February 2025

Student Link Activities

This February, we celebrated 5 years of Student Link!  To celebrate all we have seen God do in and through this ministry, a group of us came together (both those who had completed and are going through the Student Link material) and spent the time together.  I loved seeing the pictures of all the different ways this ministry has reached out to people across the globe and the lives it has touched.  It is so cool to see how such a personal, intentional study with a few small groups of kids can create such a ripple effect of disciples who make disciples who make disciples!

The last Thursday of each month, we have been meeting to encourage youth pastors in the area!  It is a time for the youth pastors to come together to share joys, prayer requests, and learn from a nugget of teaching.  Our goal with this time is to pour into the youth directors who continue to pour out to their students and making sure they have time for refreshment and relative community.

Student Link - Disciple-Making Groups

I have been having so much fun with these Student Link groups!  I have the honor of discipling three different groups that meet each week as we build community and accountability with each other while looking at grounding truths of God rooted in scripture.  These ladies are so encouraging to me as they come with such hearts of longing to understand deeper and commit to good practices that strengthen their faith.  The girls are all right about at the same place as the groups started relatively closely with each other, so we have just finished up learning about the Trinity and moved into the fruit that comes with Salvation.

 

"Galentines"

As my co-leader and I for one of the Student Link groups were chatting, we realized we needed a space outside of Student Link where we could connect and get to know these girls who God has placed so ornately together.  Our idea - a Girl's Valentine's Party, or "Galentines," if you will!  We had a blast just spending the evening together and learning all about the meaning of different colored roses, how to make crazy romance stories with just magnet words, and challenged each other in sharing getting-to-know-you questions and using conversation candy hearts in messages!  The evening concluded in making verse mailboxes to keep a collection of memory verse cards.  We all really enjoyed the longer time getting to know each other and making memories!

Fun guessing games and verse mailbox decorating

The most iconic photo of the evening

These girls are so creative!

Palooza!

One of the ways I was able to serve this month was at a youth event called "Palooza!" With the swarms of middle school kids and their youth pastors from many churches jumping in and out of all the fun activities, I felt right at home in this crazy youth event! There were many activities for the kids to do, and the night flew by. During my break, I popped in on a couple other activities as was my first time at Palooza and didn’t know all that goes on. (I can’t imagine how the kids had time to do everything; it all looked so fun!) It was a place for the leaders to connect with their youth group, for the kids to invite new friends, and for high schoolers and adults to serve in many different capacities. For the night, I was on the Laser Tag team, which - in my opinion - had to be the most epic station as the entire basement level which was decked out in blacklight. As a team, we rotated into our different roles in such ease and quickly learned the strengths of our teammates. I loved seeing the youth stepping out in their leadership abilities! As the students were waiting to play laser tag, I got to have some fun conversations with a few of them. 

Found "Waldo" and a good friend who I had served in ministry with in Czech! 

The evening concluded in the chapel with a guest speaker who shared the way to God isn’t like climbing rungs of a ladder - and even if it was, that because of our human nature to sin, we will always miss the mark. However, God sent His son down to bridge that gap of imperfection. The message was filled with props, an archery target, and really great application for these middle school kids which, hopefully, was what remained on their hearts after an eventful night. 

Student Link Team serves at Palooza! We were divided in all different areas, but it was so fun knowing we were all there to serve the students!

Youth Group

The youth have been studying a sermon about Jonah in preparation for Mission's Week at Friendship Church.  They have looked all of Jonah's story as if holding up a mirror to themselves and looking to see how their lives are reflected in this story as it is so easy to point fingers at Jonah's disobedience and fleeing attitude.  As the series is soon coming to a close, they asked me to share about missions and answering "yes" to God's calling.  I had so much fun sharing stories from ministry - both heartfelt and humorous - as we looked together at God's rescue plan for the Ninevites and Jonah's response of anger rather than mercy in chapter 4.  The conclusion of the message asked the students to consider how they are making themselves available to God's rescue plan where they are right now.  We talked about how God, unlike a military or emergency service, doesn't use the "best of the best" in His rescue plan (ie: Jonah), but He uses who makes themselves available and answers His calling to go.  That it is often our weaknesses God uses to show His plan more clearly and to make His grace even more radiant.

I always love jumping back with the group I joined as 7th graders my homestay stint in 2020 - now these young ladies are Juniors in high school! 

Youth Group Connection

As I mentor youth students and am connected with the youth mission trips, I am grateful to jump in on some of the high school youth events to support and encourage the youth there.  A couple of the students I mentor are shy in these "outreach" settings outside of youth group and Sunday morning, so it helps if they know I another person in events such as these.  I enjoy bringing people together to play a game or join in conversation.  Since it is now spring semester, there is a lot of buzz in the air about upcoming summer mission trips and even graduation!  These youth students have a tight bond together, and it is fun to see how they are growing and encouraging each other, and I love to be a part of that encouragement in their lives too.

Super Bowl with the youth

A trip to the zoo with our Czech friend visiting!

Toddler Tuesdays

Just like I had Little Linguists in Czech on Tuesday mornings, I once again have Toddler Tuesdays back!  Every other Tuesday, I am volunteering at FaithPoint Church to watch the toddlers during a Mother's Bible Study.  As the mom's group is growing and more kids arriving, there was a need to divide the babies from the toddlers with the hope the toddlers and pre-k kids would receive also a little study of their own.  With this short month of February, we was perfect to start with the love of God and Jesus.  We made letterboxes to write letters to God and colored cross decorations.  We talked about what love looks like from God and Jesus and the kids came up with a whole list of people who Jesus loves.  After running through all the names of family, friends, aunts, uncles, grandmas, and grandpas, one little boy said, "Jesus loves... my heart!"  It is fun to see these young children understand just how much Jesus loves them!

Always lots of books, games, and creating! 

Ministry Visit

Just as one friend from the Czech Republic left, another two arrived! The director of our Czech organization (ELIM) and his wife arrived for two weeks to to be involved at Mission's Week at Friendship Church.  This year marks the 25th anniversary of cooperation between the church in Letovice, Czech and Friendship Church.  It is so amazing to see how God has worked through both of these places in that time and how the friendship has only become stronger.  I am so happy to be a part of both ministries and serving in both places - though now looking a little different as I remain in Minnesota and travel back and forth to Czech for short time frames to be an encouragement to the youth and teams in ministry.  It has been really fun to spend time with these dear friends in their busy schedules.  Next month, I will share all about Mission Weekend as we have a Mission Expo and Sunday Service surrounding missions!