Student Ministry

Tell us about your faith-journey story...

I started to really learn about and get to know God when my family started attending Indian Creek Community Church.  My oldest son, Scott, was in first grade and I realized that he knew more about God and salvation than I did.

So, I started helping in Sunday school and as Scott moved up in grades, I moved also.  I learned as much as he did in Sunday school and by the time he moved into the youth group I found the place where I felt that I fit in the most.  God has given me a colorful past and a love for youth that allows me to understand the pain and discomfort of being a teenager.  I think that in my heart I will always be a teenager, but now I am a healthy one.

I graduated, this year, to being the leader of the small group leaders.  I enjoy the diversity of that because our leaders all need such different things from me.  Some need my physical help, some want my emotional help, and as a bonus I get to be there for all of the students, not just a small group.

I love youth. I don't care who you are or what you have done, or even if I haven't met you yet.  Knowing this allows me to understand how God can love us all so much at the same time. I love helping you. I love sharing. I love listening.

Coming to Journey Live this May...

“Five Ways to Wreck Your Family”

May 2 – “Never Let Go” (Grad Celebration Sunday)
May 9 – “Never Ask For Help” (Mother’s Day)
May 16 – “Dis Your Parents”
May 23 – “Just Living Unrelated”
May 30 – “Take Each Other For Granted” (Memorial Day Weekend)

In less than a month (April 25), we will be concluding our series called the "Big Deal."  On that morning, we are inviting the high school students to join the middle school students for a combined worship experience that we are calling the "Big Party."  It all starts at 10:45 a.m.

The real party will begin later that evening as several students, kids and adults will be baptized in the courtyard fountain!  You won't want to miss this celebration, which is scheduled to begin at 6:30 p.m.

So what's the big deal with baptism?  Why do Christ followers allow someone to dunk them underwater, and why does everybody get so excited about it?

Baptism is an emotional event, both for the person getting baptized and the people there to watch it.  You might call it a "coming out" moment or a confession or profession of your faith.  The person getting baptized recognizes and accepts that Jesus paid a price for their sins.  Not only are they redeemed, but they are reconciled (found their way back) to God, AND a transformed.  A new work begins taking place within them.  (This is what the Holy Spirit is up to.)  They don't just believe in a change of life, they experience a change of life.  Baptism is a way to go public with what God is doing inside of them!  It's a symbol of a new life begun following Christ.

There is nothing magical about baptism.  Getting baptized doesn't make following Christ easier or more convenient.  Similarly, baptism isn't something that people wait for until they "get their life together."  I like to think of baptism as a starting line rather than a finish line.  It was this way for Jesus!  When you read the story of Jesus in book of Matthew in the Bible, you'll see that Jesus gets baptized before he begins his teaching and healing ministry.  Even more interesting is what follows... 40 days and 40 nights in the wilderness and a period of temptation and testing.  For Jesus, baptism was the beginning of a hard road ahead.  Here's the good news:  Jesus wasn't alone - God's Spirit was with him, accompanying him during the rough days.  And the news is the same for you.  You are not alone!

Baptism is full of symbolism and historical references.  There are many different layers of meaning tied to this very ancient practice.  One of them is about the water.  Water is a symbol for chaos, uncertainty, and death.  When someone is baptized, they symbolize a type of death by going down into the water.  Following Christ means putting to death our old pattern for living - selfishness and the desire to control our salvation.  Coming out of the water symbolizes rising to new life guided (controlled) by God's Spirit.

Several of our students have recently chosen to follow Christ and are making a decision to tell everybody about it on April 25.  If you've made this decision as well and would like to get baptized, I invite you to join me for our Journey baptism class this Sunday at 12:15 in Room 020.  The conversation will last about 30 minutes.  We believe you do not need to be baptized multiple times; however, some people were baptized as a baby and would like to have the choice to be baptized again.  If that's you, you are invited to the class as well.  Call, text, e-mail or FB message me if you have any questions.

Peace,

Matt

What’s your impossible? We are so excited because you will see many of our Journey Students volunteering onstage and behind the scenes during the Easter Service this year! We are encouraging our students to attend worship with their family as we will not be having Journey Services this Sunday.

Journey Baptism Class - 6th Grade - College Seniors
April 11, 12:15 – 12:45pm, Room 20
Students who are interested in 

getting baptized on April 25 need to attend this short 30 minute conversation-based session with Matt Saunders that will help them explore the significance of baptism, prepare a faith-story, and cover details about the baptism event. Please click here to register.

