This Saturday (April 5th) at house church, you can meet Pastor Eury and get to know her.  As usual, house church begins at 6:30 pm and will be here at church.

Also, for those of you on spring break next week (sorry San Diego USD folks… when is your spring break?), we would like to get together on Tuesday, April 8th for lunch at Elder Yoo’s new restaurant and maybe catch a movie together.  Here are the details:

• Date: Tuesday, April 8th
• Time: Lunch at 12:00 pm, movie at 2:45 pm
• Location:  John’s Grill (Elder Yoo’s new restaurant — the food is delicious!!)… not sure of the exact address, but it’s on the corner of Scripps Poway Parkway and Stowe Drive (near Costco in Poway).  Click here for a link to the map.
• Cost: Bring about $10 for lunch and another $6 for the movie (Ultrastar Theaters in Poway has a Tuesday afternoon special!)

This will be a great time to get to know Pastor Eury in an informal setting (and a chance to hang out with PD, PJ and Deleine as well during your spring break!!)… Hope you can join us!

I hope you’ve had a great week so far since we have returned from our retreat.  Just a couple of quick things to remember this week:

1. House church is here this Saturday, March 15th starting at 6:30pm.  Come join us for a time of worship, fellowship and fun!
2. Our Photos page has been updated with some photos from our retreat!  Special thanks to Bert for uploading these onto Facebook!!

Remember, your life is in God’s hands — you can count on Him!

See you tomorrow at 4:00 pm!!

• Dates: This Friday – Sunday, March 7th – 9th
• Time: We will meet at church this Friday after school, around 4:00 pm. If you’re going to be late, please email or call and let me know. We will return to church on Sunday around 2:00 or 3:00 pm.
• Cost: $80/person — 2nd sibling is $60, 3rd sibling is $40 (please contact me if you need financial assistance from the church)
• Location:  Oak Glen Christian Conference Center (it’s the same location as last year; check out the link if you or your parents need more information)

Here is a list of things to bring for the retreat:

• Sleeping bag & pillow
• Warm clothes
• Toiletries (soap, shampoo, etc.)
• Towel
• Bible, notebook and pen
• Sneakers (no flip-flops)
• An open heart ready to meet with God!

Please do not bring small electronics or other valuables (iPods, jewelry, or this mattress), or anything illegal or questionable.

Also, one of our activity options during the retreat is paintballing.  IMPORTANT: You must have your parents fill out this paintball waiver form and bring it on Friday if you’d like to play.  If you or your parents have any questions about paintballing at the retreat, please read over the following FAQs about paintballing at Oak Glen.

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Please remember to pray everyday for our retreat.  Let’s arrive with an expectant heart and pray that God moves not only in individual hearts, but across our entire community!

Our Deeper page is finally updated, so check it out for some guidance with your daily devotions.

See you Friday!!!

I urge you to commit to fasting during Lent. Don’t do it to lose weight. That’s the wrong motive. Fast in order to identify with the sufferings of Christ. There are many different ways to fast. You can drop a favorite food from your menu, you can choose to fast one day of the week, or you can go on a partial fast for the entire season.

We will meet for house church this Saturday, February 9th  here at church at 6:30 pm.

The following weekend, we will celebrate True Love together by sharing God’s heart for the world.  We will have a screening of Invisible Children and begin to explore ways that we can continue to impact the world with God’s love. Here are some organizations to consider as we begin thinking about ways we can share the fierce, powerful, enormous, holy love of God in Christ:

• Loose Change To Loosen Chains
• Relentless
• Not For Sale
• Blood:Water Mission
• The H20 Project

For example, we could decide as a group that for Lent we will give up drinking soda and use that 50 cents a day (or whatever amount) towards providing clean water for those in need.  Let’s put our hearts & minds together and be creative!  Bring your ideas this Saturday…

