Thursday, December 20, 2012
Christmas Party
The Bellevue Bright Lights Christmas party was last Sunday - complete with popcorn, hot chocolate and spiced cider, snowflake cutting, singing carols, and a Secret Santa gift exchange. Merry Christmas and Happy New Year's girls - see you in 2013!
Friday, December 7, 2012
Accepting God's Design and First Group Ministry Opp!
Last week's meeting was on Accepting God's Design For You, and in preparing for the meeting, the Lord had me take a different approach than I was anticipating.
I was originally thinking we'd end up spending most of our time talking about outward appearances and how we should be contented with how God made us (which we did spend time on ultimately), but instead, we took a detour back to the beginning of Scripture, in Genesis, where we briefly compared the two different beliefs of Intelligent Design and Evolution - and the fruit that each leads to.
The girls quickly saw in the Biblical account of Creation we are told who created everything (Genesis 1:1), how it was created (Genesis 1:2 through Genesis 2:25), and what our first purposes (or...the why Genesis 1:26) were in life. This is strikingly different from the big question marks one encounters early on in the Evolutionary account. They also saw that from the beginning, human beings were the crowning pinnacle (Genesis 1:27) of God's creation by virtue of being made in His image...versus evolving from lower life forms. (Evolution fosters 'might makes right' thinking and easily leads to the justification of the devaluation of life and such acts as euthanasia, abortion, and ill treatment of the poor.)
Belief in God, His sole authorship of life, and the high value placed on our lives because we are made in His image is what led the Founding Fathers to pen the following words we all know so well...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Righs, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--"
We also took a deeper look into the Scriptures to find verses talking about some purposes of our lives:
Glorify God in your body
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 19 -20
Spread the Good News of Salvation!
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... Matthew 28:19
Fear (respect and give honor to) God and obey His commands
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
Again...Glorify God!
Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made. Isaiah 43:7
Love Him and teach the next generation about Him
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
We closed with the thought that since God is the One who designed us, we are actually blaming Him if we do not accept ourselves the way He made us.
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Romans 9:20
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
‘He has no hands’?
Woe to him who says to his father,
‘What have you begotten?’
or to his mother,
‘What have you brought to birth?’ Isaiah 45: 9 - 10
Finally - as our first group ministry project, we gathered together a bunch of hams (and a turkey!) to donate to the LightHouse StoreHouse Food Center in Fife, which will be used to go into food baskets for families in need this Christmas season. THANK YOU so much for the amazing generosity in your contributions - Pastor Ken Banks and his staff was overjoyed at the offering we took down to them today!!
I was originally thinking we'd end up spending most of our time talking about outward appearances and how we should be contented with how God made us (which we did spend time on ultimately), but instead, we took a detour back to the beginning of Scripture, in Genesis, where we briefly compared the two different beliefs of Intelligent Design and Evolution - and the fruit that each leads to.
The girls quickly saw in the Biblical account of Creation we are told who created everything (Genesis 1:1), how it was created (Genesis 1:2 through Genesis 2:25), and what our first purposes (or...the why Genesis 1:26) were in life. This is strikingly different from the big question marks one encounters early on in the Evolutionary account. They also saw that from the beginning, human beings were the crowning pinnacle (Genesis 1:27) of God's creation by virtue of being made in His image...versus evolving from lower life forms. (Evolution fosters 'might makes right' thinking and easily leads to the justification of the devaluation of life and such acts as euthanasia, abortion, and ill treatment of the poor.)
Belief in God, His sole authorship of life, and the high value placed on our lives because we are made in His image is what led the Founding Fathers to pen the following words we all know so well...
"We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Righs, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.--"
We also took a deeper look into the Scriptures to find verses talking about some purposes of our lives:
Glorify God in your body
Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit, who is in you, whom you have received from God? You are not your own; you were bought at a price. Therefore glorify God with your body. 1 Corinthians 6: 19 -20
Spread the Good News of Salvation!
Therefore go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit... Matthew 28:19
Fear (respect and give honor to) God and obey His commands
Now all has been heard; here is the conclusion of the matter: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole [duty] of man. Ecclesiastes 12:13
Again...Glorify God!
