VALUE......DO I HAVE ANY?

The topic this week was all about treasures and value. What treasure? What value? Do I have any of either? Where do I get it?

This all came together with the Parable of the Treasure and the Pearl. It seems that when we read over these parables, we assume that the treasure is Jesus and we can sell everything we have to purchase the treasure. Sweet! or......NOT! That is not the theme of the new covenant at all. Instead, trying looking at this with Jesus' eyes and wisdom and maybe we will see that WE are the treasure. WE have value to Jesus....so much so that He gave up everything HE had to come down here and purchase us with His blood. Pretty cool, huh!!!!

On the flip side, we also looked at the value of camp and the treasure we need to find to purchase that. So.....a car wash is in the planning. And so is a dinner and Karaoke night of some sort. The Planning Committee will meet Tuesday at 5:45....come on over if you want to help plan. AND THEN.....Ground Zero is going to be at Etowah High School this Tuesday to watch our fellow "GROUNDERS' perform in a concert. I hope everyone can come. If you are not in the planning meeting, just meet us at the Etowah Auditorium at 6:45.

Have a great week!

A FUND RAISING BRAIN STORM!

As camp approaches, we are looking for new ways to raise some money for those who need it. Lots of ideas flew by and are on the plate. One of our favorites is the "Recliner Revolution" in which we raffle off the opportunity to spend your Sunday morning at church in a recliner or sofa instead of the hard unforgiving chairs that are now there.

Many other ideas have come up, and we are selling note pad/stationary which are always a great thing to have...so sell on! The car wash idea is still out there....we could do it now, but because of water restrictions, we would have to finish by 10:00 a.m. Now that kind of puts a "drip" on a car wash. We will watch and wait for a better opportunity...it may even be after camp.
I will be making a list of the other ideas and seeing which one everyone is willing to do.

After we finished with money (do you ever finish with that?) we also discussed a possible Asylum for this summer. Anyone who is interested in that, please talk to Ms. Tracy or Sam and let us know....if you need more info on that, we can help you with that as well.

We then did an activity describing our relationship with God in conjunction with a candy bar. Each teen was given some type of candy (sweetarts, 100,000 bar, etc) and then shared how that candy can somehow describe how they think of God, or God them. It was a great thing and lots of fun!

Brochures for camp are going out this week, and we will need to know definitely who will be going...and don't forget the T-SHIRT competition. Send in your entry by May 26th in order to be chosen the official "T-shirt for camp".

In addition to our prayer request time, I have been specifically praying for some of you and will be watching to see if God has impacted your world a little more lately! As always, WATCH FOR GOD in your world.....let us know what you see!

How do YOU share Jesus with others?

That was sort of the topic tonight at Ground Zero. Spurned on by an article I read on one of my favorite Youth Leader web sites. (http://www.thesource4ym.com/archives/arc20090414.asp#TITLE1) Evangelism. Hmmmm.....what really works? How did you hear about and become aware of Jesus and what He did for you?

We discussed the pros and cons of street evangelism verses relationship evangelism and learned that when Jesus said "This is how they will know that you are my disciple, that you love one another" (John 13:35) that maybe He was telling us that THAT is the way to explain Him to others...by loving them.
This type of evangelism requires an investment from us in others (to have friends), but if we have Jesus in us, if we are Jesus walking and talking, this type of evangelism is not an effort or a plan, but a way of life. Others can see Jesus in us...whether we know it or not.....whether we try to or not....whether we like it or not.

Agree? Disagree? Post a comment and let us know!

We also want to thank Mr. Bob (Bob Cary) for joining us today! We are not sure if we helped him in his not-so-perfect day, but he is a great example of the topic of conversation in the way he revealed Jesus to us (without ever knowing it).

We had a great group tonight and hope that everyone can come back next week. If you find yourself "evangelising" this week and can invite someone to come with you, that would be awesome....dare I say....that would be God.

HAPPY SPRING BREAK!

Hello There! I hope everyone is having a great spring break! It has become apparent that many of you have been traveling to great sunny (and hopefully wamer) locations. Because of that, Ground Zero will be postoned until next week......it is just hard to compete with the beach, etc.

Does it look like this picture where you are? If it does, great for you! And give a big shout out to God for creating something so beautiful! But. . . don't forget, as fantastic as this creation is, YOU are his best work!

See you next week on April 14th!

Things Don't Always End up the Way They Start!

Have you ever played the "Telephone" game? It is the one where you whisper something to the first one in a circle and they whisper it to the next and so on and so on until it gets back to the original person. The chances of the "secret" being the same at the end of the game as it was in the beginning is very doubtful!

We played the paper telephone game tonight complete with descriptions and drawings and sure enough NONE ended up the way they started. Go figure. It was an illustration of how our concept of God starts out one way, and the world around us begins to twist it and redirect it until it becomes something totally different.

The bottom line is, God IS good. And God is love. When the world around us tells us something different, we must remember the truth. Not the deception.

Next week is Spring Break! Have a great one if you are traveling.....keep in touch to reschedule the volleyball games!


Thanks to Lacy and Samantha for their wisdom, guidance and their willingness to enter in these kids lives! And thanks to Karly and Timmy (pictured above) for being such good sports for all the Match Making going on.......right Beccca?!?!?!?

THIS TUESDAY AT HOBGOOD!

Remember those volleyball games on the beach at camp? Well......dejavu all over again! Weather permitting we will go to Hobgood Park for Ground Zero this Tuesday at 7:00p.m. for some volleyball practice, some food and some fun! Bring a friend with you.....and a volleyball if you have one.

If it is going to rain, we will have Ground Zero at the Sims house as we normally do.

COME AND JOIN US!

WHAT DOES YOUR GOD LOOK LIKE????

That was the topic of discussion tonight at Ground Zero! We are trying to get through our surface opinions on what we and the world think of when we think of God, and get a little deeper at what we truly think about this God of ours? Is He good? Is He forgiving or always ready to serve justice? Is He kind or is He handing out consequences for all our bad decisions? Where do we get these opinions and ideas? Which ones are really true?????

This was just night one of our view of God. It was a great start and an important one. It seems that the way we see God has a direct correlation to the way we see ourselves. And others.

When you think of God...what image to you see?????