Happy Halloween!

Ok, can you tell what Cody & I are? We are ketchup & a french fry! Thanks to Hannah who donated some of her old sing song outfits to me (that's why the french fry is sparkling) I was able to throw together some costumes in about 5 minutes. Cody was a good sport, as I know this was not his first choice!

This week at Young Life we celebrated Halloween by playing a wonderful game of couch-o-rama! Couch-o-rama is simply a scavenger hunt with a couch. We divided all our kidos into teams & gave each team a couch (well, one team had a recliner), we threw the couches in the back of pick-up trucks and headed out around town. Each team had a list of places they had to go find & take a picture with their whole team sitting on or around the couch. For example each team had to find a pool & take a picture with everyone sitting in front of the pool with a couple of kids in the pool! Another place was a dumpster, they took a picture on the couch in front of the dumpster & got bonus points if kids were actually in the dumpster. Anyway, the scavenger hunt turned out to be a great hit & it was even funnier with all the kids in their costumes.

After the scavenger hunt I talked to the kids about the sacrifice that Christ Jesus made for us so that we could live forever with him. I talked mostly out of John 3 - I repeated John 3:16 several times throughout my talk as to emphasize that Jesus came so that "everyone who belives" in him can live forever. I love that what Jesus offers us is for everyone, not just the best people we know, not just those who never miss church, but everyone. I then spoke about the next verse, verse 17, & how it says that Jesus came to save. He came not to punish or condemn, but to save. I am thankful that what Jesus offers is free to all & I pray that we will continue to give this message clearly to our high school friends & that they might accept this gift.

"For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world, through him." John 3:17

It Snowed at YL!

Well, the snow didn't exactly fall from the sky, it really came in the back of two pick-up trucks. We wanted to push ski trip sign ups this week so we had a snow club! We got left over snow from the zamboni at our local ice rink. I was so excited about having it there for the kids, but they were not near as excited as I was. They just kept asking how we got it & then after club we had several snow ball fights. Along with having snow we played a game to see who could drink a slurpie fast enough without getting a brain freeze & we also had a couple girls stick their feet in a jello mold, surrounded by ice to dig out jellybeans & then feed them to a couple of brave guys. Needless to say, I hope we got the point across that we are really excited about ski trip this year & we want them all to go with us.

After all the fun in the snow & ice we talked about our separation from God because of sin & our need for a Savior. I always think these are some of the hardest talks to give, but I also have a firm belief that kids need to hear it. They need to know their need for a Savior. I gave the example of of 2 different branches fallen from a tree. One branch had green leaves on it, while the other had no leaves at all. I asked the kids which branch looked better. Obviously, they said the branch with the leaves looked better & more alive. We then talked about how both of these branches are dead, they have both been separated from their source of life & there is no way that on their own they can become alive again. So many of us are just walking around like the dead branch with leaves still on it. We look really alive, but this is only temporary, because we are cut off from our source of life. I ended with Romans 6:23 - "For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Christ Jesus our Lord." There is life through Christ, he is our only way across this separation & I encouraged all to come back next week to hear more about this. Please pray that all our friends are able to understand & process this & that they would realize their need for our Savior.

Club updates

I am so happy that it is finally starting to cool off & become more like fall. It was so great to stand outside before club this week & not already be sweating. As I stood waiting for kids, I prayed that kids would come, that they would have fun, & that God would use us to bring our high school kids to the feet of Christ. As I stood kids began to pull in to the parking lot, actually they began to pour into the parking lot. We had kids speeding in, kids walking in, kids being dropped off by their parents, & kids coming with friends & they were all coming to Young Life. To be honest yesterday was a hard day & I drove to club feeling down & wondering if I was any good at doing this job, but God totally humbled me & used our team despite the baggage from the day that I brought into the night.

When club began energy was high, music was loud, & kids were having fun. We played a game of YL Jeopardy, with Cody as Alex Trebek & challenged kids with questions like, "who is the vice president of the US?" It took a couple of guesses, but we did eventually get the right answer! After that we sang a couple songs, played a couple more games, & gave out some high quality raffle prizes from the local Dollar General. I am so thankful for all my friends I got to spend time with last night. Girls who I have come to love & care about & I love that Young Life is a place that they want to come on Monday nights. I pray that we will continue to be a place that is so different from the world around us, but so attractive to kids.

