Whatever Takes Us Away

Next week begins Advent. For those of you that don't know what Advent is . . .
Advent is the beginning of the Church Year for most churches in the Western tradition. It begins on the fourth Sunday before Christmas Day, which is the Sunday nearest November 30, and ends on Christmas Eve (Dec 24). If Christmas Eve is a Sunday, it is counted as the fourth Sunday of Advent, with Christmas Eve proper beginning at sundown . . . I think that basically explains it - the four weeks leading up to Christmas, each with a distinct purpose and historical color reference. Purple: the color of penitence and fasting as well as the color of royalty; Pink or Rose: marks the celebration of the season (some churches use Blue as well). These colors are usually represented by candles that are lit during church services.

Start the Christmas songs. Decorate houses, offices, bedrooms, yards and yourselves. However, keep in mind what the reason for Christmas is, the REAL reason why we celebrate - Jesus. Yes, the acts of giving and recieving gifts is great, feels good and can sometimes brighten peoples' lives drastically, but the birth of the Christ child is the real reason. Oh, and when doing your gift list keep in mind one little part of the Christmas story: when the wise men visited the child in the manger (three wise men) the baby Jesus was given three gifts. Three Gifts. Not ten, not twenty, not fifty; three (3) gifts. These gifts were given out of hearts filled with reverence for whom they had traveled to see, not because someone had given them a huge list of things they wanted.

As our Youth group prepares for this we will be having a Christmas party at our house with a small gift exchange for those in attendance. But, that isn't the reason for the party. We celebrate a birth, the birth that gave us all a Savior. No, the gift exchange is but a small part of it, the greater portion is birthday party, complete with cake, ice cream, singing and, of course, games (not reindeer games with Rudolph)! Come one, come all, to a birthday party to remember.

Emmanuel - God with us.
Advent - coming or arrival

For more info about Advent, the season and all that surrounds it visit:
http://www.crivoice.org/cyadvent.html#Colors%20of%20Advent

Sometimes you wonder, will that color look good on me? Will it look good on someone else? Will it look good on the walls once it dries? We will certainly find out.

After a brief time in praise and worship with the youth group tonight, we all headed downstairs to the youth room - paint clothes on, ready to dive in and get this room done! Practice makes relatively imperfect? Hey, we can't all be truly experienced at everything, right? After an hour or so we had the gallon of paint gone, hopingand wishing we had bought another, but satisfied with what we had accomplished. Burnt Orange walls, nearly completely finished. Okay, there's a little touch-up work to be done, but that can happen at various points between now and some other time in the not too distant future. Work in progress, just like us.

I think we had fun in the process. Talked about music, talked about mission projects and other events coming up, and tried to control ourselves from painting each other too much. You guys that showed up may not exactly be professional painter material, but you sure are fun to be around! Thanks for your time - and I was serious about this being practice for mission trips (save those paint clothes)!

Happy belated Birthday Alli! By the way, you are a gifted singer; and I should know one as I can't carry a tune in a bucket - anything is much better than what I have to offer. All of you guys have great voices and I am blessed to have people like you around me.

Have a great week!

With being so completely tired and burned out this past weekend we cancelled our usual youth group meeting. We have reschedule, tentatively, for this Sunday evening - usual time (6:30 pm - 8:00 pm) - at our usual place, starting in the sanctuary for praise & worship then moving down to the youth room.

Changes this week: Break from the prayer study we've been working on. We have paint for the youth room, rollers, brushes, etc. and really want to give the room a face lift. We are still looking for some end tables or coffee tables to go in the room. If you know someone or have something please let us know. Bring your painting clothes this week and be prepared . . .

Don't forget to bring friends, family or otherwise to the meetings. The more we have, the more fun it'll be!

60 youth, lots of adults, pizza, coffee, Vault and no sleep? Now that's what I call a good time! We had a great time last night - nevermind the loss of sleep - with the Bethel UMC Youth group and our kids at Scallywag Tag. I had never experienced Laser Tag before, but I have to admit it was actually a lot of fun.

The rough part? Leaving right from work @ 11:00 pm to go right to an all-nighter. It was worth the lack of sleeping to have our group interacting, mingling and talking with kids from other churches. Thanks Danny & Chris for sharing parts of your Chrysallis experiences with us and those we brought. Tina and I are hoping to share that experience with our youth group in the future; as they and we are lead.

Slightly tired, slightly sore, more than a litttle burned out on coffee for a day or so, I think I'll survive and look forward to more events like this. It was all about fellowship, fun and sharing parts of our own journeys with Jesus.

And, congratulations to Kaila, our sharpshooter and high scorer last night. Out of over 60 people last night, this girl beat the pants off everyone there; taking home a trophy and T-shirt! Way to go girl!