What Went Down–Final Session for term 2

Today was our planning session, as it was the last RRY session for the term, and the church wanted to know about what we as the youth were doing, the presentation we’ll present will likely be done early next term.

Brainstorming proved fun as we vame up with plenty of different ideas for the presentation, and after coming up with a few categories into which our activities, devotions, studies, future and mission would go into, we discussed who would do, say or present what. All in all we realise we have lots of talent in the youth, both leaders (kudos Alex and Shaun ) and members (hi five Chris, Jess, Robert, and also Juan, Marc and Jenna) have/had good influences on the group.

Also, this site will likely be part of the presentation in some way so keep your eyes peeled for new events and activities happening here!

As for our sessions, that was the last one for Term 2 before the long holidays and of course the FIFA 2010 World Cup here in SA, so here’s hoping you’ll all have a fantastic break (especially Alex who’ll be going to Zim to revisit old stomping grounds ) and we’ll get the updates (and that presentation) rolling at the start of next term again!

Don’t forget to keep checking the main church’s site for details on SNAC, the 5.30pm service which RRY take part in, which does continue tonight!

Thanks to everyone who made an impact at RRY this term, it was a great one and with all those new ideas sprouting, it looks like it will be a relatively rosy future for our little band of youth. Cheers from Matt, we’ll see you all next term!

Special Year-End “Bumper” Update

So yes, it has been busy, and yes, exams arrived, and finished, and yes, most of the youth dispersed for the holidays, meaning it’s probably my duty to tell you what’s been happening over the past few weeks…

Firstly, apologies for the lack of updates, but we also got capped, so here’s what’s been going down:

At the run up to the exams, Alex decided it was time for Biblical discussion, and so started us off with a DVD series called “Pause,” by Andy Stanley. (check out some insight here)

The first temptation was to meet a legitimate need in an illegitimate way, the second temptation was to use God for His own personal gain, and the third temptation was to take a shortcut.

<from dorkydad.blogspot.com>

The first session posed some really tough questions for us, and Alex, Jenna and myself took another serious look at the temptations that Jesus had to face–although he is God, he hadn’t eaten for 40 days, and could just as easily have solved his legitimate need (food) in an illegitimate way. (not trusting His Father to provide for Him) That was the tough one: which legit needs have we tried to solve in an illegitimate way?

Then the week after we returned with Shaun and Alex (and after some rummaging with microwaves and TNT popcorn, which took us far too long)  and carried on with session #2, which was “using God for his personal gain.” This focused on the 2nd temptation, where Jesus could simply have fallen from the cliff, to be caught by his angels, emphasized that He could just have used God for his own personal gain, and save Himself, but yet again he continued to quote Scripture, and resisted temptation. That brought us to another set of thought-provoking questions…where have we tried to use God for our own personal gain (fame, recognition of our personal efforts)?

And the next week brought on the next session, with the 3rd temptation, where Jesus could have “been given all he saw” if he bowed down to Satan: an example of a shortcut, a “get rich quick scheme” completely bypassing His Father…but once again he resisted. This also led us to think about an important truth: if Jesus  had given in to temptation, He would have disobeyed His Father, and thus He could never die on the cross for our sins, because it would mean he now had sins as well! As Andy Stanley put it, there was a lot more at stake when He faced temptation than just him…it was the entire world!

So when we fall prey to temptation (which all of us do at some stage, we’re human) we should remember that it’s like a rope…every time you fall into temptation, the rope (your relationship with God) is cut a bit more, and a bit more…until the sin no longer affects you, and no longer makes you feel guilty…and that’s the scary bit!

One final note from Andy’s series: When faced with temptation we should say the following:

Temptation, you will not take my life

Temptation, you will not take my family

Temptation, you will not take my faith and relationship with God

Finally, this week, Shaun and I met in the garage to chat about how far we as youth have come this year:

• We moved into the garage
• We painted, scrubbed and cleaned
• We were donated plenty of chairs, cups and appliances
• We had many awesome trips and outings
• We got this site running
• We got some new members
• We grew in faith

So now we’re looking ahead…what to do to increase awareness of our group in the area? How to get people into the garage to learn more about Christ? These are the ideas we’ve tossed around, and we plan to get the ball rolling in the New Year, with plenty of prayer of course!

After the end of a busy year, all of us at RRY want to wish you a great holiday season, a blessed Christmas, and a relaxed New Year!

That’s it from me, Matthew, for the updates, we’ll catch you guys all next year!

Adieu, and God bless!