Friday Night

Happy Saturday morning everyone!! Well, today is bittersweet. I think I can speak for everyone and say that we are all sad that camp is over, but we are also happy to be coming home to see our family and friends again . . . and also get a few days rest.
Friday morning recreation was amazing! It was the great race. Energy and excitement is at its highest level!! The great race is a race through a series of 12 different activities that have to all be completed in order to complete the race. It’s the race that EVERYONE wants to win! Saint Matthew’s teams finished solidly at 1st, 4th, and 7th. The anticipation continues to build, as we now wait all day long until the evening recreation chapel to find out who the overall winner of recreation is, and who will get the championship shirt.
After lunch, was the high ropes course! Can I just say that we had 40 kids participate and it was totally awesome?! The high ropes course consists of a bungee jump (42 feet free fall), pamper poles (climb the telephone pole and then at the top jump to a trapeze), rock wall climb, and a ropes course 50 or so feet up in the trees. It’s a very tough course both mentally and physically. It pushes all those who do it to their limits. It’s a great experience to go through and to watch the kids go through. They rocked it!!
We had a hamburger barbecue dinner, which was pretty tasty. Then came recreation chapel. WOW WAS THE ENERGY HIGH!!! All of us were split among 5 different teams, and we were all in the running for winning the championship. So as you can imagine, there was a little friendly competition and heckling…etc etc. The results turned out pretty good. We finished 1st, 3rd, 6th, 7th, & 9th. So that was totally awesome!
After that we had our final chapel where John talked about how we know the Bible is real and true. John did a great job all week reaching the kids. He has a gift and he uses it well. The kids had nothing but good things to say about him all week. After that we had the closing drama up at victory circle, which wraps up the whole theme and message of the week.
Then at night us guy leaders pulled a little prank on the kids called Hatchet Harry. ☺ You’ll have to ask your kids about that one. ☺ Or you can ask me or PD or Erock and we’ll fill you in on the details . . . but I wouldn't worry, they’re all tired enough to where I am sure they will sleep very soundly the next couple of nights. Good times . . . good times!
Please pray that we have safe travels home today! Thanks again for all of your prayers and also thanks for taking the time to read the blog and keeping up with our daily activities. We had a great week!
In Him,
-Justin Bayne

Hey there are you listeners out there in Radioland . . . and thank you for tuning into this exciting conclusion of the SMLCMSHLSB (Saint Matthew Lutheran Church Middle School Hume Lake Super Blog). We last left off with our intense cliffhanger and several unanswered questions. Well after all these hours, the waiting is finally over. Friday began like it always does with breakfast and chapel and stuff. We made our way to recreation chapel where they announced the places. It was a close contest between ROBOSLAM and the robosapians, with ROBOSLAM holding the 3rd place position and the sapian guys in 2nd. However, after an intense day of recreation, Bible verses and cabin cleanup, it seemed that the final standings were still up for grabs. The day went on and after the search for Dinker (the stupid duck that was impossible to find) proved unsuccessful, no one knew who would bring home the final victory. After dinner, we made our way into the final recreation chapel. Everyone anxiously awaiting the final results of the competition. The teams were announced. Starting from 16th place and making their way down, everyone hoping their team would not be called. 10th place, still no results for anyone from Saint Matt's. 9th place, the Grannybots (Pam’s team) got called. When 7th place was called it was revealed that the Monkeybots (Heather’s cabin) would hold this position. After pulling off an exciting win of the great race Robotime was launched up into 6th place in an impressive effort after beginning in 15th. 4th place is called and still no word of ROBOSLAM or robosapian. Ready to announce 3rd place, but wait, we needed one last visit from Grizzly Barbasol, the camp superhero who came and taught us a fun dance. 10 minutes pass and they are ready to announce third place. Anxiously waiting; who would take 3rd, would either of our team claim the title. After a more waiting, it was announced and in a valiant effort the robosapians took home the bronze medal. The final announcement awaited us. I would go on but you all know how this ends. ROBOSLAM proved successful in their efforts and took home the win. Kids go crazy and run up on stage in celebration. Excited, both for their champion t-shirts, and for the honor of getting up early the next day to serve their fellow campers with morning KP duty. It was an exciting competition. We hope you will turn in for the next season of SMLCMSHLSB (Saint Matthew Lutheran Church Middle School Hume Lake Super Blog). Its been great trip and we can’t wait to see you all soon. God bless.
-Erock

