Four yards raked in 30 minutes!!

With 17 high school students and leaders I guess 4 yards raked in 30 minutes is not that impressive. Serving and going beyond ourselves to live out the Gospel is what we seek to be about at the Loft and Beyond on Tuesday nites. We spend time reading a section in the book Jesus Freak. This gives us a glimpse of what others have sacrificed for our Lord Jesus Christ. This turns us toward a passage of scripture to give us Truth. Many times we celebrate with some songs from from Utube like Joyful Noise or Two Hands. Then we go beyond and serve. One nite we made cards with scripture verses about light and the energy of God. We attached these cards to energy light bulbs and 9 volt batteries and gave to people in the neighborhood by the Loft and in Lancaster near Lincoln. We find that serving others is as much fun or more fun then serving ourselves!! Yea!!

Two Months of Silence on the Blog

Wow and Why? The fall schedule started and Wow and God is amazing but sitting down and blogging when bills have to be paid and fliers need to be made and lessons must be prepared and events planned for etc. So silence on the blog but not in real life. It is just a challenge to 'juggle' and keep all the balls in the air. I am confident that the important ones are staying up most of the time. God is so patient and forgiving and creative and the supplier of all. He is so wonderful. Catch the words to this song
'Out of the Depth'.
Words and music by Bob Kauflin
As recorded on Psalms

Out of the depths,
O Lord, I cry to You
When I am tempted to despair
Though I might fail to trust Your promises
You never fail to hear my prayer
And if You judged my sin
I’d never stand again
But I see mercy in Your hands

So more than watchmen for the morning
I will wait for You, my God
When my fears come with no warning
In Your Word I’ll put my trust
When the harvest time is over and I still see no fruit
I will wait, I will wait for You

The secret mysteries belong to You
We only know what You reveal
And all my questions that are unresolved
Don’t change the wisdom of Your will
In every trial and loss
My hope is in the cross
Where Your compassions never fail
© 2008 Sovereign Grace Praise (BMI)

The Lord does hear our cry as we put our trust in Him. Stay focused on Jesus the author and perfecter of the faith, Hebrews 12:2. As I was driving home from church today, after singing the above song, and after a bout of discouragement the past week and after being with God's people, God encouraged me with the song on WJTL, 'God of this City' (click on the song and hear it on UTube). Fixing our eyes on Jesus, the living Word and His written word is a must!!!!!!!!!!

The Code

The CODE - Romans 12 (New Living Translation)

And so, dear brothers and sisters, I plead with you to give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice—the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him. Don’t copy the behavior and customs of this world, but let God transform you into a new person by changing the way you think. Then you will learn to know God’s will for you, which is good and pleasing and perfect.

Because of the privilege and authority God has given me, I give each of you this warning: Don’t think you are better than you really are. Be honest in your evaluation of yourselves, measuring yourselves by the faith God has given us. Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other.

In his grace, God has given us different gifts for doing certain things well. So if God has given you the ability to prophesy, speak out with as much faith as God has given you. If your gift is serving others, serve them well. If you are a teacher, teach well. If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly.

Don’t just pretend to love others. Really love them. Hate what is wrong. Hold tightly to what is good. Love each other with genuine affection, and take delight in honoring each other. Never be lazy, but work hard and serve the Lord enthusiastically.

Rejoice in our confident hope. Be patient in trouble, and keep on praying. When God’s people are in need, be ready to help them. Always be eager to practice hospitality.

Bless those who persecute you. Don’t curse them; pray that God will bless them. Be happy with those who are happy, and weep with those who weep. Live in harmony with each other. Don’t be too proud to enjoy the company of ordinary people. And don’t think you know it all!

Never pay back evil with more evil. Do things in such a way that everyone can see you are honorable. Do all that you can to live in peace with everyone.

Dear friends, never take revenge. Leave that to the righteous anger of God. For the Scriptures say, “I will take revenge; I will pay them back,” says the Lord. Instead, “If your enemies are hungry, feed them. If they are thirsty, give them something to drink. In doing this, you will heap burning coals of shame on their heads.”

Don’t let evil conquer you, but conquer evil by doing good.

(Amazing passage to live by with the power of the Lord Jesus!!)

Now that the Classroom has beckoned.......

