Youth weekly update (Sep. 9-15)

THIS WEEK

RAMP Groups (Sep. 9) – RAMP groups, our teen small group ministry, begin this Sunday night in the Nichols Ministry Building from 6:00-7:30 PM.

Refuge (Sep. 12) – The menu for Refuge this week is meatball subs, salad and S’mores. Dinner is served from 6:00-6:45 PM. Refuge will begin at 7 PM. Please pick your teen up at 8:15 PM.

Caving Expedition (Sep. 15) – Barry Napier wants to take any of the teens to explore Copperhead Cave on Saturday, Sep. 15. We will meet in the LRC parking lot at 7 AM and return around 7 PM. Students planning to go need to bring the following items: 2 head lamps (and extra batteries for the head lamps), 2 water bottles (filled and ready to go), sack lunch, clothes and shoes to change into when we finish. Students will get muddy and wet in this cave, so arrive at LRC wearing your caving clothes. Students need to wear tennis shoes or light weight boots for climbing over boulders, walking through water, etc. For those of you who are new or never have been caving, Barry has led many of these adventures over the years. He is a paramedic as well. Feel free to contact me or Barry if you have any questions or concerns.

LOOKING AHEAD

Best Friends Retreat (Sep. 28-30) – Please sign up and pay for Best Friends Retreat by Sunday, Sep. 16. Cost is $65. Transportation will be provided on Saturday morning, Sep. 29 for those students who play varsity football, are cheerleaders or are in band and cannot make it Friday night. All others need to plan to meet at LRC on Friday, Sep. 28 at 5 PM. An information sheet with the retreat schedule is available in the back of the auditorium.

Understanding Your Teenager seminar (Oct. 14) – Don’t miss our parenting seminar for UYT on Oct. 14 from 6-9 PM. Cost is $15 per adult if you register and pay by Sep. 23. See me for more details.

Juvenile Diabetes Research Walk (Sep. 22) – Come out to River Front Park on Saturday, Sep. 22 at 9 AM and support the research for juvenile diabetes. Our very own Anna Grace Chandler sells T-shirts and participates to help raise support. See Anna Grace or Nancy for more information.

I’m praying for all of you. Let me know how I can serve your families.
God is good
Love in Christ
Chad

THIS WEEK (Sep. 2-8)

Miniature Golf (Sep. 2)
Students in grades 7-12 are invited to meet at Gator Golf just off of I-30 near Baseline Rd. We’ll meet there at 6 PM and play miniature golf until 7:30 PM. Cost is $8 for the golf.

Refuge (Sep. 5)
Refuge is our mid-week youth worship time for students in grades 7-12. The purpose of this weekly time is to 1) exalt Christ as Lord; 2) encourage our teens to bring a friend for whom they’re praying; 3) create an atmosphere where students are loved and encouraged to live more like Christ. We provide dinner for students from 6-6:45 PM each week for just $3. Our worship time begins at 7 PM with games and activities. We conclude each week by 8:15 PM. Please pick your teen up no later than that.
Let me know if your child needs transportations. Parents are more than willing to carpool and bring teens. This week’s menu is chicken spaghetti, green beans and French bread. We will serve banana splits as well.

LOOKING AHEAD

RAMP Groups (Sep. 9)
RAMP is our small group ministry just for students in grades 7-12. Each Sunday night from 6:00-7:30 PM, we will meet in the Nichols Ministry Building. Students are divided into age/gender-appropriate groups. Each group is led by a spiritually mature adult who has agreed to mentor these teens for the school year. This is a time for our teens to be encouraged and challenged to grow in their relationship with Christ. Once a month RAMP leaders will pick an activity away from the building to do with their RAMP groups. They will communicate these to you in advance. We have the following groups this year (Adult leaders are in parentheses): 7/8th grade boys (Chad Nall); 7/8th grade girls (Erin Reed); 9/10th grade boys (Doug Campbell); 9/10th grade girls (Linda Murphy); 11/12th grade boys (Tom Walker); 11/12th grade girls (Schell Gower).

Caving Trip (Sep. 15)
Barry Napier and I would like to take the teens caving on Saturday, Sep. 15. We will leave LRC at 7 AM and return around 7 PM. Students need to wear clothes that can get really dirty, bring a change of clothes, head lamp, sack lunch, water bottle and a little money for dinner on the way home. We are planning to explore Copperhead Cave. Barry has been taking teens on trips like this for years and is a paramedic. Contact Barry or Chad if you’d like to know more details about the cave or what’s involved in exploring a cave.

