The Ultimate Superhero

During Escape, one of our volunteer staff wrote a poem to share with our students. It's GREAT!!

The Ultimate Superhero

Superheroes, can you name them all
Do they come to your rescue when you call
There are so many - Let me tell you why
No one super hero can cover your life

Superman's weakness was kryptonite
So what happens if the enemy brings that to the fight
Wonder Woman with her lasso and invisible plane
can she help you when school is driving you insane

Batman has cool gadgets and things
but he's only human, he's got a few dents and dings
When you need a super hero are you left standing alone
Do you text them or call on your I-phone

Spideman, well he's human too
if he's tied up across town who rescues you
Aquaman, king of the sea?
I don't do water so he's no help to me

Now I don't mean to burst your bubble
But will these super heroes get you outta trouble?

Let me tell yall about a man I know
I call him the Ultimate Super Hero
He raised up from Gallilee
and he always walks beside me

Supernatural power is in His hand
He's the creator of every man
He's the master of the sea
If He commands still it will be

What super hero do you know
That walked thru the fire with
Shadrach, Meeshach, and Abidnego
No burned flesh or even smoke inhalation
Causing the Devil huge frustration

The Green Lantern with his green light
But it was God that illuminated the night

What super hero was virgin born
and walked the earth in human form
Was hung on a cross; yes crucified
forgave us, hung his head and died

A crown of thorns is what He wore
Just to settle sins wretched score
On the third day he rose again
My God, My Father, My best friend

Faster than a speeding train
He rescues me from my pain
Leaps tall buildings in a single bound
He saved my soul, I was lost but now I'm found

Cloud by day, Fire by night
He gives us victory in every fight
Xray vision, He sees it all
Telepathic power, He knows before I call

CPT America, Oh Please
Can he supply all your needs
God holds the devil, your enemy at bay
He is the potter, we are the clay

As costumes go He doesn't wear tights
He doesn't arrive with flashy lights
He's rather quiet as super heros go
There's no way you can't disturb His flow

A super hero, yep, three in one
God the Father, Holy Spirit and Son

So when you think a Super Hero you need
look to the Heavens, your soul He will feed
He's stronger, He's faster, He's always right
He holds my hand, he paid the price
Take heart my children let your faith take flight
God the ultimate super hero will save your life!

-Leslie Dillard, Escape 2012

Recent/Current Reads

I enjoy reading - which is funny, because as a kid I really didn't like to read. My downfall with reading: I like to dabble in a lot of books at the same time and don't necessarily read them cover to cover. This past school year, I've enjoyed (an am still enjoying) reading a number of books... here's the rundown.

> Beginning and Growing in Jesus - middle school girl's Bible studies

This is a great middle school curriculum from Youth Specialties.

> Women of the Bible, Victory Over the Darkness & From Creation to the Cross - high school girls Bible studies/career practicum students

Victory Over the Darkness is a good book on spiritual identity. We went through it last semester. During that time, we were doing a dating/relationship series in youth group. The book seemed to cover some of the same topics, so I found it good for processing the issues with the girls.

This semester we're doing a study of the Old Testament and looking at different women as we came across their stories. I've used the Women of the Bible and Creation to the Cross to help me prep for my studies each week. Note: Creation to the Cross is a great Old Testament survey text if you're looking for one!

> The Year of Living Biblically & Radical - personal reading

The Year of Living Biblically is super funny! It's written by a secular Jew in New York. He's a big time magazine editor and he attempts to follow all of the laws laid out in the Bible (both OT and NT). I read through Radical with a book club. It's an easy read with challenging applications.

> Teenage Girls & Impact - youth ministry equipping

I've never taken a youth ministry class. While in Portland, I was able to attend a few youth worker training conferences, which I found helpful. Sometimes I feel super inadequate as I wade through teenage girl land and try to figure out how to help and encourage students. Teenage Girls and Impact have been helpful resources for me as I grow as a youth worker.

> Slaves, Women and Homosexuals & A Basic Guide to Interpreting the Bible - personal reading/theology and Bible understanding knowledge and growth

These are hermeneutic books (Biblical interpretation). Roles for women in ministry has been a huge topic among my high school girls this year. It seems I'm asked about women at least once a week by a student. As a women in ministry, it's an issue I've spent a good amount of time thinking and praying through. I've read a lot of books on the topic, from various spectrums. I'm currently reading Slaves, Women and Homosexuals because many people are following the author's redemptive or progressive hermeneutic. He looks at "trouble" passages in the Bible over slaves and women and what does that mean for us today. How can we figure out what is contextual/cultural in the Bible and what is the eternal truth? How can we determine what the text's meaning is? These are good books!

> NIV and The Message - The NIV is my preferred reading Bible and I've been using The Message in my quick (3.5 month read through of the Scriptures)

Podcasts:

I also really enjoy listening to a few podcasts. My go to is Mark Driscoll from Mars Hill Church in Seattle, WA. I like his "Religion Saves, and 9 other misconceptions" - the humor one is really great! He's currently preaching through his new marriage book. While I'm not married yet (or in a relationship), it's been a interesting series so far. I also listen to Matt Chandler from the Village Church in Dallas.

A MARVELous Escape!

Hi Team,

Thanks for praying for Escape - it was a great retreat.

Here's a few highlights from the weekend...

A few of my girls stayed behind to talk after the Gospel was presented on Saturday night. As I was chatting with them about what they were wrestling with, one of them said to me, "I don't think I've ever actually prayed to receive Jesus, can you show me how to do that?" After we finished praying and opened our eyes, I saw that she was crying so hard that all of her super hero face paint/make up was smeared and running down her cheeks - she had the biggest smile on her face! It was super cute. During our worship session the following morning, she turned to me and said, "today I don't feel like I'm just singing along, I feel like I'm actually singing to God." Praise the Lord!

One other girl in our Gospel night circle said she had already said "that" prayer (to receive Christ), but didn't feel like she had done a very good job of growing in Jesus and asked if there was a prayer for that. I prayed with her and she rededicated her life to the Lord. It was cool to see her desire to get back on track with Jesus and begin growing in her faith.

To help students remember the Gospel, AJ, Anthony and Heather dressed up and lip synced to LZ7's "Four Points" song. AJ and I heard LZ7 at Flevo (a Christian music festival in Holland) - they're a British band that sounds sort of like the Black Eye Peas. Our students LOVE them! Click here to hear the song. Their "Light" album is great and they'll be coming out with a new album in March.

Thanks for praying for our two experiential learning times, I thought they went well. These activities are always hit and miss, as some middle schoolers are just too concrete of thinkers to make the real life connections we hope for. However, many do get "it" and it's fun to watch them connect the dots.

^ Leading students in the "Laser Shot"

I spent our two afternoon times of free time going ice skating and swimming with some of our students. It made for fun times with them.

A stomach bug went through camp. Between 3 students, we had 4 throw up incidents in the middle of the night - all boys (nice for me, but unfortunate for AJ). Put on your middle school mindset: Our unofficial song for the weekend was ... "I think I'm going to throw up, I think I'm going to throw up, I think I'm going to throw up... my hands to the Lord!"

Thanks for praying for the Multnomah team - they did great! Many of them expressed interest in coming out with us in the future. Many of the students shared testimonies to encourage and challenge our kids. Our speaker also did an awesome job connecting with students. Students seemed to understand his messages and took to heart the words that were shared.

^Super Hero night ... I was Clay Matthews (my favorite Packer!), AJ went as Aquaman, we also had Wonder Woman, The Red Skull, Spiderman and The Hulk.

THANKS for praying for Escape - it was clear God was at work and His fingerprints were on everything.

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.