Everyone who is called by My name, And whom I have created for My glory, Whom I have formed, even whom I have made. Isaiah 43:7
Love Him and teach the next generation about Him
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
We closed with the thought that since God is the One who designed us, we are actually blaming Him if we do not accept ourselves the way He made us.
But who are you, O man, to talk back to God? "Shall what is formed say to him who formed it, 'Why did you make me like this?'" Romans 9:20
Woe to him who quarrels with his Maker,
to him who is but a potsherd among the potsherds on the
ground.
Does the clay say to the potter,‘What are you making?’
Does your work say,
‘He has no hands’?
Woe to him who says to his father,
‘What have you begotten?’
or to his mother,
‘What have you brought to birth?’ Isaiah 45: 9 - 10
Finally - as our first group ministry project, we gathered together a bunch of hams (and a turkey!) to donate to the LightHouse StoreHouse Food Center in Fife, which will be used to go into food baskets for families in need this Christmas season. THANK YOU so much for the amazing generosity in your contributions - Pastor Ken Banks and his staff was overjoyed at the offering we took down to them today!!
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Understanding the Fear of God
Our meeting this past Sunday was about Understanding the Fear of the Lord.
The Lord was faithful to bring me two wonderful examples for this meeting...one was a quote by Thomas A Kempis and the other was a random choice of checking out a movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer from the library. Thomas Kempis (1379 - 1471), an Augustinian monk whose life was characterized by meditation and imitation, wrote in his book The Imitation of Christ the following words:
The girls and I talked about the two ways Kempis described as leading to fear of God...firstly a love for Him that leads to respect (fear) and obedience, and secondly, just plain having a healthy fear of the reality of hell. We all agreed that the first road is the best - loving God in light of all He has done for us and especially in realizing that He loved us and sacrificed His precious son Jesus Christ on our behalf.
The second example I used for our meeting was an amazing movie about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Bonhoeffer by Martin Doblmeier. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during the reign of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, who stood for what was right and in the end became a martyr for his faith.
Quote by Martin Niemoller:
“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
But the Protestant Church would soon prove to be a stumbling block to Hitler's plans to "nazify" German society, including its churches. The reason was a reaction to the emergence of the Deutsche Christen (German Christian) church, a nationalistic Protestant group that identified with Nazi ideology and hoped to create a national Reich Church that would embody Nazi ideals. The German Christians won the national church elections in July 1933 and quickly tried to enforce their agenda, which included the adoption of "Aryan laws" within the church (permitting only racially pure Germans to hold church positions) and the eradication of all Jewish influences from Christian scriptures, liturgies and hymns.
If they agreed with many of the political aims of the Nazi regime, many Protestant clergy and leaders nevertheless found the German Christian agenda to be ideologically tainted and anti-Christian. A new movement emerged, led by prominent preachers and theologians like Martin Niemoeller and Karl Barth, that opposed the German Christians: the Confessing Church. Founded on the principle that a truly Christian church would not succumb to the demands of political ideology, the Confessing Church argued that the principles of belief were to be found in the scriptures, not in Nazi laws, and that the head of the Church was Christ, not a political Fuhrer. These convictions placed the Confessing Church on a collision course not only with the German Christians, but with the Nazi dictatorship itself.
Nazi authorities responded by harassing local Confessing congregations and arresting their more outspoken pastors. Karl Barth, the Swiss theologian who wrote the Confessing Church's founding faith statement, the Barmen Declaration of Faith, lost his professorship in Bonn and returned to Switzerland in 1935 after refusing to take a loyalty oath. Martin Niemoeller, the most prominent Confessing pastor in Germany, would ultimately spend seven years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps.
Under such pressures, many argued that the Protestant Church in general should confine its witness purely to church affairs and refrain from political criticism of the Nazi regime. Even the Confessing Church, despite its courageous beginnings, became more intimidated by Nazi authorities with each passing year. It was divided between moderates who sought compromise with the Nazi regime and radicals who felt called to political opposition. While some Confessing Christians offered resistance against the regime and attempted to rescue its victims, most Protestants sought only to maintain an "apolitical" church, free of Nazi influences – not acknowledging that, in Nazi Germany, such neutrality inevitably meant silence about Nazi injustice and terror.
