Preparing for Christ’s arrival

This year at BCC Youth, we are also doing a new series at Fusion on Advent, based from a number of Lectionary studies and advent devotions.

What I appreciate so much about Advent is the rich and vast history of it in the Christian church.  When we celebrate Advent we are tapping into a long line of believers and church history.  Additionally, millions of Christians around the world and across denominational lines join together in preparing hearts for Christ’s arrival.  It joins Orthodox, Protestant, and Catholic Christians together in anticipation and celebration on what should unite us all….Jesus Christ.

In the busyness and chaos of the holiday season, I find myself more and more in need of reflection and solitude.  Advent readings help me focus on why Christ came and to prepare my own heart daily for his arrival and presence.

So often I would wait until the day before Christmas, when all the buying and wrapping and parties were over to really slow down and focus on what really matters-why we celebrate Christmas.

Advent provides time and space each day (or least on the Sunday leading up to Christmas) to do this

We are encouraging our teens this year through a number of ways.

Here is what we have planned this Advent season, to help all of us prepare the way for Christ in our minds, hearts and lives and to truly focus on the Reason for the Season

1)  We are doing a 4-part series on Advent:  Hope, The Way, Joy, and Peace

2) We have an advent calendar in our youth room

3) We will have an advent wreath and lighting of a candle for each week

4) We will have a nativity scene, without the Christ child, and will place him in the manger after our Christmas Eve service

5) We will give each student an Advent devotional

6)  We adopt a family in need for Christmas, purchase gifts and visit them to decorate a tree and sing carols

7)  We encourage our students to ask for one less gift or $$ instead and to support a charity, sponsor a child, or give to someone in need

8) Last year we watched the movie “The Nativity Story” during the last Sunday school before Christmas.  Might do that again  The Nativity Story

9) Each youth group will have a big Christmas party which will include the reading of the Christmas Story from the gospels, carols, prayers, given of gifts, and collection of money/gifts for families in need in our community. (and usually includes a lot of food and A Charlie Brown Christmas!)

Here are some resources we will be using to prepare for Christ’s arrival

Advent Lectionary studies from Barefoot

Magnificat Advent companion

Advent Wreath

Advent Booklet_

The First Candle (The Candle of Prophecy/Hope)

The first candle is sometimes called the candle of prophecy because it symbolizes the promises the prophets delivered as messages from God; promises that foretold Christ’s birth. Others consider the candle to be a symbol of the hope we have in Christ and so it is called the Hope candle.

The Second Candle (The Candle of the Way)

The second candle shows that Christ is the Way. Christians are lost in sin and Christ is the Light sent into the world to show them the way out of darkness.

The Third Candle (The Candle of Joy)

The third candle indicates that the only lasting Joy to be found in life on earth is through Christ. All other joy is fleeting and does not last.

The Fourth Candle (The Candle of Peace)

The fourth candle reminds that Jesus comes to bring Peace to both the world and to people’s hearts. Without Christ there is no peace in this world.

The Fifth Candle (The Christ Candle or Christmas Candle)

Operation Christmas Child

For the past few years, BCC Youth has partnered with Operation Christmas Child to help provide shoeboxes for impoverished children around the world at Christmas time.

We are committed to helping, serving, and blessing the less fortunate throughout the year and offer multiple opportunities each season (Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer)

One of our favorite has always been Operation Christmas Child.  We generally have around 30-40 students participated and over 150 from our church.

In fact, this year Bedford Community Church has been chosen to be one of the distribution centers for Westchester County and our highs school youth group will be on hand on Wednesday, Nov 17th to receive and organize all incoming donations.

A shoebox is provided and our task is to fill it with small gifts to give either a boy or girl.  These boxes then get distributed all around the world, especially to children in third-world countries.

What I like about this ministry is that each of our students has the responsibility to go out and intentionally shop for another child.

Sometimes, simply giving money can be easier, but also less personal.

However, when you are going out and spending your own money to purchase toys and gifts, it takes on a whole new meaning.

We will also be joining with the Junior League of Northern Westchester to provide a complete Christmas wish list for two entire families living in our community.

These service opportunities help make the true meaning of Christmas become real and applicable to our youth group.  These moments help unite our students with a clear sense of purpose and mission and helps them realize that they too can contribute in signficant ways to promote God’s love and the hope and joy of Jesus.

