Element Youth Group

On Saturday, August 22, we went to Monterey as our final summer outing before school began.  We started off our day with DT at North Loop before taking off to the beautiful Asilomar Beach, where we enjoyed a game of Red Rover and had some fun knocking down some people in the process!  Some of us got our feet wet in the water, built sand castles, and played some football.  Afterwards, we went to State Beach where we set up a bonfire and played some volleyball.  We had a wonderful dinner of grilled steak!  We ended our time together by the fire– sang some songs, and had a mini talent show!  The Gummi Bear Boys did a rendition of their gummi bear rap, T. Jiseon sang Les Mis, and Will Bae and T. Paul had a dance-off.

This past Friday, we continued our Truth Haters Bible study, where we learned about Pharaoh and his problem of pride.  We saw how destructive pride is as it causes us to not listen to God or to others, and eventually leads us to be unable to accept even the negative consequences of our pride.

After Bible study, we had our final session of MYT, and we ended our time by showing each other what we’ve learned throughout the summer.  The singing class sang their beautiful rendition of “The Lord Bless You and Keep You” and we saw some hilarious videos from the YouthTube class!

On Sunday, we watched a session of The Truth Project together and learned about God’s heart towards each and every person.  No matter how neglected a person may be in the world, Jesus is with the needy and the oppressed– no one we met is just a mere mortal.

After service, we headed to the park for some lunch and we watched an exciting soccer game between the high school boys and teachers.  It was a close game!  At the very end, Taehoon (the only 8th grader) saved the high school boys and the game ended with a tie.

Looking forward to our Monterey trip next week!

This past Sunday – Monday was our long-awaited Magic Mountain trip!  Students who have been regular participants of Cross Training this summer finally got their reward.

We took 5 vans down to LA, laughing and singing songs the entire way down… we entertained one another over the talkabouts and discovered some new talents in our midst (who knew that 6th graders Wendy and Joanne have a knack for being able to sing any song in opera style?).

After arriving in LA in the evening, we stopped at a Korean Plaza for some yummy Korean food.  We ended the night by cooling off from the LA heat and going swimming at T. Esther’s and T. Kevin’s homes.

After breakfast and DT in the morning, we headed off to Magic Mountain!  We went on rides like Goliath,Batman, Terminator, Viper, Ninja… those of us who were brave also rode rides like Deja Vu, Tatsu, and the highly-anticipated X2.

Wow!  What an action-packed two days.

What was your favorite ride?  Let us know!

This past Friday, we continued with our MYT classes in singing and YouthTube before the Truth Haters Bible study.  We learned about the tactics of Satan, the greatest truth hater, and reflected on how we buy into those lies and what we can do to fight them.

Replays from Sunday, 8/9:

6th Grade Service
From T. Danny:
T. Kenny gave the message as we learned about the influence of media and pop culture through a short film.  In the film this guy changed his coffee, his suit, his lunch, his car, even his furniture all because he was taking in all the sounds of media around him.  The film is called “Numb” and it’s all about how numb we can be when it comes to noticing the influence of culture and media around us.

7th – 8th Grade Service
T. James gave a message from Philemon, and how Philemon’s view of his runaway slave Onesimus needs to shift in order to do what Paul asks him to do, which is to receive him back as a brother and no longer a slave.  We learned about what it means to have a utilitarian view of people, and how as Christians, we are no longer to have a view of what others can do for us, but to view them in God’s image with intrinsic value.

High School Service
From T. Bessie:
Pastor Will shared on Philemon and defined faith as not just a belief or a feeling, but faith is trust in action.  He asked us, “Why is sharing our faith beneficial to our understanding of the gospel?” We discussed in small groups and P. Will shared that it is when you share your faith that you get a better understanding of the gospel that you believe in because you realize what the faith you have have and what you know and what you don’t know.  He also exhorted us to be refreshing and an encouragement to the saints in our lives (such as our leaders, our family, our fellow students) because they have the best in mind for us.

After service, we headed to North Loop for some yummy chilli dogs and a Ming Mang Mong tournament, where the 6th graders beat out all teachers and our high school veterans!

See you next week!

This past Friday, we had a special Element-wide Bible study where we watched some messages from RC Sproul on The Holiness of God.  Through studying Isaiah 6, we were able to get a glimpse of what Isaiah saw:

Isaiah 6:1-3
¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord seated on a throne, high and exalted, and the train of his robe filled the temple. ² Above him were seraphs, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another:
“Holy, holy, holy is the LORD Almighty;
the whole earth is full of his glory.”