Although he was only 27 years of age in when Hitler became Chancellor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer gained early prominence as one of the most radical voices in the Confessing Church. Even before the Confessing Church was founded Bonhoeffer raised the question of church resistance against what he described as the illegitimate use of state authority. Throughout the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer retained an uncanny ability to pinpoint and critique those aspects of Protestant tradition, such as subservience to state authority, that paralyzed his church and ultimately prevented it from offering greater resistance to Nazism. And in his writings he raised more universal questions, based on his experience in the Confessing Church and then in the resistance, about the viability of religious faith in an ideological age and the ethical demands of fighting against evil.
Tragically, Bonhoeffer's prophetic voice was silenced only weeks before the Allied victory. Yet the German Protestant church that emerged from the ashes in 1945 was a very different one from the predominantly nationalistic church that had greeted Hitler in 1933. In the October 1945 Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt its leaders acknowledged their guilt and complicity in the Nazi reign of terror. In the decades since, Bonhoeffer's writings and witness have continued to inspire and influence German Protestants as well as Christians throughout the world.
The girls performed skits demonstrating the concept of Fear of Man and Fear of God...
The Lord was faithful to bring me two wonderful examples for this meeting...one was a quote by Thomas A Kempis and the other was a random choice of checking out a movie about Dietrich Bonhoeffer from the library. Thomas Kempis (1379 - 1471), an Augustinian monk whose life was characterized by meditation and imitation, wrote in his book The Imitation of Christ the following words:
The girls and I talked about the two ways Kempis described as leading to fear of God...firstly a love for Him that leads to respect (fear) and obedience, and secondly, just plain having a healthy fear of the reality of hell. We all agreed that the first road is the best - loving God in light of all He has done for us and especially in realizing that He loved us and sacrificed His precious son Jesus Christ on our behalf.
The second example I used for our meeting was an amazing movie about the life of Dietrich Bonhoeffer called Bonhoeffer by Martin Doblmeier. Bonhoeffer was a German pastor during the reign of Adolf Hitler in Nazi Germany, who stood for what was right and in the end became a martyr for his faith.
Quote by Martin Niemoller:
“First, they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.”
THE NAZI CHALLENGE TO
THE GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCH
THE GERMAN PROTESTANT CHURCH
by Victoria J. Barnett
General Editor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition
Director for Church Relations, US Holocaust Museum
At the beginning of the twentieth century the German Evangelical (Protestant) Church was a loose confederation of regional Lutheran, Reformed and United churches. It had a long tradition of nationalism and loyalty to state authority. Like most of the German population, Protestants were tired of the political turbulence of the Weimar years. They feared the threat of Communism, and, in light of their defeat during World War I, they resented other European countries. By 1933, with the installation of Adolf Hitler as Chancellor, many German Protestant leaders were ready to welcome the new Nazi government. They believed that Adolf Hitler would be a strong leader who could revive Germany's economic stability and national pride. Many aspects of Nazi ideology, including its nationalism, anti-Semitism and emphasis on traditional values appealed to German Protestants.General Editor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer Works, English Edition
Director for Church Relations, US Holocaust Museum
But the Protestant Church would soon prove to be a stumbling block to Hitler's plans to "nazify" German society, including its churches. The reason was a reaction to the emergence of the Deutsche Christen (German Christian) church, a nationalistic Protestant group that identified with Nazi ideology and hoped to create a national Reich Church that would embody Nazi ideals. The German Christians won the national church elections in July 1933 and quickly tried to enforce their agenda, which included the adoption of "Aryan laws" within the church (permitting only racially pure Germans to hold church positions) and the eradication of all Jewish influences from Christian scriptures, liturgies and hymns.
If they agreed with many of the political aims of the Nazi regime, many Protestant clergy and leaders nevertheless found the German Christian agenda to be ideologically tainted and anti-Christian. A new movement emerged, led by prominent preachers and theologians like Martin Niemoeller and Karl Barth, that opposed the German Christians: the Confessing Church. Founded on the principle that a truly Christian church would not succumb to the demands of political ideology, the Confessing Church argued that the principles of belief were to be found in the scriptures, not in Nazi laws, and that the head of the Church was Christ, not a political Fuhrer. These convictions placed the Confessing Church on a collision course not only with the German Christians, but with the Nazi dictatorship itself.