Operation Christmas Child info

BCC Confirmation begins

For the longest time, we at BCC have not had a formal way to introducing students to the Christian faith in theory, theology, and practice.  We would attempt each year to work within current structures such as Sunday school, retreats, and youth group nights to teach on a variety of faith issues.  Some months would be heavy on Christian doctrine and beliefs, while others would be more faith related topical issues.  We hoped that at the end of every year, we did a good enough job covering the more important subjects, but quite honestly, never really knew whether or not our students “got it”.  They would listen and respond when prompted, but we often wondered if they were truly engaged and wrestling with the subjects and themes.

Additionally, year after year, students would come home from college break distraught and frustrated in their faith.  While we had prepared a neat, clean, and pre-packaged faith to believe, their college experiences were opening their eyes (and brains) to a whole new world.  They would return home with questions such as “Why does the Bible contradict itself at times?,  ”Is God really a male?”, If there is only one God, why are there so many religions?”, Why are there so many different Christian churches?”, Am I really supposed to believe Mary was a virgin?”, Did God create evil?”, Can you accept the theory of evolution and still be a Christian?”, and many others like these.  We had been teaching content only, with little to no room for interaction, question, doubt, wrestling, and really helping our students make the faith their own.

What took years to construct through middle and high school often took one semester in college to deconstruct and collapse.  We had no way of helping students understand and critically and rationally think through some of the more difficult issues of faith.  We also had no real way of knowing whether or not our students actually affirmed the Christian faith as their own and not their parents or youth leaders.

Thus, it became important to do something to help out students understand, affirm, and articulate the Christian faith in a way that made sense to them and would hold up in contextually relevant ways for their generation.  We combined this desire and need with the fact that new families began attending our church from another Christian traditions such as Lutheran, Orthodox, Presbyterian, Catholic, etc.., and had been exposed to faith-based confirmation programs in the past.  These families really wanted something more official for their children to journey through.

That birthed our new Confirmation Program.  Though our particular denomination does not have a confirmation program, we actually went ahead and created our own. We chose to keep that same name because in the area we live in here in the Northeast and Metro NY area almost every church has a confirmation program and every student knows what that is. It is very acceptable, understood, and contextual word to use.  Now, we are doing something very different with confirmation and making it extremely interactive, fun, learner-based, student orientated, culturally relevant, and biblically grounded.

Rather than starting from scratch and writing our own curriculum, we have partnered with an excellent organization called Sparkhouse and are using their Re:form Confirmation program.  The content is question based and covers main topics such as Bible, Creed, Discipleship, Jesus, Other Beliefs, Tough Questions.

Below is some information on Re:Form confirmation curriculum as well as some

helpful websites you can visit and explore. The course will consist of 40

classes. (see attached list of all the topics covered). Each class will be

composed of 4 elements aimed at providing a creative, interactive, and

participatory learning environment for all types of students.

re:form is a fully customizable curriculum that’s rooted in historic Christianity, but

speaks to kids on their level. re:form empowers youth to discover for themselves

what they believe, through three components:

ENCOUNTER: Two DVDs with 40 hilarious animated short films frame the tough

theological questions that kids really ask, like “Who wrote the Bible?” and “Why

does God let bad things happen?”

ENGAGE: A hands-on Anti-Workbook is the centerpiece of each kid’s confirmation

experience. It’s a sturdy, full-color, wire-O bound journal chock full of activities and

ideas, with space to journal and doodle, and extras like pullout cards and cool

stickers.

RESPOND: re:form prompts kids to make videos, take pictures, interview people,

and create stuff. Then they can upload all of their artifacts to an online portfolio — the

re:form gallery — where kids can share with the whole congregation what they’ve

been learning.

Below are a few links for the confirmation website, a gallery that students can share their artwork and thoughts, and the list of the topics and questions that will be covered this year during the 40 week course.

Reform Confirmation site

Reform gallery for pictures and videos

ReForm Confirmation_SessionTitles

I have also included the actual intro letter to parents and the contract to be signed by parents and students.

Confirmation Course-intro letter and contract

One AMAZING week

This past week was amazing! It was filled with lots of work and fun our group of 20 just got back yesterday tired and full with the presence of god in our lives. We have all see the amazing plans that have started to unfold in the city of mt.vernon, and i have been personally blessed to be a part of that week. This mission trip has been full of great experiences and lots of bonding. Our small missions group has really become close and i have been so blessed to work with all of them. It was amazing to see the transformation that the church took in one week, we have painted 2 stairwells fixed the ceiling of their fellowship hall,painted,carpeted,and put new ceilings in two of the childrens classrooms ,have transformed the backyard, and most importantily got the name of the church out there to hundreds of people throught distributing waters, bible’s, doing park clean-up’s and a kids club.