Now that the classroom has beckoned I am amazed at what God did in the life of CY (Community Youth) this summer. Amazing the many different neighborhood activities we were able to plan and pull off this summer. Only God's strength and creativity could have used these events to see the lives of young people changed. I guess one of our thots at CY is that youth are going to be doing something so we might as well give them something positive to do. We had a challenge over the summer, to memorize the Code. The Romans 12:1-18 was coined the Code at the One events last school year. I praise God for giving the endurance to keep at the discipline to memorize the Code. We did many challenging adventures this summer but I realized that the challenge to memorize the Code was my biggest challenge.

This week we were able to finish our Together Bible Study and Worship in the Loft. We had an amazing time looking at those who walked by faith. We were introduced to them in Hebrews 11 and then studied their lives from extended passages in other parts of the Bible. We were challenged by the theme song by Matthew West, Motions (click on the word motions and see the YouTube video) We want to live our lives for real, for Jesus and not just go thru motions that are not real. Too much of 'Christianity' is people going thru the motions of a religion. Instead we want to live a real life of a true relationship with a real person the Lord Jesus Christ. So anyway a great finale to the Bible study and great times of giving great worth to Jesus in song and sharing.

Some great plans are coming together for this fall for the Loft for Middle School students on Monday nite and for High School students on Tuesday for the Loft and Beyond.

BOO !!!

I scared ya, didn't I. Ok the summer was a
blogless summer, but what an amazing summer God gave and is giving. Three weeks of Camp; UE for middle school students, UE2 for Senior High students and Dad and Lad Camp as titled. Two backpack trips, a 190 mile bike trip as pictured to the left and a missions trip to America's Keswick. Somewhere in there I taught 5 weeks of summer school and helped lead a weekly Bible study at the Loft. Praise the Lord for Mark and Kristy being able to intern this summer; was a huge help. God is good, helping keep neighborhood students facing in the Jesus direction. As the pics go on this blog, the planning and start of an adventure, the making it halfway and the accomplishment of the goal. God was the center of each adventure this summer. Each event was purposeful. Wow, when life is lived this way you can enjoy real LIFE, Jesus at every turn. "give your bodies to God because of all he has done for you. Let them be a living and holy sacrifice - the kind he will find acceptable. This is truly the way to worship him." Romans 12 (The New Living Translation) (known as the Code in the LYNC
network) All this stuff an act of worship to God, wow that is amazing.

Anyway some slide shows will be appearing in the next few days. Enjoy!

Surprise!!

I'm back on the blog. Surprise #1, #2 surprise I was a counselor at UE camp this past 5 days. I finished up my two teacher days on Thursday at noon, ran some errands, stopped by a teacher end of the year party and heading to UE camp. Surprise, it was set up for me to be a counselor. I was going to place the students in an other cabin but then decided I should serve as counselor. It was greeeeeeaaaaat!!!!!!!!! Enough of me. The week went so well. God was definitely at work. UE and the camp experience is and has been one to be able to move students forward much faster. This years theme was THINK. How do you see the world, what is your worldview? What an amazing time thinking thru God is, God created, We were created very good, God communicates, we broke communication, we are at war, God brings peace and uses us to bring peace to the world. Cosmology, epistomology, teleology, and missiology and rapped up in UE 2009. The Gospel wrapped in today's language so today's youth can grasp it.

The Loft and Beyond pics, check them out!!

The finale events for the weekly meetings does not mean that activities at the Loft are over. Ask for the Summer Activity Brochure for the summer events. The weekly meetings pick up during the school year starting in September.

2009 Spring Finale for the Monday Nite Junior Highers

Check out the pics on the slide show. With 'bag skits', food, 'friendshiping' (fellowshipping), 8th grade reminiscing, and all sharing what God taught them this year we ending the school year Monday nite meeting with hands raised to our Great God!!! More to come with thots from the students. Yea!

Our God Reigns and the sky rains on the prayers of young worshipers!!

