Dear Team,
It's after midnight, Christmas is officially over in Deutschland. I'm still buzzed from sugary goodness, so I thought I'd post some pictures and share some stories.
Last week, we had our annual youth group Christmas party ... with an ugly sweater contest and white elephant gift exchange. Fun times! In leading up to the party, we explained to our middle schoolers the concept of ugly Christmas sweaters. One girl raised her hand and asked, "what if I have a sweater that I think is ugly, but my mom doesn't?" I love it!
AJ and I found ugly sweaters at a street market in Rome. : )
^Middle schoolers, after an hour of games and sugar!
^Some of our high schoolers
^These are two of my high school girls. They also come my Bible study. We finished our "Victory Over the Darkness" book, and it went well. It sparked for great conversations each week. We talked through what it means to find and place our identity in Christ, and how to deal with rejection, conflict, emotions and all sorts of other things we face daily. In the new year we'll begin walking through the Old Testament and looking at different women we come across.
A few days before our Christmas parties, I did a baking afternoon with my middle school girls small group. They are a fun bunch! They are super faithful in coming to Bible study each week. We decorated sugar cookies and made snicker doodles and peanut butter/hershey kiss cookies for our parties, and then had a spaghetti dinner together... and then cleaned up a pretty disastrous kitchen! We spent some time encouraging one another and celebrating the friendships God has cultivated within the group over the past semester. For the past few months we've been going through a "Beginning in Jesus" book that taught the truths of who Jesus is. We're going to be moving into a "Growing in Jesus" book in the new year, that will help students further develop their walks with the Lord.
Family Time
It's been fun having my parents in town. They've been here just over a week. So far, we've gone to lots of Christmas markets... Heidelberg, Luxembourg City, Trier, Cologne and Speyer. I think we're almost marketed out. It was fun to go to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day chapel services together again. It's been a number of years since we've done that. This upcoming week we're heading out of town for a few days to relax and sight see. I'm looking forward to some down time.
Well team, I hope you also have a wonderful day and restful week. I hope you have time to kick back and relax and are able to focus on the real reason we celebrate Christmas. Thanks so much for your partnership in reaching military teens with the Gospel. It's such a joy to get to love students and point them to Jesus. Thank you.
Merry Christmas!!
Blessings,
Beth