By the way, although recreation was a blast and it was exciting we realize that the true purpose of this camp was to deepen relationships or start new ones with God. It is my hope that above all, the kids would see how a real relationship with God is far more important than our own efforts. That we would truly realize that to truly change our lives, we need to allow God to work and us. It is not by our own power that we are able to follow God and what God wants for us, but it is by keeping our eyes on him and treasuring our relationship with him that he will cause our sin to fall away. The kids have been challenged this week and I hope they know that although the life of a follower of Christ is not easy, it is something that brings so much fulfillment to both this life and the one to come. Thank you so much for reading and I thank God for moving in the kids’ lives this week. Any victories that happen belong to God. We've had a blast and we can’t wait to see you all soon. Much love…

Friday Around Camp

Thursday Around Camp

Thursday Night

Hey howdy hey all you amazing blog readers! This is Heather here, with the updates on how AWESOME our week at Hume Lake has been. Today is a b-e-a-UTIFUL day, and I can’t believe we’re already getting set to come home in two days. I can already look back on this week and think of the awesome memories that have been formed: staying up late, sleeping on the “squeekingly awesome bunk beds” (as Morgan calls them), laughing forever with the girls in my cabin, and savoring the joy-filled moments of seeing our students learn more about God.
Last night, all three of our girls’ cabins went out at night to have some quality girl time. Not that we don’t love the guys, with their lack of deodorant use and above average maturity, but there’s nothing like just hangin’ together with the girls! We sat around a campfire under the stars (while enjoying some smores, I might add), and learned about how big our God really is. We learned how God created the entire universe and yet each of us are still His number one priority. Awesome :o)
Today our church had our annual mud fight, which was SO sweet! There is nothing better than sticking a hand full of fresh Hume mud into a friend’s hair :o). It’s actually a great natural shampoo; I should use mud more often. We also played the Dye Wars for Recreation today, which I LOVE! The students get a small Dixie cup to fill up with a certain color dye (don’t worry, everyone’s skin is back to normal color) and the counselors get a 24-ounce cup (so glorious) and we spill blue and red dye all over each other. By the end of it, we all looked like we belonged in a Gatorade commercial, blue and red streaks all over us!
But the best part of today was Chapel tonight. John Alvarado, our speaker for this week, spoke to the campers about discipleship and his words hit home for a lot of our students. John challenged us to think about what we need to change in our lives in order to follow Christ, and not just believe in Him. What I love most about doing ministry with middle schoolers is how although they may be silly and awkward and just learning how to be themselves, they are still able to make the choices to follow God, which is the coolest and most humbling thing to see.
Well, I think that’s it for now. The bell’s about to ring for bed tonight, and I am totally looking forward to my four hours of sleep! Good night from Hume!
-Heather

Wednesday Around Camp

Wednesday Night

Hey all you listeners out there in radioland… This is Erock signing on for the Erock’s Hume Lake update hour. As for Wednesday we had some crazy times. I’ve been having an interesting challenge with the guys in my cabin this year, which is getting them to STAY asleep. Weird problem I know… I just have bunch of guys that like to wake up at 6 am. I don’t get it. So after yelling at them to go back to sleep we went to breakfast. The mission’s speaker for chapel I felt was especially good this year. His name is PK and works for Hume Lake international. He challenged kids to realize that they can reach out to their friends in their own neighborhood. Recreation time was super loud and super crazy and rocked everyone’s face off. Super Ultimate Spirit day with a bajillion relays (4 relays) and hundreds of middle schools dressed up like robots and screaming like spazes (I know you all wish you were here). The Super awesome ROBOSLAM did really well, boosting them up in the standings. After that came lunch. I’ve been having goofing off at the meals and having some good conversations. Free time I competed in the camp foosball tournament with Nick, one of the guys from my cabin and we totally won it, boosting the ultimate team ROBOSLAM, up in the standings. After all the excitement I was able to partake with Pastor Dave in one of the most amazing gifts that God has ever given mankind. After our nap, we went and got some smoooooothies and then went off to dinner. Apparently they like to see people in pain here at camp because they had ANOTHER belly flop competition off the diving board this time. Despite the pain of it I usually have fun doing this one. Sammy, one of the guys in my cabin did it for our team and he pulled off a pretty good score. I went for the counselors and did was I felt was a solid flop. Kathy captured it on video. Maybe we can share it. Chapel seemed to connect with a lot of kids tonight that was NEET to see. We’ve had some good conversations with kids in the cabin because of it. What I love is that we are able to talk about what the speakers are saying and hopefully help the kids to understand a little more and critically think about it, rather than just take it at face value. So after chapel we had the super secret scary night game. The counselors had to go hide out in the woods while the kids came to find us and we gave them a coin, which they had to take back to their team bucket. Pastor Dave, Bayne, and I (good grammar ☺) had a great spot and we just hid out in the woods and talked as loud as we wanted because we knew we would never be found. Anyway, the game proved to have a good turn out for the amazing team, ROBOSLAM, which really boosted them up in the standings. The camps reward for the night game was a night swim, which was pleasant for the counselors as it made the kids less stinky. That night was a good time for our cabin. A lot of guys stayed up late with me memorizing Bible verses. We got a lot done which should really boost the incredible team, ROBOSLAM, up in the standings. It was a lot of fun. The kids slowly drifted off to sleep at a late hour, but it was okay because today was sleep in day. Anyway, I don’t want to ruin the next chapter the exciting saga of the Hume lake blog. Tune in next time when we reveal the exciting conclusion of the Saint Matthew Hume lake adventure extravaganza. Will ROBOSLAM show how amazing they are and bring home the win? Will any kids vomit during the mystery munch? Will the kids set a new record for the amount of wagon time received? And will Kathy and Heather finally get their kids to take a shower? Find out next time on SMLCMSHLSB (Saint Matthew Lutheran Church Middle School Hume Lake Super Blog). Thanks for listening!
-Erock