Nazi authorities responded by harassing local Confessing congregations and arresting their more outspoken pastors. Karl Barth, the Swiss theologian who wrote the Confessing Church's founding faith statement, the Barmen Declaration of Faith, lost his professorship in Bonn and returned to Switzerland in 1935 after refusing to take a loyalty oath. Martin Niemoeller, the most prominent Confessing pastor in Germany, would ultimately spend seven years in Nazi prisons and concentration camps.
Under such pressures, many argued that the Protestant Church in general should confine its witness purely to church affairs and refrain from political criticism of the Nazi regime. Even the Confessing Church, despite its courageous beginnings, became more intimidated by Nazi authorities with each passing year. It was divided between moderates who sought compromise with the Nazi regime and radicals who felt called to political opposition. While some Confessing Christians offered resistance against the regime and attempted to rescue its victims, most Protestants sought only to maintain an "apolitical" church, free of Nazi influences – not acknowledging that, in Nazi Germany, such neutrality inevitably meant silence about Nazi injustice and terror.
Although he was only 27 years of age in when Hitler became Chancellor, Dietrich Bonhoeffer gained early prominence as one of the most radical voices in the Confessing Church. Even before the Confessing Church was founded Bonhoeffer raised the question of church resistance against what he described as the illegitimate use of state authority. Throughout the Third Reich, Bonhoeffer retained an uncanny ability to pinpoint and critique those aspects of Protestant tradition, such as subservience to state authority, that paralyzed his church and ultimately prevented it from offering greater resistance to Nazism. And in his writings he raised more universal questions, based on his experience in the Confessing Church and then in the resistance, about the viability of religious faith in an ideological age and the ethical demands of fighting against evil.
Tragically, Bonhoeffer's prophetic voice was silenced only weeks before the Allied victory. Yet the German Protestant church that emerged from the ashes in 1945 was a very different one from the predominantly nationalistic church that had greeted Hitler in 1933. In the October 1945 Stuttgart Declaration of Guilt its leaders acknowledged their guilt and complicity in the Nazi reign of terror. In the decades since, Bonhoeffer's writings and witness have continued to inspire and influence German Protestants as well as Christians throughout the world.
The girls performed skits demonstrating the concept of Fear of Man and Fear of God...
In this skit, this young lady receives a phone call from a friend inviting her to a party...but her parents tell her she can't go. The friend tries to talk her into telling a lie so that she can go without her parents knowing...but in the end, this young lady makes the right decision and says 'no'.
Two different girls 'whisper' into her ears...one represents the Spirit and the other the Flesh. Here, the Spirit shares verses about Fearing God.
In this skit, this young lady is portraying an atheist who asks a friend what she believes. Her friend is a Christian, but feels like if she shares that fact, that she won't be accepted.
In the end, the young lady makes the wrong decision and denies her faith...and feels horrible afterwards. Thank goodness we can ALWAYS ask for forgiveness when we mess up!! :)
Monday, November 5, 2012
A Disciplined Walk With God
Set 1 Meeting 5 - A Disciplined Walk With God happened yesterday!
Even with 2 gals missing we had a full house - 9 girls in all...we're so very thankful that the Lord is continuing to answer our prayer for more young ladies to join our Bellevue Bright Lights group. We have one new official member, and another young lady and her mom (who attended our Radiant Purity conference this past summer) checked out our group to see how one runs because they are thinking about starting up a new group on Vashon Island - so exciting!
Before the teaching, I had the girls calculate how much time they spend each week doing the following things:
1.) watching TV and / or movies
2.) computer time (games, email, internet searching, etc,)
3.) talking with friends (at school, texting, phone, etc.)
4.) sports (practicing / competing)
5.) hobbies (interests, pursuits)
6.) time with God (willingly spending time in prayer, reading the Word, meditating on the Word, memorizing scripture...attending church or other related groups only could count if they could honestly say they paid attention to the messages during those times!)
