BBQ/Pool Party this Wednesday Evening!

Get ready! We are changing things up this Wednesday. Instead of wakeboarding on the Willamette we are having a BBQ/Pool party at the Conan’s house from 5-8pm. (Sorry Fish Co. staffers, we love and miss you!) Let your teen come hang out, see all their friends, and get some much needed time in the water! Be sure to bring a swimsuit and a towel, the food will be provided.

Their address is:
725 Oak Meadow Ct
Lake Oswego, OR 97034

And here is a link for directions:
http://lnk.nu/mapquest.com/1e49

See your teen there!

Mission Team Parents FAQ

Following is the letter from Gina Chandler that was emailed out to the parents of the Mission Team. It has lots of helpful information for your perusal:

Dear Parents-

We wanted to invite you to be in prayer for the team and for the mission itself. In this message Kathleen has included a few specific prayer requests for their time and we ask you to join in with your daily prayers. There will be two chances to gather together for prayer- on Friday morning at the airport near ticketing and next Tuesday, August 3rd in the Youth Room.

Items for Prayer:

Travel Safety – in the air and on the road

God superintends as counselors go through a prayerful process of selecting their camper for the week

Immediate kinship among everyone at camp during Sensational Week; that nervous butterflies

would scram

God’s healing balm felt over Entheos and a sense of reconnecting as a community of faith would

come with hope and excitement for the year ahead

Health and stamina especially midweek when nerves generally start to fray

Transformation in our hearts and lives that lasts a lifetime

God’s glory to be revealed to us in ways beyond our eyes expect to see

We will meet mid-week, on Tuesday August 3rd at 9:30 am, for a time of prayer. We hope you can join us for the casual gathering. If you have any questions regarding Tuesday, please contact Gina Chandler at 503-636-5030.

FAQS:

Below are some of the frequently asked questions that parents have had regarding mission that Kathleen has so kindly put together for all of us.

Travel Departure: Friday, July 30 SW Flight #314 direct to Kansas City.  Meet up with small group leader at the far left end of ticketing at 8:30 AM.  Touchdown at 3:55 PM.

Eat breakfast before arriving at the airport and snack/lunch for the flight.

Charter Details: We will be met by Heartland Trailways for a 3 hours road trip to Purdy, MO stopping for a bbq dinner outside of Kansas City.  We will arrive at the camp around 9 PM and will sleep on the conference room floor for one night. A camping pad or pool air mattress may be desirable.

Contact Info: While at camp, we will not be able to blog or email.  In the event of an emergency contact the camp directly at 417-476-2565.  Students are not allowed to have cell phones.  Kathleen’s cell phone is 503-756-0545 and Jon’s is 971-404-9902.  Most small group leaders will have their cell phones too and you may request their number from them.

Packages/Mail: Emails may be sent to camper@campbarnabas.org with your child’s full name in the subject line.  Packages and letters can be mailed to: Camp Barnabas, CIA (Name), 901 Private Road 2060, Purdy, MO 65734.  Just keep in mind that no snacks/gum/food/candy are allowed in care packages.

Spending Money: All essential expenses of the trip are covered except for our lunch coming home.  $40 should be ample spending money for lunch, items from the snack shop and the water park.  If not, we’ve got ‘em covered.

iPods: While cell phones are not permitted or necessary, iPods are allowed.  They will be collected when we arrived at camp for their protection and our better focus and concentration.

Return Details: We will leave the camp at noon on Saturday and go by charter bus to Oceans of Fun in Kansas City for dinner and fun at the water park.  We will then check into the Radisson Inn – Kansas City Airport (816-464-2423).  We will have a special time of debriefing, awards, and worship on Sunday morning before checking out and heading to the airport.

Return Flight: Sunday, August 8 SW Flight #3250 departing from Kansas City at 2:55 PM and arriving home at 4:55 PM.  Please meet us in baggage claim shortly after 5 PM.

Save the Date: We will report to the church at 5PM on Sunday, August 22.  Please come to see and hear what God has done.

