Calvary Chapel Crook County

At the end of March, during Spring Break, we took the Youth Group on a retreat to Yachats, Oregon. We had an absolute blast while there. The retreat was fun and some great relationships were formed during our 4 days on the coast. All the teens that went were great and all the leaders did an incredible job of balancing having fun and ministering to the kids.

The theme for the retreat was “Reality”. This is the name of our group and we thought it would be cool if students knew the meaning behind the name. We had three teaching times that were about the “Reality of our Sin”, the “Reality of our Savior”, and the “Reality of Serving Jesus” taken from First John Chapters 1-3. These moments were used by God to touch the lives of teenagers who realized, for the first time, that they needed Him. Three gave thier lives to Christ and seven were baptized in the ocean, affirming/re-affirming their committment to Christ! God did an amazing thing in the lives of these teenagers. Not one of them made their decision with out putting alot of thought behind it. Mark Halvorson wrote a more detailed post on his blog about the retreat that you can read here.

Immediately following the retreat we started our way thru the book of First Samuel. I’m really excited about going thru this book as we see how God can use young people to accomplish great things for His Kingdom. Since then we have continued to see many new faces on Tuesday nights. Students have been inviting friends and those friends invite more people. Also, we have had some adults in our body step up and get involved with helping out as Youth Leaders. The Lord never ceases to amaze me with what he does.

Lastly, in the past several weeks we have had five teenagers express interest in going to AViD. If you have not heard about AViD, click on the link to read more about it. The cost per person is $800 plus airfare to San Diego, which will likley be another $450. We will have several fundraisers in the weeks to come. If you need any work done around your house or are in need of babysitting, please let me know as these students are available as a way to raise funds for the trip.

Please pray that God continues to bring teens in the door and that his word would come alive to those in attendance.

Reality is every Tuesday @ 6:30 at the Church and is open to Junior High & High School Students.

 …the reality is Christ,

Chad