Wishing You...

A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

What's Up, Doc?

?? What's Coming Up With The Youth ??

Well...

Saturday, December 12th

Game Night (Christmas Party)

5:30-10 PM @ Northwest

Bring friends

and bring cookies to pass
if you can

ALSO

We are starting a Cell Phone Recycling Drive / Fundraiser. More info coming soon!

The person who collects the most
will get a $40 giftcard

The group (Middle or High School)
that collect the most
will get a pizza or breakfast party.

So that's that!

No cake walk here

I remember being in boy scouts in 3rd grade...

The highlight of the year for me was winning a cake without really having to do ANYTHING at all. The idea seemed perfect to me...

...just walk in a circle until the music stops...
...then the host calls out a number or two...
...If you are standing on that number (like I was) then you win a prize (in my case, a cake)...

How awesome was that!?

I was thinking about that the other day and I realized that I often want my faith to be like a cake walk. I already know what the prize is so all I want to do is walk in a circle until my number is called and I get my metaphorical cake. Along the way I do not want to face any challenges or anything that is unfamiliar or uncomfortable.

However, the truth of the matter is that
we SHOULD be challenged by our faith.

Have you ever felt challenged by a
Bible verse or a Bible study?

'Cause if not, then you might not be reading the same Bible that I am.
Or maybe you are reading it but not worrying about living it?

Check out James 1:22-25

Honestly though, I think that some of you might be like another part of me. While you may not search out challenges on your own, if you are challenged by someone or something, you will face the challenge. Maybe you want to be on fire for God, or perhaps you often think of these great things you can do for Him. But think about this:

The true call of a Christian is not to do extraordinary things, but to do ordinary things in an extraordinary way.
(Dean Stanley)

Realistically, the first thing that I
and likely some of you need to do
is take care of

\/ this problem \/

I think this generation of youth is ready to be challenged and to overcome whatever obstacles are in their way... but when their attention is pulled in so many directions, it might be hard to find that guiding hand that will challenge them to live life to the fullest.

SO, do me a favor.
1. Dust off your Bibles and start bringing them to church.
2. Read 1 Peter 4:8-11
3. In the words of the philosopher Terrell Ownens
"Get your popcorn ready"

Because God is ready and waiting to
use you to do some big things.

Calling All Pack-Rats (and also any kind folks)

Everyone Say Hello To
\/ PHIL \/

• Phil is SO happy because he is sitting on a comfy chair.
• Phil wants EVERYONE in the Northwest Youth Group to be as happy as him.
• Phil is wondering if anyone out there has a chair of any type (beanbag, artsy, comfy) or even a couch that they would like to donate to the Northwest Youth Group.

• Phil would also like to let any such person know that the lovely youth leaders at Northwest will do all the hard work (digging out the chair from under all the other things you never use anymore, transporting it to Northwest, and dealing with the youth (whom them love) who come and sit in them.

Phil says thanks.

What's New for the New School Year

...We've got a new sanctuary, our new youth room, and new youth leaders...

AND, more importantly,

we've now got new opportunities to
GROW spiritually
and
S E R V E our community

That being said, we are looking for each of YOU(th) to
*invest in* and *take ownership of*
your faith and your youth group.

We are looking for each of you to:

• read your Bible daily......
• have daily prayer time..........
• Bring Your Bible to Bible Study!.................
• Be willing to challenge yourself to take the next steps in your faith journey

THIS \/ is Emily Ballew

We are going to start taking a ~~weekly offering~~that will go to support Emily (who is serving in Ghana), Babacar (our sponsored child), and the "United We Build" campaign that is on-going.

There are some other new and exciting things coming up, but we will save those for a rainy day, and another post.

'Tis all for now.

Oh Right, We Have a Blog

SO.... it has been a while. Since the last blog post a group of 10 (see above) went to Ridgecrest, NC for Centrifuge Summer Camp 2009. I encourage you to ask them about their experiences there...

We also went to Oshkosh for the EAA Airshow, went to Slinger Raceway to watch some car races, and stayed at Northwest for a movie night and a game night.

Finally,

We had a Friday night l*o*c*k-in that was
followed up by a Saturday work-day.

I want to let you know that the few people we helped were EXTREMELY appreciative...

Moving on...

As we approach the upcoming school year (that is already there for some) I want to change how this website will function. Upcoming events and recaps of things past will remain in the postings, but I would like to also use this website as a way to encourage each of you to grow spiritually. More info will come on this, but for now I would like to leave you with a video clip that many of you have already seen (but watching it again can have an even greater impact on you... trust me).

~~ Check It Out ~~


Ta ta for now.

LBA Kids Camp, Carwash, and more!

Just want to say a big thanks to everyone who helped with the carwash / rummage sale / bake sale. It was a B-E-A-utiful day!

ALSO, kids camp went great (our graduated 5th and 6th grades AND our junior counselors seemed to have had a blast).

Pictures and more updates to come soon...

Stay tuned

Skate Night and More to come...

We recently attended Gospel Skate Night @ Waukesha Skateland

After a couple of nice wipe-outs and a blister or two we trekked over to Oscars for a little dinner / dessert. All-in-all it was a fun night.

Moving on, we've just recently finished updating our summer events calendar (most of which can be seen in the calendar below).

There are also hard copies available in the
youth room, so grab one next time you're there!

Finally, you may wonder why there's a lot of junk currently sitting in the back of the youth room...

As it is, those are items for the church-wide rummage sale.
Keep in mind that money raised is going to help out for scholarships for youth and children's camp :)

~Ryan, Out!~

Milwaukee Rescue Mission ... & my own mission

We took a group of almost 20 to the Milwaukee Rescue Mission and we:

• cleaned hallways
• Cleaned classrooms
• cleaned bathrooms

Basically, we cleaned... a lot!

We even got a shout-out from Pastor Tom
during the 2nd service :)

As for this site, a few new things. I will try and update the songs on the music player on a weekly basis. I've collected quite a lot (and quite a variety) of music over the past couple of years, so hopefully there will be something you like.

Finally, at the bottom of the page you should now see an events calendar. Its default setting is "Agenda" where it lists events, but you can also look at it in calendar mode if you would prefer. You can click on the green text (next to the time) to see more information about any of the events.

**To see ALL of the events, click the "look for more" link at the bottom of the agenda. Events, for now, should not go past 1/15**

I Guess That's all he wrote... for now

LIKE WHOA!

Welcome to the new and improved Northwest Youth site.

So here it is... post numero uno.

The plan for this site is two-fold.

• It will hopefully be a source of organization for the upcoming events for the youth group
• It will provide some insights and other food for thought for any who may come across it

To leave comments on a post, click on the title of the post. That will take you to a new page (and at the bottom of the new page is a "post a comment" link.

That's all folks.

Cheers