Today was the last day of Summer Blast and our last day in Chicago. On Friday's at Summer Blast the kids go on a field trip. Today we went to the beach on 31st street with the kids. This I think was the best day by far of Summer Blast. The water was really cold but so refreshing because of all the heat. We swam, played football, and I also went and played basketball at a court that was nearby with some of the kids. That's all about we did today and now we have to pack so we can head out early tomorrow morning. So yeah that is what we did today.
- Nick
This is a blog about a very "special" group of people: the Hixson Presbyterian Youth Ministry! We love Jesus, and we love to have fun. You can read all about our many adventures here.
Friday, July 6, 2012
Thursday, July 5, 2012
Hey everyone, this is Morgan posting. We are about to close down our 6th day of Bridge Builders and I can't believe it's gone by this fast! Let me tell you 'bout the last two days.
Yesterday it was like 190 degrees outside (actually 103) for our Independence Day celebration here in Chicago. We started it off by working outside in that heat, sawing trees, smoothing dirt in a vacant lot, and setting a new fence post. The kids worked very hard, and thankfully we only had to work for a couple of hours before lunch.
Afterwards, we went back to the ministry center and did some cleaning, took showers, then left for downtown! Our mission was to find, order and eat Giordano's Deep Dish Pizza.
Mission Accomplished.
One student claims that "Chicago deep dish pizza is the best pizza." I heartily agree. But having all that pizza in our stomachs made the next part of our day a little uncomfortable. We decided to take a bus over to Navy Pier to watch fireworks, which was awesome. But you see, there are like 170,000 people in Chattanooga, and there were probably MORE than that in this one tiny area of Chicago last night! We were bumper to bumper, but not with cars...with people! Yet, the fireworks were very patriotic and awe inspiring and we celebrated in style!
Today was another day of working with kids, and then it was time for the "El Experience." No, that is not "The Experience" in Spanish. The El is the Elevated Train that runs all throughout Chicago, and our mission was to ride it from the south side to the north side and back. This takes about 2 hours to do. While on the train, we were tasked with talking to (but preferably listening to) anyone we might sit next to. For some, this was difficult because we often don't feel comfortable talking to strangers. But the students did a great job of stepping out of their comfort zones on this one. Some had pleasant conversations filled with small talk. Others listened to folks tell them all about the aliens that live among us or the way their wives like to nag them about wearing socks to bed. Seriously, you can't even make this stuff up!
Our night closed with a great lesson from Sean, who has been working with us all week here at Sunshine. We learned much about God's compassion and heart for the poor, as well as about how being a Christian does NOT mean we get to pick and choose when we follow Jesus. Rather, following Jesus is something that applies to every single facet of our lives, whether big or small.
That is all.
Yesterday it was like 190 degrees outside (actually 103) for our Independence Day celebration here in Chicago. We started it off by working outside in that heat, sawing trees, smoothing dirt in a vacant lot, and setting a new fence post. The kids worked very hard, and thankfully we only had to work for a couple of hours before lunch.
Afterwards, we went back to the ministry center and did some cleaning, took showers, then left for downtown! Our mission was to find, order and eat Giordano's Deep Dish Pizza.
Mission Accomplished.
One student claims that "Chicago deep dish pizza is the best pizza." I heartily agree. But having all that pizza in our stomachs made the next part of our day a little uncomfortable. We decided to take a bus over to Navy Pier to watch fireworks, which was awesome. But you see, there are like 170,000 people in Chattanooga, and there were probably MORE than that in this one tiny area of Chicago last night! We were bumper to bumper, but not with cars...with people! Yet, the fireworks were very patriotic and awe inspiring and we celebrated in style!
Today was another day of working with kids, and then it was time for the "El Experience." No, that is not "The Experience" in Spanish. The El is the Elevated Train that runs all throughout Chicago, and our mission was to ride it from the south side to the north side and back. This takes about 2 hours to do. While on the train, we were tasked with talking to (but preferably listening to) anyone we might sit next to. For some, this was difficult because we often don't feel comfortable talking to strangers. But the students did a great job of stepping out of their comfort zones on this one. Some had pleasant conversations filled with small talk. Others listened to folks tell them all about the aliens that live among us or the way their wives like to nag them about wearing socks to bed. Seriously, you can't even make this stuff up!
Our night closed with a great lesson from Sean, who has been working with us all week here at Sunshine. We learned much about God's compassion and heart for the poor, as well as about how being a Christian does NOT mean we get to pick and choose when we follow Jesus. Rather, following Jesus is something that applies to every single facet of our lives, whether big or small.
That is all.