The Big Party – 6th – 12th Graders
Sunday, April 25, 10:45am – 12:15pm
High School students are invited to join the Middle School students at 10:45 for a worship gathering in anticipation of the Baptism Celebration that evening. There will be no High School Journey Live so that High School students may participate in the Celebration.

Middle School Journey Wednesday presents:
The Last Supper – March 31, 6:30 – 8pm
This Wednesday we will have Valorie Wilson as our special 

guest to lead our Middle School students through a “last supper” experience. We will still provide dinner at 6:30 before transitioning to an experiential teaching that will talk about the Passover event and the significance of the different elements of the Seder plate. This will give our students a taste of what a true Passover is like. The evening will conclude with a communion station, an artistic response area and an invitation to Easter services on Sunday.

You have two hours of free time with no obligations.  How do you spend it?

Next thing you know I am out by the fire truck not wanting it to leave because my dad is not okay. My neighbor’s Mom walks over and tells me to go play. That was the start to a very robot-like me. The only emotion I ever showed after that was happy, angry or relaxed.

Well, once my father got out of the hospital and had fully healed he returned back to his good old self. He was amazing to the girls but not nice in the least to us guys that were his kids. He never said he was proud of me and yelled at me at least once a day.

When I was in Junior High I started smoking weed and drinking alcohol. I would have never thought I would get as bad as I did. When I was in High School it got worse. I started dealing and doing other drugs, drinking more and wouldn’t be able to function without smoking weed.

Two summers ago when I was turning 17 my dad started to get really sick. He started to rapidly lose weight, got put on a feeding tube, dialysis and he would cry randomly through out the day without even knowing. To see such a tough man turn to that killed me.

When he passed away that winter between Christmas and New Years, I lost it. I felt like he left without settling with me, or even saying he was proud. So, I started going even farther down the wrong path. It wasn’t until August of 2009 that I decided to stop all that. I told my mom everything I have ever done so I would not have it haunting me.

About a month or two into being clean, when my spirituality was so fresh and filling up, I was praying that I could talk to my father one last time -- just so I could settle things with him. My resentment for him was like a bomb waiting to explode, except the bomb was getting bigger every day that I held it in.

The Lord works in my life every single second of the day telling me what His plans are for me or what comes next for me to do or say. Whether it be a picture, music, a movie, or just someone’s smile He will portray a message to me. My life message that He wants to do is to open up an outpatient facility to helps drug addicts and alcoholics. I want to help people who are stuck in the dark and need a way into the light. I will throw them a rope or my hand and say, “If you need me, I will be here to help you along your path.” I love the Lord so much because of what He has done through other peoples’ life and mine. I lost everything, and I mean everything -- my family, money, friends and a life. The Lord gave me them back.

Love the little things in life. Observe and take in. Do not judge, for everyone -- I mean everyone -- in this world is His creation and He made us the way He wanted us to be. So everyone is perfect. Acceptance is what I live by. For I accept the good and most of all, the bad in life for there is a bit of light in even the darkest of spaces."

Love,

Scott Culala

“The Lord is my guide, and I am his knight, for I am here to help our KING.”

I'm excited for what God is doing in the lives of our students and leaders!  A couple of weeks ago we have our annual spring "InHouse Retreat" called "Beauties and Beasts."  I felt like this was the most incredible spring retreat we've ever had.  Many of you may not know that we had a last minute speaker cancelation and that Rene and Jessica Maldonado agreed to lead with only a week to prepare!  It was obvious to me that God was using them to speak directly to us, and I want to share with you some results from the spiritual impact survey:

• 5 student made decisions to follow Christ for the first time!
• 23 students rededicated their lives to following Christ!
• 4 students indicated interest in getting baptized!
• 23 students want God to help with a relationship!
• 9 students want God to help overcome an addiction or habit!
• 8 students want someone to mentor them about faith and life!
• 3 people made "other" decisions!

Thanks to everybody who was praying and continues to pray for our middle school and high school students!

Matt

An autobiography is someone's life story that they write about themselves.  Have you ever had to read one for school?  Autobiographies give a detailed insight into a person's life and help us to understand their point of view.  Our next series is about Jesus' autobiography.  What did Jesus have to say about himself?

Jesus chooses a lot of interesting phrases to describe himself, and we are going to look at three of them over the next three week. Each of these phrases cannot simply settle in our brains. As we engage them, we discover that Jesus calls us to respond to him and follow him into a new and better life.

