Escape - T minus 5 Days!

Hey Team, Only 5 days until Escape!

The camp theme is "Marvels." We'll be looking at Christ as the ultimate superhero, capable of defeating all evil. It doesn't matter what sorts of "powers" we have, we'll never be able to save ourselves from the traps of this world. Jesus is the only person who can save us from our sins.

Prayer Points -

1. Our Students - we're taking 28 students to Escape this year (13 girls and 15 boys). Our group is pretty young, primarily 6th and 7th graders. Many of them are churched students, however, a lot of them are still wrestling with what it means to have a personal relationship with Lord - aside from their family's church participation. It's my prayer that they will take ownership of their faith and begin to experience Jesus personally!

Going away for a weekend is a great way for students to grow together as a group. Please pray for unity within our group. Pray that the common middle school cliques/attitudes wouldn't be present in among our students and they would have eyes for one another.

2. Our Staff - we've got 4 adults and one teen volunteer helping us out this year. We are super blessed to have great volunteers! They are giving up their weekend to come and love on students, engage in spiritual conversations and point them to Christ! Each staff will have a small group of students who they will lead in discussion after each chapel session and help them personalize and apply the speaker's messages. Would you pray that the Lord would give them energy to get through the weekend, patience and grace to deal with students it's late and they're tired and wisdom to know how to encourage students with their relationship with the Lord.

3. Our Camp Team - Mark Wilson, our CSM director will be speaking throughout the weekend. A team of students and their professor, from Multnomah University, will be leading various components of camp. They'll be helping with small groups, late night games and worship. Please pray for both Mark and the Multnomah team as they travel from the states this week. Pray they wouldn't experience delays and that they'd get over jet lag quickly, and that they'd all connect with our students.

All of the Multnomah students are youth ministry majors. Some of them are nearing graduation and considering their future plans. Some are seriously considering Cadence and this trip is serving as a taste and see. Pray that God would use this weekend to open their eyes and draw them to CSM in the future!

4. Experiential Learning - AJ and I are leading 2 experiential learning times during camp. They will be times for students to do something active that will serve as an illustration for some of the camp messages. Please pray that our activities will go well and that they will help students understand the messages.

5. Weather/Travel - Winter finally arrived in Germany last week. It's finally cold enough that the snow is sticking to the ground. Please pray that we'd have good weather while at camp and wouldn't have to deal with closed roads or really bad/wet/cold weather. Pray for safe travels!

Above all, pray that the Lord would be glorified through Escape and that His Gospel will be proclaimed well! Psalm 86:10, "For You are great and do marvelous deeds; You alone are God."

THANKS so much for taking these requests to the Lord. It's a huge blessing to have you as part of the prayer team. Thanks for joining me in reaching our students with the Gospel!

Looking forward to sharing camp highlights with you when we return!

Blessings,

Beth

January Update

Happy New Year!

January is in full swing, and already half over. I dropped my parents off at the airport on January 5th, after spending 3 weeks with them. Our time together was really great, I enjoyed being able to spend Christmas and New Years with them. After the Christmas break, I hit the ground running. We're off to a good semester.

Follow your heart ... THAT'S NOT TRUE!

In his commencement address to Stanford graduates, Steve Jobs encouraged students to follow their hearts. The message students received wasn't a new one - it's one they'd heard from childhood through subtle and not-so-subtle Disney movies. Society says, "If it feels good, do it." For the past two weeks, we challenged this teaching at youth group and encouraged our students to turn to the Word of God and cling to His absolute Truth, rather than trust our own hearts and feelings. We want our students to submit themselves to the Lord's ways instead of relying on our limited understanding. So, in an effort to teach them to recognize the lie of following their heart, we told them to say (or shout, because that's more fun middle schoolers) "that's not true" whenever they hear the phrase.

This week we're transitioning to a Bible walk through series at youth group.

"This may sound like a stupid question ... but what exactly is salvation?"

A sixth grade girl asked me this question during Bible study last week, which sparked for a great conversation!! Her question reminded me of the necessity to define basic church words in middle school friendly terms.

Last semester we looked at who Jesus is and this semester we're looking at what it means to follow Him. The first lesson discussed the price of salvation - it's free, but it's going to cost us our lives as we trade in our ways for His ways.

WOAH man

My high school girls have been eager to read through the Old Testament and study different women that we come across. So far we've covered Eve and Sarah. A few of the girls are reading Old Testament stories for the first time, and it's been super fun to see their excitement and curiosity. They had no idea there were so many bizarre stories in the Scriptures. I've gotten a few "woah, that's crazy" remarks from my girls so far, and look forward to more.

