Advent

Happy December! It is officially appropriate to play Christmas music in my house (and at my desk at church which I am doing right now) and our tree and  decorations are going up this weekend as well. Nick and I are especially excited to be celebrating Christmas in our new home this year and decorating it for the first time! I am really looking forward to this Christmas season.

However, this time of year can be such a roller coaster of emotions. There is the joy from seeing family and friends and then the sadness in remembering those who we cannot be with this year or who are no longer with us. There is the excitement of seeing loved ones open your carefully selected gifts and then the stress of busy parking lots, long check-out lines and dreaded credit card bills. There is an extra push for generosity for those less fortunate and then the overwhelming realization of the large amount of people who are hurting all year long. Like I said, a roller coaster. And the dips can so often overshadow the peaks if we let them.

This season I have been reflecting on the season of Advent, celebrated throughout church history during the month of December. Advent means "arrival" or "coming" and is marked with a sense of anticipation, expectation, and longing as we remember this holiday is all about the "coming" or "arrival" of Christ. As we look forward to and anticipate this holiday, we remember how those before Jesus longed for a Messiah, the one who would come and bring hope for the whole world. And this month, we get to celebrate what his coming meant for us and the hope that we now have because the Messiah has come.

What are you hopeful for this season? What do you believe that Christ can do in your life, if your family, in your relationships because of his incarnation? During this season, we celebrate and anticipate what God is going to do in our lives because we have hope that his arrival changed everything. I want to focus more on that this year, and less on the to-do lists and shopping and decorating. I want to think about Christmas more as celebrating Christ's arrival and the redemption and restoration that came with his birth, life and death and less as just another gift-giving holiday. That is my goal this Christmas.

Then, in the midst of those roller coaster emotions during the holiday season, I will be reminded that in every circumstance, God is present and has promised to restore the brokenness of this world. And I will have hope.

This week, I was given a free Advent Family Devotional printout from a pastor friend of mine, the idea being to go through one family devotional a day for the month of December to remember this season of Advent as a family. If you are interested in this resource, email me at jessica@lwceg.org and I will send you a copy.

I pray this season is filled with hope, peace, love and joy for you and your families.

-Jessica

Jr. High Costume Party!

We had a BLAST at Saturday's costume party with the Jr. Highers! We had a packed house youth room with lots of creative costumes. We played fun games and decorated some awesome looking AND tasting cookies!

Here are some fun pictures from the event so you can get a glimpse of how much fun we had!

 Just a few of the awesome costumes we had represented there!

 The boys keeping it real with their very subtle costume selections. :)

The winner of our cookie decorating contest, Alyssa! So creative!

The co-champions of our costume contest, Katey and Emily A.!

It was a such a fun night! Thanks for everyone who came and who contributed to making this party a success!

Monthly Youth E-Newsletters

Today, our October Newsletter was sent out!In addition to these posts on the blog/website, I also send out a monthly E-Newsletter to parents of the students in our youth ministry to give an overview of upcoming events, explain the current series we are discussing in youth group, and a little note from yours truly.

A few things that might be helpful to know about this newsletter.

• If you haven't received it, we might not have your correct email, make sure we get it! Send me an email at jessica@lwceg.org and we'll add you to the list.
• When you open the email you may need to click on the "Display Images Below" in order to see the newsletter in the format it is intended to be read. 
•  Or click on "Always Display Images from Living Water Youth Group" and then you never have to click that link again!
• You can also read the E-Newsletter by clicking HERE or going to the Monthly Newsletter tab at the top of this page. 

These newsletters are intended for the parents of our youth to be able to be both aware and involved in what is going on in our youth ministries programs here at Living Water. We hope you enjoy reading about what is going on with our youth group! 

Understanding Your Teenager Parent Seminar

Saturday, October 29
9:00 am to 12:00 pm
First Baptist Church Chapel
Cost is $10 per individual

 

Living Water Parents! We have been invited by the youth team at First Baptist to be a part of this great seminar they are putting on for parents of teenagers. I have personally attended one of these seminars as a part of a Youth Ministry class in seminary and can tell you that this is extremely helpful and practical information that will help equip you to parent your teens effectively and still maintain a healthy relationship with them! 

This seminar is for parents and adults who work with teens and pre-teens. Attendees will learn what to expect from their children during the teen years and how to parent them with greater confidence, love and understanding. The six “principles for effective parenting” will give parents the road map they need to successfully guide their teens through the rough waters of adolescence.

We look forward to seeing you on Saturday, October 29 from 9 am – 12 pm.  The seminar will be held in the Chapel at First Baptist Church of Elk Grove (located at 8939 East Stockton Blvd, Elk Grove 95624).  Bring a pen to take notes in your Understanding Your Teenager notebook and come ready for a time of learning, new relationships, and laughter.