March 14 – “I AM”
March 21 – “I Am the Good Shepherd”
March 28 – “I Am the Messiah”

Don't forget Easter!  This year, we are encouraging families to celebrate Easter together in the main services, so we will not be having separate Journey Live experiences for students.

April 4 – “Impossible…is NOTHING!” – Celebrate Easter in the Main Service at 9:00a.m., 10:45a.m., or 5:00p.m.

I think I'm 75% recovered from the retreat! What an amazing weekend. I am sure blessed to get to work with an amazing team of leaders to help lead an amazing group of students. Thanks, Rene and Jessica, for rocking it in our main sessions. I especially appreciated the "Algebra Lesson" on Sunday morning. Really needed that! I would love to hear everybody's feedback from the retreat. I know we gave you a short time to do that with the spiritual impact survey - but if you have more thoughts on what went well, how we could improve, or better yet, how God worked in your life this past weekend, we'd love to hear your story.  Girls, you truly are BEAUTIES!  Guys, you truly are BEASTS!

If you haven't already, please join our Journey Live! Group on Facebook.  We have created this group so that students have a place to connect with their peers in youth group and leaders can communicate with their students and their parents about what's happening in Journey! Here you can post pictures, stories, etc. about the cool stuff happening in Journey!

High School Journey Live! | 

Last night at High School Journey Live, our four Journey Groups executed generosity projects that they planned a week ago and were given $20 in seed money to get them started.  All the stories that came back from the night were amazing, but one in particular, from our Gardner group was truly INCREDIBLE!  Mary and Brian Friesen are the directors of Journey Student Ministry at our Gardner campus.  Mary shares the Gardner group's story below:

Tonight, the Gardner youth had an awesome opportunity to be generous to a member of the community! Matt issued a challenge last week to identify a person or persons to bless this week during service. We were told we would get $20 base and could add to the amount. We were also given guidelines to not just give the cash out, but to make it something meaningful and make it anonymous.

The students happened to choose a certain family touched by cancer, as a few of the students went to school with the family's oldest son. I issued the challenge last Sunday for a few students to snoop and find out what the family could use. With the help of a parent, we discovered that the dad and the mom were having trouble paying their bills/ coming up with grocery money. When we gathered for the baptism service, Brandon handed me $65, money he had raised from people to use for the cause! We decided to get the family a gift card to Walmart so they could buy food and or personal items they may need. Brian and I chipped in the last $15 and were able to purchase a $100 for the family. Our group also purchased a card to put the money in and wrote a simple note saying that we were praying for them and wanted to bless them during this difficult holiday season. We decided that I would bring the card to the front door since I had never met the family. 

We pulled up a few houses away in the white church van (de-badged of all the ICCC identifiers) and I was thinking I would just walk to the door, ring the bell and give Sarah or Brent the card. As I was walking to the house, I saw a tall, slender man with a teenager walking toward the same house. He asked me if I was looking for him and, shocked, I said why yes I was! He greeted me like I was a long lost friend and I had never met him before. I handed him the card and he asked me if I could come in for a minute so he could open the card with his family. Shocked, I agreed. I never expected him to invite me in! Before we entered the house, his neighbor came out (the one he was returning from when I got there). She was sobbing and telling him how amazing he was and how blessed she was to call him friend, that she didn't deserve all his kindness and that she could never thank him enough. He vary graciously accepted her praise and took me inside, apologizing for wasting my time outside. When we got in, he introduced me to his wife and 2 sons and opened the card and read it out loud. With tears in his eyes, and in his wife's, he graciously thanked me and said it was very difficult for him to not just run out to our white van and peek in to thank the people inside. I apologized and told him I was not allowed to say who was inside, nor where they (or myself) were from. I only told him that these were young people who knew him, his story, and his family. He asked that I share with the group the story of why we ran into each other out front. He and his son were taking a basket of Thanksgiving dinner (full of a turkey, pumpkin pie, etc) for his neighbor because they were having hard times next door. He proceeded to tell me about this woman, her 3 young children and about how she had lost her job and they wanted to make sure she and her family had a good meal. He told me he needed his son because the basket was too heavy for him to carry on his own. He said the timing was incredible and that they were very grateful. He then gave me a hug, as did his wife, and each of his sons and we parted ways. He only requested that he meet the people who had been so generous to him sometime, even if in passing. He said he understood their anonymity but wanted me to share that they were always welcome to stop by and say hello, even if he had never met them, and that they would not have to share that they helped in this gift card. 