No Pics for this event but the camera would have gotten wet anyway. God was and is so good. He held off the rain long enough for everyone to arrive. As we began it started to rain, not enough to get most of us to leave and not enough to soak us. We stuck with it and had some great times of prayer and worship at the Youth Edition of the National Day of Prayer in Lancaster. What a joy to watch 100's of youth outwardly expressing their praise to the awesome God and our Savior Jesus Christ. The huge prayer here at the Loft and CY is that all of us that outwardly express ourselves will daily serve the Lord from the inside out. We pray that we allow God to reign in our lives. He is amazing, as we sang our God reigns, the rains from the heavens were coming on us. Symbolic of how we want our God to reign in our everyday lives. This world is an evil place and we must stretch out our arms and allow the 'water' of the Holy Spirit to pour on us and penetrate our soul and spirit so we can live for Him and say no to temptation and the attractions of this evil world. Click on this next word and know what our hearts desire as we love and serve youth at the Loft. We want to be a voice of truth. We jump around and yell out to and for the Savior at events like the youth rally tonite. We sing loud but most of all we pray that our lives are a life song for the One of Truth. As Jesus spoke to the people in His day He spoke in such away that some of His stories were a mystery to many and the truth was discovered by the few who really sought Him. Don't miss the messages hidden in the links.

A Getting Away for the Middle schoolers at the Loft

What a fun and discovering time this past weekend, May 1-3 at the JT Getaway. New pics show with some mud, water, Bible study and lots of fun. God gave us some great weather between showers so the weekend was not completely dampened from all outside fun. We had a great time of learning from the Truth of scripture and Jesus example from Luke 2:52. We got to see how we should live a balanced life, being careful what we take into our minds, what kind of friends to have and what is the deal with 'dating'. Some great times alone with God and times of together worship thru music. Yea, getting away, to get together so we can get going in the right direction.

Check out the Latest Pics Show - One Retreat and a multitude of other thots!! :)

The latest pics show is of the One retreat with Grace Student Ministry and the Pyro Youth Ministry. What a joy to serve together. Great teaching from God's Word on the oneness of the Trinity, oneness of being in Christ and the oneness of the Body of Christ. Much time and relationships is were we see the change come in people's lives. Jesus, the God of the universe spent 3 solid years with 12 followers and they ran off in the end. Yes, with their faith in the resurrected Lord and the power of the Holy Spirit of God in their lives they did change the world as they knew it. 1 Corinthians 4:2 "Now it is required that those who have been given a trust must prove faithful." We too, have been given a trust and it is our job to prove faithful. No, we can't do this ourselves but with the Spirit of God we can be faithful in sharing the Truth with our world's. We are not required to produce fruit. As a matter of fact we can't make someone grow or decide or choose the right. But just like we are doing in my science class, we can create the best environment for growth. In our spring Biology unit we have planted Wisconsin Fast Plant seeds. We studied what the best environment is for them to grow. We have control plants and with some we are setting up experimental plants were we have changed a variable. We have been watching everyday to see when and how the seeds will germinate. Some have been 'awakened' out of their quiescence or dormancy. Being cool and dry and in the dark they can stay 'dead' for years. Place them in the right environment they are awakened and life begins the next generation of Fast Plants. Wow, there is a lesson there somewhere. What we want to do in our working with youth is to build those relationships and enviroments to surround the youth with the 'water' of the Truth of God, written and living, so their hearts will we awakened to their Savior, the Lord Jesus Christ. Inserted here are two pics of Monday and one of our faithful leaders opening the Bible to the students. We are praying for germination of the soul. Just a reminder, if you are interested in a weekly kneemail so you can pray intelligently please email us at our CY email listed on this blog. If you are enjoying this blog and its pics let us know. Oh, by the way we were outside on Monday because of the heat. We need some new air-conditioners for the Loft. It will be cool (get it, cool) to see how God will provide. I just keep rambling on here or should I say blogging on. Oh, there was a really neat 'God sighting' on Wednesday nite. We were playing Capture the Flag at the Buchmiller Park. Sorry, no pics for this event. One of the students lost their cell phone in the lawn or forest or some where. We knew God knew where it was so we asked Him to show us if He would. We looked and looked, we were ready to do a 'lifeguard' sweep of the area where we thought it was lost. As we were getting everyone to that part of the park one student follow the cell phone. Yea, God, He thought it was in our best interest this time to have us pray and He answered right away for His glory. We gave thanks to our great God. Well when will I stop. I will now I guess because I still have a retreat to get ready for and a day of teaching. :)

Added Pics to the 10,000 Paintball Slide Show

Found some more pics. Enjoy!!

10,000 Paintballs later

It has been a couple of weeks since I posted. Wow, time flies. Not a lot of time to talk now but what a great retreat at the JT Getaway with the Loft and Beyond students for a paintball extravaganza. A great time of gaming and learning that life is 'Not about ME'. Check out the pics.

