Forest Grove Community Church's Jr. High

This week we had the FUSION event: “Whose fries are best?”. It was a super fun night to get into groups with leaders and drive around the city tasting fries and deciphering which ones were the best.

After our fry expedition we headed back to the church to meet in the youth room. We continued on diving into our theme for the year: Eye Contact. We’ve been reflecting on the verse found in Matthew 20:34 “Jesus had compassion on them and touched their eyes. Immediately they received their sight and followed him.” and talking about how we are just like the men whose sight Jesus restored. The last time we were together we talked about why our eyes were closed in the first place. We read the story of Adam and Eve and found out that, because of their choice to go against what God asked of them, we now have a nature that wants to be rebelious to what God wants for us.

This week we talked about what it is we see when our eyes are opened. We talked about the fact that when our eyes are open to the reality of our sinful nature we see that we need a rescue from the death that sin brings. We also see that we cannot rescue ourselves, that we need a rescuer to step in and save us. Last, we discovered that we need to want to be rescued. That if a rescue is available but we don’t want it, it doesn’t work. We need to want to be rescued from what we are stuck in.

Hi there!! My name is Chandra Styles and I am serving as the interim Junior High Pastor at Forest Grove until June, 2010.

Its been over a month since Junior High has kicked off and it has been an awesome fall so far. This year we are running two types of events…FUSION: a big group night of high energy games and a chance to meet together afterward to hear a Bible talk from the word of God; and DIVE: a night to connect to a smaller group of kids and consistent leaders where you can have lots of laughs, be able to be open and honest, and get a chance to grow together as a community. Our first DIVE groups will be kicked off Friday, October 9th and our leaders are looking forward to continuing to grow those communities.

Schedules for Sept. – Dec. are out and can be found on the back of my office door at the church (pop in and say hello!), or click here and download it. Our Fall Retreat at Redberry Bible Camp is also coming up on Oct. 23rd-25th. Because we are away for the retreat there will be NO YOUTH on Friday night and no LifeTime on Sunday morning.

Want to get your schedule sent to you in the mail? Make sure you fill out a STUDENT INFO card when you come to Jr High or send me an email with your address and we’ll make sure you get one.

Please feel free to send me an email anytime if you have any questions! chandra@forestgrovecc.com

Pastor Chan

All you gotta do to pick a prize from the Red Box on Friday night is be the first to know the answer and email it in with your FULL NAME in the email. Good luck! Remember, you gotta be there to get your prize.

LAST WEEK’S WEB QUESTION WAS: How many twizzlers long was Pastor Chan’s car?
THE ANSWER: 9 twizzlers long
THE WINNER: Karmin Pain

THIS WEEK’S WEB QUESTION IS: What happened in the Bible story Pastor Chan read at the end of her talk?

Send your answer to jrhighweb@gmail.com (remember to include your full name, so we know who to give the prize to!)

It was our DIVE KICK-OFF at Junior High this past Friday. DIVE is what we call our small groups. Small groups are a time when the entire youth group is divided up into smaller groups with two designated leaders. The purpose of DIVE is to build an intentional community based on having fun, making new friends, and learning more about God together. We are going to have DIVE nights twice a month where the kids spend pretty much the entire night in their DIVE groups, and then we will have two FUSIONS (our big group events) a month where we will meet in our DIVE groups at the end for 15-20 minutes to connect and discuss the talk. Sound confusing? You’ll catch on quickly…

For our DIVE kick-off the kids first met in their groups and then played the Twizzler-Measure-A-Rama. They had to run around the church measuring various things in twizzlers. The most accurate measurers won the ULTIMATE Jr high prize…an ICE CREAM CAKE for their DIVE group!

After the game the kids met in their DIVE groups for the rest of the night. They spent time getting to know each other and the leaders. The leaders said it was a great night for the kids to connect with each other and get settled into their new group for the year.