Meet our Summer Intern- Sara Hickenbottom!

We are SO excited to introduce to you our Summer Youth Intern, Sara Hickenbottom! Here is a little introduction letter from Sara!

Hello! My name is Sara Hickenbottom and I am so excited to have the opportunity to be hanging out with the Youth this summer!  I am currently a junior at Azusa Pacific University with a major in Philosophy, and minors in Humanities and Religion. Just two weeks ago I returned from studying in England for the semester at Oxford University, which was an unbelievable experience and I am so blessed that I had the incredible opportunity to see more of this remarkable world that God has created!

I have been attending Living Water for four years, and my senior year of high school spent with the Living Water Youth Group is one of the most memorable of my life.  I first accepted Christ when I was 13 years old at Hume Lake, and I can vividly remember the triumphs and difficulties of living a life with Christ throughout my High School years. My youth leaders and peers in my church family were incredibly influential in my life, and I look forward to having the opportunity to spend time with your students this summer as they face some of the same challenges and partake in the awesome opportunities that the High School years have to offer!  If you have any questions, concerns, or would just like to chat throughout the summer months, feel free to email me at shickenbottom09@apu.edu, or give me a call or text at (916) 897-4113.

In Christ,

Sara

The Lenten Season Has Begun!

We find ourselves in the midst of another Lenten season and as we prepare our hearts and mind for Holy Week and Easter, I have been reminded of how important it is to slow down and notice God in every area of our lives. At youth group we are doing a series called "Every Day: Eight Weeks of Noticing God More." I have realized just how easily I tend to rush to start my day, even throwing in a time of prayer and Bible study and yet I spend the rest of the day on my own terms, checking off my to-do lists and forgetting to invite God in EVERY area of my life, including the seemingly mundane and boring things like grocery shopping and paying bills.

It is during this season of Lent that we practice giving things up in our lives to help us remember to rely on and to acknowledge what God has done for us and is continuing to do in our lives. We have been asking our High School students each week at youth group where they have noticed God in their everyday lives throughout the past week. I love hearing their answers, everything from Him giving them strength during an athletic competition, to noticing Him in his beautiful nature in their yard. Their answers have inspired me to notice God more as I drive by the beautiful pink trees on Elk Grove Blvd on the way to church, or watch him answer little unspoken prayers. He is everywhere and in everything;  all we need to do is take the time to look for him. He always reveals himself to us when we ask.

                                   

"Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; the one who seeks finds; and to the one who knocks, the door will be opened." Matthew 7:7-8 (NIV)

Family Lent Ideas!

Hello Living Water Families!

The season of Lent is fast approaching and we are excited to kick off this season with a new series at youth group called "Every Day: 8 Weeks of Noticing God More." The purpose of this new series is to help our students and families to notice and connect with God more in our everyday lives and to work towards seeing and communicating with God EVERY DAY, not just on Sundays and Wednesdays. This is something that all of us need to work on, not just our high school students, and I am excited to grow with you all as we dive into this study.

A cool aspect of this study is that it includes "Daily Guides" to continue the study on our own throughout the week and in between Wednesday nights. These "Daily Guides" will be sent home with your students each week and they will be encouraged to use them as a guide for their time with God in the coming week.

Another cool aspect is that it also includes a packet of "Family Ideas." This packet is for the families to have a resource to walk through the series with their student. It includes many ideas for different ways to talk about our every day faith with our families and specifically ideas for how to experience Lent as a family in creative new ways. I have posted this file on our facebook page, which you can get to by clicking HERE. You can also email me at jessica@lwceg.org and I will email you the file as well.

In addition, I will also be printing out a few packets each week and leaving them on the Youth table in the lobby so you can pick one up while you are at church as well.

I hope this is a great resource and is helpful for you as you experience Lent with your families this year!

Jessica

Happy 2013!

Happy New Year! I hope you all had a wonderful holiday season and were able to spend time making special memories with your families and friends.

As much as I love the holidays, I always look forward to the month of January and the fresh start of a new year that it brings. One of my favorite verses about this is Isaiah 43:18-19:

“Forget the former things;
    do not dwell on the past.
See, I am doing a new thing!
    Now it springs up; do you not perceive it?
I am making a way in the wilderness
    and streams in the wasteland."

I love that our God is a God of fresh starts and new life. No matter what we have had to face in this past year, there is always hope for God to do something new in our lives. This verse is a great reminder this time of year. Reading Isaiah 43:18-19 always brings me to a place of hope and excitement, waiting to see what God is going to do in our lives this year, how His path will unfold in the wilderness and what streams he will use to water the areas of our life that may have feel a little dry right now.

We have a lot of great events and plans for our youth ministry this year and we are so excited to see what God is going to do in the lives of our students in 2013. It was a blessing to spend the whole past year with your students and you as their families and I know God will continue to bless us as we get to spend another great year seeing God work in all of our lives together.

