Happy New Year!

Happy New Year!

How is it already 2012? Man, time sure does fly when you are having fun. And boy did we have fun in 2011. 2011 was a big year for me and Nick. I graduated from Seminary, we traveled with family, we moved to Elk Grove, joined Living Water, Nick started working at a new school, and we bought our first house! Whew, no wonder it flew by for us right?

In the midst of all of the unknown and changes in 2011, I learned more than anything how much I need to rely on God for everything. I was telling Nick the other day that even though most people are not a fan of the month of January, I think there is something really great about it. There is a sense of a fresh start, new possibilities, setting goals and working towards achieving them. However, there is also a sense of incredible uncertainty; so many unknowns are held in 2012. It is easy to get overwhelmed at the thought.

However, after a year of seeing God provide for us in so many big and small ways, I have no choice but to sit back and anticipate what God might have in store for us in 2012. I know it will not always be easy. I know we will face trials, fears, anxiety, and who knows what else, in the year ahead. But I trust that through it all, God is right there with us and that makes me more and more confident that no matter what happens, 2012 will be a mysterious, wonderful, stretching, challenging, and exciting new year.

Blessing to you and your family this new year,

Jessica

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.