Also from two weeks ago some pics from our Monday Nite Easter Digital Hunt. The joys of showing students can have go fun without getting into the 'junk' of this crazy world. Christ came to give us life and to give it to the fullest. Check out the link and see what God says about a full life. The Truth is that the world's systems has a 'thief' that is trying to steal, kill and destroy us and the students we work with. We are using up our energy to obey God and help these students know the Truth, Jesus. He is the only One that can give real Life. Yea!!

The Ragman

Seeing Jesus as the healer and the only one who can conquer the power of sin. Click on the word Ragman and read the story off youtube. A powerful modern day reminder of what Jesus has done for all who place their faith in His work on the cross and the grave. Jesus showed His power over the wage of sin. Where is your faith? We all have faith in something. What or who are you putting your faith in?

Start the week 'In the Hands of God!'

Here are the lyrics to the Newsboys song: In the Hands of God (click on the title and here and see the lyrics on youtube) or see in this blogs sidebar.

We have raised our hopes and our cities high
We have followed fragile dreams
But only One could take the measure of our goals
And we've stumbled over the trials of life
And we've wrestled the unseen
But only One can calm the storm inside our souls

In the hands of God we will fall
Rest for the restless, and the weary
Hope for the sinner
In the hands of God we stand tall
Hands that are mighty to deliver
Giving us freedom

When our strength gave way to the weight of guilt
'Til we strained for every breath
Only One could lift our shame and make us well
And when all is finished and we face
The fearsome power of death
Only One has overcome the gates of hell

You're amazing
You're amazing, You are
And we praise You, Lord
For what Your hands have done

God is truly amazing. I am so blessed to be starting this week in God's hand. After a day of worship with the church family, some fun and crazy times with my own family caring for each other and a walk under the stars and waxing gibbous moon praying for the salvation of the 100+ homes in our neighborhood it a glorious place to be, in the hands of God. Our hearts go out for the lost of our world. Only Jesus can overcome the gates of hell. Stay in the hands of God and He will show you Himself which is enough to deal with the restless of our times.

Once again Chasing our kids on the track!!

Once again we chase our kids on the track with the LS track teams. For the glory of God they run the race. The joy comes in seeing your son raise his hand pointing to the heavens to symbolize this race is for his Savior's honor. He wins with much space to spare. Knowing that the race of life is being run like Paul challenged us to run. Yea!!

New Slideshows Posted without time to talk!! :)

Check out the Slideshows! No time to blog about them. What a busy week. Good stuff!! Hopefully a chance to blog later.

Packing coats for Siberia, making Gospel bracelets for the lost.

The Loft & Beyond serving at the GAIN warehouse Wednesday 3.11.09. Seeking to help students look beyond themselves and see the needs of the world. Every 15 seconds a child dies of contaminated water. We were able to spend about an hour at the warehouse helping make Gospel bracelets and packing coats. We have been collecting money at the Loft for $.10 meals and water purification systems for people in need.

ONE Youth Event - the first of many!?

Not long after returning from the Backpack trip we got changed around and unloaded the Big Red so that we could load it back up again for the ONE Youth Event. Click on the link to see the OneYouth web page. It will describe much about the event and who all is connected etc. What a great time seeing youth connecting in a positive way, in worship, and in discussion in out to live out the CODE so the world in our mission trip to our schools can see Jesus. (click on the word Code at the above link) What a great passage from God's Word and one that is powerful to live by.

"At our first ONE Worship Night, we presented a CODE that Christian students should follow on campus and in their community. The CODE is based on Romans 12. To keep it simple and easy to remember, it focuses on 5 character qualities: Humility, Love, Grace, Peace, and Justice. These should control the way we think, talk, and act."

What a powerful nite with many youth groups coming together to be the power of God on our school campuses.

March 7-8, 09 Trekking on a First Spring Weekend

What a great 'winter' backpack trip this past weekend that ended being a great spring weekend. I don't think it got much below 55 degrees. We had 11 of us walking the Appalachian Trail west of the Susquehanna River. We had a great time enjoying the fellowship of each other and spending time memorizing Ephesians 5:8-10. What a great time with family and friends creating a great campsite and sleeping out under the moon and stars all nite. We are always challenged to walk in the way of our Lord. Hopefully pictures will be coming. Probably the key word I heard was relaxing, getting away from the 'race' of life to slow down and just be.