Sunday, July 18th

This Sunday we’re back to normal! We’ll be starting up a new series in Higher Grounds on World Religions. We’re going to kick it off talking about Islam, which is probably the most relevant of all world religions when looked at in light of today’s news. This should be a great way for us to be able to gain clarity on how other religions differ from a relationship with Jesus Christ. My hope is that our students will come out not only with a strong familiarity of world religions, but also a deeper love for our God who defines us and makes us unique. In Entheos we will be back in the book of Ephesians. We’re tackling the tail end of chapter 3 and talking about what it means to be filled with Christ. We’ll focus on verses 20-21, which talk about how God is able to do “immeasurably more than we can ask or imagine”. This is something that I will be returning to later in the year. I fully believe that God wants to amazing things in the midst of our teens, even more than we could dream of, and I want them to believe that with every fiber of their being. It’s time for us to start letting God move in our midst and change us more than we can imagine! Also, this coming Monday we will be heading out to the beach. So have your teen here at 9am and send some money for lunch. We’ll spend the day having fun and hanging out by the ocean!

July 4th Weekend

Just wanted to give you guys an update and let you know that this coming Sunday, July 4, we will not be having Higher Grounds or Entheos so that you can spend time as families celebrating with fireworks. My wife and I will be in Indiana for a wedding over the holiday. We will be back on track with Entheos the week after, July 11, but there will be no Higher Grounds. Have a great weekend with your teens!

What We’re Studying!

I thought it might be helpful for you to know what we’re studying in the High School ministry. That way you know what the teens are learning and can follow up with them if you like. For the first month I’ve been here we spent our time in Higher Grounds (Sunday Mornings) studying prayer. We talked about what the purpose of prayer is, why it feels like God doesn’t answer prayer sometimes, and then how to pray. We had a good set of discussions and spent time every week actually practicing what we were learning. Hopefully this is only a beginning for the teens in their prayer lives and will help them as they learn to spend individual time with the Lord. Going forward in Higher Grounds we’re going to be taking a look at other religions. I’ve heard from many of the teens that they wanted to understand not only how we are different from other religions, but also how we are different from other faith traditions and denominations. I think it will be good to help them clarify what it is they believe and how it all relates. It will be mainly an overview of the primary religions, but if we need to spend a couple weeks digging in on one we will. If that sounds like something your teen would be interested in get them here on Sunday mornings. We will have muffins, juice, and coffee if that’s their poison (I know it’s mine), to help with the whole waking up process. Sunday nights for Entheos we have been going through the book of Ephesians and will continue on with it all the way till September. We’ve been discussing how Paul ties what we believe with how we behave. In the book of Ephesians he takes what they know to be true and then pushes them forward, encouraging them with how their behavior needs to align with what they believe. I think that it is a good series for the teens both because it teaches them to how work through an entire book of the Bible, and also because it will help them think through how what we know about God and what we do everyday should fit together. This last week we focused on Chapter 2 where Paul encourages them to remember what God has done in their lives. When we remember what God has done in the past it helps us to refocus in the current moment, and really helps us as we become the church. My prayer is that God will use the book of Ephesians to realign our High Schoolers hearts as they move through the summer and into a fresh school year. Hopefully knowing where we’ve been and where we’re going will allow you to be in conversation with your teens about their spiritual lives. As always feel free to contact me at any time with questions!

Looking Ahead

We are beginning to take a look at the fall calendar and starting to piece together an effective youth program. A piece of our planning involves come alongside you parents and being supporters as you guide your kids through the teen years. We want to be big cheerleaders for you as parents. This has brought up some questions that we’d like to solicit some feedback on. You will end up being the primary spiritual influencer in your children’s lives. That is not to say there will not be other spiritual influencers (like us for instance) in their lives, but because you are their parent you will be the primary influencer. They will garner much of what they know about God and how He works from you and your life, for better or worse. We’re here to partner with you as you raise your teens and want to be a resource for you. As parents then what are the primary ways, if any, that you feel you need assistance in? How can we be a resource to assist you as you raise your kids? We want to see your teens follow Christ with all of who they are and are privileged to be a part of that process in their lives. So in order to see that happen we want to assist you as best we can. We’re trying to think through some of the ways that we could best enable you to raise kids that follow God wholeheartedly. Leave some thoughts in the comment section and help us as we plan for this fall. We won’t be able to do everything, but we’d love to do what we can. Thanks for your help!

Entheos for June 20th

This Sunday, June 20, is Father’s day. If you happen to finish with your festivities early (your teens are planning something aren’t they?!) we will still be having Entheos at the church, 7pm. We’re not trying to compete with family time at all, so if you’re celebrating your Dad don’t cut it short just to come. But, if you should be finished in time we’ll be studying the book of Ephesians 1:15-23. We’d love to see your teen there!

