Giving Thanks in a Season of Thanks!

If you have a few moments during this week of giving thanks, feasting, gathering with family and friends, and more feasting, hop on over here. You'll find several photos of the Celebrating Transformation event interspersed with Psalms.

How better to praise the One who "faithfully answer[s] our prayers with awesome deeds" than to praise Him using His powerful, living Word?!

Recent...

It's finally chilly enough for a campfire, so Friday's Teen Night involved S'more making and hot dog roasting, along with good conversations and music.


The interns have been intentionally connecting with younger teens (7th-8th graders) lately and planned a "Game Night" for them yesterday. I was upstairs in my office working late and heard a LOT of laughing and shrieking below in the basement, so I went down to investigate and take a few photos. Everyone appeared to be having a grand time!

Jesus is ______!

The scene:
Around 25 kindergarteners to 2nd graders answering review questions from past weeks' Bible lessons.

One of the multiple-choice questions that stumped a few:
Jesus can forgive sins because...
a) He has super powers. b) He loves people. c) He is God.

The correct answer explained to the children:
c) He is God.

The final question of the evening (intended to be multiple-choice as well):
"Jesus is...."

Around 25 kindergarteners to 2nd graders standing and yelling enthusiastically, before the options are even presented:
"GOD! GOD! GOD! GOD!"

Theology 101 at Kids Klub. I think they got it!

Remembering...

"Remember His marvelous works which He has done..." Psalm 105:5

re-mem-ber: to retain in the memory, keep in the mind, remain aware of

Over 150 guests joined us in "Celebrating Transformation" at the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort on Saturday evening. It was an evening of reflecting on the marvelous works God has done through the outreach of Aim Right. Lourdes Roman shared how God used the Kids Klub program and simple conversations with interns in the car on the way to or from a program to impact her life. Today, her husband Ro is leading Kids Klub.

Teen Edwin shared how his life has been transformed by the power of the gospel.


Jonathan Roe of the Mission Increase Foundation spoke about the $15,000 matching grant that has been awarded to Aim Right. In addition to the grant from MIF, a supporter of the ministry donated another $5,000, bringing the total match amount to $20,000. We praise God for the generosity of the grant donors, as well as the overwhelming generosity of those in attendance on Saturday evening, who "matched" the match!

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In other news...

The familiar faces of Charles & Marlisa Beachy were in Phoenix again! Charles served as an intern from 2002-2003, and then he and Marlisa served as volunteers extraordinaire for a few months in 2007. Marlisa is a cousin of Joel (current intern). Here are the three atop Camelback Mountain.

The littlest Beachy, Elena, who enjoyed birthday cake at Teen Night:

And a few more photos from Teen Night on Friday:

We celebrated intern Andrea's birthday. The big box was full of boxes of her favorite __________.

CEREAL!
CEREAL!
CEREAL!

Continuing in a series on the armor of God, Caleb spoke about the belt of truth. In this object lesson, he had youth guess if they thought the items in the boxes were "true" to the labels on the outside of the boxes.

Photos: Kids Klub & Teen Night

Yesterday at Kids Klub, we learned about the paralytic whose four friends cut a hole in the roof to bring him to Jesus. Then, we had some fun creating our snack to look like the man on his mat. The best part of all is that we had all the goodies we needed on hand already! In case you're wondering, the "bed" is a Pop-Tart, and the arms and legs various kinds of Tootsie Rolls.

Creative!

At recent Teen Nights, Caleb has been challenging the youth to think about where they are finding their identity. Here they were writing down various activities or items they consider very important in their lives.

For the past 10 years, Arizona's teen suicide rate has been consistently higher than the national average, and it just continues to rise, according to this recent article from the East Valley Tribune.

A quote from the article, explaining the types of calls a suicide hotline has been receiving: "Traditionally we had it where it might be a situation or a breakdown within a child or a system in the child's life. Now what we're seeing is an increase in calls, and even more than that, there's an entire breakdown in the family unit." - Nikki Kontz, Teen LifeLine counselor

A few weeks ago, I talked with and prayed with a girl who recently attempted suicide. By the grace of God, she was not successful. What triggered her emotional breakdown and desire to take her life? Family stress.


Oh, God, may You reach them with Your hope before they give up hope!