Creative Foil Sculptures Illustrating Scenes from the Bible

Always looking for ways to help students make tangible connections with truth. We are studying thru the Bible. We are starting in Genesis and creation. The challenge was to use aluminum foil to sculpture a scene from scripture. Again always looking for ways to funnel the energy of the Loft & Beyond Wednesday nites to move us toward the Truth. In this picture we see the cross with Christ and the nails and the spear showing the physical pain Christ went thru so as to carry the sin of the world. This next picture is one of the 4 horsemen of Revelation. See slideshow for all the sculptures. We are about students Discovering Truth, the Truth, Jesus Christ. As you can see on the "Mountain Dew" t-shirt, Jesus was meant to die, so we can live. It is the Great story of God that we are apart of. A great YouTube clip by Louie Giglio is excellent in explaining this story. Louie explains how the story, history, is His story and he allows us to be apart of this story that gives honor to Him.

22 Hour Prayer 'Boot Camp' Feb. 20-21.09

What an amazing time to spend 22 hours on a getaway to concentrate on learning a way to pray and praying for hours. Our Church's youth group GSM, Grace Student Ministries took 24 students and leaders to our cabin, The JT Getaway. We worked thru the ACTS 'method' of praying. Adoration, Confession, Thanksgiving, Supplication. What a joy to have several Loft & Beyond students ready to attend this kind of spiritual growth event. We did just pray for 22 hours we had a chance to worship in singing and fellowship with ice hockey and polar bear plunges. All in all we were blessed beyond what we had anticipated and hoped for. I guess we need to place our hope higher, our Great God is higher and can do mighty acts. (see slideshow, pics were taken with my cell phone, quality is poorer) Not sure when I can get the slideshow up and when you can check the ACTS plan laid out by our Youth Pastor Sam. Check for attachments sometime when I can figure that out. :)

Store Recovery for the Salvation Army

So what is store recovery? Well it is putting it back in 'shape' at the end of the nite so it is presentable for the next day. As people look at clothes many times they do not put things back. We were able to spend about 45-60 minutes volunteering in putting things back where they belonged. A clerk said as we were leaving, "Without our help they would have had to stay til midnite doing store recovery, what a great help you were." Yea, in Jesus name we could be a helping hand. We are seeking to help our Loft & Beyond students look beyond themselves and gain real joy by serving others. Joy comes as place Jesus first, Others next and Yourself last (JOY).

Hang in there, We are!!?

It seems that we are just jumping, skipping, running or something from one activity to the next without much time to think in between let along a chance to blog. What a great Youth Group prayer retreat last weekend with some Loft students along, time taking neighborhood students to morning church and evening Youth Group on Sunday. Shining for our Savior and spreading the Truth!! Hope to Blog more this weekend.

What a great day off school to enjoy friends!!

Tired out so not much energy to talk now but wanted to get this new slideshow on the blog. What fun with great friends at the JT Getaway near Halifax, PA. We were delightfully suprised to find the ponds frozen enough to play hockey and prisoners base on the ice, Yea!! Food, Fun, Friends, Fire, Four-wheeling and so much energy in God's great outdoors. A little mud adds to the joy and smiles as it gets smeared places that looks like face paint. Karen and I believe that our kids and their friends will find something to do so why not give them some good and clean to do. Yes, mud on the face and on the clothes is one kind of 'clean' we can encourage. The other clean is a clean heart which the Lord Jesus Christ will do as we draw close to Him. That is what all this time with youth is all about. Surrounding them with the love of Jesus that flows thru us. Thanks for your prayers and support.

