Just hear those sleigh bells jingling...

I know you all probably know this, but we're taking the next two weeks off from youth group. Considering Christmas and New Years both fall on Mondays this year we thought it would be considerate to let you spend time with your fams. As much as I know you all absolutely love being there, and would probably still come...ok, so maybe we're forcing you to spend time with your fams, but we think that's important too. :) Enjoy your break and we'll be back on Jan 8th!!

Christmas Party

Whether it's a giant black crayon, silly puppy dog socks, or a singing lobster, you never know what you might walk away with from our Annual Yankee Swap. People often consipire all year long to come up with the perfect gift to unveil at the swap. Now remember, it has to be a white elephant gift, which means something lying around the house (or less than $5) that you wouldn't mind receiving as a gift. So bring your wrapped gift to the Harris' house (directions)on Monday, December 18th from 6:30-8:30pm for our Christmas Party. Girls also bring a snack to share and guys bring drinks. Hope you can make it!

Winter Retreat

This January 19-21st we'll be joining over 250 other students from around the area at Monadnock Bible Conference for our Winter Retreat! The plethora of winter activities include snow tubing, ice skating, snow football, laser tag, an indoor heated pool, ga-ga, inflatable games and more. Not only will it be a lot of fun, but it'll be a great weekend of worshiping together with the Arise Worship Team and hearing challenging messages from our speaker, Fouad Faris. The total cost for the weekend is $105 which includes all your meals, housing, activities, and transportation. So sign up now and join us! To register send in your medical release form along with a $50 deposit by Sunday, December 10th. Hope you can join us!

Movie Night

I trust everybody had a great time at Java Jam last Friday! It was a great night and if you weren't there you totally missed out. Well this Friday we have another opportunity you won't want to miss out on. On Friday, Nov 10th we'll be heading over to the Andreasen's (10 Spring Rd, Amherst) for a screening of "Invisible Children". The film follows the adventures of 3 young men who travelled to Africa looking for a story. They couldn't believe the story they found. In Uganda, children were being abducted and brainwashed to kill for the rebel army in the country's civil war. 'Night commuters', as they've become known, walk for miles from their remote villages the sleep in the safety of the city. This film is awakening a generation to the atrocities of the war in Uganda and challenging everyone to make a difference in the lives of the invisible children who surround each of us everyday. I hope you'll make it out to the Andreasen's Theatre this Friday night at 8:00pm to experience this film with us. Warning: Because of the nature of this film, it contains some graphic war images that may be disturbing to some. We do feel it's appropriate and important to show and discuss this film so if you have any questions about it's content please contact Mike. For more information on the film and the movement check it out online at www.invisiblechildren.com.

Java Jam

This Friday come join us from 7-10pm for a great rock show featuring local talents One Way Escape, The Honorable Tragedy, An Honest Reaction, and more. As always, it's free admission and we'll have free coffee and hot chocolate. There will also be smoothies and other specialty drinks you can buy at the OneWay Cafe. So come on over and join us for a great night and pack your car; bring your friends, your fam, the hobo from your street, everybody! Hope to see you there!

Persecution

Cries from outside the room penetrated the walls of the secret Underground Chapel, the one place everyone was looking for but only few would find. It was a dark night with no moon in the sky and no lights overhead, but the darkness helped hide sneaky Christians from the watchful eye of the Secret Police. This past Monday we got a glimpse of what it might be like to be persecuted for being a Christian, something the church around the world has to live with everyday. It issued a challenge to us to stand up for Christ in our lives, in the areas we are persecuted for our faith, and a challenge to pray, encourage, and support those brothers and sisters around the world who pay a high price for their faith. You can link to more info on the persecuted church from the 'Get Involved' page and you can see a video of Monday night on the 'Multimedia page'. If your life was on the line would you be willing to die for Christ? Would you be willing to live for Him?

Coming this week

Hey everybody, I want to let you all know that we've got big plans for youth group this coming Monday and you won't want to miss out. But you will want to dress to be outside and wear shoes you can tromp around in. Also this is a great chance to invite your friends along to join us, especially other Christian friends. The more the merrier! And if you've never been, this'll be a great, fun opportunity to come check things out. So come join us with great anticipation at Christ's Church at 6:30pm this Monday night. Hope to see you there!

Davis' Mega Maze

Two hours and fourty five minutes is a long time to be lost in a corn field, just ask Mike, Amanda, Timmy, Samantha, and Emily. But with coins in hand they finally walked triumphantly across victory bridge at the end of Davis' Mega Maze. The first group out (won't mention any names for risk of jealousy) finished in about an hour and waited patiently munching on some corn bread for the other groups to emerge from the tricky maize labyrith. All around it was a great day but if you missed out you can still catch the pics online.

Be still and know

It was a brisk September morning as a figure with a gray hooded sweatshirt made his way to the flagpole outside Souhegan High School. The sun had recently risen casting it's light on anything it could touch. As morning awoke more students slowly gathered sitting around the pole with their heads bowed. As everyone else passed by on their way to school, 18 students prayed. They prayed for their friends, for the teachers, for their school. A cry arose from that flagpole, to join with others around the world, for God to show up and transform this generation. One woman was pleased to hear it was a good thing and not prayer because someone had died or something bad had happened. A few others just stood by and watched. But God showed up one Wednesday morning when a few courageous students sought His face. And He will continue to show up for those who are seeking.

"Be still and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations!" ~Ps 46:10

See You At The Pole

This Monday night we're hosting a See You At The Pole Rally and inviting churches from all over the area. It'll be a great opportunity for you to meet other Christian kids that go to your schools. It'll give you an opportunity to plan out when you'll meet and what you'll do when you get there. Even if you've never heard of See You At The Pole still come to the rally and see what it's all about. Or just come for the free ice cream sundaes! Hope to see you there.

Welcome back!

If you're reading this that means you've successfully found your way to our new website! We're excited about all the cool new stuff we're gonna do this year so we decided to kick it all off with a new website design. First off you'll notice we've gotten rid of the separate pages for the Herd and the Sr High ministries. That's right, we're gonna join things together this year for better opportunities to build relationships and build into each others lives. You'll also notice this cool column of blog posts (hint: it's what you're reading right now). In this column I'll be posting info about upcoming events, thoughts on what we'll be discussing in our Bible Study, and any random other stuff that crosses my mind. You can click on the comments link and leave your thoughts in response to join in the conversation. Only the latest posts will show up here but you can access previous posts in the Archive list on the sidebar. So bookmark this page and keep checking back to stay up to date on everything that's going on with Student Ministries at Christ's Church.