God has been so good to us all, with His great love being shown through each of us. This weekend helped bond us together even more, and brought, from what I saw, more unity. As I said today to Rusty and Bonita on the way back, they have helped us feel more secure as a youth group (to have a youth leader, to have someone who there). For the last few years, my whole time in senior high, we haven’t really had a set leader. We had many different ones, which was good for the purpose of growth. I believe is has brought our youth group to a new place; we have learned so much through this experience. I know I have. I thank God for Rusty and Bonita, and thank them for fulfilling their call to be our youth leaders. Thank you both! 

I also thank them for a great weekend, filled with fun, some deep times in worship, and just simply being together.

Thank God for bringing us all together.

Wednesday night was video night. Last week, I was going to record the whole evening, but after leading worship, I came down with a fever and was unable to do anything that night. So this week I was able to document everything, from eatching Chick-fil-a, worship, the teaching, and chair football (you will see). I should have a video up here in the next few days! 

Tonight was great, a good evening of fun, learning, and connection with God. I’m thankful for being able to be there and be with all of the Junior High kids. It ended in a good game of chair football, which you will see later on. I got a few scratches, it was crazy, especially with a bunch of youth with long fingernails. 

Overall, it was a great time of community and fun. Keep the youth in your prayers, we need a move of God in our youth group, and I believe it is coming soon. 

God bless,

Stephen

Hey every​one!​

Tonig​ht is Junio​r High Youth​ Group​!​ It’s going​ to be a great​ eveni​ng,​ and I hope all of you will come out! It start​s at 6:30pm,​ and there​ is a meal befor​e hand start​ing at 5:​45pm!​

Also, tonight is video night! I will be filming everything! So there will be a video to come!

Hope to see you there​!​
Steph​en

Funny looks from Kathleen. 

It was a great evening with the Senior High group the other night. A lot of good teaching, worship (by Bonita), and a game of Volleyball.

I came in a little late, just in time to play the last game of volleyball before getting some coffee and going in for worship. The time of worship was great, I definitely got to connect with the Lord on a level that was good for me, like many times before. But unfortunately, I had to leave before the teaching on the subject of sex. I’m sad I missed that, good topic, glad we have come to the place where we can bring the guys and girls together to talk about it, so it can be out in the open. 

Next week is our final lesson on sex and we will be moving on. It is going to be a great time, please, come out and join us, no matter what your age is! Young or old!

Also, this Wednesday is the next Junior High gathering, so please come out! There will be some great teaching and worship (by me), and a game or two or three or four of dodgeball! 6:30pm in the youth room!

Also, the Senior High ski trip is coming up on March 20th! So if you are interested in going, please contact the church office at 776-1511!

Also, a reminder! The 40 day fast for Lent is starting this Wednesday (Ash Wednesday)! Rusty was encouraging us to try to fast food, but anything will do, anything that is something you do everyday that you can give up to seek God’s face! 

Thats all for now!

Peace,

Stephen

We had a total of about 100 people!! Thank you all for coming out!

Here are some photos from this great evening:

Here very soon, we will have the EP of songs from tonight’s show up here on the internet! Please buy a copy, or as many as you would like, give them to your friends, family, whatever!

They are $5 a copy and all the proceeds will go to John’s missions trip to Australia! There is a total of eight songs.

Artists include:

John Poole and The Exit Interview

Stage a Scene

Andrew Stonestreet

Also, I am putting together a video of the whole evening! It will be posted soon!

Thank you again to all those who came out, it was delightful!

God bless,
Stephen

It is going to be awesome, come out and support John before he leaves on MONDAY! 

stephen

Last nights gathering was really great, I highly enjoyed it. I guess I could go right back into my junior high days fairly well, with the crazy kid I was before. It was a really great evening of worship, teaching, and fun. Lindsey Adkins taught a great lesson on King David and his sin to God, Bonita led us in a few songs of worship, and of course, we all got to play a really great game of dodgeball!

Here are a few updates and events coming up:

This coming saturday, the youth group will gather at 10am for a full day/night of fun and games (x-box, PS3, and Wii, among other games), food, and an evening at the Bonasso’s house (Rusty and Bonita)! That night will be an all nighter for whoever would like to come! Please bring what you need to stay over if you are coming!

Also,

Lent is coming up next week, and Rusty and Bonita are encouraging the Junior and Senior High to put away one thing in your lives for the Lord, to fast for 40 days starting next wednesday… It can either be the computer, video games, food, or drink, whatever! Pray about it and look into your own lives to decide what you need to fast, and keep it unto the Lord. It is a time to get closer to God, our Father! Take it seriously!

Here is an option:

Blood:Water Mission is asking people to fast every drink BUT water for the 40 days of Lent.

They ask this in order to bring awareness to the dying people around the world who either have to walk 6 hours to get water (one way) or drink out of a dirty puddle or stream that has sewage in it. 

They ask, if you can, to think about donating to this cause to drill wells in Africa, in order to provide fresh drinking water for people. It is interesting how big of a difference we can make in these people’s lives if we gave:  roughly twenty U.S. dollars could provide a family fresh drinking water for a lifetime! That is crazy! 

Even if you fast everything but water or not, please consider giving to this cause, to help keep people alive around the world!

God bless,

Stephen

John Poole, a former youth group goer, is heading out for Newcastle, Australia this coming Monday. He will be working as a mission’s builder the first couple months, then going to his DTS (Discipleship Training School) with YWAM (Youth With A Mission) for three months, and then heading to a different country (either Japan, Indonesia, or Thailand) to work as an evangelist with a team of other youth and adults (three months)… He will be gone a total of eight months. 

This friday evening, February 20th, at Perrow Church in Cross Lanes, WV, there will be a benefit show for him. 

Please come out and support him! It is going to be a great evening! It is free to come, but donations are appreciated. He needs to raise over $3500 dollars without the next couple of weeks, half of what he has already raised. 

Also, keep him in your prayers while he is going. That is one thing that he said is needed the most, and he wouldn’t have been able to come this far without. 

Here is a video interview I put together for his trip:

Thanks, and God bless!

-Stephen

Tomorrow night, The Journey will be meeting at Perrow Church at 6:30pm! It is Junior High night, and I would love to see some of you there!

We will be meeting in the Youth Room and be done around 8pm. Even if you are not in that age range, please come and join anyways. More than anything, kids need older mentor’s, people who will come along side them, love them, and lead them to God by example.

So please come out, if you are 16, 18, or 30, we need to seed into these kids lives the amazing love of God!

God bless!