Escape Recap

Dear Team,

THANKS so much for praying for Escape. We had a wonderful time and it was encouraging to see and hear how God is working in lives.

Some Highlights:

Team Comp was awesome this year... the Multnomah team did a wonderful job of coming up with creative middle school friendly games. Their favorites were Tron (students had to rescue their team mascot and camp speaker from a virus) and Mission Impossible (students had to build a molecule to save their water source after the wicked white witch poisoned it while not being caught by pirates). During animal soccer (a slight variation of mud rugby) one of our students suffered a broken nose, however, he was able to finish out the weekend with us and had a good time.

The speaker communicated the Gospel and God's love for students well. He shared the stories of Jesus calming the storm and walking on water. The message of Jesus' unending presence during the storms we face in life resonated with students. On Saturday night I had a great conversation with one of my girls who was struggling in a few areas. The "storm" she was facing was trying to measure up to other peoples standards and expectations. As we began talking, it was clear that she was also striving for God's love. It ended up being an awesome conversation about grace and God's unconditional love for each one of us.

The experiential learning times helped students to further process the messages. We did two hands on group activities that lent themselves to talk about storms - Who do we trust when faced with challenges? What voices to do we listen to? In the midst of loud distractions, how can we hear God's voice?

Overall, I feel our students gelled well together and built good memories. We had youth group on Tuesday, the day after returned from camp and there was a fun buzz from the weekend. We gave students an opportunity to share some highlights and things they learned.

In the coming weeks we're going to begin a new teaching series for our middle school group. We're calling it "Community 101" and we'll take a look at what community is, why it's important, and things that build and kill community. We're looking forward to talking about relationships and encouraging students to grow in Jesus and with one another.

Some pictures of the retreat...

^The whole Ramstein community

Waiting in line for lunch

^ Team Comp Animal Soccer... some of our Ramstein girls really got into it. : )

^ Katie and I - youth ministry is dirty work, but someone's got to do it!

Escape Week is Here!

Hi Team!

Escape week is here. We've got 26 students and 5 staff from Ramstein going. We'll join with youth groups from bases in Baumholder, Kaiserslautern, Manheim, Stuttgart, and Weisbaden... over 250 people total. We're excited to see how the Lord will work in the lives of all of our students and staff. I put together some daily prayer points for folks to pray through this weekend for ESCAPE! Each day, I've selected a different topic/focus to pray through, to ensure that camp is covered in prayer. Would you join me in praying through these daily requests?

Wednesday: Speaker Russ

Russ is a youth ministry veteran with over 20 years of middle school ministry experience! He’s traveling from California to speak with our students this year, and we’re excited to have him. Please pray for Russ, as he tries to get over jet lag quickly and begins getting to know our teens. Although he’s new to the military world, he’s done his research and has asked a lot of questions about the lives and needs of our students in order to speak to them in a meaningful and relevant way. Pray that the Lord would speak through him mightily as he shares about Jesus and encourages teens in their spiritual journeys.

Thursday: Team Multnomah

A team of 12 Bible College students and 1 professor are traveling from Portland, Oregon to lead late night activities, participate in discussion groups with our students and serve in a variety of ways. They are a huge blessing! Please pray for them as they arrive today and travel to the camp facility to prepare for the weekend. Pray they’d adjust to the new time zone quickly and for boldness and endurance as they dive in with teens. Some of these students are nearing graduation and thinking of their futures, perhaps the Lord will use this experience to draw some of them into future military youth ministry.

Friday: Safe Travel and Community Building

As our community hits the road this afternoon, please pray for safe travel to the camp facility in Bitburg. Pray that the Lord would use our bus time to begin building unity in our group and that our students would have eyes for each other and seek to include one another in the things they do. Pray that students would help create and foster a safe and fun atmosphere where everyone feels welcome to share their thoughts and be themselves.

Saturday: Students Hearts

Please pray for the hearts of our students as they begin to process Russ’s talks and experiential learning activities. Tonight he’ll be sharing the Gospel and giving students a chance to respond. Some students will begin asking themselves if they’d like to enter into a relationship with Jesus, while others will be challenged to commit to going deeper in their faith. Pray that the Lord would tear down any walls built up in their hearts and that they’d feel free and safe to ask their leaders questions. Pray that they’d choose Jesus!

