Monday:

• Pray that everyone would hit it off with each other immediately and have a great van-ride.
• Pray that our hearts and minds would be prepared for what God wants to teach us this week.

Tuesday:

• Pray that we would all work hard and have fun!
• Pray that the leaders would have love, wisdom, patience, and passion for the kids.
• Pray that we would not only do a work project, but that God would speak to us, shape us, change us, and form us to be what he wants us to be.

Wednesday:

• Pray that our time together would build true community, shared experiences, and great stories.
• Pray that we would be a blessing to the man we’re helping.
• Pray that we would listen to and obey God’s leading in our lives.

Thursday:

• Pray that as we get tired, everyone would get along, work hard, and finish our project well!
• Pray that new friendships would strengthen and deepen.
• Pray that we would have a selfless desire to serve and help others.

Friday:

• Pray that our drive home would be full of great conversations.
• Pray that the things we’ve learned would not be lost when we get back to our normal lives.
• Pray that our eyes and hearts would be opened to the needs of others around us.

The Know Sweat packing list is up on the trip page! Go get it!

It’ll tell you everything you need to bring, and everything that you really need to NOT bring! Don’t get caught without something you need, or with something that could get you sent home!

This trip is going to be really really really really really awesome!

On Thursday morning, a small team (Logan Greer, and Adam and Autumn Reynolds) will be going to Joplin to deliver needed supplies and to help with some relief efforts there. Bu the team needs supplies to be donated. It would be super awesome if the youth group rallied around this great need.

It doesn’t matter how you do it, go buy some stuff, bug your parents till they go buy some stuff, take up an offering from your friends then go buy some stuff, or WHATEVER…

Here are some things that are needed:

• Bottled water
• Toiletries
• Baby supplies (diapers, wipes, etc.)
• Tarps
• Roofing nails
• Brush clearing tools
• Chainsaws

We’ll be collecting the donations at the Lighthouse building at the following times, so bring stuff then:

• Tuesday evening (today, 5/24), 5-7pm
• Wednesday (5/25) during the day, 10am-2pm
• Wednesday (5/25) evening, 5:30-8:30pm

Let’s just get this done NOPOYO style!

—

Not sure what’s happened in Joplin? Check out these photos and you’ll get an idea: http://www.buzzfeed.com/mjs538/devastating-pictures-of-the-joplin-missouri-torna

Or read this article: http://www.npr.org/2011/05/24/136603187/for-reeling-mo-city-possible-2nd-punch-looms

So do not come to Logaanna’s house on Tuesday night for middle school home group! Everyone should come Wednesday night to the park and eat some hotdogs, play some Kan Jam, Bocce Ball, frisbee, football, and other awesome lawn games.

Here’s a map with the best way to the area of the park where we’ll be partying:

View Larger Map

The official Know Sweat page is live! Go there to get all your news, forms, and everything else you need for the Know Sweat trip this summer!

Hurry and sign up! This trip has very limited space! You don’t want to miss it!

Go here:
http://nopoyo.npcc.cc/know-sweat-2011

Your words will never be prophetic until your life is prophetic.

—Rob Maupin

“Prophetic” meaning powerful, and able to change the world around you (not telling the future). Your words will never matter until your life matters. Period.

Rob Maupin

Read more posts in our “Wisdom from cool old people” series…

This week at Home Groups we watched this video and did a little bit of discussion about it. Don’t get distracted by the music, the lights, the colors, or the weird way he moves. Listen to what he says. Watch it twice. Watch it twenty times. Be overcome with the power and joy and rescue that is the resurrection.

This Easter, don’t gloss over the resurrection. Don’t let it be drowned in truckloads of chocolate bunnies, pastel eggs, and Easter church clothes. What is this thing we’re supposedly celebrating on Easter? What does it mean? What do we do about it? Because if Christ did not rise from the dead, our faith is futile, our preaching is useless, and we should be pitied more than anyone (1 Corinthians 15:12-19). Do you believe it?

Overwhelmed with the awesomeness that is the resurrection? Dive in:

• John 2:18-20 (also see Matthew 26:61)
• Matthew 27:55 (talking about those who witnessed Jesus’ death)
• Matthew 19:28, Acts 3:21, Colossians 1:20 (talking about God’s redemption of the world through Jesus)
• 1 Corinthians 15, 2 Timothy 1:10 (Resurrection proclaims that death does not belong!)
• 1 Corinthians 2, 2 Corinthians 12:9, Romans 8:26 (The mysterious presence that comes to us in our weakest moments…)
• John 11, especially John 11:25 (“Do you believe this?”)
• Matthew 28, Mark 16, Luke 24, John 20 (Jesus has risen, and nothing can ever be the same)

“We may as well face it: the whole level of spirituality among us is low. We have measured ourselves by ourselves until the incentive to seek higher plateaus in the things of the Spirit is all but gone… [We] have imitated the world, sought popular favor, manufactured delights to substitute for the joy of the Lord and produced a cheap and synthetic power to substitute for the power of the Holy Ghost.”