We took turns reading through a large chunk of the Daily Growth section of their BL notebooks, and then read another portion of Before You Meet Prince Charming (the intro story to chapter 2), and finally broke up into our small groups. There, they were to fill in blank bar graphs with the information they had recorded about how they spend their time to give them a visual of how much time was (or wasn't) going into growing a relationship with the Lord. I love my small group leaders - it is helping me so much to have their assistance during the meetings and the younger girls are loving it! This week I set up an official Worship Leader and the Birthday Committee recognized it's first birthday girl. For our next meeting, I will be instituting a Hospitality Committe among the younger girls - they'll be in charge of making sure new girls feel very welcome, helping to get the girls to clean up after tea time, and any other simple things to help people feel comfortable at the meetings. I want to help the girls to envision something more than just showing up and having everything done for them...that they can actually be a blessing to me and the other girls as well!
Our activity this week was to write our first group letters to the New Zealand pen pals. I just read all the girls' letters this morning and they are amazing! They each did a great job in hitting the 3 things that were required in the letters:
1.) Tell something about yourself
2.) Tell something about Bright Lights
3.) Tell something that the Lord is talking to you about right now
I was thrilled with some of the answers they wrote - God is moving in these young girls' hearts!
As part of today's lesson, I also sent home a letter to the fathers of the girls asking for their help in suggesting new spiritual discipline goals for their daughters. I took the sample letter from off of the leaders resource page and tweaked it just a bit:
Dear Fathers,
First of all, I want to say thank you for letting your daughters be a part of our Bellevue Bright Lights group! I value each of them and am enjoying getting to know them more and more as our meetings progress…and of course, a few of them have been in the group since last year and I’m thankful also for their commitment.
This weeks lesson was on: A Disciplined Walk with God. We studied basic Biblical disciplines such as prayer, Bible reading, etc, If you are willing, I have a special (and very quick!) assignment just for you. Since each girl is in a different stage of maturity, I want to be careful what I expect from them. I did not give the girls any particular assignment…instead, I am having them ask their fathers what would be an appropriate goal for them in the area of routine spiritual disciplines. In their notebooks is a list for you to look at. Perhaps for some girls, the goal would be simply reading the Bible 5 minutes each day. For others, it may be stepping things up a bit and actually memorizing a certain amount of scripture each week.
Some girls may already be consistent in the area of spiritual disciplines, but to others it may be totally new. Of course, they do not need to implement all of these disciplines…it is better to start easy and begin setting a pattern. Doing a little regularly is more important than doing a lot all at once and failing.
I don’t want to push the girls unrealistically; on the other hand I don’t want to hold them back if the Lord is challenging them. I think that the girls in Bellevue Bright Lights are the “cream of the crop” and are capable of amazing things.
Many blessings,
Chay Bigger
Even with 2 gals missing we had a full house - 9 girls in all...we're so very thankful that the Lord is continuing to answer our prayer for more young ladies to join our Bellevue Bright Lights group. We have one new official member, and another young lady and her mom (who attended our Radiant Purity conference this past summer) checked out our group to see how one runs because they are thinking about starting up a new group on Vashon Island - so exciting!
Before the teaching, I had the girls calculate how much time they spend each week doing the following things:
1.) watching TV and / or movies
2.) computer time (games, email, internet searching, etc,)
3.) talking with friends (at school, texting, phone, etc.)
4.) sports (practicing / competing)
5.) hobbies (interests, pursuits)
6.) time with God (willingly spending time in prayer, reading the Word, meditating on the Word, memorizing scripture...attending church or other related groups only could count if they could honestly say they paid attention to the messages during those times!)
We took turns reading through a large chunk of the Daily Growth section of their BL notebooks, and then read another portion of Before You Meet Prince Charming (the intro story to chapter 2), and finally broke up into our small groups. There, they were to fill in blank bar graphs with the information they had recorded about how they spend their time to give them a visual of how much time was (or wasn't) going into growing a relationship with the Lord. I love my small group leaders - it is helping me so much to have their assistance during the meetings and the younger girls are loving it! This week I set up an official Worship Leader and the Birthday Committee recognized it's first birthday girl. For our next meeting, I will be instituting a Hospitality Committe among the younger girls - they'll be in charge of making sure new girls feel very welcome, helping to get the girls to clean up after tea time, and any other simple things to help people feel comfortable at the meetings. I want to help the girls to envision something more than just showing up and having everything done for them...that they can actually be a blessing to me and the other girls as well!
