This past weekend I took part my youth group's 2011 Disciple Now. The theme this year was Sequence.
At the Thursday night kick-off, we ate some yummy pizza, listened and sang along to some awesome worship music, and met with our hosts and our leaders. I found out that there were going to be four other girls staying in the home that I was in.
My youth group divides up the people buy age group, so we were the high school girls. There was two freshman, one sophomore, one junior, and one senior, plus our host and our leader.
Friday night we went to the hosts homes and had two of the four/five sessions. The first was about learning who Jesus is to you. The first that we focused on this year was Matthew 16:24, which says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.'" The second session we talked about denying yourself, and that even though it can be tough, you must do this to grow closer to God and to keep the relationship in the right order.
Saturday morning we woke up after only getting about five hours of sleep. We went to bed around two and I was up at seven to get ready for the day. After eating some tasty pancakes and bacon for breakfast, we started session 3. It talked about taking up your cross daily. You have to make the effort to put God first in your live every day. Session 4 was right after a short break. We talked about following Jesus. That is the last step in the sequence. Follow Jesus and work towards his characteristics.
After a yummy lunch prepared by a wonderful lady at our church, we went to help another lady from our church pick up branches and other things from her yard because of the storm the other day. We worked for about two and a half hours and it was real work. Soon after one of the boys and my youth pastor pulled a "joke" on me, we left because we needed to get back in time to get ready for dinner and the evening worship service.
The joke was that the boy asked me to get the cooler of gatorade out of our youth pastor's jeep. I asked him if our youth pastor would get mad and he said if he did just to blame it on him. So my friend and I go get it and set it out for everyone. I walked over to talk to my youth pastor and the boy a few minutes later. In a completely straight face, my youth pastor looks at me and says, "Emily, that gatorade was for tonight." I just kinda looked at him, and said that I was sorry. Then I turned to the boy and said, "well he told me to." And then they both started laughing. It was pretty funny.
We ate dinner, worshiped a little, and heard the evening speaker. It was such a great night. When we got back to the house, we played hide and go seek with the high school boys and some of them played Red Rover. It was a very enjoyable time. We went up stairs to "our room" and started to talk. We had a great pow-wow time and God really spoke.
So after staying up until two for two mornings in a row, I had a bit of a hard time concentrating during church, but as my leader told me, "Sometimes it's okay to doze."
God really spoke to my heart this weekend, and I so enjoyed the time that I got to spend with the other girls, growing closer to them and opening up to them. I thank HIM for the things that HE wanted us to learn and see and experience this weekend.
Thanks for reading.
In God, Emily
At the Thursday night kick-off, we ate some yummy pizza, listened and sang along to some awesome worship music, and met with our hosts and our leaders. I found out that there were going to be four other girls staying in the home that I was in.
My youth group divides up the people buy age group, so we were the high school girls. There was two freshman, one sophomore, one junior, and one senior, plus our host and our leader.
Friday night we went to the hosts homes and had two of the four/five sessions. The first was about learning who Jesus is to you. The first that we focused on this year was Matthew 16:24, which says, "Then Jesus said to his disciples, 'If anyone wishes to come after Me, he must deny himself, and take up his cross and follow Me.'" The second session we talked about denying yourself, and that even though it can be tough, you must do this to grow closer to God and to keep the relationship in the right order.
Saturday morning we woke up after only getting about five hours of sleep. We went to bed around two and I was up at seven to get ready for the day. After eating some tasty pancakes and bacon for breakfast, we started session 3. It talked about taking up your cross daily. You have to make the effort to put God first in your live every day. Session 4 was right after a short break. We talked about following Jesus. That is the last step in the sequence. Follow Jesus and work towards his characteristics.
After a yummy lunch prepared by a wonderful lady at our church, we went to help another lady from our church pick up branches and other things from her yard because of the storm the other day. We worked for about two and a half hours and it was real work. Soon after one of the boys and my youth pastor pulled a "joke" on me, we left because we needed to get back in time to get ready for dinner and the evening worship service.
The joke was that the boy asked me to get the cooler of gatorade out of our youth pastor's jeep. I asked him if our youth pastor would get mad and he said if he did just to blame it on him. So my friend and I go get it and set it out for everyone. I walked over to talk to my youth pastor and the boy a few minutes later. In a completely straight face, my youth pastor looks at me and says, "Emily, that gatorade was for tonight." I just kinda looked at him, and said that I was sorry. Then I turned to the boy and said, "well he told me to." And then they both started laughing. It was pretty funny.
We ate dinner, worshiped a little, and heard the evening speaker. It was such a great night. When we got back to the house, we played hide and go seek with the high school boys and some of them played Red Rover. It was a very enjoyable time. We went up stairs to "our room" and started to talk. We had a great pow-wow time and God really spoke.
So after staying up until two for two mornings in a row, I had a bit of a hard time concentrating during church, but as my leader told me, "Sometimes it's okay to doze."
God really spoke to my heart this weekend, and I so enjoyed the time that I got to spend with the other girls, growing closer to them and opening up to them. I thank HIM for the things that HE wanted us to learn and see and experience this weekend.
Thanks for reading.
In God, Emily
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