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Student Ministry - June 2019

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Dear Church Family,

This Summer is going to be a fun-filled, mission-minded, disciple-making whirlwind! There are so many things to do during the Summer, and that is no different in the life of the church. Sports camps, church camps, mission trips, VBS, family vacation… it can all be a little overwhelming. It’s not like any of these things are bad though. They all serve a really good   purpose. But if we have to make a choice between one or the other, which way would our priorities push us?

At this point you’re likely expecting me to talk about how important Student Camp, Mission Trip, and Mission Week are, and you’ve already started to tune me out. While those things are very important to the Christian walk of our students, that is not what I want to emphasize in this article. (Besides, we’ve advertised and emphasized those things just about everywhere else imaginable!) What I really want to advise you to do this Summer is to maintain your own personal Bible study and serve wherever the Lord leads you to serve.

It’s great to take a break from some things in order to get a breath of fresh air or refocus yourself. But taking a break from reading God’s Word is like taking a break from breathing   itself… you don’t end up refreshed; you end up gasping, weak, and confused. Many people think that the Summer break is a good excuse to stop reading the Bible and stop serving God as He would have them serve. It might be true that you need a vacation very much, but God may actually have a plan for you to share the gospel while you are away. And He certainly doesn’t want you to neglect spending time with Him while you’re sitting on the beach. Taking a break, going on a vacation, and serving God are not mutually exclusive things. So look for all the ways God wants you to serve while you relax. Let your Bible study be the most refreshing thing you enjoy this Summer.

For our students, we have lots of ways lined up for them to serve the Lord and grow in their relationship with Him this Summer. I hope that many of them will join us in those things. But above that, I hope that the parents, grandparents, and friends of our students would encourage them to seek the Lord in personal Bible study, and to jump in and serve wherever they feel called.

Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren

 

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in Students, Newsletter

Student Ministry - May 2019

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Dear Church Family,

The Student Ministry is gearing up for missions this summer and fall, and I wanted you to have the opportunity to know about what we will be doing and a new way that you can partner with us!

The High School Mission Trip is June 2-8. We will be partnering with New Life Church in Huntington, IN to help them with their outreach ministry to the homeless and to other areas of their community. We will serve daily at their Meal Ministry center, and we will plan on doing a Bible Club during that week to help reach families. This will give our students many opportunities to share the gospel directly with individuals who need it.

Our Middle School Mission Week will be July 29 - August 2. We plan to host two Bible Clubs in the mornings and then do service projects in the afternoons right here in Evansville. We will have Student Leaders help guide the Middle Schoolers as they lead games, teach crafts, serve hard, and share the gospel with others. This is one great way that the students get to serve both in our community and in the church.

Finally, we are sending some students on our first International Mission Trip to Jamaica! This trip is an adult and student trip that will connect with churches in Jamaica to help minister to their communities as well as taking care of any renovation needs they have that we can meet. This will be an eye-opening experience for our students as they will witness first-hand the need for the life-changing power of the gospel in Jamaica’s culture.

In the past we have hosted a BBQ Fundraiser to help the cost of our missions endeavors, but we will unfortunately not be able to do that this year. So the Lord has led us to do an exciting new fundraiser that will raise nearly twice the amount as that of the BBQ Fundraiser. We simply need you, our church family, to partner with us to make this happen.

For the month of May there will be a table set up in the lobby that will have 100 envelopes on it. Each envelope will have a number on it from 1 to 100. The goal is for us as a church to fill every envelope with the money value of its corresponding number. People can take an envelope, put the amount of money that is indicated by the envelope’s number inside it, and place it in the locked dropbox we will have in the lobby. So if you wanted to partner with us financially and wanted to donate $10, then you would simply take the envelope with the number 10 on it, place $10 in it, and place it in the dropbox. If you wanted to donate $50 then you would take the envelope with the 50 on it, etc. While this fundraiser will not fully fund all our mission trips, it will put a big dent in the money students will have to raise in order to serve.

I first want to ask you to please partner with our students by praying for them. Would you pray that they would finish the school year well and be prepared for all that the Lord has in store for them this summer. And secondly, I want to ask you to consider participating in this fundraiser. All it will take is for you to pray about and pick a number between 1 and 100, and then give that amount of money for the express goal of serving and proclaiming the gospel.

Sincerely,

Brian Van Doren

 

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