Our activity this week was to write our first group letters to the New Zealand pen pals. I just read all the girls' letters this morning and they are amazing! They each did a great job in hitting the 3 things that were required in the letters:
1.) Tell something about yourself
2.) Tell something about Bright Lights
3.) Tell something that the Lord is talking to you about right now
I was thrilled with some of the answers they wrote - God is moving in these young girls' hearts!
As part of today's lesson, I also sent home a letter to the fathers of the girls asking for their help in suggesting new spiritual discipline goals for their daughters. I took the sample letter from off of the leaders resource page and tweaked it just a bit:
Dear Fathers,
First of all, I want to say thank you for letting your daughters be a part of our Bellevue Bright Lights group! I value each of them and am enjoying getting to know them more and more as our meetings progress…and of course, a few of them have been in the group since last year and I’m thankful also for their commitment.
This weeks lesson was on: A Disciplined Walk with God. We studied basic Biblical disciplines such as prayer, Bible reading, etc, If you are willing, I have a special (and very quick!) assignment just for you. Since each girl is in a different stage of maturity, I want to be careful what I expect from them. I did not give the girls any particular assignment…instead, I am having them ask their fathers what would be an appropriate goal for them in the area of routine spiritual disciplines. In their notebooks is a list for you to look at. Perhaps for some girls, the goal would be simply reading the Bible 5 minutes each day. For others, it may be stepping things up a bit and actually memorizing a certain amount of scripture each week.
Some girls may already be consistent in the area of spiritual disciplines, but to others it may be totally new. Of course, they do not need to implement all of these disciplines…it is better to start easy and begin setting a pattern. Doing a little regularly is more important than doing a lot all at once and failing.
I don’t want to push the girls unrealistically; on the other hand I don’t want to hold them back if the Lord is challenging them. I think that the girls in Bellevue Bright Lights are the “cream of the crop” and are capable of amazing things.
Many blessings,
Chay Bigger
Sunday, October 28, 2012
Setting up for meeting 3
Meeting #3 was on Keeping a Clear Conscience. This time I thought I'd post a few pictures on what goes on to get ready for the girls to come on meeting day :)
We type up and prepare notes for the girls to use...
We pick out songs to sing during worship and make up enough packets for each...
We get the activity put together and ready to go...
We decorate the table for tea...it was one of the girls' bday so she got the special hat ;)
We type up and prepare notes for the girls to use...
We pick out songs to sing during worship and make up enough packets for each...
We clean up the house and set up the meeting area in the living room. I use a large wipe on wipe off board, have my notes put together with my Bible, Before You Meet Prince Charming, and the study guide to ask questions from.
We get the activity put together and ready to go...
We decorate the table for tea...it was one of the girls' bday so she got the special hat ;)
Wednesday, October 17, 2012
Mom and Tween Secret Keeper Event!
Secret Keeper Girl LIVE!
- WHERE
- Cedar Park Church - 16300 112th Ave. NW, Bothell, WA 98011
- WHEN
- Saturday, November 10, 2012
- TIME
- 6:30 p.m.
Calling all moms! This event is designed just for you and your tween daughters! Imagine your 8-12 year old daughters giggling and having fun while they dig deeply into God's truth to talk about modesty. Think that's impossible? Think again!
Join SPIRIT 105.3 for Dannah Gresh's brand new mom and daughter event. It's the most fun you will ever have digging into God's Word!
Follow the link for full details, including ordering tickets online:
http://www.spirit1053.com/event/Details.aspx?ID=325886
Join SPIRIT 105.3 for Dannah Gresh's brand new mom and daughter event. It's the most fun you will ever have digging into God's Word!
