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 from the church office and turn it in by Sunday, September 20.

Impact

Student Impact resumes Sunday, September 20 from 11:00 am-12:15 pm in the Teen Center. 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 6-8
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 $60 early-bird deposit is due by Sunday, September 6.

Broomball Overnight

September 18-19
Begins at 7:00 pm at the church and we'll be going to Dublin Iceland to play broomball. Afterwards we'll go back to church for an overnight that ends by 9:00 am on Saturday morning.
Cost is $18 and is due Wednesday, September 9.

Wildside

Wildside resumes Wednesday, September 9 from 7-8:30 p.m. in the Teen Center. 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 Around Camp

Friday Night

Forget what anyone else has said about how tough it has been to wake up these past few mornings. Friday morning was definitely, by far, the toughest! I managed to sleep peacefully through the 7 o’clock bell, PD’s alarm clock, and his iPhone alarm. We finally managed to get out of bed and make it into the breakfast hall seconds before we prayed for our meal (pancakes and bacon). Thank goodness for free coffee!
After breakfast (and a weak attempt at “cabin clean-up time”) we all headed to chapel for some worship through music with Grayson and his band. This morning we did something a little different after worship. Each youth group broke out into areas all around the Meadow and took some time to share how the Lord has worked in their lives this week and how they plan to keep their relationship with Jesus alive after they go back down the mountain tomorrow. Most students have decided that they want to spend more time in the Word and in prayer once they get down the hill and back into the real world. I will be praying that they don’t forget the decisions they’ve made and the experiences they’ve had up here on the mountain top.
Today’s recreation was the epically legendary Great Race. The Great Race consists of 12 stations scattered across the Meadow each with a different activity for our campers to perform. Some of the activities included the Running of the Bulls, the Sandcrab Scurry, and the Narwhal Crawl. One of my favorite stations is the Mystery Muncher where one camper must eat a “mystery dish.” This year’s muncher dish consisted of raisin bran, mayonnaise, mustard, and pickle relish. Yum, how delicious! Two of our teams managed to finish the race in the top three (Jumbo in 2nd and Knick Knack in 3rd). For the rest of the afternoon our campers scrambled to memorize their Bible verses for bonus points. Knick Knack in particular is very close to winning the coveted champion t-shirt this week and therefore, we all managed to squeeze in two extra verses before our deadline at 1:30.
We are now down to our final 2 hours of free time here at Hume. We’re all out and about swimming, canoeing, kayaking, hiking, blobbing, and having as much fun as possible before we end the day with a BBQ dinner and a final chapel meeting. At tonight’s meeting, the rec leaders (Tyler and Dallas) will announce the winning teams (and pass out the champion t-shirts) before we all head up to Victory Circle. At Victory Circle campers will have the chance to share how the Lord has worked in their lives this week and how they have grown as a result of their experiences up here at Hume.
Tonight will surely be bittersweet as we prepare to pack up and head out for our long drive home tomorrow morning.
~Robert Niese

