Last Wednesday night, over 150 students, parents, and adult leaders gathered in the Xchange building for a night of worship, food and good times as we celebrated the Christmas season.

As students arrived, they were greeted with more Christmas snacks than any one person should eat. The spread included apple cider, hot cocoa, cookies, brownies, chips, dips, cokes, and all kinds of candy. Once students were in the building, they also had the chance to decorate the Xchange Christmas tree, which now sits below our “JESUS sign” from Camp Tallowood 2011. A very cool reminder of what Christmas is all about!

After everyone had their fill of snacks, we all headed in to the Gingerbread House decorating area where each grade level divided up and began working to create their own gingerbread house.

It was an interesting 20 minutes of decorating as some groups paid attention to every close detail, while other groups (I’m talking to you middle school boys!) decided to eat most of their decorating supplies and take decorating a little less seriously.

When it was all said and done, the 7th grade girls team won the contest with a very nicely done house.

After the contest, everyone headed to the worship area where Sam Jones led us in a few Christmas Carols while he was surrounded by students on the stage. It was an energetic time as some students danced and others swayed in unison as we made a joyful noise together.

Finally, we ended the night by of course looking at the Christmas story (Luke 2).  We saw how Jesus being born was about more than just celebrating the birth of baby.  Instead, Jesus’ birth is evidence of God showing up to meet the needs of the world.  We looked at prophecies that predicted His birth and also saw how His birth was a shift in how God related to people.

Overall, it was a great night and an amazing chance to celebrate the birth of God’s Son together.  To see more pictures from the night, go HERE.

Merry Christmas!

-Micah

Friday night we began with a fun game led by Philip Lester.  Students had to get in groups based on the cards they received and then they did something as a group, like form a line by age, make a human pyramid, or play poker (kidding about that last one!).  Then we had our first session with Joel Harrell’s band December Tide and our guest speaker Whit Smith.  They did amazing during each one of our sessions.

In session 1, Whit focused on why we exist as we studied Colossians 1:16.  He talked about our purpose and how we often reach intersections in life that define and shape who we are and who we become.  He then encouraged our students to see that they are “Created by God and for God!”

After our session, we headed outside where we were taken on a hayride by two tractors pulling trailers.  It was really cool since Camp Tejas was decorating for Lights of Tejas where they cover their grounds with lights for the Christmas season.

The next morning we had our quiet time outside and then enjoyed another session with December Tide and Whit.  Whit was sharing about our journey with God and how we often carry lots of baggage that we need to give to Him so that we can continue on in our lives with Christ.

After the session, we ate lunch and then competed in the annual mud football game.  The game ended in a 7 – 7 tie, but it was still a great time in the mud!

Our final session for the retreat, focused on how God desires to use believers to bring the world to Him.  Whit gave a very practical challenge to just share Christ and not feel the pressure to convert people.  Instead, being faithful and sharing our belief in Christ is what we are called to do no matter what response we receive.  After the session, students wrote out their two minute testimony in their small group.

Once the small groups wrapped up, we boarded the bus and headed back to Houston.  Can’t wait for High School Retreat 2012!

(For more photos from the retreat, go HERE)

-Micah

This new Sunday School year, beginning August 20, will bring a new alignment in the youth ministerial staff leadership.  This realignment comes after a prolonged study of our effectiveness and our desire to capture the best skills and abilities of our staff.  Heretofore we have assigned the tasks according to age groups with Jerome supervising the entire program, Micah working with Middle School students and Rebecca working with Senior High students.

The change in assignment places the ministers with responsibility according to their gifts and the successes they have enjoyed.  Jerome will continue to coordinate the student ministry with Micah leading out in the teaching and outreach ministry and Rebecca overseeing the discipleship, leadership and mission’s ministry with students.  Jerome is also assuming the responsibility for coordinating the Devoted Hearts and Homes ministry which is being developed more completely to work with homes of all ages in the church.  Jerome will be on sabbatical early this fall.  He is mostly using that time to learn more about the ministries to homes employed by churches across the country because home development is critical to our future as a church and to our community at large. It is our ambition to make our ministries more successful and to reach our community more effectively with these changes.

-Larry Heslip

This Wednesday night at ReFuel, we had a time for all of our outgoing 8th grade students to share about what God has done in their lives throughout middle school and on the recent 8th grade trip.  We had a great turnout of students and I loved hearing them share Godly wisdom with the rest of our middle school students.  (You can see pictures from the night HERE)

Here are a few videos we showed during the night.  The first is a recap of the 8th Grade Mission Trip to Baton Rouge and the other is a look back at a variety of pictures from throughout their middle school lives at Tallowood.

-Micah

In His Joy!
Jerome
Col. 3:17

I came to Israel to see the places Jesus saw, to taste the flavors Jesus tasted, to touch the land and the water Jesus had touched. We have and are doing those things. We have also had some ministry opportunities; visiting the young soldiers, playing with a group of special needs kids, and taking a group of severely impoverished children shopping for shoes and clothes and a backpack.

I have to confess I was thinking I would rather be spending the time walking where Jesus walked, visiting the sites, learning about Him. Then…God put Scripture on my mind – Matthew 25 where Jesus taught us that feeding and clothing and opening our hearts to strangers was doing it for HIM. THIS is what He came here to teach us – to be kind, to love each other in His name, for His glory. So, though we weren’t walking where He had walked or touching what He had touched, we were definitely being His hands and His feet.

After this, we picked up some underpriviledged kids that were part of an after school program funded by the city and took them to buy some shoes, an outfit, and school supplies. At first, I don’t think they quite knew what to make of us, but we all bonded quickly! They were very excited about picking out shoes, and the girls entered and exited the dressing room frequently trying on different outfits. Communication was a challenge because they did not know much English, but we were able to communicate well enough. A funny moment for me was that in a moment when I was wishing that I could speak Hebrew in order to communicate, I just asked the Lord to help me to learn it. About ten minutes later, one of the girls started teaching me how to count to 10 unsolicited, and at lunch, there was a list of common Hebrew phrases on our place mats They were precious, precious children. Although, again, we were not allowed to openly share Christ with the children, Shirley Westbrook was asked by two different people at the stores why we were doing what we were doing, and she was able to tell them, and our guide was able to tell the children that we were doing this for them because we were Christians and wanted them to know that God loved them. The rest of the afternoon was spent with just our group, and we went to a couple of different places to cool off (think hiking, with water involved)!

After dinner, someone that we worked with on the trip two years ago came and spoke to us about what was going in the ministry right now. It was Fadi Hanna from Child Evangelism Fellowship, that had worked with Carolyn Pilgreen’s team. He shared with us what God is doing among the Arab population (most of their ministry is to the Arab children in Israel) as well as some exciting developments among some other people groups in the country, and even Arabs in surrounding countries. It was obvious that the Lord was working through this ministry and bearing much fruit. Also, it was exciting to hear all that the Lord was doing in the lives of children in the country, especially since we had not been allowed to openly share the gospel with the children earlier in the day. Sorry for the long post, but we packed a lot in today

- Heather

In His Joy!

Jerome
Isa. 26:8