Wyldlife Club is our big middle school outreach, monthly event. It is from 6:45pm-8:45pm, starting with dinner. After dinner there is a welcome, mixers, music, games, laughter, and a speaker.

Chelsea

Lunch clubs meet every week at middle schools and high schools around San Diego. At the lunch clubs, Young Life leaders, including myself and my husband Matt, bring pizzas and a speaker. We greet the kids as they come in, say a couple announcements, invite a student to pray for our time, and then introduce the speaker for the day. The speaker gives a talk about Jesus and the Bible for anywhere from 10-20 minutes.

Chelsea

We had our first, KICK-OFF Young Life Club of ‘09 on January 26th. It was awesome! JoAn and Dave Johnson provided a great dinner and ice cream sundaes. We had about 40 kids and 10 leaders! We had several new kids who had never been to Young Life club before.  The topic of the talk I did was “You were created for a purpose.”

Tonight we will have Young Life Laser Tag.

We are very excited to take kids up to Big Bear next weekend. We have 14 kids, 4 leaders, and 2 parents going. We will be snowboarding both Saturday and Sunday.

Lunch clubs are going strong! Jonny Sherfy leads two different CPMA Middle School lunch clubs with 35 kids EACH. Nate Landis, Matt and I lead the University City HS Club every Wednesday with about 25 kids, and Thursday’s Madison lunch club has about 35 kids!

Thank you for your prayers and support. God Bless!

Chelsea

Exciting news!

Northminster’s Sunday morning youth program for junior high and high school students is currently undergoing some adjustments.  Until recently, the students have been leaving after the children’s message and meeting in the youth room for a Bible study.

We think it would be great to get the youth more involved with the church, and to help accomplish that, junior high and high school students will begin attending the full Sunday morning worship service.  Following the service we will now have a Sunday morning youth group for half an hour from about 10:45-11:15 a.m.

Our hope is to develop an exciting Sunday morning program for junior highers and high schoolers that they’ll want to bring their friends to!  There will be times for discussion, times of teaching, times of worship, and times of fun.  And we would love for any of you who love God and love kids to help out with this!

Thanks for your prayers as we try out this new format!

Blessings,

Chelsea Knox, Youth Director
Markus Watson, Pastor

This year in Young Life we started Community Nights. We had our first two at the Clairemont Square, and from now on will have them in the  youth room at Northminster.  Following Community Nights from 6:30-7:30pm on the Mondays that we do not have Big Club, we will have Campaigners from 7:30-8:30pm for the kids who want to stay.  Campaigners is a Bible Study.

We will provide dinner at Community Nights, which will cost $20-30.  We will need donations for these nights- monetary donations as well as food items such as bags of chips and packaged cookies.  I appreciate all of the donations that have come in already, thank you!

For our 2nd Big Club of the year, which is this Monday, we will need donations totaling $100 for cheeseburgers and tacos.  We also would like to have donations of potato chips and Halloween candy, since our theme is Halloween. Please leave all donations in the office, marked “Young Life.” Thank you!

We want to encourage everyone to join us on Mondays, whether it is for Community Night, or our Big Club nights. You are welcome to have dinner with us. If you can come this Monday, Oct. 27, we will be in Halloween costumes! Bring your family and enjoy the controlled chaos, as well as special music from Haley Montgomery, and speaker Markus Watson!

God Bless You!

Chelsea

We took a high school boy (let’s call him Jimmy) to camp this summer on a full scholarship. He had an amazing time and at the end of the week, gave his life to Christ!  He came back a changed kid- on fire for God.  He decided he wanted to become a Wyldlife leader, to share this love he had found with more kids. We took him with us this weekend to the Knotts Berry Farm leader retreat. I don’t know if you are familiar with teenagers these days, but if you are you know that they are all about image. Jimmy and his fellow high school friend were singing worship songs, arms around each other’s shoulders in encouragement, excited to share this joy they had found in Jesus. Do you remember when you first became filled with joy because of God’s love?  Unashamed, excited, hungry for whatever new knowledge you could get?

