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