December 2010

Dear friends and family,
Time has been flying by, and it is so hard to believe that it is already December! So much is happening with the youth; it has been so exciting to continue to watch God work in their lives. God’s hand has been very evident in everything that has been happening – and we can’t wait to see what He has in store!

Updates!
The youth group that meets on Monday nights has officially moved from the Onalaska Community Presbyterian Church to the Onalaska Community Youth Center. The transition has been a blessing, and we are all very excited for the new facility! We have started providing the youth with a hot meal every Monday night, as many of the students come straight from sports practice, or might not have a meal to go home to. All of the meals have been donated through members of the local churches, and it has been so exciting to see how generous to body of Christ is! We are also going to dedicate one night of the month to learning about world issues (starvation, AIDS, human trafficking, etc.), and discussing what that means to us as Christians.

Wednesday night is our Campaigners group – a group of students who are serious about deepening their relationship with God. We meet at Judy Hansen’s house, share a meal together, worship together, and watch them fall in love with Christ. We have been going through the book of Corinthians. We just read through chapter 4, and the students were very touched by the portion that discusses responding to slander with kindness. They made a pact with each other that each time they responded with anything other than kindness, they have to do 10 pushups. They are getting very strong very quickly!

New News!
As Christmas break gets closer and closer, the students are getting more and more antsy to be on a break from school! Starting the day students get out for break, we are going to do our first annual 12 Days of Christmas Madness Meltdown!!! We are going to have an event every day during Christmas break (excluding Christmas Eve and Christmas day)! We are going to be doing everything from Christmas Movie Marathons, to Cookie Baking Blizzards, Gingerbread House Building Contests, Mud Olympics, bonfires, scavenger hunts, and so much more! As we go through the 12 days of madness, we will also be going through the Christmas story. We are very excited for the opportunity to spend extra time with the students over break, and to share the amazing story of the miracle of Christ’s birth.

Those moments…
In youth ministry, there are many hard, frustrating, irritating, happy, sad, and crazy moments. Some make you ask why you do what you do, others remind you why you do what you do. Funny: This week the students were taking 5 minutes of quiet time, and the room was dead silent. Having 30 students in complete silence is a beautiful thing. It was one of those God moments – until a toilet flushed. The moment was officially ruined. Frustrating: A student threw a water balloon at a car, which resulted in a very angry old man saying some not very nice things to me. The student who threw the water balloon proceeded to run and hide from me. Word of advice to all: if you are in trouble with me, the last thing you want to do is hide from me. Worth it: I was brainstorming with a few students for events to do over Christmas break. We were throwing around the idea of a gift exchange, when a student said “can we do something that isn’t about us? Can we do something where we give to other people?”

Prayer Requests
• Leaders, leaders, leaders! We need 5 more leaders to come on board before we can get club started at the high school!
• Please pray against spiritual attack. As the students continue to grown in Christ, the more the enemy continues to take their focus away from Christ
• Christmas Madness Meltdown – pray that all of the events will go well, that we will have enough leaders, and that students will be impacted by the message of the birth of Christ
• Pray for students by name – if you don’t know any of their names, I would love to give you a list! Gabby, Zack, Taylor, Sean…to name a few

Want to get involved?!? We have opportunities for the young and old, outgoing and shy, exciting and boring, energetic or tired! There are many opportunities to serve on the front lines, or behind the scenes. The only thing we ask is that you are F.A.T – Faithful, Available, and Teachable. Please contact Bethany Hutson for details on how you can become involved.360-880-7701 or onalaksayounglife@yahoo.com