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.)