We had a barbeque on Thursday which about 20 new people came to which was such a blessing! Pastor Orlando was beyond thrilled to have 20 new people there and to be able to get the name out about the church! This week has been truly amazing and one of the most advanced that I have been on, we were in charge of everthing… projects, food, outreach, and work and I think that our team really did a great job with organizing and working together!

Through the whole trip I have felt god with me and talking to me more then any other!!! I know that what we did during that week will have a lasting affect on mt.vernon and in our own lives. I’m taking back amazing experiences we had together and the promise that I know god will always be with the people of mt.vernon and he has great plans for that city!

- Haley Esselborn

Touch of God – by Julia Dwight

Footfalls down a dimly lit street

Shoes caked in paint

Down I walk all alone

My heart is heavy

The pain is consuming

The damp ground I sit and read

A pen in my hand

A sore on my heart

Where is God

Brittle paper’s crackle

And innermost thoughts reveled

My prayers still go unanswered

I shift down the road

Not looking back

Leaving the past behind

My walk with God grows ever longer

His presence swells around me

I was alone

The touch of God once my home

Why Would I Stray

“God, lead me back,” I prayed

I hoped

Moving again

Further this time

As tears washed dirt from my cheeks

God breaking my heart

Then picking up the pieces

Restoration

How did I live without his love

How could I become so lost

Separated from the greatest feeling on earth

The touch, the love, of God

My heart once again transformed

Touched by my savior

My walk with God grows ever longer

His love mends all wounds

With the touch of God filling me up

This is where I want to be

The Last Night, exhaustion, goodbyes, and a recap

I kept on telling myself that I wouldn’t write another blog, but here I am, sitting in front of Dan’s laptop.  Anyways, being Tim, I have to comment first about the food.  Tonight we had the cookout at the church.  About 100 invitations were handed out and around 15 people arrived.  Although this may seem to be a poor turnout, this is very good for a church that hasn’t held a public event for maybe 20 years, this is very good.  On top of that, all 100 recipients of the invitations saw the name of Mount Vernon Alliance.  The issue  is that people are not open to Christianity, it’s just that not that many people have heard of this church.  So raising awareness should increase the number of people attending Mount Vernon Alliance.

Today, dirt was delivered thanks to Kirstin’s dad.  A small group including me moved the dirt into the garden area, spread the gravel, and spread the dirt over that.  Harold came today, and helped paint the inside greatly.  After that, there was the cookout and movie.  I didn’t really know about people’s reactions to the cookout because I was mostly asleep.  I entered the room, sat down, and closed my eyes.  Even though I missed dinner, the rest was much needed (I regained some energy later by eating pretzels).  People came, and then they went into the sanctuary where a movie was playing.  We said goodbye to Orlando and his family, and Anthony.  Their energy, and spirit were greatly needed throughout the week as we did our work.  We hope that this will not be the last time we see them, but that instead we will see each other often and create a strong relationship.  So, time to recap the week.  There were highs and lows, laughter and tears, and lots of fun.  People were injured, friendships were made.  The friendships were the most valuable for me because before this mission trip, I was not that involved in youth group.  I entered the leaving van afraid, but I should hope that I will enter the returning van with lots of joy.

I got closer to God, and I enjoyed knowing the people of Mount Vernon.  I can see someone on the street and recognize them, it almost feels like home.  When we arrived, this church was pretty much a building full of work to do, and physical needs.  When we leave, there will be hope, and people in the area will catch onto that and help improve the community.  It feels so good to be a part of something that will change this community, and to be the people who started this.  So, this trip has been a learning experience, and I hope it will pave the way for future missions, and a better community.

Tim Song

Spreading The Love

Today a small group of us went up and down 2nd 3rd and 4th avenue handing out invitations to the church’s community barbeque. Additionally, we put quarters in the parking meters along these streets and a note saying that the parking time was extended by Mount Vernon Alliance Church. Kayla, Greg, Denise, Jermaine , and myself were excited and happy to be doing this because it is really a good and helpful thing to many people. Although we were discouraged by a local authority that paying for others people’s parking meters was wrong, we persisted and continued t do so.

I hope that all of the people that had their parking extended read the note and felt love for the church. With 20 new people the barbeque was a success! It was so awesome to see BCC, Mount Vernon Alliance Church, and our guests eat together and have a great time. I hope that with all of our signs, invitations, and notes that the church’s name was put out into the community and that in the future the church will one day  be well-known for all of the work it does and the love it has for its community.

Eileen Alejos

Revitalization is here!

