Laser Tag and Fighting Evil With Good
The last few weeks have been a bit different when it comes to the youth group. Each month I try to have a least one special event evening which gives the teens an opportunity to invite friends that they might not feel as comfortable inviting on a regular evening. This month we went to a local laser tag arena to play a few games of laser tag. Although we didn't have any new people that evening it worked out because the arena didn't have enough vests for other people to come. We spent half the evening chasing each other around in the dark for laser tag superiority. Even though I always enjoy having new people join us it was a great opportunity for us to just grow as a group. We could enjoy running around, having a few laughs, competing, and talking afterwards while enjoying some food.
The following week we spoke in the youth group about the terrorist attacks in Paris. I wanted to get an idea about how they were feeling about the situation and talk about the biblical response that we should have. I used the passage from Romans 12:17-21 to guide our discussion. We spoke about or natural yet sinful desire to respond with evil for evil. That evil might come in the form of violence but more often it shows its self in the form of a quiet distain or hatred for people who do evil towards us. But Paul, reminds us that it is God's place to judge and to punish and that we are called to show love to those who hate us. We often struggle to accept this until we consider that this not just something that God calls us to do but Christ has lived this and in fact died for this. We were enemies of God before we placed our faith in Jesus. So, while we were still his enemy, Christ died so that we might have life. Pray for this group, that this truth might really hit home for them. Pray that they would seek to love those who hate them, whether they are terrorist or just other kids in school. Pray that this practical love might reach the hearts of Muslims as well as others who are against the followers of Christ that they might be won for His glory.
Sharing Thanksgiving
Last year, Thanksgiving day was a bit difficult. Despite receiving some great letters from the Vine and Branches group earlier in the day the rest of the day was just a normal Thursday. I prepared to lead Youth Revolution the following day and that evening we had English conversation all while knowing that friends and family were getting together back home. This year I wanted to celebrate Thanksgiving and not only that I wanted to share it with others. I had the idea to share Thanksgiving with our Thursday English conversation group since we would meet anyway but I decided to expand it to the whole church and the youth group. So last week I spent much of my time preparing to cook food for the 40 or so people who signed up. I had never attempted to make food for so many people especially food that takes so much work to prepare. One of my neighbors, who is also a friend and member of the church helped me cook on Thursday afternoon because the ovens in the Czech Republic are about half the size of the standard oven in the States and I had two turkeys to cook. The turkeys didn't cook as quickly as I thought that would but I arranged for Petr and Petra to greet people at the church when they arrived. At 6:00, a half hour after it was supposed to begin I arrived at the church to a group of between 50-60 people along with lots of cakes and drinks that people brought. There was a great mix of people from the youth group, people from the English conversation group and their families and people from the church and their families. Díkůvzdání or Thanksgiving was a huge success. The cooking process didn't work as smoothly as I would have liked but the food came out really tasty and was something new for most of the people there. Pray that God would use that evening as a means to grow His Kingdom and thank Him along with me for allowing things to work out.
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