1. We will not be gathering for house church this Saturday (Jan 26th) — Pastor Dan will be up in Los Angeles this Friday and Saturday with the college ministry attending Passion 08
2. Speaking of Passion, please remember to keep us in prayer.  Check out the Passion blog for specific prayer topics, like the one called Coming To LA
3. If you are interested, you can go to the Youth For Christ website for daily devotions.  These short articles help you make Bible reading a regular part of shaping who you are, and are usually pretty fun to read
4. We finally have some new photos!  Austin sent over a nice little group of photos… check ‘em out here!
5. And, just for fun… could there be little humanoids running around Mars? Gasp!  I just knew Bigfoot had some cousins way out there…

• Event: Bowling & Dinner
• Date: Thursday, January 3, 2008
• Time: 4:00 to 7:00 pm
• Location: Mira Mesa Lanes (click on this link for a map)
• General Info:
  
  • Please get dropped off at the bowling alley by 4:00 pm and arrange for to get picked up around 7:00 pm from dinner (it will be close to the bowling alley)
  • Bring $20 each to cover the cost of bowling & dinner

See you at the lanes! Also, don’t forget that house church will be at Justin’s place this Saturday from 6:30 to 8:30 pm — if you need directions to his place, email me.

As the body of Christ, we were able to raise enough money to buy a goat for a family in need this Christmas through World Vision.Christmas is all about God reaching out to us in love and your love & generosity reflects this outward-focused love.

Check out the online e-card as well!

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The Feed For This Week

Just a quick reminder that we will not be gathering this Saturday for house church because we will be having our New Year’s Eve late-night gathering on Monday (December 31st). Hope to see you all there!

Getting Ready
What is your usual morning routine as you get ready for school? For example, you might have pressed (punched?) the snooze button three or four times, brushed your teeth (hopefully!), did your hair, etc.

What are you doing to get ready for Christmas? For example, maybe you’re doing extra chores around the house to earn money, making a list of gifts you’ll give or would like to receive, etc.

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Advent: Prepare the Way

Advent just started this past Sunday. Read this article written by Christine Sine for more insight into understanding the wonderful tradition of Advent (she also has several other great articles about Advent on her site, if you want to check them out). During this time, we celebrate the fact that Jesus came into the world on that first Christmas day, and we anticipate His return.

But we all need help getting our hearts ready, don’t we? There are many reasons that we struggle to get ready for Christmas — sometimes we become cynical or burned out on the holidays, maybe it’s hard to spend that much time so close to your family, many people experience loneliness during holidays. Even for those of us who are excited about Christmas, we need help getting our hearts in tune with God, and Advent is the perfect season to do just that.

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Watching & Waiting

Christmas is filled with waiting: waiting in that long line at Best Buy in order to get your copy of Rock Band, getting stuck in traffic on the way to your cousin’s house for dinner, waiting for your parents to wake up on Christmas morning so you can open your gifts. Most of the time, waiting is not something we look forward to — and yet, Advent is a season of watching and waiting (in a good way).

Check out this Advent devotion, which was written & prepared by someone not much older than yourselves. Spend some time reading Isaiah 11:1-10. Reflect on what is happening in your hearts in your prayer journals this week — try making a Christmas list of changes you would like to see in your life as you walk with God throughout a new year.

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Seek God Today

Spend some time purposefully seeking after God every day this week. You might find the following devotional sites helpful:

• 3story.org from Youth for Christ
• Advent devotions from Goshen College
• Daily lectionary from pcusa.org (a lectionary is a series of daily Bible readings — during this Advent season, the lectionary has different Bible readings that will help prepare your hearts for celebrating Christmas)

• Church-wide Christmas celebration
  • Date: This Friday, December 14th
  • Time: Arrive by 4:30 pm for our final “dress rehearsal” before the evening begins at 7:00 pm
  • Important info: Please wear blue jeans (darker blue, if you have them; no holes, etc.) and a plain white shirt (button-up, polo, nice t-shirt — no gross undershirts, please!)

• No house church gathering this Saturday (December 15th)

• Floodlight Christmas party!
  • Date: This Sunday, December 16th
  • Time: Approximately 3:00 to 7:00 pm
  • Location: Deacon Son’s place (we’ll have directions, etc. at church on Sunday)
  • Important info: Don’t forget the gift exchange ($15 limit, appropriate for either a boy or girl, and make sure it’s wrapped!) and $5/each towards purchasing a goat for a family in need.