Club Monday night was full! Kids seemed a little bit lethargic to begin the night but they awoke as the night progressed. We did something different for music on monday night.  Rather than have a guitar lead Club, as we usually do, my friend Billy Suess told me that he uses videos from YouTube to lead music in Club.  Apparently you can find any song on YouTube with the words included.  It was different but worked well.  

We of course had a few new faces on monday. We have had a group of sophomore girls start to come on a regular basis and it seems that the Lord is beginning a new chapter in there lives as well as ours as we minister to them.  Its going to be fun to watch these relationships unfold over time.

My talk monday was on something I really had been wrestling with myself in my own walk with the Lord.  I talked with kids about how we go through life being defined by what those around us say we are, whether that be good or bad, we seem to believe things about ourselves that aren’t necessarily true.  I talked to them about how we so easily believe lies about ourselves and live life being defined by something so simple as “no one sees you,” or “you’re never going to amount to anything,” or “your just a loser.” I talked to kids about the woman caught in adultery in Luke 8.  Here was a woman, I am willing to bet, that lived her life maybe thinking she wasn’t good enough for real love, or a real life.  She was caught in the act of adultery and was drug into the temple court by the teachers of the law.  What had caused her to get this far in life? Separated from God’s love. Separated from the truth about herself only.  The teachers of the law wanted to make sure she was stoned to death because she was breaking the law. Its a beautiful picture of high school life.  We will do anything to point out what’s wrong with someone else as to deflect the attention off of our own bleeding hearts. In a beautiful moment Jesus calmly and so gently says “you with no sin, go ahead, throw the first stone.” One by one they left because they were convicted of there own sin and there stood this woman, who was in need of great affection. Jesus, in a beautiful display of compassion, gives her her life back, redefines her, gives her a new heart and a new life. “Who is there to condemn you?” “No one,” the woman says. “Then neither do I condemn you,” Jesus says. “Go and stop sinning,” Jesus told her.  This is what he wants to do with us.  He wants to blow away the lies we’ve been believing so that we might be able to see him clearly, and see that He has a new heart and a new life in store for us.

Please pray with us as we pursue kids for Jesus.  We need prayer to get kids to our Polar Bear Weekend Dec. 5-7.  Pray for the Lord to open the flood gates of relationships so that kids would see him.  Pray for more kids to see Jesus in Boerne.

Other Specific Prayer Needs

1. Table Hosts for our annual banquet Feb. 8, 2009

2. More Young Life and Wyldlife leaders

3. New Committee Members

4. For our budget needs to be met for the year

Thanks a bunch for supporting Young Life in Boerne!

Jason

Last night was one of the most encouraging nights at Young Life I have ever had.  We had such a wonderful night with kids as usual but it all started off with an old Club kid, who is graduated, stopping by our leaders room to say hello.  Paul Duran is his name.  Paul asked me if I could talk with him for a minute out in the hall.  Paul basically just wanted to stop by and tell me that Young Life had a huge impact on him while he was in high school.  Paul told me that he only came 2 or 3 times to Club while he was in high school, but every time he came he sensed something really different.  Paul didn’t grow up in a family that went to church but is walking with Christ today because of a few stops at Young Life during high school. Amazing! 

We had a great Club after my talk with Paul.  The night was filled with kids doing a skit to Wayne’s World the movie.  They reinacted the scene at the end where Wayne and Garth lip sang Queens Boehiemin Rap’s Song. It was great. We then played a game where 3 girls made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with their feet and 3 guys had to eat them.  Don’t you wish you were in high school again?

My talk last night was on Trusting Jesus with your life.  I talked to kids about my first swimming lesson as a kid.  I remember being so scared to jump off the diving board, I clung to it like a cat that was about to be thrown into water.  In short I was so scared and didn’t trust that the person waiting for me in the water would catch me.  I told kids about how Jesus invited Peter to step out on the water and trust him.  I talked a while about how in life we stop trusting for so many reasons.  Maybe we’ve been hurt by someone who we thought would never hurt us.  Maybe we trusted someone we thought would take care of our hearts but it only turned out to be a lot of pain and heartache.  I told kids that they could trust Jesus.  He will never fail us.  He created us and knows us better than we know ourselves.  We can trust Christ.  I asked kids if they have trusted Christ yet or if they are just giving him lip service?