Tuesday, July 3, 2012
Philip Christian Taylor Thompson
22:12pm
Day 1
We arrived Saturday a little after four and went to the John Hancock building and basked in the glorious view that is Chicago's sky line. When we were tired at looking at a bunch of concrete, we took a stroll Ed Debevic's to eat ( It's a restaurant with good food and intentionally bad service). Bishop started to follow our waitress around and she didn't really notice, and as we left she refused to take the gift of my phone number, poor girl must have been blind, which would explain her not being able to notice BISHOP. We came to sunshine and were welcomed with open arm. We got a tour, and dinner, and lots of sleep.
Day 2
We woke up at 8:30 and went to Christ Bible Church, it was an experience to say the least. They
sang us a welcome song, said lots of amens, and made us feel like we weren't even too out of place. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was amazing. We ate tacos, did the P90X™Ab Ripper Workout, and happily fell asleep.
Day 3
Today we actually worked, the kids are a handful but fun nonetheless, were learning which ones to keep our eyes on. Well that's about it for now, so yeah.
Day 4
Today was the second day of Summer Blast, a VBS-type program for the neighborhood kids. After being relieved of duty at 12, we took the extra lunches we packed, as well as our own, to the downtown area to share lunches with homeless people. There were three groups that split up to share lunches, and each had their own...interesting stories. One group was told that "Pakistan" is directly translated as "terrorism", and that to go to heaven one must be 75% of themselves. Maybe 80%.
Yeah, we didnt get it either.
After sharing lunch we came back to Sunshine and played some intense games of BS and went to an awesome coffee shop.
Monday, July 2, 2012
Chicagoooooooo
Philip Christian Taylor Thompson
22:12pm
Day 1
We arrived Saturday a little after four and went to the John Hancock building and basked in the glorious view that is Chicago's sky line. When we were tired at looking at a bunch of concrete, we took a stroll Ed Debevic's to eat ( It's a restaurant with good food and intentionally bad service). Bishop started to follow our waitress around and she didn't really notice, and as we left she refused to take the gift of my phone number, poor girl must have been blind, which would explain her not being able to notice BISHOP. We came to sunshine and were welcomed with open arm. We got a tour, and dinner, and lots of sleep.
Day 2
We woke up at 8:30 and went to Christ Bible Church, it was an experience to say the least. They
sang us a welcome song, said lots of amens, and made us feel like we weren't even too out of place. We went to the Museum of Science and Industry, which was amazing. We ate tacos, did the P90X™Ab Ripper Workout, and happily fell asleep.
Day 3
Today we actually worked, the kids are a handful but fun nonetheless, were learning which ones to keep our eyes on. Well that's about it for now, so yeah.
Tuesday, January 17, 2012
What We're "Teaching" at D-Groups
Backstage passes. VIP lines. Insider trading. Inside jokes. We love to be in the inner circle or to get a private look into the worlds of the famous people we follow. In this week's blog post, I want to give you an inside look into another group of "famous" people: our Wednesday evening Discipleship Groups.
Discipleship Groups (D-Groups as we call them) are not about lectures or preaching. Kids often refer to them as "lessons" but they aren't even supposed to be that. The whole point is to get them talking about their faith, beliefs, struggles and doubts. We want students to have a safe place to ask tough questions or even silly questions that they might be otherwise embarrassed to bring up. Students don't have to have all the right answers at D-Groups. They don't even have to have questions. Many students come on Wednesday night and say very little, and that's ok. The key is that they know they have a safe place for fellowship and open, honest discussion about both the spiritual realities of our world and the day-to-day stuff that often keeps teenagers mystified. Because of this I believe D-Groups are an invaluable resource for anyone ages 11 to 18.
Let me give you an example of how D-Groups are supposed to work. In the high school guys group, which I lead along with Doug Moore, we are currently reading through the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Amidst the many tangents we got off on last week (and tangents are almost always ok in D-Groups) we ended up talking about how we are designed to function best when we are willing to surrender our lives to Jesus and desire the things that he desires. This was a discussion that the students were genuinely engaged in and were participating in. Discussions like this are so rare in any setting these days, but D-Groups provide the right atmosphere for such rare but wonderful things to occur. Through reading Screwtape and talking about real life situations and questions, we ended up discussing the source of new life: Jesus Christ himself, and what it looks like to live for him.
I bring all this up to make one simple point: there is real discipleship going on at these groups. Students are finding out what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Maybe you're a student who hasn't been to D-Groups before because it doesn't sound like fun or you just don't know what to expect. I invite you to come check it out and see that it's a safe place where you are free to be yourself. Or maybe you're a parent and you just don't see the value of having your kids out another night of the week. I invite you to give your teenager the opportunity to come to D-Groups sometime and to see the value of what we're "teaching" there.