Crazy Commitments

I'm not always big on New Year's resolutions, but each year I typically desire to be more disciplined in my Bible reading and attempt to read through it. This year I did the same thing, and even checked out a few online reading plans for ideas. Well, I threw those out the window a week ago. Two high school students were super eager about wanting to read through the Bible -quickly. And by quickly, they decided to try and finish the entire Bible before track season starts - in March. My co-worker decided to do it with them. I agreed to make up their reading schedule and give them a check-off chart. After doing that, I decided it's been awhile since I committed to something crazy... and reading 17 chapters of the Bible everyday for nearly 3 months is crazy, but worthwhile. So I committed. So far, so good. It's amazing how the hunger and desire for growth among students spurs me on!

ESCAPE: Marvels

Our middle school outreach camp is coming up fast! It's February 17-20. Our theme this year is Marvels, a super hero themed camp where we'll look at Jesus' and His marvelous works. So far, we've got 26 students signed up. Would you begin praying that God would prepare the hearts of these students. Some know the Lord, some come to group each week with questions but haven't become followers, and some simply haven't expressed an interest in the Lord.

Thanks for joining me in prayer and supporting ministry at Ramstein!

Blessings,

Beth

[Ugly Sweater] CHRISTMAS!

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

Middle School Fall Retreat

Over Columbus Day weekend, AJ and I took 27 middle schoolers and 3 other adult staff to Adelboden, Switzerland.

Overall, it was a fun weekend. The majority of our group is fairly new - we've got a lot of sixth graders and a handful of other students who moved in during the summer. We also had a group of students from a different chapel service join us. With so many new faces, we wanted to see students mesh together. Our goal for the retreat was team building. We did a few experiential learning activities that gave students a chance to interact with each other and work together to accomplish a few obstacles. AJ taught out of Romans and 1 Corinthians on the Body of Christ and what it means to be a part of the Church.

Even though we've done tons of retreats, it seems that every trip teaches you a few new things. Here's a few lessons we learned this weekend:

- We had one kid throw up off the top bunk, onto the bottom bunk and all over the wall in the middle of the night ... lesson: don't eat too many Third Degree Burn Dorritos before bedtime.

- A lot of our kids have lived down south most of their lives and have no snow experience. This was evident when someone threw an ice ball (not a snow ball) and "accidentally" hit a girl in the face, giving her a bloody nose ... lesson: snowball making lessons are important for southerners.

- The snowfall closed a lot of the hiking trails that we'd planned to enjoy in the afternoon. We decided to go to the local arena, and spend the afternoon ice skating instead. It was really fun! For many students, it was their first time on skates. With the exception of one cut from falling down, it was injury free! lesson: I didn't learn anything super profound during ice skating, but I was surprised to have to help so many students tie their skates (I spent the first half hour doing this) - I didn't realize that a lot of kids don't know how to tie their shoes tightly.

Praise the Lord for:

- Safe travel to and from Switzerland. The snow and rain didn't interfere with the driving!

- Some good conversations with students in the vans.

- The relationships that developed and deepened among students.

We got home from the retreat on Monday night, and on Tuesday we began our "Relationship Series" at youth group. AJ opened with a theology of relationships and talked about submitting to authority. This week he'll cover parents and next week I'll talk on friends. After that, we'll get into dating, marriage, sex, etc. Please be praying for this series! It's important stuff that kids are wrestling with. We'll end the series with a purity banquet in mid-November.

Well team, thanks for praying! Have a great week.

One year down ...

In the past year...

1. I've learned to drive a stick (including manual 9 passenger vans through the Alps and in big cities like Budapest!).

2. I signed a rental contract for the first time (the days of campus housing and living with parents have come and gone) - AND I've got an awesome roommate!

3. I've stood amazed at God's providence in getting me to Germany and sustaining me financially over the past year.

4. Enjoyed watching the Packers win their 4th Super Bowl. : )

5. I've been challenged to grow in patience and dependency on God and others as I've learned the ropes and how to navigate Ramstein Air Base and German culture (which continues to be a work in progress...).

6. Built some great relationships with students and some families.

7. Have been encouraged watching the Lord stir a hunger for Himself in the hearts of students.

8. Been blessed with strong community - with my Cadence family and the chapel and the Hospitality House ministry.

Thanks team for your prayer and financial support that has encouraged and blessed me since I began raising support in June 2008 and for your continued support this past year. It's been quite the journey so far, and I look forward to seeing how the Lord will continue to grow me as I grow in Him and as I minister to the military community He's called me to.

Fall Bible Studies

Hey Team,

Fall Bible Studies are off to a great start!!