Best Friends Retreat (Sep. 28-30)
Our annual Best Friends Retreat is approaching very quickly. This retreat is done with several different student ministries from the Little Rock area. It’s for all our teens in grades 7-12 and is at Camp Tahkodah. This year’s theme is “Crushed!” Several adults from LRC will provide transportation to the retreat where we’ll spend the weekend exploring how God uses the events and things that happen in our lives to bring about his glory. Please talk to your teen about this weekend. They are certainly welcome to bring a friend. That’s one of the purposes of this retreat. It’s great if they bring a friend who they bring with them to Refuge. Cost for the retreat is $65. Please sign up and pay for your teen by Sunday, Sep. 16.

Understanding Your Teenager seminar (Oct. 14)
Many of you have already registered for this important seminar. For others of you, it’s not too late. I can’t encourage you enough to sign up for this three hour seminar hosted by a youth and family ministry organization called Home Word. Home Word is dedicated to helping parents of teenagers raise their teens. Our seminar presenter is youth ministry veteran, Mark DeVries. He will do an amazing job. Please make plans to attend. Registration is $15 per person. Make checks payable to LRC. We’re even providing child care for those of you who have younger children.

Check out a previous blog entry explaining RAMP groups, but I want to remind you that RAMP groups will resume on Sunday, Sep. 9 rather than Sep. 2 (due to the Labor Day weekend). RAMP groups will meet at the building. However, students in town are invited to Gator Park to play miniature golf Sunday, Sep. 2. We’ll meet at Gator Park on I-30 at 6 PM.

REFUGE resumes this Wednesday, Aug. 29 beginning at 6 PM with dinner. This Wednesday’s menu includes tacos with all the fixn’s. Students need to bring $3. We also have punch cards if you’d like to pay in advance. See me, Tracie Vaughan or Wanda Walker if you’d like to purchase a punch card. If you pay by check, please make checks payable to LRC.

We will begin a new Sunday AM Bible class series on Sep. 9. Sam Peters will lead the 9-12th grade class in the teen worship room. I will lead the 7-8th grade class in the teen game room.

Best Friends Retreat is just around the corner, so please register your teen by paying the $65 registration fee by Sunday, Sep. 16. It’s going to be a great retreat! This year’s theme is “Crushed.”

Understanding Your Teenager seminar will be a great event just for you. It is Sunday, Oct. 14. Invite your friends and sign up if you have not already done so. Although the early bird registration deadline has come and gone, the cost is still only $15 per person. That will increase to $20 per person after Sep. 23 so register now!

RAMP Groups
I want to make you aware of some changes to RAMP groups for the fall that have become necessary since we met last week.

1. RAMP groups will officially kick off on Sunday, Sep. 9 rather than Sep. 2. I’ve heard from many of you that Sep. 2 isn’t a good weekend since we met last week.

2. All RAMP groups will meet in the Nichols Ministry Building. The teens will still meet in RAMP groups, but they’ll just all be located somewhere on campus. RAMP group time will begin at 6 PM. However, students may come at 5:30 PM to hang out if they would like. However, the fourth Sunday of each month, RAMP groups will meet on their own somewhere away from the campus. Your teen’s RAMP leader will let you know when and where they will meet on those Sundays. There are a few reasons for this change:

A) This will help three of our RAMP leaders who have teenagers.
B) We have students spread out all over the Little Rock area. Students will be able to carpool more easily if we all meet in one location.
C) This will allow me to help our RAMP group leaders focus our teens a little more. We have some lofty goals and high expectations for RAMP groups this year.

Please encourage your teen to make RAMP groups a priority. This is such an important aspect of our student ministry!

Understanding Your Teenager

PLEASE sign up for the parent seminar presented by Understanding Your Teenager. It will be well worth your time and money! Invite your neighbors and friends. Cost is $15 if you register by Sep. 23.

Best Friends Retreat

Please sign up and pay by Sunday, Sep. 16! Cost is $65. You register by paying.

Welcome to our new LRC Student Ministry site. Look around the site and let us know what you think. We designed it to be a place for visitors, parents and students. Check out the side bar on the front page. It has a calendar with big events posted. With the click of a mouse you can find out all the details of any of our major events. Hopefully, this feature will prove helpful to you.

Each week, I will post announcements on the blog. You should receive this in your email box, but it also allows you to check updates no matter where you are as long as you have internet access. It’s a great place to provide feedback as well.

Be sure to thank Casey Picker for all his work. We will continue to fine tune the site over the next several weeks so please don’t hesitate to offer feedback and suggestions.