Thursday Around Camp

Thursday Night

Another wake up bell at 7 this morning.. NO WAIT! 8!!! We got to sleep in a whole hour and boy was it great! Started the day off with another delicious breakfast followed by separate chapel meetings for the boys and the girls in which the staff took turns sharing about some of the challenges for adolescent Christians. The speakers emphasized the importance of having close-knit and Christ-centered groups of friends of our own genders, holding each other accountable for our actions, and how guys and girls can treat each other in loving kindness and respect for each other.
After chapel was an awesome recreation time—the dye war! Everybody was given a cup and each larger team of the Spritzerizers and the Pie Wielders went at it against each other, soaking each other in either blue or red dye. It was a blast! By the end everyone was some shade of purple, with blue shadows left on our faces from dye dripping down, or red cuticles and creases in our hands from dipping into huge buckets of food-coloring-dyed water to refill for colorful drenching of our opponents. Afterward everybody enjoyed a giant slip-and-slide competition and filled up on a picnic lunch of hot dogs and chili.
The afternoon was once again filled with activity, with a handful of kids participating in the Foosball (Zach & Caleb took 2nd & Sammy & Taylor took 4th) and ping-pong tournaments and another large group heading out around the lake to the cove to hike (well, more like slip and slide) up the trickling stream that flows into the lake. We had a few casualties (more bruises to show off—woohoo!) but nothing serious, and everyone had a blast! A trip to the high school camp to visit the Hume Lake clothing store for souvenirs and the snack shop for ice cream and milkshakes was a great ending to the afternoon!
Dinner again as usual, and then a special concert played for us by Grayson, the band that is here to lead us in worship this week! They played worship songs that we all knew and could sing along too and then shared a couple of their own! It was a blast singing loudly, dancing wildly, and overall greatly enjoying the music.
Chapel came next, in which our speaker Shawn challenged us to call on the Lord in prayer, creating a closer relationship between us and our Heavenly Father as well as giving us the opportunity to give God our burdens as well as our praises. In our closing prayer many of us recommitted our lives to Christ, making promises to consistently pray in order to pursue our relationships with our Lord and Savior!.
Free time included a skate competition which many of the kids attended as well as an opportunity to meet the members of the worship band (Grayson, Chris, and Josh). It was another very full day, and it is so exciting to see not only how much fun the kids are having, but also how they are discovering themselves, their faith, and delving deeper into their relationships with God! It is truly amazing!
Last full day at camp tomorrow—I know we’ll all be ready to head home by Saturday morning but be sad to leave Meadow Ranch and Hume Lake at the same time!
~Lindsay Pattison

Wednesday Around Camp

Wednesday Night

Middle of the week at Hume Lake and getting up and going was the hardest this morning! At least we knew what fun things awaited us once we ventured out of our warm, snugly sleeping bags! Off to breakfast at 8 and then cabin clean-up time with a decoration theme of “wiggidy-whack Wednesday!” One of our two girl cabins even won the prize for best cabin on Monday! Chapel was about missions today and going out into “all the nations,” so we had a guest speaker from South Africa. His name was Jit and he talked about the camp ministry he helps run in northern South Africa called Jabulani Africa Ministries, or JAM for short. All of us loved watching a video he brought of some of his ministry team members giving new shoes to a little African boy who had never had any before. He was smiling and screaming with joy and excitement—and it made us smile and giggle with joy and excitement too! It was awesome!
After chapel was recreation, and today was spirit day! Many people wore wacky costumes and painted their faces for the giant relay-race games out on the meadow—three-legged race, extreme leap-frog, dizzy-bat, and an over-under water game! It was a blast! After rec we were hungry again and ready for lunch.
Finally it was free time, and we all worked on memorizing the daily bible verse for about the first 15 or 20 minutes to help earn points for our teams! For the rest of free time we picked our pleasures of swinging off “Noah’s Nightmare” or getting launched off “The Blob” into the pond, swimming in the pool, trekking to the lake to jump off the big rock into the water, racing through the air and across the pond on the zip line, or even gearing up to play an intense round of paintball! Everyone met back up for dinner and enjoyed swapping stories of the day’s adventures along with comparing paintball battle wounds and other more minor (yet equally unfortunate) camp injuries.
Evening chapel was wonderful yet again. Our speaker Shawn helped us dive into Hebrews 12:1 and allowed our eyes to be opened to the weight that hinders and sin that entangles us in our lives. Shawn challenged us to consider our weights and cast them off, allowing God to take the throne in our lives instead of placing ourselves on it in lives of distraction and sin.
We ended the night with a huge game of hide-and-seek in the dark (campers searching for counselors!) and afterward got the announcement that we would have an extra hour to sleep in! Finally the day was coming to an end and we headed back to the cabins for small-group devotions and bedtime! It was another challenging, awesome, super-fun day at Meadow Ranch!
~Lindsay Pattison :o)

