YB Normal Dinner

If you’ve been to our YB Normal Welcome Dinner before you know it’s something no one will want to miss. We throw this party every year to welcome all of our new students, especially the incoming 6th graders. The dinner isSunday, September 4th from 5-6PM in Centennial Hall. We ask all of our 7-8th grade students to come at 4PM to help setup and decorate.

PARENTS: We need your help providing and/or serving food for the dinner. We’re currentlycoordinating the food for the evening but we need lots more parents to help out by bringing a dish. Please letme know if you’d be willing to help provide a food item of if you can help setup that afternoon.

Homosexuality

This month in Velocity we’ve been tackling some of the most difficult questions to face any Jr. High student. So far, we’ve discussed:

• Is it ok to have doubts?
• How do we know the Bible is true?
• Is Evolution fact?

This coming week we’re tackling one of our most difficult, but important questions yet. We’ll be covering the question, “What does the Bible say about Homosexuality?” In the culture our kids are growing up in, there aren’t many topics that will be much more important for our students to understand. However, since the topic is a little more sensitive than most, we wanted to make sure parents know ahead of time. If you don’t feel this topic is appropriate for your student feel free to have them attend adult worship or ABF with you this week.

Maximize Your Vacation

For many of us, summer is when we set aside time to get away with our families. It can be a great time relaxing together, but it can also be a great time to be intentional about how you grow as a family. Take a few minutes before your next trip to get a few ideas of how toMake the Most of Your Family Vacationfrom this Top Ten list.

Check out the first five here:

1. Cut off from the outside world. No one is so important that he or she can’t be completely offline for a few weeks a year. Worried you will create tension with clients, co-workers, even family? Communicate with them before you leave.For instance, here is an automatic email reply: “Thanks for your email. I am with people who are more important than you. If you need immediate assistance, you’re out of luck. God bless and have a nice day!”
2. Look at your family often, especially their faces. Life is so busy, we forget to see those we love the most.
3. Laugh often.
4. Use this vacation time to also take a vacation from talking about or worrying about tensions in your marriage, finances, or problems with the kids. Those things will still be there when you get home, but chances are they will seem smaller because you will be refreshed—body, soul and mind.
5. Turn off or specifically limit electronics. We are the generation that tells those they love the most to “hold on.” Hold on to what? Use your vacation to hold on to each other.

See the rest on the Orange website for families.

Fireside Family Game Night

On Thursday, July 7 from 6:30-8:30PM the Fireside Café will be hosting a game night for families. Come out and bring your favorite game or come play one of the ones we’ll have out. Play as a family or come and challenge another family to a competition. While you’re there get some fun food and drinks. All paninis & drinks will be buy 2 get 1 free!

Family Mission Trip – UPDATE

We’ve got a brand new type of trip planned for this June and we wanted to let you know about it. We’ll be taking a group down to Springfield, MO to work with Victory Mission serving the homeless and those in poverty in the area. Also, in the last few days we’ve added a new element to our trip. Joplin, the site of the recent tornado disaster, is only an hour or so from where our team will be staying so we’ll now be spending a portion of our time in Joplin, MO serving in whatever way we can. We have a number of churches and ministry partners in the area and there will be work to do for many months ahead. We don’t know exactly what we’ll be doing yet but we’ll find a way for our team to help.

The unique part of this specific trip is that it is designed exclusively for students to attend with their parents. You must have at least one student and one adult to register for this trip. It’s a great chance for you to serve with your family and we hope you’ll take advantage of it!

We will leave the morning of Monday, June 27th and get back late afternoon on Thursday, June 30th. The cost of the trip is $75 per person plus money for lunch on the road as we travel there and back. The deadline to register and pay is Monday, May 30^th so visit the website now and reserve your spot. Space is limited so sign up ASAP!

I hope you and your family will consider serving with us!

Family Mission Trip

This is a brand new trip planned especially for students to attend with their parents! We’ll be staying at a church and working with the homeless and those in need through the Victory Mission in Springfield, MO (www.VictoryMission.com) as well as several other local ministries. It’s a great opportunity to learn and serve with others and it’s going to be a lot of fun!

We will leave the morning of Monday, June 27th and get back late afternoon on Thursday, June 30th. The cost of the trip is $75 per person plus money for lunch on the road as we travel there and back. Space is limited so be sure you register and pay online ASAP to lock in your spot. Note: This trip is ONLY for adults and students to attend together. You must register for at least one student and one adult to attend this trip.

Family Volunteering Opportunity

If you’re looking for a way to serve with your family, V.I.P. is a great way to do it! There are lots of things to be done around the church, especially with all of the great new space that has been built. We have a number of things that you can signup to help do within your own schedule. Take a look at this info letter and contact DianeB@wschurch.org to begin serving or get more info.

Velocity Dodgeball Tournament

Our greatly anticipated dogeball tournament is almost here. Next Wednesday, March 9,from 6:30-8:00PM we’ll be gathering in the gym for what is usually our most highly attended event of the year. Make sure you come and invite your friends! It’s a super easy excuse to come to church and meet some fun people. Also, don’t forget that thestudents with the best dodgeball outfits getprizes so figure out something fun to wear.

Parents: We’re looking for some additional snacks for the night. If you’d be willing to bring some chips or cookies or send them with your student that night, please contact ChrisS@wschurch.org to let us know.

Exposed…for Parents

This morning we concluded our most recent teaching series. If you have missed any of the weeks you can catch up on our previous postor listen to this morning’s message here (right click to download) or watch it on video.

Parents, hopefully you’ve already taken this opportunity to talk with your kids about boundaries, love, dating and sex. We tried to address some of the most vital issues but there are some things that we really can’t go into detail about in our Sunday morning programming. More than ever, your kids need you to keep the dialoge open.

This week I came acrossan article in the Washington Post by Christian author and speaker Mark Driscoll,”Talking to Your Kids about Sex“. One stat from the article I found particularly relevant was that “9out of 10 teens say it would be easier for them to avoid sexual activity if they were able to have more open conversations with their parents.”It is vital that you take the time to show your kids that you want to talk. Please take a couple of minutes to look the articleover for some great suggestions.

Finally, no matter your kids age, it’s never too early to open up dialoge. Catch this fun video that takes a humorous look at what can be challenging conversations.

You and Your Girl Conference

You and Your Girl is an event for mothers and their daughters (grades 5-12) that gives you spiritual encouragement and practical tools to navigate through this generation. Youth culture expert and best-selling author Vicki Courtney encourages moms and equips daughters to steer away from today’s ungodly culture and toward a God-filled life. Soak up Vicki’s inspiring messages, music and worship, age specific breakouts, and more.

Join us on Saturday, April 9 from 9:00-3:30 for this live simulcast event at West Side. The cost is $20 for moms, $10 for each daughter, including conference materials and lunch. The registration deadline is Friday, April 1. Contact Psalm57.1@comcast.net or 217-522-0137 for more information.

Register online now at www.wschurch.org/yourgirl