I want to end with a common verse that I have been thinking about a lot lately:
"You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything, except to be thrown out and trampled by men.
You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. "

I recently heard someone talk about being the salt of the earth, and how salt does preserve, add flavor, etc. But before we can preserve & add flavor to those around us we must first be transformed by Christ so that we become the type of people that preserve & add flavor. We are first salt & THEN we become light. We cannot be attractive or continuous light if we are not first transformed by Christ & out of that become light to a lost world.

I pray that we will continually transformed by Christ so that we can then truly be the salt of the world & out of our salt will come a true & genuine light, one that will be unbelievably powerful to the outside world.

Cody at club as Alex Trebek ( I know it doesn't look exactly like him, but we tried :)

Football & Weddings

This fall it seems we have been enjoying many football games as well as weddings. We have been to high school football games to see our YL kids & they have been fun to watch this year, as our high school team is actually undefeated! Last Friday night our church threw a tail-gate party before the big cross town rivalry football game. The tail - gate was really nothing special, just gave away lots of hot dogs, chips, candy, & even raffled off an ipod nano. The cool part about the whole evening was that we got to minister to so many people coming to the game by offering them free food. Some took the food, many passed us by in a hurry to get a good seat for the game, but none the less it was a great picture of the body of Christ reaching out to the community. The sweet fragrance of Christ as folks give so that people might wonder why we are giving & in the end come to know the Savior.

We have not only been into high school football, but of course Junior High football!! Cody is a great coach & it is so fun to watch him with the kids. He coaches a 7th grade team & then the very next day coaches an 8th grade team. Both teams are doing well & are so lucky to have such a great coach. It's interesting to be a coach's wife sitting in the stands, so far no bad comments have been made about the coach!

We have also been keeping up with our favorite teams on TV. I have a whole new outlook on Saturday, Sunday, & Monday football games on tv, now that I am living with a boy during football season. We won't really get into Texas football (you can call Cody to discuss this one), but the Cowboys are winning & that's fun!

Here are some pics of Cody in action:

September was the month to get married & I have loved going to all the weddings. Last weekend Jenn & Matt got married & it was a great ceremony & so fun to be with my ACU roommates & more friends. Kim & Keith came down from Chicago for the wedding, it was great to see them.

On a final note my mom & Dad came down last weekend & it was so good to see them. They spoiled us by feeding us great food & making sure we were doing OK.

Club updates

In the past couple of weeks we have been humbled, overwhelmed, & thankful for what God has done so far this year with Young Life. We have been humbled by the kids that we have begun building relationships with this year, overwhelmed by the kids that have showed up to club, & thankful that we get to be a part of this mission.

We had a western club & to be honest I was a little nervous about how the whole thing would fly, but it went great. We had some friends play music for us & the kids danced, had a cricket spitting contest, watermelon seed spitting contest, & heard about a man named Jesus, who's heart is filled with love & compassion for them. It was so fun to watch kids do old fashioned western dances while laughing with their friends. Please continue to pray for our ministry here, as we are always praying for more workers for the harvest. Last night at club Cody & I were the only leaders - we want to do well in our clubs, but also want to be able to talk with each & every kid coming & last night we were not able to do that.

Before I post some pictures I wanted to share an amazing story about a girl who came to one of our YL clubs, for the first time. This girl's dad has been in jail for 15yrs and she was in some really bad drug problems this summer. After club was over one of our YL leader's took the girl home, but stopped by Taco Bueno to see her mom(where she works), her mom had a charm that is usually worn by Catholics. When they got back into the car for her leader to take her home, her leader said that her friend who was Catholic had the same charm as the girl's mom. The girl said that she was a Catholic yet she didn't know who this Jesus is that she heard about at YL club. She said she wanted the Jesus that she heard about. She stated that many people had told her she needed Jesus but she didn't know what that meant. Her leader pulled the car over and explained everything to her. She said she wanted Jesus and she never wanted to be alone like she felt this past summer. They prayed together for her to accept Christ.
Our God is Amazing - he used a crazy YL club, & people encouraging her to go in order to bring this girl into the kingdom!

Cody showing everyone how the cricket spitting is done - what a man!

Us trying to do a dance -

Playing a game :)