Tuesday Around Camp

Tuesday Night

Happy Tuesday all!!! ☺ Well, Tuesday morning rolled around nice and early at 7:00 am!!! Now all who know me, know that I am not so good at mornings…but I will say, I haven’t had much trouble waking up in the mornings. My cabin has been a ton of fun thus far and has been easy to rise and shine in the morning.
After breakfast at 8, the kids went back to their cabins for cabin clean up. Cabin clean up involves cleaning up the inside of the cabin, and making sure that all of the trash around the outside of the cabin is cleaned up. They also add a theme to cabin clean up. The theme was “Tiny Town Tuesday”. So they had to decorate their cabins accordingly.
Tuesday morning chapel was a cool thing where we broke out into small groups and went for hikes! It was really cool for the kids to get a breath of fresh air outside of Meadow Ranch! Once we reached the end of our hike we had a small group time. That was fun!
Recreation Tuesday morning is the first time that we get to find out what place we are in. Of course none of us are competitive (haha), but its fun to see where we are. So, in 10th place was Team Jumbo which is my (Bayne’s) cabin which includes Ryan A., Austin D., Drew F., Nick M., Taylor M., Sammy M., Casey S., Nick S., and Hunter T. We were stoked. Coming in in 7th place was Team Blinky which is Lindsay’s Cabin which included Taler A., Kimberly C., Alexis E., Caroline L., Katelyn P., Lacey R., and Ariana W. Coming in in 2nd place was Team Squishy McButtercup which is Joe’s Team which includes Jennifer J., Vanessa L., Amanda L., Hanna R., Michelle R., and Natalie W. And Pastor Dave & Robert’s (Team Knickknack) cabin busts out with a 1st place start and his cabin includes Zach B., Kyle H., Justin L., Paul M., Blake P., Ryan P., Caleb S., and Gus T. That’s how it all started…and we’ll see how we end up Friday night!! Recreation was the other half of the fabulous four games. Those were fun. I’ll let you ask your kids. See the pix for a photo from recreation.
Then we had lunch (see pix posted today) and free time and High Adventure! You can see the group I was in for high adventure on one of the pictures that was posted. We had an amazing time with the leaders Kevin and Julie! They were extremely encouraging to our group! They rock! But High Adventure includes a ropes adventure course 40 feet up; a wall climb; a 40 foot bungee jump; and a totem pole climb. Then off to dinner.
After dinner was the blob competition on the pond, as well as the belly flop competition!!! Ask your kids about this one!!! This was a blast. Drew, Nick M, Ryan P, and Kimberly C. were involved in these competitions.
Next, was chapel. Tonight was decision night! We had 10 total kids stay back for decision night and give their lives to God! Totally Awesome!!!!! Its always such a powerful and moving and fulfilling night for us counselors to be a part of this chapter in the kid’s lives!!!
~Justin Bayne

Monday Around Camp

Monday Night

Seven a.m. and a bell is already ringing… and LOUDLY! The start of our first full day at Hume Lake! Breakfast burritos got us going and energized for a day full of soaking up the speakers’ words in chapel, playing as hard as we could on the recreation field, swimming in the pond, pool, or lake, and singing and screaming our lungs out in worship and encouragement to one another.
The theme Bible verses of the day came from John 3:19-21 and Matthew 5:13-16 and challenged us to ask ourselves if we were mimes—of the world and remaining in darkness and apart from God’s light, or if we were clowns—having the “saltiness” and exciting flavor of God to share with the world but keeping it to ourselves.
Our speaker Shawn is great at coming up with real-life applications for tough concepts to help us understand and get to know God better! He continued the theme of flavor and food in our evening chapel, encouraging us not to “stuff ourselves with the world” so that we “have no appetite left for God.” He also used the example of something very important in the average teenager’s life—cell phones! The idea that the Bible is God’s “text message” to us really hit home with the kids, and they all were especially challenged when they were asked to think about what it would be like if we checked our Bibles as much as we checked our cell phones.
We ended the day with “Ranch Time,” or free time to hang out within the Meadow Ranch camp area. It was a great first day at camp, and we all can’t wait to see what adventures we’ll have and how God will move in our hearts throughout the rest of the week!
~Lindsay Pattison

Sunday Around Camp

Sunday Night

After a great bus ride we arrived early up at Hume Lake, got checked in and the teens scattered around camp for some free time.
In the evening our first chapel began with the opener which was a madcap circus show of clowns vs. mimes (which will carry into our recreation teams tomorrow and throughout the week).
After the opener we had a time of worship through music with Meadow Ranch's new worship band - Grayson from Auburn, CA.
The evening chapel concluded with this week's speaker, Shawn McBride, a pastor from Washington DC introducing us to the theme, "Hey Rube" which is a call to action. He shared how God's desire this week is to transform our lives like the autobots in the Transformer's movie.
After chapel there was Ranch time with a choice of skating in the ark, a pick-up football game on the meadow or a night swim in the pool.
Well the bell rang so it's off to bed.