Dr. Les Christie, chair of the Youth Ministry Department at William Jessup University will be presenting the three hour seminar. Les was born in Liverpool, England and has worked with teens for more than 40 years, serving as youth pastor at one church for 22 years. A popular and enthusiastic speaker with a love for teenagers and parents, he has spoken to audiences in 48 states and 13 foreign countries. He has written over 200 articles in national magazines and has authored more than a dozen books. Les and his wife Gretchen live in Rocklin, California and have two grown sons.

Thanks again for joining us for this special opportunity to learn how to grow our teens up for responsible adulthood.

Click Here to register for Understanding Your Teen

High School Back to School Kick Off!

We had a great time last night with the High School students at the Back to School Kick Off. At the beginning we had some delicious pizza and cold sodas while we enjoyed meeting some new people and getting to know each other a little bit better. Then we played a few games and let the students embarrass themselves a little by putting on some impromptu skits. I'll just say that one of them involved cheese coming out of a can. I'll leave the rest to your imagination.

Following that, Braden Trotter shared with us a little bit about his life and then we headed into the sanctuary to hear from our amazing youth band. It was the first time I have heard them play since I was out of town the week they played at church and I was super impressed by how well they did! Seriously these kids are talented and God sure does shine through them when they lead worship. It was awesome to see the kids worshiping and enjoying the time we got to spend in worship together as a group.

Next we got to see the video we have been working on for a few weeks: Back to School Survival Guide. You can see in on youtube by clicking HERE. It will also be posted to our Videos page of this website soon. The students did a great job making this video. I'm telling you they were pretty good actors for only being amateurs. We had a fun time filming it and it turned out pretty well, if you ask me.

We finished our time with a talk Nick and I put together called: 10 Things We Wish We Would Have Known in High School. I will post those ten things on the blog for you to enjoy as well. Overall we just wanted to communicate some of the things we learned from our experience in and out of high school and hopefully give them some helpful and practical tips to have the best High School experience possible.

Overall we had a really fun night and look forward to the upcoming school year, now that we have officially kicked it off properly.

Wanted: Fall Sports and Activity Schedules!

Now that you guys are back in the swing of school, Nick and I would LOVE to support you in any activities you are involved in! We would love to come to your football, volleyball, tennis, soft ball, soccer, water polo, drama, band, etc. events.

In order to do that though, we need to know your schedules! Some of you have already given us schedules, so thanks so much, but if you haven't yet, please do! If your schedules are posted online, email us the link (jessica@lwceg.org) or post it in the comments here or on our facebook page and we will go check them out! If you don't have a schedule, feel free to just let us know as events come up.

We are looking forward to supporting you all in your activities this fall! We can't make it to everything, but we will do our best to make it to as much as well can if we have enough notice. So let us know!







-Jessica

Hume Lake Modesty Video!

megan[fate]marshman: Download Hume Lake Modesty 2011: CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD MODESTY 2011

At Hume Lake this year, the girls on staff decided to make a fun statement about the importance of dressing modestly. On the first night of camp, they sent the guys out of chapel first and performed this fun medley of pop songs with the words changed in order to illustrate in a fun way the dress code for the week at camp.

If you listen carefully to the lyrics (its easier if you actually download the song rather than just watching the video, although I recommend both because in the video you get to enjoy the sweet dance moves too), the point of this isn't just to tell the girls they need to dress appropriately. More importantly, they stressed that our worth is so much more than what we wear, how we look, etc. and that God made us all beautiful on the outside AND inside so we don't need to focus on trying to impress others with our outside appearance.

For the record there were also instructions given to the guys as well on dressing modestly, they just didn't get as cool of a delivery. :) This is by no means just a girl dilemma, believe it or not, boys deal with self-esteem and wanting to impress people with their appearance as well (how else do you explain those body-builder types that practically live at the gym).

It may be a little bit different in the way we express it, but males and females alike all struggle with self image at one point or another. And that is why I am glad that the Hume Lake staff took the time to put together this performance for the ladies at camp and then make it available online for all of us to enjoy, both the ladies and gentlemen, as well as those who weren't able to make it to camp this year. It's a funny performance, but the lyrics have a lot of truth to them (well most of them at least). :)

They kept this video a secret during camp for the summer so it wouldn't be ruined for the upcoming campers, but now that camp is over, it can finally be relived via the internet. And now the guys can enjoy it too. ;)

Back to School!

It's that time of year again! It's time for new schedules, catching up with friends, telling stories about our summers, buying new notebooks, pencils, binders, etc. Oh yah and also, it's time to start classes again; to learn History, Math, Science, English, Spanish, French, Music, Phys Ed, Art, Geography, Economics, for nine whole months! That's a whole lot of learning.


Today, Nick starts teaching again too, so we know what it feels like trying to adjust to new schedules and how it is not always easy to get back into the swing of things right away! Wasn't it just the beginning of summer break like yesterday?