A New York weekend serving at the Bowery Mission

"Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have." 1 Peter 3:15 Wow! What a great weekend we could spend in New York's Bowery Mission. With over 100 years of history of serving the downcast they were well prepared to help some Lancaster County youth help them give a 'glass of cold water to the poor'. The mission suggested that we do not park in Manhattan but to park at the Executive Director's house on Staten Island and take public transportation into the city. Well that was a nice thought but finding out about that 1 hour before we were to leave was not my kind of planning ahead. I quickly downloaded the directions the E.D. send us via. email and google mapped some various options and we finally left by 6:00pm Friday, Jan. 30 from the Loft. We had 15 people a full 'Big Red'. With two youth dropping out Thursday nite Karen and Ken were able to go with us. With a vote from the adventurous 'crew' we headed to Staten Island, we arrived at the E.D. house at 8:46. He took us directly to the train station by 8:49 and we had 11 minutes to unload everything, take off the hitch carrier and lug all our luggage up the train station steps to catch the 9:00. We had it as the E.D. was giving directions on what we do next. We got off the train and had to buy 15 metro tickets. Trying to get 15 people and all our luggage thru turnstiles we must have used up the tickets before all 15 got thru. Using up all 15 tickets and one of us was not thru yet what do we do. Before I could think what to do the person had crawled thru the turnstile. Out comes the ticket clerk trying to get us to admit we did something wrong. They let us go and we knew we had paid our fare. On we go riding the free Staten Island ferry past the Statue of Liberty and on to Manhattan. We get on the subway and arrived at the Bowery Mission about 10:45pm. We were escorted past about 40 men sleeping on mats in the converted dining hall and got to our rooms filled with boxes of donation items. We had to clear away the boxes so we had enough beds for all of us. Sleep was short because some of us were up at 5:30am for breakfast prep. We served over 700 meals on Saturday. Five different times we served. We served the house disciples and the street homeless. The mission had two Gospel services on Saturday. Half of us got to go to the first and all of us got to attend the 6:00pm service. As I sat down before the service I whispered to Karen, "I could preach tonite." (I had inspiration in my heart). Two of the guys were saying how they could sing. (see slide show and some of the singing we did in the van on the way up, etc.) Our friend the cook that we worked with in the kitchen, who we sang and 'danced' with as we were slicing chicken and vegetables came up to me and said the speaker had not shown up and wondered if we could sing and I could give the message? (thus the verse that I started this blog with). I said yes right away and told the youth were going up front to sing. Most of them were right behind me. I MC'ed, we sang hymns, Blake shared his testimony and I was ready to speak when the scheduled speaker shows up. I did not get to share but God got us to lead in the Gospel service and we were not scheduled. If I had planned us to be apart of leading the service I am afraid I would have had to 'pull teeth' to get anyone to do anything. But God knew how to get everyone to serve from the heart. Wow! God you are amazing. (teary eyed) We served one more meal and by 8:15pm we were heading to Rockefeller Center and Time Square. It was cold but we had joy in our hearts from serving others all day. We enjoyed the M & M store, Hershey chocolate store, Starbucks, and the Toys-R-Us store. Sunday we got, packed up and traveled to the Brooklyn Tabernacle for an amazing worship service with 1000's of others from 'every' culture as though we were in the throne room of God. What a powerful reinforcement of the importance of living in the light of God. The contrast between the people we served at the Bowery and the people we worshipped with at the Tabernacle was like 'nite and day' or do we really mean like those in the darkness and those in the light. Pastor Jim Cymbala spoke from John 8:12 and referred to Ephesians 5:8-10. We were challenged to live in the spiritual world as those walking in the light of Jesus. As Jesus, who is the light, lives in us we are the light of the world. We had lugged all our luggage to the church (now we know why they call it luggage :) ). We thought we would have to sit up in the balcony with our stuff but as we entered the church a greeter, door man, bouncer type man suggested we put the stuff in a corner. I doubtingly asked if it would be safe. He said, 'Trust me, it will be safe." I had peace that his God, who is my God would keep everything safe. We lugged all our stuff from the church back on to the subway, the ferry and the train and packed the van and got home without too much of a problem. We were all weary in body but strengthened in soul. Returning by 4:30pm. 1.5 hours before we started our Superbowl party in the Loft. (we are crazy!!!! but sure do love serving Christ by serving youth)

For all who prayed, wow, THANKS. Look in future blogs for comments from the students.

Hands of Prayer

One way we gather prayer requests as well as teach students to pray is with the hand of prayer. The thumb is the closest 'finger' to your body so pray for the people that are closest to you like your family and friends. Your pointer finger reminds you to pray for the people that point you to God like your pastor, Bible club teachers or a friend or relative. Your tallest or middle finger reminds us to pray for those in our lives that have authority over us. I usually say authority is when someone has the right because of their position to tell us what to do. People like those in government, teachers, principals, parents etc.

Our ring finger is the weakest finger in the bunch and we can pray for those who are sick and need us to pray. And little old us can be prayed for when we think of little finger. Prayer shows our dependence on God. We need Him. (period)

Remember if you want to pray regularly and recieve a weekly Kneemail from CY email us at cyjcly@gmail.com Thanks for your prayers for our NY trip this weekend.