Hey! Sonia and Sarah here blogging in a hot, but freshly painted room, one of the many that we have been able to paint this week. We are still enveloped in a film of dirt following our day spent in the backyard finishing the garden prep. Thanks to Vales Construction Corp (Kirstin’s Dad), we got the last thing we needed to finish the backyard this afternoon…DIRT! What a blessing they have been to us, helping us clear out unusable dirt, and helping us to really bring revitalization and restoration to the backyard of this church.

It has truly been only through God that we have been able to accomplish this much in these few days. Sonia has been in the backyard for 3 days, and Sarah has joined the crew for the past 2 days, but all are needed! Eric has been the point person for the backyard transformation, as well as Mary P. both who have seen this project through, and will continue to do so until it is finished. Our motivating factor today has been ICED COFFEE ….(yes, mom i enjoy coffee now!) Such a simple indulgence, but so need on such a hot and laborious filled day.

The Kingdom is obviously present, and Gods healing hands is among us. The Healing Service last night, and the prayer times we have had with each other have been so valuable to building our personal relationships with God, but also our faith and trust that God has His hand in this city. More than ever we have newfound purpose and drive to continue service here; we truly have developed a passionate heart for Mt. Vernon, and this growing church.

Tonight we were able to have a cookout, and movie for people in this community. We sat down with a woman and her niece, and enjoyed our conversation about how she feels about this community and her vision for this community, but she seems to be out of hope. It may seem like this is a hopeless neighborhood, she is most worried about the constant, and violent occurences in the area that strictly impair safety of all. We just tried to remind her of the kind of God we have. He loves, He forgives, He restores, He heals, and He is present in this community.

We have heard a lot about God’s timing this week, specifically yesterday in the healing service. We may not know when every knee shall bow before the Lord, but we do know that He promises to sustain us, fill our cups, and continually meet us where we are until restoration has fully come. We have gotten just a taste of this during the week, His promises, and His plans, and it’s quite exciting to see this church building transform.

We would sincerely like to thank all that have been involved in this week. You have all made a significant impact here, and allowed us to accomplish more than we had ever thought we could. It has been so encouraging to see new faces everyday working by our sides, with new energy and passion for Christ. We have seen all at your best serving the Lord, and it has been incredible. We hope that your experiences here and with us have been as meaningful to you as they have been to us. Mt. Vernon Alliance Church has been so pleased with what we have been able to do, and we know it is only through God that we have gotten it all done so well! Tomorrows our final day of this trip, but we know we will be back for sure…God has made it clear that we a continued role here with our relationships we have built and continued restoration, and that makes us so ecstatic! The fire and passion that God has placed in our hearts this week is hopeful, and shows that God has a magnificent plan to transform this church so that it can be a blessing to this community…we simply want to be a worker sowing the seeds.

Please pray for our last night, for SLEEP, and that tomorrow we can make this church look brand new as we clean and pack up, only for now though because we will be back.

Much Love,

Sarah and Sonia

BCC Youth

much progress in mount vernon

Today it was awesome to see the overall progress in the back of the church, it started off with a bunch of weeds and useless rubble and now I could already see the progress and the vision that Mr. Orlando has for it. Also one of the back rooms went from a useless room with a bunch of random stuff and now it has a brand new carpet and ceiling tile with a brand new coat of paint.

Last today they had a healing service for the congregation and it was pretty cool to see the inspirational people of the church and to see the emotional healing for people of both Mount Vernon and Bedford. It made me inspired and I thought of how we should and how cool it would be to have something like that at our church. Overall it was a long tough day but we got a lot done and accomplished another step towards the growth of this church

-Jeff Smith-

Work and time (people too!)

Well, here we are, four whole days into this trip. We’re all starting to get tired here and things are coming and coming on fast. I and everyone else have had a full day, me especially, I just didn’t seem to stop working until there was nothing left on which to work.

Everyone seems to be getting tense here and these tensions may brittle and crack, but the devotionals in the morning are keeping us going and helping us to stay on the right path, remembering why we are here, God, and who we are. I think things are actually starting to look good around here, we’re getting some major painting done (rooms have significantly improved) and the garden-to-be in the back had a huge breakthrough today (lots of back-breaking stone shoveling).

I helped with both and I’m feeling pretty good. Overall, things are going well. In addition, two of the pastor’s boys are staying with us, they’re very nice and I hope that our work makes a real impact on them. I pray that as we stay here we remain faithful to our mission for Jesus Christ and work as hard as we can to benefit the community and spread the christian message of love and forgiveness throughout this city.

~For the future, a tired servant of Christ our Lord.

Jonathan Coppe