Element Youth Group

Hello!

The team of 20 students and 6 teachers have returned from Costa Rica!

Check out this website to see and hear what they did on the mission field.  Thank you for praying for the team!

http://interhighmissiontrip2010.wordpress.com/

Also here are some pictures from the trip:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/gracepoint/sets/72157624566058099/

What an awesome time at RISE!  There were 420 students in attendance, rocking praise, a wonderful & funny skit by ELEMENT, and a convincing presentation and Q&A time with Dr. Craig.  Shout out to everyone who helped out!

For Interhigh Monthly #5 explored the worldview of Disney.  We learned that Disney perpetrates a very skewed worldview, especially on young people.  We looked at how the corporation, through it’s movies and programming,  discretely tries to feed it’s audience a worldview where both men and woman are valued based on how they look, where bad, abusive relationships are tolerated and even glorified, and how romance is the highest goal .  Beware!  Childhood favorites like Snow White, The Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast, Alladin are all full of these messages.
In P. Will’s message, we learned about what it meant to be a youth in the Church.  We learned that God never intended for us to be alone as Christians.  The Church is God’s plan to reverse the effects of sin in our lives.  Not only that, we need the Church to grow and change.  It is a place where we receive God’s love, and in turn, use our gifts to love others.  God has a special plan for every youth in his/her youth group.

We’re getting there with the dance moves!!!

Check out the pictures in the photos section!

We continued with the topic of “Why Am I So Stressed?”  I mean… who isn’t stressed?  Papers, midterms, projects, work, relational conflicts, family, friends, health, image, financial troubles, worries of the unknown, etc., all of these things are sources of stress.  Pastor Will noted that we stress because we fear the unknown.  However, we need to deal with our fears by trusting in a person greater than the outcome of those fears.   In Matthew 6:25-34 we find that God is that person. He provides for our needs. We can cast our anxieties upon Him through prayer. And He gives us the community of believers so that we don’t have to be alone.

And yeah… it’s that time again!  Thanksgiving Celebration dance practice!  With teacher Josh leading, I have no doubt our dance is going to be sick!!!

Check out the trailer!

Gracepoint Berkeley Thanksgiving Celebration Trailer 2009 from Gracepoint Berkeley on Vimeo.

This Friday we had the second installment of the “Why am I…” messages series.  We began with the Mask skit by they 10th gaders.  Then we had a special testimony by Teacher Mina, who shared about her experience as a teenager and young college who wore many masks.  Finally, Pastor Will followed up with a message explaining why it is that people put  on all sorts of masks, how burdensome it can be, and how unnecessary it is, because God already loves us unconditionally.

After the Bible study we headed out to Leydecker Park for a couple of hours of Ultimate Frisbee, Dodgeball, and Capture the Flag.

We began with the first message of the “Why Am I…” message series.  Pastor Will spoke on the topic of Why Am I Doing All These Things?  He talked about the importance of finding our purpose in life, noting that we don’t have a whole lot of time to figure it out, and that of life devoid of purpose leads to much conflict and confusion.  Purpose is what gives our lives value, meaning, and dignity.  So, in order to find our purpose – what we were made for – we need to get in touch with our maker, our creator, GOD, and devote time to learning more about ourselves from the “owner’s manual”, the BIBLE.

After Bible study, we went to the park to play this crazy game called MOO & QUACK.   It’s a real fun game that involves: night, a large field, fire for everyone, and people acting like ducks and cows.  I’ll leave it up to you to imagine what it was like ☺.  For now, Cows: 1, Ducks: 1.

We also celebrated Teacher Esther’s, Teacher John’s, Teacher KJ’s and Franky’s birthdays with song, cake, and wild dancing!