All Wrapped up on a Monday Nite!

We try to give the students a fun time at the Loft. One thing we have always tried to do is to let youth know that you don't have to give up fun to be a follower of Jesus. All wrapped up was just a crazy way to waste some energy and some foil, saran wrap and toilet paper. They worked in 6th, 7th and 8th grade teams. Later in the nite we met in those teams to discuss the idea of listening to God's still small voice as Elijah needed to as we read and studied in 1 Kings 19:10-18. We challenged the students to go thru school the next day saying, Shhhhhhhh to each other and cupping their hand to their ear to remind each other of the risk their would take in the name of Christ. Elijah had to look past the wind, earthquake and fire listen to the still small voice of God. We too must not just be looking for God in the big things but know that he directs thru His Word in a still small voice. Check out the slideshow in the side bar for more pics of the 'great wrap up'.

Excitment rises as the chance to serve approaches!!

This next weekend 4 adult leaders and 11 students from the Loft and Beyond will travel to the Bowery Mission in New York to serve the poor in our own country. What a great opportunity. We are looking forward serving our Lord by serving those around us in need. This compliments our theme of looking beyond ourselves and being available to be the hands and feet of Jesus.

For more information about the mission click on the Bowery Mission above. We plan on leaving Friday nite evening. Arriving and sleeping at the Mission Friday and Saturday nites. We will serve at the Mission all day Saturday. Three meals plus and outreach meal out on the street somewhere. Saturday nite we hope to visit Time Square and then Brooklyn Tabernacle on Sunday morning. Returning in time to see the Superbowl Sunday nite. We really covet your prayers. Thanks.

Thank You Gallaghers!!

What a great time we had 'crashing' the Gallagher's 'pad' at the Loft and Beyond on Wednesday. What a great place they have and the generosity was plush!! It was great to see were these wonderful young men live and so grateful for their mom's answer to prayer in have youth fill her home. We had a fun time getting to know each other by writing haiku poems about each other. Some examples of the haiku go like this:

I like the outdoors
Likes watching the sky and stars
16 years old rules (Alright Vicki Brubaker)

She is an artist
She takes tae-kwon-do lessons
Black is her color (Yea, Emily Ward)

I know a cool guy
He likes to go to college
He just got baptized (Awesome David Houck)

After our get to know each other we continued our learning the 10 Reasons to Believe the Bible. It is so crucial that we know and understand truth today in our world that teaches us that anything you believe is OK. See more pics in the slideshow on the side.

NOW - No Opportunity Wasted

NOW was the theme of UE (Ultimate Experience) Camp several years ago. I took the concept and have used it ever since to encourage my students at Lincoln to do things now because this is the only now they have. We have this cheer we do. I will time things in class and when the timer gets to 0 it beeps. At that point we start our cheer. We slap the table two times, clap our hands once and raise our fist yelling NOW, No Opportunity Wasted because Science is Cool, YEA!! What fun we have with the cheer. A reminder I want the students to always remember, now is the only chance they have to do the right thing, to change, to do well on an assignment, to encourage a friend, to do their homework. If they let the 'now' past without taking the opportunities given them they will miss out. I want them to see that life is full of opportunities and we must not let them go by unanswered. What is so funny is one of my students from last year is now upstairs in 7th grade. She was telling me how they hear us in the classroom under hers. One time they heard the beeper go off and some of them that had me last year started the cheer in their class and the others joined in. What a chance to influence students with positive character qualities.

What about us. I have the NOW poster all around my room. The world in the O can remind us that God has given us a mission to GO and make disciples of all nations. When many nations have come to us we should follow the Lord and reach them here. Side note: in the side bars on this blog we have a link to our local church, on our Church's website there is an unreached people group to pray for each day. How about it, is there an unreached people group in your world that God wants you to be praying for? NOW

We would love to pray for you and your people group that God has called you to. Let us know via. email us (cyjcly@gmail.com) and we will pray with you. Thanks.

What fun at Blake's Apt.!!