Sunday: Staff

Praise the Lord for the many adults who’ve volunteered their time this weekend to love our students and point them to Jesus. After two late nights and early mornings, lots of running around during games and free time, and deep, often emotionally challenging conversations, our staff may find it difficult to climb out of bed this morning! Pray for strength and endurance as we enter into another day of camp. Pray that God would provide opportunities to talk about last night’s Gospel presentation with students and for wisdom and discernment for staff as they follow up with those who made decisions to begin and/or deepen their relationships with the Lord.

Monday: Parents

On this last day of camp, please pray that students would return home with a newly found or renewed passion for their faith. Pray they’d remember what they’ve learned throughout the weekend and that they’d seek to live it out. Please pray for the parents of our students, that the Lord would give them wisdom, strength and grace to ask their student questions about the weekend and to help them process and solidify what they’ve learned.

Thanks for praying! I'm looking forward to sharing updates when we return. Thanks for joining me in this ministry - your prayers are vital and bring me so much encouragement!

For the sake of The Name,

Beth

February

Dear Key Club,

Hello team! I realized today that it's February 1st. I was thinking it was still January, since I'm still tuned into football - I guess I'm not used to the Packers playing football in February : ) Super Bowl game time is 1:00 am here in Germany, looks like I'll be staying up late!

I had a good January. I've started doing a little more teaching during youth group. We did a few outreach events - bowling, castle games and a gym morning. I'm continuing to meet more students. My co-worker and I have started visiting the school lunchroom on Mondays. It's fun to see our students in their world and meet some of their friends who don't come to youth group.

February 18-21 is ESCAPE! Our theme is "Escape with the Dawn Treader." We'll be talking about living with a bigger picture in mind - not just living for the here and now, but with an eternal perspective. What is Escape? It's a 4 day retreat with 250 of our closest friends... we'll have large group "chapel-like" meetings with skits, music and a teaching time, experiential learning activities to reinforce the chapel message, and small group discussions so students can process what they're learning. We'll also build community and shared fun experiences through team competitions, late night crazy games, and free time activities like dodge ball, crafts, swimming and ice skating. We are taking 24 students from our community, along with 5 adult staff. This will be my first retreat with our junior highers, so I'm really looking forward to getting to know our girls better.

Would you pray for...

- Safe travel and good weather (last year snow storms caused some major delays for the retreat)

- Community building - that God would knit our group closer together and that we'd be a joy and encouragement to each other

- For the hearts of students - that God would speak profoundly to them through the messages and activities.

The middle school girl's Bible study I've been co-leading with a volunteer staff is going well. We just finished studying Esther and are moving onto Elisabeth Elliot - a wonderful Godly woman who took huge risks (like Esther), by sharing the love of Christ with an unreached tribe in Ecuador. We've had some good conversations about taking risks and looking for ways we can step out boldly in our faith. I hope Elisabeth Elliot's story inspires them to risk and be bold for the sake of the Gospel. Praise point - our group is growing, 2 new 7th graders started coming to Bible study this past month!

The high school girl's Bible study that I was hoping to begin leading this month hasn't fully kicked off yet. I feel that our high schoolers are just flat out busy. Busy with school, sports, work, friends, family, traveling Europe... there doesn't seem to be extra room for things not already in their schedules. The time that I had intended to meet seems to be a bad night to connect with girls, so this week I'm reevaluating the day/time. While attending church and youth group is important, I do think spending time in smaller groups with other gals is crucial to spiritual formation and relational growth. Would you pray for me as I consider the best way to reach out to our high school gals and try to plug in with them outside of our larger weekly youth groups and chapel.

Coming Up:

March 3-5 is our high school growth level retreat called SEMP: Students Equipped to Minister to their Peers. We'll take about a dozen students, who are committed to growing in their faith and wanting to go deeper and reach out to their peers. Would you be praying for the students who are considering coming on the retreat?

April 8-15 is our high school spring break retreat (similar to Escape). We'll start advertising and encouraging students to sign up in the coming weeks. Would you begin praying now that God would draw students on this retreat? This is an outreach retreat, and we hope to draw in students who don't typically come to youth group or chapel.

THANKS team for your support! It's fun to see God at work in the lives of military teens and their families. Your prayer support is so crucial to our ministry here, so thank you for faithfully praying.

Blessings,

Beth