This morning we dropped off Jimmy after the ride home from Knotts Berry Farm. He asked if we could pick him up later to go to church- and though exhausted, we said “of course!” But I added, “only if you bring your girlfriend!” somewhat jokingly. He said “ok, sure,” with a huge grin that comes with any new teenage relationship.  We’ll call his girlfriend “Jane.” So tonight we make the rounds to fill our van with five kids- including Jimmy and Jane. The other three kids had already been to this church’s night service many times. Jane hadn’t been to a church in a long time, and kept saying she was scared. She didn’t know what to expect, and said something along the lines of “you all know everything, I don’t know anything!” We told her not to worry. We got to the outside of the building and she said “Wow, this is like Disneyland. There has got to be a roller coaster in there somewhere!” It is a pretty big church. We walked inside and she took in the huge stage and all the seats and said “this is like a movie.”

We got to “our” section- the third floor, right side.  The kids automatically sat one row ahead of Matt and I, or “mom and dad” as we jokingly refer to ourselves sometimes. The worship songs started, other kids had their hands raised, faces lifted up. The whole time they were trying to make Jane comfortable, so Jimmy would take her hand, and then the whole row was holding hands in worship. Let me remind you, these are high school boys- image is everything. Not tonight, tonight was about joy that only comes from Jesus. It brought tears to my eyes just watching them, thinking that everything I do– all the talks and lunch clubs and car washes and camps– the one kid who finds everlasting life makes it all worth it. The world around that kid will change no matter what; their decisions will be different, the friends they hang out with will be impacted, their family will notice a change…Praise God that we have seen hundreds of kids saved, but I can’t help but get excited for ONE more.

We got to the end of the sermon and the pastor prayed and invited people into a relationship with Christ.  I started praying that Jane would stand up at the end. The prayer ended and I opened my eyes- there was Jane with two friends on either side, standing up to accept Christ!  God is good!  She got a Bible and a devotion book. “Where did Jimmy go?” we all said as we headed out to the van.  He had gotten a free Bible at camp this summer, but he came running up and was excited to show us another Bible he had just bought- a special “duct tape Bible.” I guess he just wanted as much of the Word as he could get!

You are welcome to come to our first club tonight. You will witness first-hand– kids experiencing joy, laughter, controlled chaos, and the message of Jesus’ love. If you can’t make it, please pray for the kids coming, that the message will penetrate their hearts. Please also pray for the leaders as we put on this club. Thank you! God Bless. Chelsea

I am so excited about this year in Young Life, I can hardly contain it!  We are going to be doing things differently this year, and I hope you will join us.  Our goal is to reach as many kids as possible, so that they can be invited into a relationship with Jesus.

CLUB- Club will be once a month.  It will be an outreach event with pizza and t-shirts.  We recently met with some of our core high school kids and asked them what would draw more kids to club.  They said FOOD, t-shirts, and great music.  With that in mind, we will be giving them physical food as well as spiritual food.  We have one generous donor for pizzas already, but we need more!  ($100 for pizzas at lunch, $100 for pizzas at club.) On the day of club we are going to go to Madison High with 20 pizzas and set up a table.  Each kid that comes by will get a slice of pizza and a flier for club that night.  We will introduce ourselves and personally invite them to club.  Our core kids will be involved in this as well- and all have a matching Young Life t-shirt to wear to school that day.

Imagine you are a student at Madison High school. You come to school one day and see about 30 kids wearing the same red t-shirt that says Young Life.  At lunch, you get a slice of free pizza and a flier, you are greeted warmly and INVITED.  You are told that the first 30 kids that come to this Young Life event will get a free t-shirt! Not only are you invited, but you will feel INCLUDED.  The more Young Life t-shirts we have out there, the more kids will know about it, and the more kids will come and be INVITED into a relationship with Christ!  As a high school student, is there anything better than feeling invited and included?  No way! We still need a T-shirt sponsor for our first club- 30 t-shirts at $220.

“What else can I do to help with CLUB on Sept 29?” Just being there and observing is a great first step!  I would love to have more of a Northminster presence at our Young Life clubs.  Leaders will arrive at 6pm to set up and pray.  At 6:45pm kids will start arriving and eating pizza.  At 7:15pm the doors will open and the controlled chaos will begin!  Special guest Clister will perform some of the songs he wrote.  Around 8:10 Nate Landis will give a “Club Talk” that you don’t want to miss.  We are praying for an amazing response from kids- that this might be the night they accept Jesus into their lives for the first time!

I really hope you can make it.  Please feel free to call me any time if you have questions.