On a personal note, Nick and I are are also thrilled to be expecting our first child, a daughter, this year and we are so looking forward to learning the ropes as new parents. We are so blessed that our church family has been so supportive and encouraging through our pregnancy so far and look forward to all of you being a part of our growing family in 2013!

Love INC 2012

Every year our church gets to participate in a really great local ministry called Love INC. This week we are the Church of the Week and we get to partner with Love INC and help them as they deliver much needed furniture, clothing, food and other necessities to local families in need. 

Yesterday morning a big group from our church, including a lot of our Jr. High and High School students and their families, met up at the Love INC warehouse and prepared for our day of service! I was so proud of our students and their families for giving up their holiday off of school and work to spend the day serving others. We have such wonderful people at our church! 

We were split up into different groups and all were given different items to deliver to local families. Our group was given a king sized bed, a twin bed, sheets, pillows, a comforter, a TV and some kitchen and bathroom necessities to deliver to two different homes in Sacramento. The twin bed went to the cutest 7-year-old girl who had been sleeping on the floor and was SO excited to have a very own bed of her own to sleep in that night! What a blessing to be able to be a part of making that happen for her! 

We also got a chance to pray for both of the families that we delivered furniture to and it was so cool to stand hand and hand with them and pray for hope, restoration and God's provision in each of our lives. 

I loved hearing the stories from our other groups (I think we had 11 total that went out just yesterday!). Each one had a cool story to tell about how they were blessed through this experience. Our church will be other there the rest of this week, helping out as well and I look forward to hearing even more great stories from everyone else who serves this week! 

Below are a few of the pictures I took yesterday of our wonderful church family serving together! If you haven't signed up to serve for Love INC yet this week and you are a part of Living Water, it's not too late to sign up! You won't be sorry! 

Season of Giving

I really love the months of November and December because of the focus on being thankful and giving to others. During this season, more than any other time of the year, I feel like our focus is more on others than on ourselves and it is wonderful to look at our calendar and see so many upcoming events that involve giving our time and resources to those in need, spending time with each other and being thankful for what God has given us.

At Living Water we have so many great opportunities to give and to serve in these next two months. I have listed a few below that we are specifically encouraging our youth and families to be a part of and there will be many other opportunities as well. As crazy as this season can become with family meals, shopping for gifts, decorating the house, traveling for the holidays, taking advantage of some of these opportunities to be thankful and to serve others will make these months that much more beautiful and memorable for you and your family. We are looking forward to spending time and serving with you this season.

                                      

Sincerely,

Jessica

Top 10 Reasons to Be Part of a Youth Group

Last Wednesday night we had our Back to School Kick Off for our High School students and our Jr. High Group starts back up in just a few short weeks as well. We are officially back in full-swing youth group season and it feels good!

With everything else starting back up around this time of year as well- school, sports, extracurricular activities etc.- it can sometimes be difficult to fit church or youth group into the mix. I know when I was in high school between homework, competitive soccer, student council, youth group and Bible study, I could barely keep it all straight at times. With everything else our students have going on these days, I'm sure they sometime wonder why they should even bother to come to church or youth group?

While preparing for our Kick Off Last Week,  I came across this great article: "Top Ten Reasons To Be Part of a Youth Group." I liked it so much, I shared those ten reasons with our High School students at the Kick Off last week and wanted to share them with you all as well.

                                       

10.  Forgiveness   In any friendship, we make mistakes. Being part of a Christian group means we believe in forgiveness.

9.  Positivity The negativity of others can easily bring us down. In a Christian group, we believe we are created in God’s image and wants us to live a life of joy and purpose.

8.  Teamwork We look around our world and wish we could make a difference. In a Christian group, we are called to work together to make this a better world to live in.

7.  Direction It sometimes seems like there’s no right or wrong in the world we live in. Being in a Christian group can give us direction and help us to choose what is right and provides friends who will support us.

6.  Corporate Worship By ourselves, we don’t always feel close to God. Jesus promised that where two or three gather in his name – He is with them.

5.  Enthusiasm Many people don’t seem too excited about their faith. In a Christian youth group, most people are there because they want to be there. The enthusiasm is contagious.

4. Support  In a Christian group, we have others with whom we can pray and share our concerns.

3. Role Models  In a Christian group, Jesus is our role model and we have other leaders who strive to live like him.

2.  Friends In a Christian youth group, we can meet and bring friends who have the same needs we all have and who also need a supportive group of friends in their lives.

1. Community  In a Christian youth group, we are connected to the larger church that Jesus established. It is a place where we can know our God, grow in love and faith, and change the world we live in.

Those are just a few of the good reasons we encourage our students to be a part of our youth group and I'm sure you could add your own reasons as well! We are excited for this upcoming school year and everything God has to teach us as a part of his community.

Sincerely,

Jessica