—A. W. Tozer

What do you think? Is Tozer right? What can we do about it?

A.W. Tozer

Read more posts in our “Wisdom from cool old people” series…

“Religion operates on the principle of ‘I obey—therefore I am accepted by God.’ The basic operating principle of the gospel is ‘I am accepted by God through the work of Jesus Christ—therefore I obey’…”

—Tim Keller

What do you think about this? What difference does it make?

Tim Keller

Read more posts in our “Wisdom from cool old people” series…

In this document are the top secret plans of the NOPOYO program. View them at your own risk.

This summer is shaping up to be downright terrific. You won’t want to miss a thing.

We’ll provide more details as summer gets closer.

↓ Download the 2011 NOPOYO Summer Preview

↓Download the packing list

Wisdom from Calvin and Hobbes.

If you or someone you know is interested in this trip, please pass along that information to them!

12 Therefore, as God’s chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. 13 Bear with each other and forgive one another if any of you has a grievance against someone. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. 14 And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity.

15 Let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, since as members of one body you were called to peace. And be thankful. 16 Let the message of Christ dwell among you richly as you teach and admonish one another with all wisdom through psalms, hymns, and songs from the Spirit, singing to God with gratitude in your hearts. 17 And whatever you do, whether in word or deed, do it all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him.

Colossians 3:12-17

Read it. Ingest it. Let it change you. Do a Lectio Divina on it.

Since we’ve been talking about Evangelism at The Resistance Meeting, here’s an article that might give you some insight and thoughts on how not to evangelize, or move a conversation into “deep” territory (this is also good for parents to keep in mind). It’s called the “Jesus Juke.”

Not sure what it is?

Read this funny and interesting article: http://www.jonacuff.com/stuffchristianslike/2010/11/the-jesus-juke/

You may notice that one of the forms is a background check form. Camp Summit (the place where we’re working) has their own legal obligations to background check everyone who might come in contact with their campers while within their property, so we must submit a background check form for everyone who participates in Spring Break Serve 2011.

↓Download the Spring Break Serve! packet (with forms)

Have a hard time just sitting there, trying to force yourself to pray? Join the club. Try out some of the ideas in the packet and see if anything sticks.

↓ Download the packet (NOPOYO-PrayerExercises.pdf)

So, in honor of this year’s epic snow day, we’re giving you a list of fun things to do. Now all you have to do is get off your bum and make this the best snow day ever.

1. Watch a movie that’s on your shelf but you haven’t seen in years. (Call one of your friends who has the same movie and try to start it at the same time. Talk to your friend on the phone while you’re watching it. It will almost be like being together!)
2. Do some crunches and push-ups. (Yikes!)
3. Bake something yummy.
4. Do a Lectio Divina.
5. Look at your favorite blog. A few examples:
   • http://lifehacker.com/
   • http://www.thesartorialist.blogspot.com/
   • http://artofmanliness.com/
   • http://renegadehandmade.com/blog/
   • http://amazima.org/blog.html
   • http://nothingcomparedtoeternity.blogspot.com/
6. Write thank-you notes to all the nice people who bought you stuff at Christmas.
7. Read a book. (Radical by David Platt would be a good idea.)
8. Do a chore around the house. See if you can do it without being noticed. It’s like being in the secret service. Get it?
9. Get inspired by this guy: http://www.kuriositas.com/2010/11/ben-wilson-chewing-gum-artist-and.html
   Now make something yourself! (Draw, sculpt, take a picture, use Paintbrush, redesign your room, whatever!)
10. Do something that you know God has been asking you to do. Whatever it is. Just do it.
11. Try out some of the prayer stuff we’ve talked about.
12. Text stupid jokes to your friends.

See if you can guess which paraphrase belongs to which group (MS Girls, MS Boys, HS Girls, HS Boys).

Lord’s Prayer #1

Yo Daddy from up top
We respect yo name
Let earth conform to the ways of heaven
Give us what we need to live by
Forgive us the way we forgive others
Harden our resolve so that we may resist temptation
And free us from evil.
Amen.

Lord’s Prayer #2

Our dad up high
Awesome is your name
Your path be followed on the globe
As it is up high
Give us today our daily meal
Forgive us for what we’ve done wrong
And we forgive those who stabbed our backs
Protect us from peer pressure and bad people
You are the kingdom
You have super powers
And are the awesome one
Forever and ever times infinity!
Booya!

Lord’s Prayer #3

Our Father in heaven
Thank you for being you
Because there’s no one else like you
We need you here
Please supply us with what we need
Please forgive us, because we have forgiven others
Lead us away from sin
And protect us from evil.

Lord’s Prayer #4

Dear Lord
Your name is righteous
Do at your will
Give us what we need to survive
Show us mercy as we show others mercy
Do not lead us into the wrong path
But deliver us from our sins.

Pretty awesome huh? Now which one belongs to which group? Which one did you help write? Try praying it every day for a while, and see if God doesn’t answer it.