Parent Letter

Hey guys, I’m assuming that if you’ve found the blog you’ve read the parent letter. If however you have not yet read it, or if you prefer reading things on a screen, I’m going to post it. Be sure to check out the other posts below as well. Here is the parent letter that went out to all High School age parents, reprinted in its full glory:

Dear Parents,

Although you have already received a lot of communication introducing me, I thought I would take a moment to give you my first direct communication. It has been a great first couple of weeks getting settled into the church. My wife, Meagan and I have been blessed as we have been meeting parents, teens, and staff. For all of you who I haven’t had the opportunity to connect with yet, I hope we’ll get the chance to meet soon. Feel free to call, email, or get ahold of me in whatever way works best for you.

It has been amazing getting to know your teens. I can honestly say that I have never met a more welcoming, gracious, intelligent, and joyful group of teens. They really are a blessing. I’m looking forward to where we are going to be moving as a group and it is going to be fun to watch them as they grow spiritually through the years.

I wanted to take this chance to give you some insight on my vision for the High School Ministry. On Sunday night I got the chance to share my heart with the teens. I gave them a couple of touch points of what I’m looking forward to and where I see the High School group going. The mission statement that I will be using for the High School Ministry accurately sums it up, “Guiding teens into a continually growing relationship with Christ”. I want to see lives growing and teens lives changed because of Christ. The core values that I always go back to are pulled from 1 Corinthians 13 – Faith, Hope, and Love. I like to phrase it as Faith playing itself out in Love to give others Hope. These are values that you’ll probably get tired of hearing about, but I am going to keep placing them in front of the teens and letting Christ change their hearts and minds.

Let me unpack this a bit, so that you understand how I view spiritual life. I believe that each spiritual life is a journey. Specifically, a journey toward knowing God more and becoming more like Christ through the work of the Holy Spirit. There will be amazing mountain-top experiences and there will be dark, difficult valleys. Each person is continually moving, some forward, some back, and some just twisting in circles. We want our students to be moving forward. The easiest way to navigate the spiritual journey is with a guide who has been further down the path. This is why our youth staff are such a big deal to me. We have an amazing group of staffers right now, and hopefully we will be adding more in the near future. They are here to guide your teens forward on their individual spiritual paths. I believe that Faith is more than just intellectual knowledge. It is taking what we believe to be true about God and putting it into practical action. We want to move our teens from head knowledge to heart understanding. When this happens we will see our teens living lives that are known and defined by Love. They will begin living with Hope firmly fixed in their hearts and minds. Specifically, the Hope that Jesus laid out in the Gospel; that what we currently see is not as it could, or should be, but because of Christ life is and will be different. I firmly believe that when Faith, Hope, and Love converge in a student’s life we will see them doing things that we did not dream were possible. They will be the ones to change the world for Christ.

So as we move through the summer and enter into the next school year that is where we will be focusing. Hopefully you and your family will get excited as you see your teen’s life change. We are just in the planning stages for next year, so I don’t have much to give you yet in terms of dates, but be looking for a couple of amazing retreats and some other great activities that will be coming down the road. In the meantime I have set up a blog specifically for parents of teens as a communication point. Rather than always working through snail mail we can hopefully set it up as a place where we can dialogue about teens on a more regular basis. The address for it is: lakegroveparents.wordpress.com, or you will be able to find a link to it on our website. Take time to check it out, I think it will be a worthwhile tool for all of us.

I’m excited for the future of High School ministries here at Lake Grove Presbyterian. Hopefully you are sensing that and getting excited yourself. Join me in praying for our teens, that they would grow in Christ and grow in their love for one another. You can be praying that God will provide the right people for Youth Staff so that we can be even more effective in reaching teens. Thank you for all the love and hospitality you have shown my wife and I as we have been settling in, we appreciate it!

In Christ,

Jon Jones

Director of High School Ministries

Welcome to the new Lake Grove Pres. Parents Blog!

Hello, and thanks for checking out the blog! We’ll update this at least weekly, if not more, to give you guys the information you need. The look will stay simple in order to keep it uncluttered and easy to access. Feel free to comment and ask questions as they arise. Hopefully that way we can get a good dialogue going on and together explore ways to help your teens grow in their relationships with Christ.