We were reminded of what the most important characteristic of God is– his holiness, and how we need to see ourselves properly in light of God’s holy standards.  Instead of expecting God’s forgiveness, we marveled again that God would continue to give us undeserved mercy.

On Sunday, we had a special talk on God and Dating. We learned that the true purpose of dating is for marriage, and about the importance of pursuing purity and growing in our faith and character in the meantime.

Here’s an excerpt form a Q&A article we read from Boundless, a Christian webzine:

…I’m 24 years old, currently in my third year of medical school. I’ve been a Christian for most of my life, but really started to walk with God the last few years. I have a decent network of Christian friends, though I’m not currently attached to a church or bible study, due to the fact that I travel a lot for my clinical rotations. I try to go to church when I can, but I haven’t been able to plug into one church since I am on the road so much.

Anyway, during my first year of medical school I met and started dating a wonderful guy and we’re starting to think about serious commitment (i.e. engagement). He is very sweet, kind, smart, funny, all those great things … and he’s a medical student like me. In short, we’re basically perfect for each other. The problem is, …

Continue reading »

See you next week!

For the past few Fridays, Element has been going through our very own Multiply Your Talents! Students have been able to learn the tips and tricks of filming in YouthTube, and refining our vocal skills in the singing class. Can’t wait to see how we can put these newly developed talents to use!

On Sundays, Element has been trying something new– having three services for high school, 7th and 8th grade, and one for 6th grade.

The 6th graders started off their time with an icebreaker game called “This is not funny,” which of course was rather funny. Some favorites from the game were saying things like: “My Enlglish is gooder than yours ain’t it?” and “I have the most magnificent eyebrows in the world don’t I?” Try saying that with a straight face while looking someone else in the eyes!
After the game, we learned about honesty from Tony Kim and all about how God wants us to be honest people (1 John 1:8-9). We saw a video clip from “The boy with striped pajamas” about how people are hurt when others lie, and we saw how a car commercial is full of lies that get us to desire things that won’t really make us happy.

The 7th and 8th graders started off their time with a challenging activity– trying to keep two tennis balls bouncing at the same time… sound easy? Think again! We quickly saw that no one was able to do it. And just as we’re not able to keep the two going at the same time, we learned that we are not able to be friends with the world and with God at the same time. T. James went over 2 Timothy 4 and talked about an example of someone named “Sam Edward” who, because he had values he didn’t deal with when he was young, ended up turning from his faith when things got hard. He used this as an illustration to DRAW DEMAS in our day (spell “SAM EDWARD” backwards and you’ll see what I mean…)

At the high school service, Pastor Will went through 2 Timothy 4 and really spoke from his heart. He challenged the students to really take their faith seriously as they are the older student in Element and they have a lot of influence on the younger students. He went over the three type of characters Apostle Paul talks about: Demas, who loved the world and deserted Paul, Alexander, who was in the church but was a very harmful presence, and Mark and Luke, who were sources of encouragement to Apostle Paul.  As we were all able to relate to Demas and Alexander, Pastor Will ended with the message of hope, that though we may be like this, there is hope that God can still use us if we are for Truth and if we don’t try to justify our sins or ignore our sins.

After service, we had lunch and games together at North Loop where we played some mind-boggling games, including unscrambling letters to find words and decoding 3-D images. Wow, what a way to exercise our brains during the summer!

See you next week!

This past Friday, after hearing a message form the Truth Haters message series, we got a special treat all the way from Dallas, Texas– Eight Hour Shift!  They sang original music that they’ve written with some impressive scat singing as well.  Members of the band also gave amazing testimonies about God’s faithfulness in their lives, and how some of those experiences have influenced their music.

On Sunday, the junior high students met at Teacher James and Claire’s house, while the high school students met at Pastor Will and Esther’s.  We went over the week’s DT text in 2 Timothy 2, about how we need to embody the traits of a soldier, athlete, and farmer in order to faithfully live out our Christian lives.

After service, we gathered together at North Loop for lunch and we got to know the teachers a little better through a game of “Guess the Teacher.”  Did you know that Teacher Linda personally met George W. Bush?  And who knew Teacher Kevin was a Backstreet Boys fan?  And ask me about how I lived without running water for 2 weeks and electricity for a month (yes, that’s possible!).

See you next week!