After club we went to Sonic to hangout and as I pulled into the parking lot I found out that there had almost been a fight just before I got there.  One of the kids who had been at Club almost got into it with another kid who was at Sonic.  The kid who was in Club pulled me aside and asked me what he should do and oh course I gave him some wise advice.  He then opened up and was telling me all about how he has had so much trouble with his temper in the past and how trouble seems to follow him a lot.  He admitted to me that He wanted to change and better himself.  I then began to share the good news with (we’ll call him John) John, that Jesus has a life specifically created for him.  God desires to know him and be in relationship with him.  I shared with John the full gospel.  John told me that he wanted to meet up with me again this week to talk about it some more but that he wants what I am talking about. Amazing!

Thank You so much for being apart of changing kids lives in Boerne! Kids are seeing Jesus because of your prayers and your gifts!

Thanks a bunch!

Jason

Well we are back on a roll again with Young Life.  We’ve now had our 3rd Club and it has been an amazing beginning to a new year.  We have already had tons of fun, laughed hard, and come to some real understanding about God and how He is crazy about us! 

Last night’s Club was filled with many new faces.  We had a new group of sophomore’s come for the first time as well as many other kids.  One of our leaders Sean Segovia, (a past YL kid in Boerne now leader) has been putting Club together for us and has been doing a great job of coming up with new ideas and funny skits.  We played a game last night called ‘Flinches’.  The object of the game was to throw a light frisbee at the opposing team and if they flinched they were out.  It was fun to watch kids have a blast laughing.  Its always fun to watch kids laugh because we know that laughter many times leads to walls coming down.

I spoke last night in Club about Jesus’ heart for the 2nd best.  I started last night with a question, “Have you ever felt like no one sees you?  Or that you don’t have what it takes to be the very best?” I talked about my own journey of not feeling like I was the best student or the best athlete in school.  I also talked about how Jesus selected disciples / follower’s, who’d already been known not to make the grade by jewish standard’s.  Jesus found these guys who had already finished school but weren’t selected to move on and follow a Rabbi because no Rabbi though they had what it took to be a Rabbi themselves.  So like most kids who didn’t make it in the Jewish culture they began a trade, like fishing, tax collecting, etc.  They began working maybe thinking they were made for the lesser things in life.  But Jesus comes along and says ‘come follow me’.  Its an amazing moment where God expresses his heart in selecting the 2nd best by man’s standards.

I also talked about the Paralytic in Mark 2.  This guy was a man who had been paralyzed for a very long time.  You could imagine.  No one ever saw him as they walked past him laying on his mat.  No one ever gave him a chance.  But because of the faith of his friends and the love of Christ, Jesus healed his life and told him ‘pick up your mat and go home’.  So the man who had been a paralytic all his life was given new life.

Christ can do that same thing in our lives.  He can take our lives that we sometimes see as meaningless and breath new life into them.  God’s heart was for the 2nd rate, the one no one sees, that’s who Christ is looking for.

Its funny that every kid would look around the room and probably say “so and so has got it all together’. But I bet you that every kid is struggling with this same identity crisis.  Who am I? Do I matter? We all want to know these things.  Thank you for supporting Young Life and giving us the ability to speak life into kids hearts, letting them know that they were made for a relationship with God!

Bless you all,

Jason

Wilderness Ranch was an amazing time this year! We backpacked through the San Juan Mountains and enjoyed sharing life with each other as well as drawing close to God through the amazing beauty of his creation.  Check out our video chronicles of what happened! 

Here’s the quote at the end of the video. Its hard to read so I’ll include it here!

You cannot stay on the summit forever, you have to come down. So why bother in the first place? Just this. What is above knows what is below.  What is below does not know what is above.  One climbs, one sees, one descends.  One no longer sees, but one has seen.  There is an art to conducting oneself in the lower regions by what one saw higher up. When one can no longer see, one can at least still know!

Rene Daumel

Thanks again for all your support!

Friends,

Last night was such a blast! Boerne, along with 8 other areas from around the Hill Country (Kerrville, Fredericksburg, Blanco, Marble Falls, New Braunfels, Comfort, Bandera) loaded up onto charter buses and headed for Luckenbach Dance Hall for an All Hill Country YL Club! Come 7:15 kids were pilling out of cars and buses and they were ready for an amazing time. The energy was like none other. Imagine over 200 kids knocking at the door of Luckenbach ready for a grand time! It was awesome.

