We Can't Possibly Make a Difference

"The problem is too big!" "We can't possibly make a difference."
Those are words we say (or think) too often when we see issues that seem huge or overwhelming. You know, we've been talking about starting a revolution for the last 2 months. Now, rather than just talking, we're actually doing it. We've been talking about different issues in the world... one of which is orphans. James 1:27 says, "religion that is pure and undefiled (real) before God is this: to visit orphans and widows in their distress and to keep ourselves un-spotted from the world." In the world right now there are over 143 million orphans. That's right 143 million! To put that into perspective, that's about half the population of the United States. There's that many children without parents. There's that many children without someone to love and care for them. That's crazy! But when you think about an issue that is that big, our first reaction is to shut down and say, "there's nothing I can do." But there is. We can make a difference in one child's life and we are going to do just that. There is an organization called New Horizons and they're based right here in Georgia. They bring children from Eastern Europe here twice a year through their hosting program. These children come from orphanages and stay with host families for 6 weeks. While they're here they are able to experience Jesus and what it is like to be a part of a family. Now, you may be thinking, "but what good does that do? It's only for 6weeks." Listen to this... 85% of all the children that come here through this hosting program become adopted. That's right, almost 9 out every 10 children become adopted either by the hosting family or by someone that meets them while they are here. That is an amazing percentage! So that's what we're doing Revolution... we're going to bring a child here. We can't bring 143 million children here but we can bring 1. We announced it last week and the process is underway. It costs $2,500 to bring a child here. And we need to have a home to host the child in. Dean and Monica Berkley have stepped-up and volunteered to be the host family for the 6 weeks and we've started to raise the money. We've been given an opportunity, through Papa John's Pizza, to raise the entire $2,500 by selling $10 coupon cards. That means that if every student in Revolution sold ONLY 5 Cards we will have the money. It's pretty simple. And by doing this we'll change a child's life forever! Oh yeah, I forgot to tell you. Not only are we bringing a child here, but we're bringing one that is old enough to hang-out with us in Revolution! So all of us can pour into him while he's here. Cool, huh? So get your Papa John's cards at the check-in station Wednesday night so that we can make a difference.
We love you guys and we're truly honored to be your youth pastors.
Love Ya,
Jim and Mary Jane

Snake Video

Here is the video we showed in youth last night about the snake. Enjoy!

Now if you're like me, there's no way you're getting in the bathtub with a snake! And for some of you there's no way that you'd probably even be in the same room with that snake. Right? But why is it that we allow the devil (which has been referred to as a snake, right?) into our lives by living in habitual sin and not getting rid of the things that keep us from God? And there's no such thing as just a little sin or sin that doesn't effect anybody. Sin is sin. Darkness is darkness. We serve a God who is holy and in Him is "no darkness" at all (I Jn. 1:5-7). Either we're walking in the light or we're walking in darkness. We're either serving God or we're serving the devil. Period. It sound's harsh, but read that scripture in I John. I don't know about you but I want to walk in the light as he is in the light. And I definitely don't want to lay down in a bathtub with a snake!

Bull Fight

OK. Here it is... the infamous Bullfighting Video. For some of you, you've already seen it and you want to see it again (why, I don't know!) but for those of you who weren't there a couple of weeks ago... here it is! I'll explain why we showed it after you finish watching. WARNING! This video is graphic and if you're an animal lover you will HATE this video.

Alright. So what did you think? You're probably wondering why in the heck did we show that video in youth group. The reason is this: there's an incredible principle behind this video and the slaughtering of the bull. The principle in this video is this... the bull was bigger, stronger and more powerful than the matador. But even though this was the case, he was still not only killed, but tortured and mocked by the matador. The bull was so focused on the cape that he didn't deal with the real problem... "the matador!" It's crazy if you really think about it. Here you have this huge massive, muscular beast. An animal with an incredible amount of strength and power... then there's the matador. This skinny little Spanish guy. All dressed up in his funny looking sequined outfit, with his wimpy little hat, his funny little shoes and his little bloused shirt with the little sequined vest with matching pants. He probably weighs about 175lbs and though he's probably athletic, he's not match for this 1,500+lb massive beast... except for the fact that the bull, rather than focusing on the matador (which is inflicting all the pain on him and slowly killing him), he concentrates on the cape. With every pass the bull, rather than attacking the matador which is the real issue, keeps trying to attack the cape which isn't the issue at all. It's insane if you think about it. All it would take is for the bull to not be distracted by the cape and make an adjustment to the left or the right and put his focus on the matador and it would be game over. No more matador. It's the same thing with us as Christians. The Bible says in Ephesians 6, "that we don't wrestle with flesh and blood, but with principalities, with powers, with rulers of the darkness of this world, with spiritual wickedness in heavenly places." The devil wants us to think that our problems are with our parents or with another student or with a neighbor or with a boss... and it's not! It's with him. He's our adversary not people or situations. We need to take our focus off the cape and put it on him because he's the one our fight is with.

So, that's why we showed the video. We wanted every student and every adult that saw it to forever have it ingrained in their minds that the bull didn't have to die. He could have changed his situation by not being distracted by the cape and focus on the real problem... the matador. It's the same with us. It's not __________ that is the problem. It's our enemy, the devil.

Refugee Camp Outreach

Here is the video from our Refugee Camp Outreach.

Refugee Camp Outreach

Saturday was a great day. We joined with the youth group of Crossroads of Walton county to go into a refugee camp that the United Nations has set-up in Stone Mountain. The UN rescued these families from all over the world. Some of the places I had never even heard of. These families were under tremendous persecution in their native countries and some had been driven from their homes by ruthless governmental regimes. These families have been rescued and placed in this "refugee complex" as a last hope to having a good life. Crossroads had been ministering in this complex throughout the summer and it has made a tremendous impact on the students in their youth group. So, after talking with Jono (the youth pastor at crossroads) we decided to team-up and minister in there together. And we did! We brought in over 350 hotdogs, chips, drinks and fed them. We had our sidewalk Sundayschool truck (music blasting) set-up and had a good time! We were facepainting, hairpainting, jumping rope, played carnival games, soccer, baseball and even had a tug-of-war. Every student was engaged with someone and it was a cool thing to see. We didn't have to tell the students to do something... they just saw a child and started engaging with them... just loving on them. At the end of the day we had a time of praise and worship with both ministry teams singing, along with hand motions, leading these refugee children in worship. It was great to see our students ministering to these kids. Can't wait for the next time! God is so good.