Today I was reading Matthew 11:28-30 (click on the link to read it on Bible Gateway). I've read this passage quite a few times but today the part that really stuck to me was verse 29:

"Let me teach you, because I am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for your souls."

Jesus isn't commanding us to learn from him. All he asks us to do is to let him teach us.

This kind of learning is pretty easy to do, really. All he is asking us to do is to come to him with an open heart and mind and he will do the rest. The best part is, he tells us in this same verse, that he is the kind of teacher that is humble and gentle with us. He doesn't force us or intimidate us into learning from him, but he promises that if we allow ourselves to learn from him we will find peace and rest.

I don't know about you but I am going to try harder to open my heart and mind and to ask Jesus to teach me as much as he can this upcoming year.

-Jessica

Meet Nick and Jessica: Our Welcome Letter!

Dear Living Water Family,

            My name is Jessica Charney and I am the new Director of Youth Ministries at Living Water Church. My husband, Nick, and I are so excited to be here, to be a part of Living Water and to get to know the youth and families of this church. Since we are new here, I want to introduce myself.

            Nick and I both grew up in Elk Grove. We went to Laguna Creek High School, where we had mutual friends who introduced us at the end of my senior year (2004). We both attended Azusa Pacific University and were married shortly after graduating in 2007. Not long after we got married, I felt called to go to seminary. I attended APU’s seminary beginning in the fall of 2008 and graduated this past May.

During my time at seminary, I worked as an Assistant Youth Pastor at a local church and fell in love with youth ministry. I am thrilled at the opportunity to serve in youth ministry at Living Water and that after living in Southern California for seven years; we were able to come back to the area we love so much. Nick and I moved back to Elk Grove in July and are having a great time getting to know the youth and meeting new families here at the church.

If you are a parent of a Jr. High or High School Student, I want to invite you to attend the parent meetings we are hosting so that you can meet us (if you haven’t already) and hear all about what we have planned for the youth ministry in the coming school year. We have some exciting changes planned and the meetings will give you helpful information about the youth programs.

Meeting Date: Wednesday, August 31, 2011
Location: Living Water Sanctuary

Jr. High Parent & Student Meeting, 6:00 – 6:30 pm
Students who are planning on participating in the Confirmation program must attend this meeting with their parents.

Sr. High Parent Meeting, 6:30 – 7:00 pm
Students are welcome to attend this meeting with their parents. Sr. High Youth Group will begin immediately after the meeting concludes.       

            If you have any questions or are unable to make it to the meeting, feel free to contact me by email: Jessica@lwceg.org or phone: (916) 916-685-6161. You can also find out more about what we have been up to and what is planned for the future at our new youth website: http://lwcurrent.blogspot.com/

Sincerely,

Jessica Charney
Director of Youth Ministries
Living Water Church

Pool Noodle Extravaganza!

For your viewing pleasure I have created a short video chronicling all the action in our final game of POOL NOODLE EXTRAVAGANZA! The game is called NOODLE NINJA and if I were to describe it in one word I would say EPIC!

-Nick

LIVING WATER - HUME LAKE 2011 RECAP

Hume Lake 2011

 

We had such a fun time at Hume Lake this year! As you can see in the picture we all had fun getting to know each other better and doing all of those fun summer camp activities. Some of the highlights 

include:

Our all-church volleyball game. I must say our kids are pretty talented at volleyball, even those who had never played before had great attitudes about trying something new and by the end were really getting the hang of it.

The trip to The Cove. The Cove is on the other side of the lake, so on Wednesday we all walked over there together and had a great time. The brave ones (aka the students), hiked up to some the higher parts of the river that feeds into the lake and then we all did some swimming in the nicer (warmer) lake water.

Recreation. One of the fun aspects of Hume Lake are the daily recreation activities. Each cabin is put into a team with two other cabins and each day there are different competitions where you can earn points for your team. Duke competed as a swimmer and Paul ran the lake run (about 3.5 miles) in the biathlon for their team, El Speedy Gonzalez. El Speedy Gonzalez stayed in the lead most of the week, however, in the end, the girls team, the Nightriding Nannies, finished in 3rd place while El Speedy Gonzalez ended in 5th. I was pretty impressed though that both teams got such high places as there were 28 teams total. Not too shabby. 

We also had a great speaker, Jer Swigart. He spoke on the lives of Saul and David from 1st Samuel and how we can learn from their lives and experiences what it means to live our lives All In, completely devoted to following Christ is every area of our lives. You can actually listen to his talks from the week if you click HERE. 

There were also some great seminars that a lot of us went to during free time. One was on how to study the Bible and the other on how to share your faith with your friends. Those were both also pretty interesting and we all learned a lot from them. 

I am working on adding more pictures from Hume into the PHOTOS page of this blog, so if you want to see more pictures, check it out. We also have a TON of pictures in our facebook group, and you can see them by clicking HERE.