High School girls are reading through Victory Over the Darkness by Neil Anderson. I read this book at Multnomah, and really enjoyed it. Anderson talks a lot about who we are in Christ and uses a lot of Scripture throughout the whole book. So far, the girls are liking it. They're doing their reading ahead of time and coming with questions and thoughts to talk about as a group. Last night we discussed chapter 2 and it was super fun. Girls were asking great questions and wrestling through some of Truths found in the Scriptures. As we started our time together, a few girls shared they were tired and felt out of it - but as we dove in and began talking, there was a fun energy in the group and we left not feeling tired. Praise the Lord for the hunger is stirring in these girls!!

Middle School girls are reading through Beginning in Jesus by Fields and Eastman (Youth Specialties). It's a book that teaches who Jesus is - a teacher, healer, savior, etc. Each week there are passages for students to read and questions to answer on their own, and then we get together on Wednesdays to talk through their reading and discuss the questions further and the lesson application. My middle schoolers are really sweet. Each week we start off with snacks and games (we meet right after school and they need some wind down time before we dive in). We're still working on them doing their homework and coming ready to discuss, but it'll come with time! Would you pray that they would get in the habit of spending daily time with the Lord?

I started reading through Radical with some of the other CSM gals in our community. We've been getting together weekly to discuss it. It's a great book - and I've heard a lot of buzz about it. It's a fairly easy read, but is convicting and challenging as I think about living out what it calls for. It deals a lot with the Americanized gospel - primarily a health and wealth, prosperity gospel - a gospel that doesn't call us to talk up our crosses daily and follow Christ, but a gospel that will make us happy.

That's my book update! These are all good reads, if you're looking for something.

September Update

Hey Team!

Hope this finds you doing well. Remembrance has been on my mind this past week.

On Friday, our Cadence Student Ministries team gathered in Mannheim, an Army post that is closing down. Mannheim was the first base Cadence did youth ministry at back in the 80s. The missionary who opened the base is now serving in Poland and traveled to Germany for the day to share with us about God's work in the community. It was an encouraging time to hear about God's faithfulness over the years in Mannheim.

On Sunday, as many of you did, I remembered back to 10 years ago. I was a senior in high school, sitting in my government class when I heard about the 9/11 attacks. In church we watched a few videos honoring the fallen of the day and reflecting on God's sovereignty. It was a reminder to me of what a privilege it is to minister to the military community. Although the attacks occurred 10 years ago, families continue to face deployments and increased security measures around the world that impact lives everyday. It's an honor to get to share the love and hope of Christ with this community! Thanks for joining me in this endeavor.

It's been almost a year since I arrived in Germany. I remember getting here a few months into the school year and feeling overwhelmed trying to learn names, understand the school and community and the youth group. It's been fun entering a new school year this past month and feeling like I have a clue of what's going on! God has been faithful in helping me transition.

Today I visited the high school for lunch and it was fun to see students. Most of them saw me and asked "what are you doing here?" When I told them it was to see them and say hi, they smiled. : ) It's fun to enter into their world and get a taste of their everyday lives.

Last week, we kicked off the new school year with scavenger hunts for both our middle and high school groups. In the coming weeks we'll teach through a "Youth Group 101" series. I'll be teaching on "Biblical Community" and "why we do what we do" the next two weeks.

Last Wednesday, middle and high school girls Bible studies started as well. I was really excited to have 10 middle school girls come out - that's double last year's turnout! This fall we'll be going through a Beginning and Growing in Jesus book, to lay out a solid foundation of who Jesus is and how we can know and grow in Him.

I also had 6 high schoolers come, and I look for a few more to join us in the coming weeks. We'll be reading through a book called Victory Over the Darkness - it's a great book on understanding our identity in Christ.

Both groups are hungry to learn about Jesus and grow in their faith. They're also pretty excited about our girls only time - the middle schoolers kept referring to our group as a family and sisterhood (they're an extremely sweet group of girls!).

This Saturday I'm inviting high school girls over to my house for mochas and then we're going to hike up to the castle that's right down the street! There's a lot of new girls in our group that I'm excited to get to know.

In family news...

My brother got married this past weekend (09/10/11)! He's stationed at Ellsworth AFB, SD and will be leaving in November for a yearlong remote to Osan, South Korea. He and his wife will move to Elmendorf AFB in Alaska after his time in Korea.

My dad is about halfway through his deployment to Jalalabad, Afghanistan and is doing well. He's enjoying working on the drone. When he leaves Afghanistan, he's going to fly to Germany! My mom will also fly here from Wisconsin and they'll both spend a few weeks with me, enjoying German Christmas markets!

Thanks so much for your continued to prayers! It's been super fun to watch God grow our group and stir a hunger for Him in the hearts of our students. I'm looking forward to a great year.