I shared with the students his amazing story. Incredible how a family struggling to meet their own needs would go above and beyond what they could probably afford to serve another family in need. Just the experience and the chance to meet the family was a blessing to me. They treated me like I was a long lost friend with whom they were eager to catch up with. Deep impact on our group. God does amazing work, doesn't he?

I agree, Mary!  We are privileged to be part of what he's doing!

About two months ago, I was approached by three of our students, Jessika, Jennifer, and Caleb.  Their agenda: they wanted to put on a production as a fund raiser for YouthFront's "Feed the Hunger" organization.  Our student ministry has been building a relationship with Feed the Hunger since the beginning of this summer, starting with camps, then Middle School Mission Camp, and most recently with our Fall Retreat this past October.  In brief, Feed the Hunger is all about giving students an opportunity to package and pray for meals that are sent to malnourished families in Tanzania.

For whatever reason, our students have fallen in love with the Feed the Hunger organization, and they wanted to do something to help the cause.  Because we are in a message series about generosity, it made total sense to give them a green light on their idea of doing "The Canterville Ghost" last Saturday night (November 14) and selling tickets so that 100% of the proceeds would go to Feed the Hunger.

About 70 people came out Saturday night to their performance.  I was blown away by the quality of their production.  There was a full set, beautiful lighting, and special effects including a fog machine and sound effects.  After the performance, they counted the proceeds and discovered that they had raised $655 for Feed the Hunger.  They were so excited about what they had done!  And I was so proud to see how students realized they could be generous with their time to do something so great for others.

But the story doesn't end there.  Yesterday in Middle School Journey Live, one of our adults was so inspired by the generosity of our students who took the time to make this production, that this person decided to contribute an extra $100.  And by Sunday night, there was another donation of $50 toward the cause.  Generosity was inspiring generosity!  By the end of the day, students had raised $805 for Feed the Hunger.  Here's where it gets amazing:  that amount translates into 2012 meals that will be sent to families in Tanzania!

Way to go guys!  I am so proud of you!  You are catching this generosity thing and setting a great example for others!

So I think I've fully recovered from Fall Retreat this past weekend!  It was an amazing experience - probably one of the most "simplified" retreats that we've ever done, but I think it was the retreat that most fully realized the theme.  We took the weekend to focus on knowing God through all different aspects of life.  In the main sessions we talked about knowing God through the moment, study, suffering, and community.  In our group experience times we talked about knowing God through worship, serving, creativity, play, and work/school.  We also experienced knowing God through silence and rest during two other special sessions.  Awesome stuff!

Here are some stats about student responses from the retreat:

• One student chose to follow Christ for the very first time.
• Eight students chose to rededicate their lives to Christ.
• Three students want to be baptized.

Here is what students were saying about retreat:

• "I learned that God is always with me no matter what I'm doing." - NY
• "I learned to look for him and always be listening to what he has to say to you...no matter the situation." - KK
• "I learned that sometimes God has to lower his voice so you'll listens and that no matter what you are going through he's always there." - LS
• "I learned that all my suffering can be used to teach me an important lesson." - AG
• "I was really impacted by Jim Snyder's message when he said that the best way to really know God is to be his hands and feet." - CS

And finally, these comments came in from one of our leaders, Tracey Sinclair:

...Every session was powerful, so packed with God's truth. It was awesome! (and not just for me as I babbled about yesterday:) I have been asking God some big questions lately and trying to quiet myself enough to hear the answers.  I was so encouraged to continue this as well as excited to hear some of His answers.  I was blessed to have Jessika along side me with these precious girls. She is that "cool" big sis they can look up too and very grounded.  It was really cool to know our girls so much better this year.  I could clearly see how God has gifted them each so uniquely and yet they mesh together in such sweet community.

 A big thank you to Steve, Ben, Jim, Ed, Kathleen, Alex and Last Place as well.  God used all of you to bless all of us.

Tracey took some awesome pictures during the retreat and posted them on a site.  Click HERE to be taken to her photos.

God is doing some great stuff in our community, and I believe his Spirit will continue to help students in our regular weekly gatherings.  If you haven't checked them out recently, here's what's happening:

Middle School Journey Wednesday - Wednesday nights @ 6:30, for students in 6th - 8th grades.

Middle School Journey Live - Sunday mornings @ 10:45, for students in 6th - 8th grades.

High School Journey Live - Sunday nights @ 6:30 ($3 dinner starts @ 6:00), for students in 9th - 12th grades.

High School Accountability Groups - meet various times throughout the week.

