Brook Hills Students

Just some pictures of the Community Fun Nights we’ve had this Summer.
They’re in no particular order …. and some may repeat. My bad.

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From Joy:
We have been busy meeting kids and interpreters since Sunday! The Lord has been pouring us out to be His hands and feet. We are praying that there will be nothing of us that the children see but only Him! The Lord has been teaching us all a lot of things since we arrived. We have done a disco, bon fire, and we will have a ball on Sunday. I am kind of happy that I was unable to send the message yesterday, because now I get to tell you about the morning we had. We met together as a team with some of our interpreters and a few Ukrainian friends to have a time of sharing, worshiping, and praying together… It was amazing, Chase did a great job leading us in worship of our Creator!!! We have been blessed with an amazing group of people who were here before us! Please be praying that God would continue to pour us out for His names sake among this people. God bless!!!

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Here is an update we received from our student team serving in Ukraine:

July 5,2010
Our translators showed up yesterday so that we might have the opportunity to meet them and get to know them before we started working with the children… We all were extremely excited to have the kids showing up. The children’s parents started bringing them to camp right after we finished eating, and they kept coming throughout the day! We have about 270 children at the camp, which is such a blessing! We just hung out with the children on Sunday. We were all ready early Monday morning to begin our official first day of camp. We start with workouts at 8:15 (everyone is there from the young ones to the old ones) where we stretch, jump, and all sorts of things that make some people crack and moan… which I have to say is pretty funny. That is followed by a short devotion. After, we went to the cafeteria in shifts to eat breakfast. After breakfast we all went off to serve wherever we were needed. My translator and I had the wonderful pleasure of working with the children ages 6-10!!! They are so precious and eager to have you play with them…after they get to know you of course! With the help of my translator, I was able to talk and play with the children for hours until lunch was ready (which was a little late today). Later in the evening we had service and disco which was funny. The Lord has truly been helping us and pouring us out for His name’s sake. The prayer of our group has been for the Lord to pour us out and allow us to be His hands and feet, little did we know He would answer in the ways He has. He has sent us to prayer many a time, both as individuals and as a group!

July 6, 2010
Tuesday begins the same as Monday morning with stretching, devotions, and then breakfast. After breakfast, we all (translators and Americans) hung out, while the children are each at their stations. We talked about what we would prepare to do with them in rec for the day. We gathered together and discussed the friends we had made and several other things, followed by prayer. We then proceeded to go to a small village approximately a 7 minute walk down the road. We grabbed a few translators and Ukrainian friends who are working at the camp and went to this small village. We are getting to know each other which is helping us in prayer for one another. While walking back from the store, I was talking to Sasha, and we are going to become Facebook friends… lol… It is pretty big over here too, a lot of our translators have asked us if we have one and then told us their names to find them… (which is easier said than done when Russian is in them mix… ). When we got back it was about time for us to head over and do rec with the 6-10 year olds. When we got over there, the children were so happy, they were jumping all over “the Americans” they had met the day before! They all try to talk to you, wanting you to understand what they are saying, sometimes you can and sometimes you can not, but that is why the Lord has blessed us with translators who are able to effectively translate for us. We still have much to do today, rec with the older children, 11 and up started a little while ago. If you would like to be praying for us, you can pray for God’s strength, character and love to flow out of us and that He would sustain us when we get tired. God bless!!!

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I am a New Orleans Saints fan. I grew up in south Louisiana and they are “our team.” When they were absolutely terrible, we were fans. When they started to get better, we were fans. I am not a fair-weather fan. I wear the black and gold whether they win or lose. It just so happens that they won it all last night. They are the Super Bowl champions. What a great game that was!! But, there was a time when they were behind. They could have lost. There was always that possibility.

I am a saint. I have been saved and redeemed by the blood of Christ. Some days I mess up. I sin. I’m not perfect. But my salvation doesn’t change. My God is not a fair-weather Savior. He loves me no matter what. The difference between this saint and the New Orleans Saints is that I will always be victorious because of Christ. There is nothing that will defeat me. There is no possibility of that. What a great feeling!

“What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who can be against us? He who did not spare his own Son but gave him up for us all, how will he not also with him graciously give us all things? Who shall bring any charge against God’s elect? It is God who justifies. Who is to condemn? Christ Jesus is the one who died – more than that, who was raised – who is at the right hand of God, who indeed is interceding for us. Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or danger, or sword? As it is written, ‘For your sake we are being killed all the day long; we are regarded as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerers through him who loved us. For I am sure that neither death nor life, nor angels nor rulers, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God in Christ Jesus our Lord.” Romans 8:31-39

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I’m not one for resolutions at the new year. I think when I set them I inevitably set myself up for failure. I can’t (or choose not to) keep them. I don’t handle failing well, so I do what I can to avoid even the possibility of that happening. With that said, I have decided this year to set one goal. I hope it will be easier to keep because I’m not alone in it. I’m going to commit to try radical living by participating in the Radical Experiment with my faith family. There’s something about knowing I’m not the only one doing this that helps. We’re reading through the Bible, praying for the world, and committing to radical financial giving for the sake of those in dire physical and spiritual poverty both here and in other nations. If you want more details, you can check it out at www.radicalexperiment.org. I’m two days in…so far, so good. I’ll keep you posted.

Are you participating, too? Tell me how it’s going for you and how you think we can encourage each other! Happy Radical New Year!!

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Merry Christmas! What a wonderful time of year this is as we celebrate the birth of our Savior! My prayer is that you will enjoy the time with family and friends but even more that we will all take the time to remember the reason we celebrate and give thanks. What a mighty God we have!

As a quick reminder, we do not have any small groups or Sunday morning Bible studies until January 6th (for small groups) and January 10th (for Sunday morning Bible study). The Student Ministry staff wishes all of you a very Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! We love you!!

