I’m going to combine a few of my blog posts from my “To Much to Write About List” into one an just give a brief overview of what’s happening at First Trinity in Crossroads Ministry:
1. Crossroads CONNECT – This is our Thursday night program for high school students. I am so blessed this year to have an awesome team of adults helping me live out the goals for this program: to connect student to Jesus, each other, and the First Trinity community as a whole. I couldn’t do it with out Tara, Scott, Pat, and Anne! I’ve realized how stressed students are and that one of their biggest needs, even spiritually, is a place to just simply be… to hang out… to have time to do what they want and talk with their friends. So that has become a big part of this program… basically providing a place for rest and sharing life together. Each week also contains a short devotion that, prayerfully, energizes them and reminds them to trust God in the middle of their weeks, in the midst of whatever’s going on.
2. Crossroads Sunday School– We recently wrapped up our “The Other Six” series where we talked about what it means to live out our faith not just in church on Sundays, but the other six days of the week as well. A big thank you to Paul Gerlach, Dick McKie, Stephanie Mongielo, and Christine Hartnett who came in at various points throughout this series to share about how faith and real life intertwine in their own lives and encourage the students to figure out what that looks like for them.
As we wrapped up that series we kind of realized, “okay, we’ve been TALKING about living out our faith for the last 8 weeks… let’s DO it”. So, in our current study “something BIG” students have been given the opportunity to form their own groups and dream up something, ANYTHING that they could do to actually live out their faith. After some study of scripture connected with our projects, the groups will be given time each week to actually work on their projects in Education Hour time to make a difference somewhere in our church, community or world. I’m excited to see what big things God had planned through these projects and the lives these high schoolers will impact in the process! Be watching for more about this!
I am also VERY thankful for the awesome small group leaders, Deb Canfield and Tim Stone who have been helping lead the students this fall.
3. Crossroads Missions – This July (at least) 22 youth and 5 adults will spend a week serving God and others in Wilmington, NC! Please begin praying for this group now and join us for Mission Madness tomorrow to help us raise funds to get there! You can also support us through SCRIP cards and Changing Our World
4. To Save A Life Movie Event – Also tomorrow, after Mission Madness, First Trinity is hosting a movie night for area high school students. At least 4 churches are connecting for this event. This is a great movie talking about the issues that high school students face each day and especially about one students struggle to figure out if “this faith stuff” is really worth it… thankfully he does and it changes not only his life but many more. This movie seems especially timely and appropriate in our community as it tackles the issues of bullying and suicide. With the opportunity for small group discussion after the movie tomorrow night, I am excited for the huge possibility that exists for great ministry impact and outreach. Please pray for this event, specifically for the students that will attend, the volunteers making it happen, and the churches teaming together for God’s Kingdom.
5. Running With Purpose – A few months ago I set out to run near all of the high schools at which First Trinity Students attend. I’ve made it to about half of the schools and it’s been truly a blessing. I was originally hoping to make it to all of them this fall, but the last few weeks on the day when I’ve set out to run at the schools it’s simply been too cold, raining, and/or dark (too early) to do so. So, I guess, unless we get some unseasonable warm/dry weather soon, the other schools will have to wait until after winter. I don’t want to lose this intentional focus though on the students so I’m trying to come up with a plan to keep praying for a certain school each week. I’ll let you know what I come up with.
So there you have it… Crossroads Ministry in a nutshell right now! I am so excited for the direction God is taking this ministry and can’t wait to see how it grows.
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