If you want to know more about this, anything else Youth Ministry related, or another topic of your choosing, feel free to hmu (hit me up, as the kids say, which means email or call me.)
Discipleship Groups (D-Groups as we call them) are not about lectures or preaching. Kids often refer to them as "lessons" but they aren't even supposed to be that. The whole point is to get them talking about their faith, beliefs, struggles and doubts. We want students to have a safe place to ask tough questions or even silly questions that they might be otherwise embarrassed to bring up. Students don't have to have all the right answers at D-Groups. They don't even have to have questions. Many students come on Wednesday night and say very little, and that's ok. The key is that they know they have a safe place for fellowship and open, honest discussion about both the spiritual realities of our world and the day-to-day stuff that often keeps teenagers mystified. Because of this I believe D-Groups are an invaluable resource for anyone ages 11 to 18.
Let me give you an example of how D-Groups are supposed to work. In the high school guys group, which I lead along with Doug Moore, we are currently reading through the Screwtape Letters by C.S. Lewis. Amidst the many tangents we got off on last week (and tangents are almost always ok in D-Groups) we ended up talking about how we are designed to function best when we are willing to surrender our lives to Jesus and desire the things that he desires. This was a discussion that the students were genuinely engaged in and were participating in. Discussions like this are so rare in any setting these days, but D-Groups provide the right atmosphere for such rare but wonderful things to occur. Through reading Screwtape and talking about real life situations and questions, we ended up discussing the source of new life: Jesus Christ himself, and what it looks like to live for him.
I bring all this up to make one simple point: there is real discipleship going on at these groups. Students are finding out what it means to be a disciple of Jesus. Maybe you're a student who hasn't been to D-Groups before because it doesn't sound like fun or you just don't know what to expect. I invite you to come check it out and see that it's a safe place where you are free to be yourself. Or maybe you're a parent and you just don't see the value of having your kids out another night of the week. I invite you to give your teenager the opportunity to come to D-Groups sometime and to see the value of what we're "teaching" there.
If you want to know more about this, anything else Youth Ministry related, or another topic of your choosing, feel free to hmu (hit me up, as the kids say, which means email or call me.)
Tuesday, January 10, 2012
What We're Teaching at Underground
In an attempt to be like all the cool Youth Pastors out there, I'm going to start blogging a little this year. I'm also growing a full beard as opposed to the ole' chin strap beard. That should really aid the coolness. Anyway, the purpose of this blog entry is to talk about what we're teaching at Underground these days and why we're teaching it.
Middle School
One of the key strategies for the middle school years is getting the group to bond together. With that in mind, Ben Jones and Bo Wheeler will be teaching from Young Peacemakers this semester. With any group of people inevitably comes conflict. People often default to very poor conflict resolution skills, especially in middle school. Unless they know how to handle conflict in a Christ-like way, the students can hurt each other badly and it can have a corrosive effect on the group. Hopefully by teaching about peacemaking, we can give middle school students tools and a vision for loving each other, especially through conflict.
High School
High School students need peacemaking skills too, and we'll get to that. But for the next 6 weeks we're doing a series called The Real World. The idea is to get these young adults thinking about what lies ahead in their futures and to help them understand that planning for the real world now is the right idea. Mostly, we want them to see how following Jesus should shape our plans for the future, including our college, job, marriage, money and church choices.
If you want to know more about this, anything else Youth Ministry related, or another topic of your choosing, feel free to hmu (hit me up, as the kids say, which means email or call me.)
Middle School
One of the key strategies for the middle school years is getting the group to bond together. With that in mind, Ben Jones and Bo Wheeler will be teaching from Young Peacemakers this semester. With any group of people inevitably comes conflict. People often default to very poor conflict resolution skills, especially in middle school. Unless they know how to handle conflict in a Christ-like way, the students can hurt each other badly and it can have a corrosive effect on the group. Hopefully by teaching about peacemaking, we can give middle school students tools and a vision for loving each other, especially through conflict.
High School
High School students need peacemaking skills too, and we'll get to that. But for the next 6 weeks we're doing a series called The Real World. The idea is to get these young adults thinking about what lies ahead in their futures and to help them understand that planning for the real world now is the right idea. Mostly, we want them to see how following Jesus should shape our plans for the future, including our college, job, marriage, money and church choices.
If you want to know more about this, anything else Youth Ministry related, or another topic of your choosing, feel free to hmu (hit me up, as the kids say, which means email or call me.)
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