The Loft and Beyond traveled to Blake's apt. for some interactive time and crowd breakers. So great for us to see how each other lives. We will travel to other homes as they let us. This spring our Truth discovery is around the thoughts of 'pursue truth'. Last week the feel was that we get to know the Bible more and what it has to say. We started the nite with a story from the book Jesus Freak page 50 short entitled "Her Last Prayer". A 16 year old girl refuses to spit on the Bible in a Communist country. She cleans off the spit of others and prays, 'What have they done to Your Word? Please forgive them,' and she takes a bullet to her head. Wow, are we willing to stand up for our Savior and His Words!! We spent time looking at what Psalm 119 says about itself and after Blake's we started going over 10 Reasons to Believe in the Bible. The interest in digging into God's Word is exciting. The Truth wants to be known, Yea!! But it is amazing in our American 'Christian' culture how little many know.

Broom Tree?? Ooooh!!

A broom tree 'battle' took place Tuesday at school after our Monday nite meeting. Broom tree, what is a broom tree and what kind of battle was that. Well at the Loft Monday we have been continuing our series of Truth discovery on the topic "Whatever it takes" to get to know God. Ben, one of our amazing volunteer leaders shared how Elijah was so depressed under the broom tree because he took his eyes off God and what God had just done thru him on Mount Carmel. The evil Queen Jezebel threatened his life and Elijah lost it, his hope and encouragement. In our small groups we discussed how someone gets to know someone as a friend and build a relationship and can we apply these same things toward God. Everyone was challenged to think of one thing they could do to grow their relationship with God. They 'wrote' that on their forehead so when they look in the mirror each day they will 'see' it. We also challenged them to say 'broom tree' whenever they see each other in school so they can remind each other of what they are trying to do to grow in Christ. Sooooo the broom tree 'battle' took place on Tuesday as the they saw each other and tried to out 'broom tree' each other. What fun! Let us not give up spurring each other to do good works. At my school also the students that were present 'broom treed' me each day this week. Truth discovery is yea a blast.

Wow! That 10 days slipped......

...........by with out a Blog. I thought I had blogged but then I realized that I had just put together a prayer journal for those who signed up to pray regularly. If you are interested in praying for what God is doing in CY make sure you sent an email to cyjcly@gmail. We are sending out a Thursday kneemail each week. The kneemails can be more personal and specific since it only goes to those who only want to take request before the throne of grace. Anyway these blogs are more general and not specific with personal items since blogging can be picked up and read by anyone in the world. Wow!

Today was cool! Thanks God! We had our regular time at Church and took two of our neighborhood youth like usual. Last week at the Loft and Beyond I had just mentioned that we would be opening the Loft up for the Eagles football showing on the big screen. Several students showed up and what a fun time hanging out, playing games and watching the Eagles beat the Giants. Karen was away with Julie and Vicki was a great host for supper as about 5 of the youth decided to go with us to evening Grace Student Ministry at Church. There we go with Big Red (our 15 passenger van) hauling students again. Another chance to share in students lives and show Jesus so the Truth can be discovered.

This past week on Monday at the Loft we were able to remind students that they should do whatever it takes to get to know God, we looke at Elijah's life and how laid it all out for God. And at the Loft and Beyond on Wednesday we challenged the students to seek after the truth by getting to know God in His Word. We challenged them to spend time in His Word the Bible. The theme in the Fall was 'they lie to us' and the theme this Spring is 'chase after the Truth'. Touching lives with our indescribable God. If you click on the link in the last sentence you will connect to a great utube video that will give you a 9 minute talk from Louie Giglio about our amazing God. We showed this on Wednesday.

The excitment rolls on. God is at work. What is he doing in your life. Email us at cyjcly@gmail.com

All Nite Bringing in the New Year!!! Yea!!

Wow, what a great nite with a bunch of great High School students for an all niter to bring the New Year. The Loft and Beyond brought in the New year with much fanfare. We started at 8:00 pm. We played some get to know each other crowd breakers. Free time and then watch a 23 minute video called "Without Reservation" reminding ourselves that we need to have our reservation for heaven because we don't know what a year will bring. We had some great time of worship thru singing and a time of reflection before the New Year. We enjoyed pizza and snacks much noise and glow sticks to pass thru 12:00 midnite. We spent a couple hours in the fellowship hall at our church in Millersille for some active bombardament and hockey etc. We messed around back at the loft until 5:15 and then finished out the nite watching the archived movie "The Cross and the Switchblade". What a great true story of the power of God's love in overcoming gang violence. Thanks so much for the prayers that went before our Lord concerning the nite. What a great nite of fun, fellowship, worship and the Good News of Jesus being clearly shared with students. (The picture is of a dart throwing challenge between Ben, one of our wide awake leaders and TJ our never low on energy Lancaster student.)