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This year, we have lined up a couple of opportunities for students to serve the world in East Lake at The Lovelady Center. They are listed below. Please contact
Alanna if you are interested in helping. This is also a chance for you to get others in your family or small group involved with you!

Santa Store (for girls only) – Each year The Lovelady Center offers a store for mothers to “shop” for gifts for their children. These gifts are donated to the center. We will be purchasing gifts for teenagers this year with money raised by students during our change war (which, in case your forgot, the GIRLS won)! They offer the opportunity for volunteers to join in by helping wrap gifts. On December 19th, our girls can help with this. Here are the details:

December 19 from 8am-1pm – (Middle School Girls) Each girl needs to bring a roll of wrapping paper, tape, scissors, and money for lunch (fast food).
December 19 from 4pm-9pm – (High School Girls) Each girl needs to bring a roll of wrapping paper, tape, scissors, and money for dinner (fast food).

Afternoon Entertainment for Children – The kids there are out of school the same time as our students. They often get bored and need some entertaining. This year we will help with that on December 21-23 and 28-30 from 2-4pm each day. Each day we will provide an activity of some sort (craft, games, etc.) and cookies. This can be an opportunity for small groups, families, etc. to serve at Lovelady. The Student Ministry will plan and provide the activity, those going should provide cookies (either purchased or home baked) for the kids there and their own transportation to Lovelady. If you are interested in coming, please let Alanna know which day you are interested in. There are roughly 20 kids there and I would like to be able to pair each child with someone from Brook Hills for this time.

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Last week we had a blast at our Middle School Christmas gathering! Get ready High Schoolers because yours is next Wednesday. Pull out the tackiest Christmas sweater you can find, grab a $10 gift for an exchange game and meet us in the Student Building at 6:30…see you there!

Here are some pictures from the Middle School gathering for you to enjoy:

Sweater...check

Antlers...check

Middle School Students...check

Let the games begin!

Antlers in the making!

Antlers complete!

The Abominable Snowman

The Abominable Snowman #2

Eating the Marshmallows is difficult when you're blindfolded!

Cotton Nose

Frosty the Snowman...complete with the coal buttons!

Gift Time...what did YOU get??

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Before I even begin, if you feel like I’m picking on you, I’m not. There is not a certain person I think about as I write this. However, I believe there are many of us (that’s right, I include myself in this) that can probably relate on many levels to the thoughts I’ve had lately. For a while now there’s been a lot of hype about November 20, 2009. You can find information about the significance of this date all over the internet, in teen magazines in any store, and you hear it in the conversations of teenage girls all over America. If you’re still wondering what I’m talking about, it’s the release of the second Twilight movie, New Moon. In less that 12 hours, it will be seen for the first time in theaters across America. People all over are currently sitting and daydreaming about what it may hold. What is Jacob really going to look like? Is it going to be just like the book? There are countless discussions happening about which “team” you may be on – Edward’s or Jacob’s. It’s crazy how Twilight has infiltrated our world!

You may wonder why I’m even bothering with the movie. Who cares, right? Well, I realized something last night that broke my heart more than just a little. My world is consumed with teenage girls. Girls who know nearly everything there is to know about Twilight. I will admit that I have read the books and watched the first movie (the list of reasons is long so I’ll spare you, but if you want to know why or my thoughts, please feel free to ask). What I have seen around me is a thrill, and excitement, a knowledge of the ins and outs of everything Twilight, and people who can’t get enough. There is giddy laughter and people running to one another to talk about what’s coming. That’s all fine, but I wonder why we, why I, don’t get that excited about Christ? How is it that we allow ourselves to get to a place where we know more about fiction books than his Word? He is a far greater Savior than Edward will ever be. He’s a real person I actually have a relationship with. He’s not a passing fad or a trend. His words aren’t fiction and his life isn’t a fictional account created by some woman with a vast imagination. Jesus Christ is Lord of lords and King of kings. Shouldn’t our response to him be far greater than our response to Edward or Jacob?

Imagine with me for a moment if we lived with the same excitement for Christ as we see with Twilight. What if people were as thrilled to share his Word with friends as they are to share latest issue of Bop magazine (or whatever it’s called these days)? What if people were as consumed with him as with Edward and Jacob? I think we would see more disciples being made. I think we would see more needs met. I think we would see God glorified in ways that would blow us away. I realize you may think I’m crazy and even a bit ridiculous. I’m ok with that.

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Last night was our first of two “Underground Church” nights. Over 100 middle school students ran around campus trying to complete various tasks that people in a church in a persecuted country might have to complete…all without getting caught by the “Secret Police.” For us, it was a game. There was a lot of laughing and loud singing. Those who were arrested and jailed taunted the jailers and had a fun time in the jail. As I sat in the jail with them, I realized that in this moment of the game we had missed the point. If we were truly part of those jailed for having faith in Christ, we wouldn’t have lasted 5 minutes in that jail. The jailers would not allow us to live with that kind of behavior. To us, it was a game. To our brothers and sister in persecuted countries, it’s anything but a game. It is their faith. It is real. It is often life or death. Oh, how blessed we are to have freedom. Oh, how we miss out on the opportunities we have to share.

Jesse shared with us as we wrapped up some ways that we can help those in persecuted countries. First, we can pray for them. This may be one of the greatest and easiest things we can do to support them. Second, we can be aware of their situations. It is important for us to be informed on what is going on in the world around us, especially when it comes to spiritual matters. Finally, there are practical ways we can meet physical needs. There are many organizations that we can contribute to. There are ways to send necessities with those who are going to the field. Want to know more? Just ask…we’ll help you get connected. I promise.

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