"You Have Been treated generously so live generously" Matthew 10:10

Thanksgiving is a time to count our blessings and Charlie and I have many reasons to be grateful.  God has richly blessed us. 
      We both come from faithful homes.  Our parents gave us a gift of ordering their lives after the example of Christ.
     We have fantastic friends who know us well and love us just the way we are.
     We have had a village to help us raise Catherine.  There are people who still ask about her often.  She is a wonderful product of being genuinely cared for by a community of faith.
     We have been treated generously.  It would be impossible to name all the ways we have been blessed with the resources of others, but we have been loved extravagantly.
     So when I reflect on Matthew 10:10 taken from The Message translation, I read it as an action verse.  Jesus expects us to be a blessing to others.  It will look different for each one of us, but we must look for opportunities to be generous.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Are you kinder than a sixth grader?

On a recent fall retreat, our students viewed the promotional video for American Street Kid produced by Michael Leoni (www.americanstreetkid.com). Also serving on that production team is Rebecca Black, a former FUMC youth group member. The offering we received on that retreat was sent to support this project. When we returned from this trip, this project was tucked away in a file, but the memory lingered in the mind of a certain sixth grader. So much so, that this past Sunday Sophie handed me an envelope designated for American Street Kid. In my haste of Sunday morning activities I took the envelope put it aside and tucked this moment away; only to have the moment re-opened later that day by Lisa, Sophie's mom. "Did Sophie give you the money?" "Yes," I said matter of factly. "Wasn't that awesome" Lisa asked? I responded with a puzzled look, not with words.

It seems Sophie had a birthday party on Saturday night and instead of unwrapping presents for herself, she collected money from her friends for a project which had touched her heart; American Street Kid!

I pulled the envelope back out to find $190.00. There were one's, five's, ten's, and twenty's from these precious children. Overwhelmed with the extravagant generosity, I immediately emailed Rebecca. She too was overcome with emotion. I knew I must share this humble servant's story because the kindness of this sixth grader is fueled by a deep spiritual connection to a God who loves us extravagantly. Sophie is not a seasonal "do gooder". Like other virtues, natural generosity must be practiced regularly in order for it to translate into a character trait. This begs the question for each of us to search our souls and ask, "Am I kinder, more generous, more loving, more Christ like, than a sixth grader?"

Valle Crucis - Saturday Evening/Sunday Morning

Saturday evening began with a very competitive game of broom hockey followed by a blanket race with the winning team having a time of around 10 seconds.  We settled down for our evening session where we talked a little more about our story and then watched the movie "This is Our Time" about five friends who just graduated college discerning God's plan for their lives.  In the movie they talked about the fact that hearing God's call is not about what we do, it is about what we are.  We had a brief discussion following the movie and then went to our zilch prayer and senior spotlight recognizing our two seniors, Maggie and Jake.  We closed out the evening with a bonfire and s'mores. 

Sunday morning after breakfast, we had our worship service.  We listened to the song "Everlasting God" and talked about how we get stronger while we wait for the Lord.  Laura then taught us the Doxology to the tune of the Cups song.  Following that, we got into pairs and used the statement:  My name is _________, and I am a follower of Christ and I affirm God's call to be ______________. We then took our pairs and turned them into groups of 4, and then 8, and then 16.  We talked about how it gets more difficult to proclaim our faith as the amount of people we have to share it with grows.  We then went to a time of personal prayer thinking about times that we are closest to God and the times that we feel farthest away.  We then took communion and watched the slideshow of the weekend.  To wrap up the weekend we got our sweatshirts and said our UMYF benediction. 

Saturday

 This morning we had breakfast and took class pictures.  For our morning session, we began with a name game followed by a nerf war.  The war was well played and the winning team played against the counselors.  For our morning session we continued with our theme of “This is Our Time”.  Becky talked to us about “I am” statements.  We made 10 “I am” statements about ourselves and then we had to get rid of five of them.  After that, we had to prioritize the top five and then eliminate 2 more “I am” statements.  We discussed difficulty of sorting out priorities and how our name can be such a defining factor of who we are.  David then talked to us about who Jesus is.  He used verses from John and ad seven “I am” statements.  He ended with Jesus saying “I am the true vine.” - John 15:1 and then “I am the vine and you are the branches...apart from me you can do nothing”. - John 15-5.  These verses remind us that God is at the center of it all and without him, we can do nothing.  We then watched a clip about Clemson Quarterback, Tajh Boyd and how he defines himself as a Christian.  We then split up into groups and talked about different calls in our lives, the call to campus, call to ministry, call to service, and call to relationships.  To wrap up the session we had some private prayer time while making burlap crosses.  We then went to lunch and downtown Boone.  We are now enjoying some free time and a hike to the waterfall. 

Friday Night

We are finally here!  The main group arrived around 9:00 pm. Jim Ware led us in some Minute to Win it games - then we made up songs about our counselors in groups. After points were tallied at the end. Team birthday won it all.  After the games, Laura, Linnea, and Ava taught the group the cup game to "This Little Light of Mine" and the cups glowed in the dark!  Our theme is "This is Our Time".  We split into groups and talked about what we wanted to be when we were eight years old.  After that, we watched a video about what our chains our in life that are holding us back from following our dreams. We talked about what we want to do now that we are older. We finished the evening listening to an Avett Brothers song, "Head Full of Doubt/Road Full of Promise" and how doubt can become helpful in developing our faith.

A Special Kind of Tired

Retreats are a special kind of tired.  We returned home on Sunday afternoon exhausted, but infused with the light and love of Jesus.

Our closing worship service reminded us that we can't live on the mountain top.  We have to take our candles and go light the world.  We do that through worship, prayer, service, scripture and communion.

We watched a video, www.americanstreetkid.com. Rebecca Black, a former youth group member is on this production team.  It is the story of one person seeing a need and making a difference by giving street kids a second chance.  We received communion in celebration of Jesus' love and grace which gives all of us a second chance.

Caitlin shared the slide show of our weekend activities.  We had an awesome time with an amazing group of kids.

Retreats are opportunities to share memories with friends, deepen your faith and explore God's creation.  It's a time to " Be still, and know that God is here."

Pictures from Mid-Hi Valle Crucis