Tuesday Around Camp

Tuesday Night

This morning team Grannybots had KP duty for breakfast so we were up early setting tables and serving up pancakes and sausages. After a wonderful time of worship and praise, we heard a talk by one of the band members named Tyler. Next for recreation we played two more games, my team played in the pool sinking other teams canoes and then another games collecting the most colored balls before the time was up. After lunch a bunch of people went to play paintball—huge smiles all around upon their return despite a few paintball welts.
After dinner was the pond competition. Heather, Eric, Austin, and Nick did a fabulous job on the belly flop competition off of Noah’s nightmare. We also had a great showing of skill and courage from Brad, Justin and P.D. on the Blob.
Tonight we had several students make a decision to follow Jesus as their Savior. It was a great moment that will be the start of a life of joy and growth in faith.
Hi to all the families who haven’t heard from their family members. Camp is fun, drinking plenty of water; food tonight was the best ever. We had chicken tacos and very good apple strudel.
(Hello sweetie, you know who you are)
-Pam

Monday Around Camp

Monday Night

Wow. This shouldn’t be sooo much fun. The kids are doing great, fears aren’t being realized, all are healthy, hydrated and happy. Today we dove a little deeper into what it means to choose a life in deep relationship with God and how choosing sin threatens that relationship by separating us from God. The kids have been glued to the speakers, which is amazing. We got our teams for recreation today. We have Monkeybots, Twistybots, Grannybots, Robotime, Robosapiens and the amazing and awesome Roboslam (Kathy and Erock’s team). We competed in recreation and cabin cleaning- can you believe one of the boys’ cabin took third place in cleanliness??? Amazing. After recreation we captured pictures of kids in the pool, daring Noah’s nightmare and launching from the blob (James went soo high). I am off to one on one time with one of my campers. This is a special time where we get to know each of our cabin mates better and visa versa. Good night.
- Kathy

Sunday Around Camp

Sunday Night

Though we got a late start leaving Walnut Creek, we arrived safely at Hume Lake, got checked in, went to our cabins and had enough free time to explore camp.
This year’s worship band is Campaign (they were over in Ponderosa last year). The have a new front man and a new lead guitarist and began our opening chapel with a high-energy time of worship through music.
This week's speaker is John Alvarado who used to serve on Hume’s staff. John is now serving in Mexico with Spectrum ministries where he ministers to children and families in poverty. This year Hume has a universal theme again, “Rise of the Kinematics.” Kinematics is the study of motion without regard to its cause. During the week we'll be looking at the topics of: who is God, humankind, who is Jesus, salvation, discipleship and the Bible. John shared with us who God is, how much God loves us and how God desires a relationship with each one of us.
Well I’m off to the Youth Pastor’s meeting. We'll post some pictures tomorrow.
PD et al.

Hume Lake - Meadow Ranch Camp

Hume Lake begins on Sunday, August 10. Check in starts on the plaza at church at 8 am and is over by 8:45 am. The bus departs from church at 9 am (with or without you). Our return is by 3:30 pm on Saturday, August 16. All your forms and fees need to be turned in before you can go.

Family Camp

Impact Softball & BBQ

New Impact Series

There’s a dark side to everyone that is usually uncomfortable to talk about. But denying the real issues like anger, envy and laziness don’t lead to a healthy life. In this series we’ll provides practical and easy-to-implement lessons that address the stuff we wish we didn’t feel. But when handled biblically, each of us will be stronger spiritually and more prepared to do the right thing.

Wildside Gym Blast Overnight

New Impact Series

Sharing your faith with your friends. Just the thought alone conjures up a multitude of images—and most of them make you uncomfortable. But sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ doesn’t have to be scary or cheesy. In this three-week series, we are going to look at what it means to share Christ with others, why it is a command from God, why it is a matter of life and death and how to share Christ with your friends.