Follow the link for full details, including ordering tickets online:
http://www.spirit1053.com/event/Details.aspx?ID=325886
Monday, October 8, 2012
A Close Relationship With Parents
We had another great meeting today, with the blessing of 2 new young ladies to our group! The more girls we have the more fun our meetings are and we pray that the Lord will continue to bring whoever He has in mind for our Bellevue Bright Lights group :)
Yeah! The ladies and I started going through Before You Meet Prince Charming today! We'll be spending about 15 minutes each meeting taking turns reading a few pages aloud and discussing some of the questions from the study guide. The study guide is an excellent resource to get the girls engaged in thinking more deeply about the material in BYMPC...the questions really got them participating and made for some great input from all of them!
Today's topic was: A Close Relationship With Parents. We took a Biblical look at authority as explained in Romans 13: 1 - 7, and talked about the benefits of obeying authority. My favorite picture for this concept is an umbrella, and the protection an umbrella offers when used correctly...the girls get a good laugh at my stick figure picture of the girl standing under the umbrella with neat hair and clothes, joyfully enjoying the benefits of staying dry from the rain, while her poor disobedient counterpart stands exposed to the elements with frizzy hair and a big frowny face! The gals all came up with some amazing answers for the benefits of obeying authority: clear conscious before God, protection, favor from others, spiritual growth, self - preservation, good relationships, etc. I hope everyone remembers our talk about cheerful obedience to moms and dads, instant obedience, and a willingness to 'go the extra mile'...the blessings of inward submission and not just outward obedience.
Small group breakouts had time to think up skits demonstrating the blessings and consequences of obeying or not obeying parental authority.
A big Thank You to Vanessa for bringing the laminating machine - the bookmarks turned out so professional looking!
Yeah! The ladies and I started going through Before You Meet Prince Charming today! We'll be spending about 15 minutes each meeting taking turns reading a few pages aloud and discussing some of the questions from the study guide. The study guide is an excellent resource to get the girls engaged in thinking more deeply about the material in BYMPC...the questions really got them participating and made for some great input from all of them!
Today's topic was: A Close Relationship With Parents. We took a Biblical look at authority as explained in Romans 13: 1 - 7, and talked about the benefits of obeying authority. My favorite picture for this concept is an umbrella, and the protection an umbrella offers when used correctly...the girls get a good laugh at my stick figure picture of the girl standing under the umbrella with neat hair and clothes, joyfully enjoying the benefits of staying dry from the rain, while her poor disobedient counterpart stands exposed to the elements with frizzy hair and a big frowny face! The gals all came up with some amazing answers for the benefits of obeying authority: clear conscious before God, protection, favor from others, spiritual growth, self - preservation, good relationships, etc. I hope everyone remembers our talk about cheerful obedience to moms and dads, instant obedience, and a willingness to 'go the extra mile'...the blessings of inward submission and not just outward obedience.
Small group breakouts had time to think up skits demonstrating the blessings and consequences of obeying or not obeying parental authority.
A big Thank You to Vanessa for bringing the laminating machine - the bookmarks turned out so professional looking!
Preparing skits...
Selah girls!
Tea time :)
Completed bookmarks
Sunday, September 23, 2012
2012 Fall Bright Lights Kickoff Meeting!
We had our Fall Kickoff today! We're restarting the curriculum from the beginning because there are several new young ladies. Our meeting today was on being Strong for the Lord in your Youth. Thankfully, I learned alot from last year's meetings and have become much more efficient in using our time and in presenting enough material to be challenging, but not overwhelming. I have to laugh as I think back to that first meeting last year! Just having come off of being in women's ministry for many years, I didn't understand little girls couldn't handle 5 pages of outline notes and 2 hours of teaching! Oh my. Thankfully the Lord was very good to me and gave the girls the grace they needed to endure my learning curve of switching ministries from women to young ladies :)
Here's the game plan for this year in terms of schedule: @ 15 min. for worship, 45 min. for teaching, 30 minutes each for activity and tea.
Something new for our group, but something that's been on my heart for a long time...having the older gals minister to the younger gals by being small group breakout leaders! We did it today and it was WONDERFUL! I am proud to announce the birth of the Ruth Group and the Selah Group. It was exciting to see the older girls take charge and step up to encourage the younger ladies...there was lots of good talking, laughing, and sharing going on - it was so neat to see the of the willingness of our older gals to serve our group in a new way. Isn't that one of the great hopes for this little seed of a Bright Lights group here in Bellevue? That the older gals will perhaps consider starting their own BL groups some day, once they've completed the program themselves?