Become a leader! We are always looking for more Young Life and Wyldlife leaders.  If you are interested in becoming a leader, come with us on our Leadership Weekend at Knotts Berry Farm Sept 26-28! Cost is $150.  Fun, fellowship and training- please let me know ASAP if you are interested.

Become a Mentor for a Leader! Leaders will all be paired with a mentor, and they will meet for ONE hour each month to encourage that leader, pray for them, and ask a set of accountability questions.  We still need 5 male mentors and 3 female mentors.  One hour information/training meeting TONIGHT, Sept 21, from 5pm-6pm in the youth room! If you can’t make it to this meeting, but still want to be a mentor just let me know.

Preschool Potluck- we need helpers! The Preschool is having a parents’ night THIS Thursday, Sept 25.  Young Life is in charge of child care from 5-7:30pm.  We need 8 more helpers for this event. Please let me know if you are available.

I thank all of you for supporting this ministry. God Bless- Chelsea

Hello Northminster!

Young Life will be starting an exciting new mentor program this year.  Young Life leaders will be required to meet with a mentor at least once a month.  Wyldlife leaders will meet with a Young Life leader as their mentor. The mentor will pour into them, pray for them, help to keep them accountable, and encourage them.  Mentors will schedule a time to meet, and each month will send me an email that they met.

We have some mentors signed up, but we need more.  You could be a mentor! Just one to two hours per month, you will get to know one of the amazing leaders, and help the Young Life ministry.  Requirements for being a mentor are 1) You love Jesus!  2) you come to ONE of the training sessions at Northminster, either on Thursday, Sept. 18 from 7-8pm, or Sunday, Sept. 21 from 5-6pm.

Please let me know if you are interested in becoming a mentor.  (619) 322-7586

Chelsea

We are having an Applebee’s fundraiser on July 17th to raise money for camp. Put it on your calendars.

All day Thursday July 17th, Applebee’s is giving us 20% of the sales (food and drinks) from people who bring in our flier. This is a great way to help us raise money for camp.

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Click to download the Applebee’s flier. Then print it out and take it with you on Thursday, July 17th.

Lunch clubs have been quite a hit this year! We have one lunch club at University City High School on Wednesdays, and one at Madison High School on Thursdays. CPMA stands for Creative Performing Media Arts. We have been wanting to start a lunch club at CPMA for a couple of months now. We needed to have two student representatives, and a teacher to host it in their classroom. Robert Scott, who has been in Wyldlife for two years now and is a student at CPMA, has been trying to figure out which teachers to ask. We have been praying for the last two months for a teacher, and to get the club started. Some schools are very difficult to get started, as administration is very hesitant to let in outside religious groups.

Just a week ago Robert told me that he found a teacher for me to call. I called her and she said that since she started three years ago as the music teacher at CPMA, she has been waiting for a student to approach her to start something like this. She had asked when she first came on staff, and was told that it had to be initiated by a student. She said that Robert went up to her and barely got the words out about starting a lunch Bible club and she said “yes!”

Ina Soliz is an answer to prayer. Nate Landis started the Urban Youth Collaborative, which is the umbrella for the lunch clubs. He has partnered with Horizon Urban Ministries, Fellowship of Christian Athletes, and the San Diego Presbytery. Sixteen high schools and now one middle school are provided with a speaker, pizzas, and Bibles every week! And here comes the big news:

Nate, Jonny Sherfy and I met in the office today for our kick-off of the CPMA lunch club. Nate brought one case of waters and five pizzas. Little did we know that “Faith Club, Free Pizza” was announced to ALL classrooms this morning. We got to Ina Soliz’s classroom FULL of students, and I asked her if her class hadn’t gotten out yet. She was bewildered and said “No, they are here for the lunch club!” Altogether I counted 80+ kids! Nate gave a talk on our physical hunger and spiritual hunger, our need for love, and how only Jesus can fill that need. At the end he invited all the kids into a relationship with Jesus. Twenty kids raised their hands! The kingdom grew today before our eyes. Praise God for this! Those 80 kids were respectful, excited, inquisitive…I can’t wait to go back and see them again!

Matthew 18:2-3 says: 2 He called a little child and had him stand among them. 3 And he said: “I tell you the truth, unless you change and become like little children, you will never enter the kingdom of heaven.