Peace,
Matt

Fall retreat is one of my absolute favorite things that we do in student ministry all year long.  I can't wait for this weekend's experience.

This year's retreat is focused on knowing God through many aspects of life.  I'm looking forward to having Last Place lead us in worship and hearing from some great teachers connected to Indian Creek, like Steve Southards, Ben Stears and Jim Snyder.

We have a lot of fun and relaxation planned too, like late night games, campfires, and free time activities on Saturday. 

It's not too late to sign up for retreat!  Registration is only $90!  Click here to be taken to the registration page.

(Note:  This originally posted on 9/15/09 but was accidentally dropped during a database switch on the website.  Enjoy!)

 ¹ Blessed is the man
       who does not walk in the counsel of the wicked
       or stand in the way of sinners
       or sit in the seat of mockers.

 ² But his delight is in the law of the LORD,
       and on his law he meditates day and night.

 ³ He is like a tree planted by streams of water,
       which yields its fruit in season
       and whose leaf does not wither.
       Whatever he does prospers.

 ⁴ Not so the wicked!
       They are like chaff
       that the wind blows away.

 ⁵ Therefore the wicked will not stand in the judgment,
       nor sinners in the assembly of the righteous.

 ⁶ For the LORD watches over the way of the righteous,
       but the way of the wicked will perish.

At first glance this looks good but it didnt hit me until I went in a little deeper! "Blessed are those who do not walk in the counsel of the wicked".Blessed are we to be able to have the JOY in obeying God's word and not giving in to those who discredit or ridicule God. When we diligently try to obey God's will we are blessed!  How amazing is that? As we delight in the law of the Lord which is the scripture and meditate on it, we then learn how to follow Gods will. The more we delight in Gods presence the more fruitful we are.

Lets dive into the Scripture some more and learn what it is that God wants us to do so that we can be fruitful in all that we do!

Mary posted a couple of more tweets on Twitter today.  The team is back across the boarder and on the way to Ft. Worth...

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Drivin to fort worth! Should be there around 8....everyones so tired!22 minutes ago from TwitterBerry

Another update from Mary.  http://agape-mou.blogspot.com/

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Hello again :)

Today was a great day but extremely HOT! We finished mudding the walls and tomorrow we will paint, put the roof on, finish the electrical and go into Monterrey (or the outskirts) for an excursion before a house dedication!

Today was a fun filled day for adventure. A few of us go to experience a factory tour from CROC into Monterrey (ask when we get home, this one is going to be a short one!) and others got to go see how Youthfront distributes micro-loans to women starting their own business! We raised funds for this a few months ago! Awesome experience! Other than that, business as usualVBS, English class, and tomorrow will be the store!

Everyone is happy and healthy now and we are not anticipating anymore injuries...keep those prayers coming!

Love and blessings,

Mary & the team!

This from Mary again.  You can find her blog at http://agape-mou.blogspot.com/

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OK. So some of you may or may not have heard, but we had a slight accident yesterday which was why I did not update.

Long story short, we took the students to a pool not too far and they boys were being boys and Alex L got kicked in the head and now has a small hole in his eardrum. John (full time director here in CROC) and Alex and I spend most of the evening at Santa Cecilla hospital in Monterrey (a VERY nice private hospital) and got to see a specialist. We got home around 1am and were up at 8 in hopes of getting him into a specialist. We will be taking him into Monterrey again this afternoon at 3pm for another test, and unfortunately, we will be taking him again tomorrow to see the DR. and get the final word and instructions to send home. We are really praying the DR has an opening this afternoon after the test so we don't have to drive to Monterrey again, so any prayer on that one would be greatly appreciated. There is a chance he will have some permanent damage, but things are looking very positive that he will make a full recovery! GOD is good! Also- medical costs here are CHEAP and things should end up about $500 or less which is awesome for the testing and care he is getting :)

Lauren (from First Pres) was also taken to the clinc this AM and turns out she has pink eye! We could really use some prayers for healing!!

Other than that; yesterday we put the walls up on the house, hung the rafters for the roof, went to the pool (which was AWESOME! Pool= 5 foot deep all around...nice and cool...surrounded by mountains :) )and played with a bunch of kiddos :) Today the students will be mudding the walls; translation, adding concrete to them to make them walls, and playing with more kiddos! Everyone is still in good spirits and are pretty tired but are working very hard!

Thank you for all of your prayers! We will keep you posted!

Blessings

Mary

Mary writes an update for the team on Monday night...

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