Youth and Parent Crazy Night

We had the most fun, crazy, awesome night with youth and parents tonight!!  We played the balloon race game, the mummy game, the donut game, the water race game, and the shaving cream and Cheetos game.  And if you wonder what's involved in playing any of those games...well, then we suggest you join us next time because it was just plain ole FUN as you can see!!

The New ZG Room!!!

The new room is ready and the kids were surprised and even a little speechless at first.  Here is video of their reaction.

Zero Gravity Room

The Whole Truth and Nothing But the Truth

We started out tonight with a few "halves".  We had half a cup, half a plate, half a fork...and asked the kids what those items were good to be used for.  Obviously, a half of a cup will not hold anything to drink.  Half of a plate may be good for fanning yourself with, but it's not much good to hold food.  And half a fork...well, there's not much you can do with that!

Tonight we talked about the differences between the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Christians.  The Pharisees believed in the law of Moses as the authority on how they should live.  They worshiped God in flesh, but not spirit, did not believe in grace or mercy, and believed certain rituals and traditions needed to be upheld in order to be righteous and free from sin.  They believed they were saved by their works and did not recognize Jesus as their Savior.  They did believe in resurrection and angels and demons however.

The Sadducees believed in only the first five books of the Bible as the authority in their lives.  They did not believe in angels or demons or the resurrection.  Like the Pharisees, they worshiped God in flesh, but not in spirit and that they were saved by their works.  They also did not recognize Jesus as Savior.

Christians, on the contrary to both the Pharisees and Sadducees, believe the entire Bible is the Word of God, truth, and the authority on how we should live our lives.  We worship God in flesh and spirit.  We believe in God's grace and mercy as well as His judgment, the resurrection, angels, and demons.  We know that we are not saved by our works, but by faith and a repentance of our sins and a belief in Jesus as our Savior.

The problem was that both the Pharisees and the Sadducees only believed in partial truths.  They chose what of God's Word they wanted to believe instead of believing in His whole Word.  And some of His Word, they added to or twisted to make say what they wanted it to say for their gain.  You can't have only part of the truth or a distortion of the truth.  You need to have the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

We each wrote three truths and one lie on index cards about ourselves then.  We read them out loud and tried to guess whose card was whose.  In many instances, we needed the entire truth about an individual to know it was them.  In the same way, you cannot really know Jesus without knowing the truth about him...his birth, his life, his death, his resurrection, and his deity.  And the only way to truly know Jesus is to be steeped in His Word.  Then your plate will be whole, your fork will have a purpose, and your cup will overflow (Psalm 23:5).

Pool Party!!

Here are pics from our 3rd annual pool party!!!  We had a blast!!  Thanks Mrs. Helen and Mr. Victor!

It's Not All About Us!!

    

Pastor Mike spoke about Paul's humility and love again this past Sunday, and about how, even amongst Christians, there is a lot of back-biting, demanding of rights, and picking at each other going on.  Paul was a great example of laying down his rights in Acts 23 when he humbled himself and apologized for disrespecting the High Priest who'd just ordered him to be slapped in the face!

We decided tonight was the perfect night to do some team-building.  Even in ZG, there has been some dissension among the youth at times...mostly boys vs. girls, but nonetheless, it has happened.  With the dynamics of our group having recently changed with Michaela leaving and Brandon C. joining us, we couldn't think of a better time to talk about how we are supposed to treat each other and relate to one another.

First, we showed the kids a mirror and a pane of glass.  We told them that both were made from glass, but quite different.  We asked them to name some of the differences.  We also asked them if, as they go through their days, are their thoughts more on themselves or others.  We asked them to imagine living in a house where all of the windows were turned into mirrors.  Would they like living there, never being able to see outside...the sun, the clouds and trees, their friends.  The house would be very dark inside too as no light can get through a mirror.  The same thing happens when we think mostly about ourselves.  Life gets dark for us.  We don't see the beauty around us or the ways we could help other people because we can only see ourselves.

Next for some games to build upon this lesson.  First, using a ball of yarn, we asked the kids to sit in a circle.  We started by holding the end of the yarn and rolling the rest of the ball to one person in the circle and then complimenting or encouraging them in some way.  It had to be a real compliment too...not a fluffy, "I like how you dress" compliment.  We asked the kids to dig a little deeper than that.  Then, the one complimented held onto a piece of the yarn and rolled it to someone else.  We repeated this until everyone in the circle had been encouraged or complimented.  By now, our yarn circle looked like a spider web of sorts.  We are all, as brothers and sisters in the Lord, intertwined with one another.  It's not all about us as individuals!

Then we did something similar.  We stood in a circle and everyone was asked to hold hands with two different people who were NOT standing next to them.  The game is called Human Knots and the object of the game was to become untangled from one another WITHOUT letting go of our hands!  It is possible!  We need each other and again, are all connected in the body of Christ.

Our last game involved two groups and two separate twin bed sheets.  The sheets were laid out on the floor and the two groups were then asked to stand on their team's sheets with no one touching any part of the ground not covered with the sheet.  Once accomplished, the teams stepped off their sheets and we folded them in half and asked them to do it again.  We continued to fold the sheet in half again and again to see if the kids could work together to fit each team member on their respective sheet.  At times, it took team members picking up and holding other team members to get everyone on the sheet without touching the uncovered ground!

Lastly, we showed the kids a YouTube of teammates not thinking about themselves, but others...even others on the opposing team.  It's a championship game between two college girls' softball teams and you really have to see it to believe it.  I still can't watch it without getting tearful!  It's such a great example of selflessness and giving up one's rights.

We also drew names for new accountability partners tonight and worked on our notebooks...another way to emphasize that we're here to pray for and encourage one another in Christ.