We brought kids in and did a little Dancing Thru the Ages and sang a few songs. Our very own Justin Hooter and Sean Segovia did a walk-on to Club. Their names were Tad and Todd “The Spartan Rejects.” They were number 301 and 302 (you’d know this if you saw a popular movie among high school kids called 300). They were hilarious.

My freind Aaron Collins graced us with his presence last night and spoke of Jesus. Aaron talked a lot about real life. His wife Liz, just gave birth to their second child Avery. He recounted the story with kids as they listened in wonder to what it looks like to have a C section! Aaron told kids that Avery was stuck. She couldn’t start her life without someone opening up Liz’s stomach and pulling her out. Its the same way with you and me. We cannot really start to live unless we allow Jesus to pull us out of being stuck in life. He gave kids a chance to respond to the Gospel and I know 4 or 5 kids gave their lives to Christ last night.

At the end of the night we raffled off a FREE TRIP to camp! It was amazing! Kids are really getting excited about camp.

All in all, last night was one of the best events I’ve ever been apart of in Young Life. There was something really amazing about it. Our kids had such a wonderful time! Thanks again for giving us a chance to be able to do some awesome things like this!

Jason

 
Friends,

Well our last official Club at the YMCA was last night.  At least for the year.  We still have a couple more events coming up (All Hill Country YL Club @ Luckenbach next week, and then CRUD WARS!). 

Last night we had a low turnout for Club.  Its the Spring and kids are already beginning to live in the summer.  You know how it is.  Its so close you can just shut down and start living like you don’t have anything to do.  With that said, we just shortened Club a bit to make room for some hangout time on the back end.  I played a few songs then we played this game called Over The Mountain.  If you really want to get to know someone more, play Over The Mountain.  Its played like this.  Everyone sits in a circle and one person says “Over the mountain if you ever…..”, and they would say something like “brush your teeth, etc.” Everyone then has to get up and run across the circle to find a seat.  The last one seated has to come up with something.  Now playing this with high school kids is very interesting! It was a blast.  Just use your imagination this morning.  I’ll leave it at that!

After the game I spoke to kids.  As I was preparing my talk I asked myself a question “What if this was the last time I was going to speak to my friends? What would I say?” Okay, two questions actually.  I asked kids the same question.  If they knew they were never going to see someone again, what would be the last thing they would say to that person? My thinking behind this question comes from an even deeper question that we all are asking.  Let me back up a bit.

This semester we’ve talked all about life, true life.  We talked about Jesus. We talked about his character, compassion, power, his relationships, etc.  We talked about him coming for us.  We talked about his ultimate sacrifice to pay for our SIN.  We’ve been set free! But for many of us we don’t know what it means to be free.  You see, we have all the evidence and have given our lives to Jesus but we somehow we aren’t experiencing freedom.  I talked to kids about a deeper question that all of us long to get answered, “Am I truly enough?” Its a deeper longing that takes us back to the cross where Jesus paid for our SIN.  Yes! You are enough.  You don’t have to continue to work, and strive, and work more to be accepted by life or even God.  All of humanity wants to know if they are enough.  Even in Christianity I think we struggle deeply with the idea of no more work.  We feel we still have to brush up and work hard, strive to be accepted by God.  We all work so hard to get this question answered but Jesus answers it for us.  So, if there was something I would say to someone whom I knew I’d never see, it would probably be something like this… “you are free.”  

I ended the night talking to kids more in depth about what it meant to be a follower of Christ.  We are all follower’s.  Everything that I know is unoriginal. Jesus called us sheep because sheep follow.  I told kids that we will be follower’s for the rest of our lives.  Whether it be an idea, culture, or a person, we are going to follow something.  Jesus invites us into this extremely challenging, yet completely life giving journey to follow him.  I gave some details and we ended the night with laughter and relationship at Marble Slab.

Thanks for your continued support!

Be praying for our summer! We already have 25 kids signed up to go to Sharp Top Cove summer! 

“I say to you that many will come from the east and west, and will take their places at the feast of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven. But the SUBJECTS of the kingdom will be thrown outside, into the darkness, where there will be weeping and gnashing of teeth.” Matt 8:11,12

Oh Lord forgive me for thinking that I know what true and genuine faith looks like.  There is a place for those on the outside in the kingdom.  Not just a place but a high place at the banquet table.  For I am a horrible subject for thinking the kingdom is about me because of my immediate awareness of you! There is a place for those who don’t yet know, but long for you in their inner hearts! Let us be the net to bring them into your heart Lord!

Give me your eyes this day!