The two small group breakouts...
Adorable baby sister of one of our Bright Lights!
Couldn't resist - cute baby again!!
Here's the game plan for this year in terms of schedule: @ 15 min. for worship, 45 min. for teaching, 30 minutes each for activity and tea.
Something new for our group, but something that's been on my heart for a long time...having the older gals minister to the younger gals by being small group breakout leaders! We did it today and it was WONDERFUL! I am proud to announce the birth of the Ruth Group and the Selah Group. It was exciting to see the older girls take charge and step up to encourage the younger ladies...there was lots of good talking, laughing, and sharing going on - it was so neat to see the of the willingness of our older gals to serve our group in a new way. Isn't that one of the great hopes for this little seed of a Bright Lights group here in Bellevue? That the older gals will perhaps consider starting their own BL groups some day, once they've completed the program themselves?
The two small group breakouts...
Adorable baby sister of one of our Bright Lights!
Activity today was stamping bookmarks which we'll be laminating and finishing off with tassels at our next meeting. I hope these girls like stamping, because I've got a bunch that I'd like to use over the year for different projects :)
Couldn't resist - cute baby again!!
Here's my hubby, the resident grill master, showing off one of his many grilling
Iron Chef poses! Finishing off the day with good food and being outside in the beautiful weather was such a blessing :)
Sunday, August 5, 2012
What a Wonderful Conference!
A huge THANK YOU to the amazing women who helped to put on our first (and highly successful) Radiant Purity conference - Amanda B., Vanessa S. (who also hosted 11 conference attendees from up north!), Vanessa J. and her husband Abram (our wonderful last minute technical guy!!), and Nan, our fantastic Redmond Assembly of God liaison and helper! Thank you also to Anna and Melodie K., who blessed us by leading one of the small groups. Thank you to Danyel B. who assisted Vanessa J. with the youngest breakout group. Thank you to Vanessa S. for facilitating the mom's breakout and to Amanda for helping me with the older girls group. A HUGE thank you to Redmond Assembly of God for allowing us to use their beautiful facility! Last, but certainly not least, thank you to the supportive husbands and for all the help they gave in making our conference the wonderful event it was....
We had 25 girls and 11 moms at final count...a huge change from the 3 girls who were officially registered as of a couple weeks ago. In fact, due to the low numbers, we had decided to actually postpone our conference for this coming February. But, as has been the case all along with this conference, the Lord had other ideas!
Originally, we wanted to host a Strong in the Lord conference...but the Lord made it clear we were to do a Radiant Purity event. We wanted to set the date for June...but the Lord wanted it in August. We wanted to cancel because it seemed no one was interested...but the Lord wanted us to have faith and to "not despise the day of small things" - we all 3 got this verse from Zechariah 4:10!! Thank you also, Bekah, for your encouragement in proceeding forward as planned...we truly were blessed just as you said we would be :)
The 3 goals for our conference were answered: many people mentioned how blessed they and their daughters were by the material, a new local BL group may be forming, and it looks like we'll be getting a few more gals joining our own Bellevue Bright Lights group!
We had 25 girls and 11 moms at final count...a huge change from the 3 girls who were officially registered as of a couple weeks ago. In fact, due to the low numbers, we had decided to actually postpone our conference for this coming February. But, as has been the case all along with this conference, the Lord had other ideas!
Originally, we wanted to host a Strong in the Lord conference...but the Lord made it clear we were to do a Radiant Purity event. We wanted to set the date for June...but the Lord wanted it in August. We wanted to cancel because it seemed no one was interested...but the Lord wanted us to have faith and to "not despise the day of small things" - we all 3 got this verse from Zechariah 4:10!! Thank you also, Bekah, for your encouragement in proceeding forward as planned...we truly were blessed just as you said we would be :)
The 3 goals for our conference were answered: many people mentioned how blessed they and their daughters were by the material, a new local BL group may be forming, and it looks like we'll be getting a few more gals joining our own Bellevue Bright Lights group!
What a lovely group of moms and daughters! Unfortunately, 5 gals and 3 mom's are missing from this group shot...
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