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For Those With Ears - Entries tagged "Youth"

WedWednesdayFebFebruary13th2013

God's doing work

Posted Wednesday, February 13 2013 @ 7 AM byMike Armstrong Tagged Youth 1 comments Add comment

It occurs to me from time to time that I get to be a part of something special. And that would be seeing Jesus move in the lives of students. Much has already been made about our winter retreats this year and I still find myself blown away at all God did in our hearts those weekends. I can't say I've ever seen him move quite like that - in a way where it was common place to see students broken, confessing sin to each other and the Lord and rejoicing in a loving God.

Now the temptation in my mind would be for me to think that the Lord's kind of done with the "theatrics" or "big-time" movement in our group. Surely we can't expect God to show up and blow our minds every time we get together, right? Wrong. Last night at Harvest Youth I had the very cool privilege of starting up a new series co-led with my wife, Angie, called "Must Haves." It's really all about some of the top things that God wants students to know - things they "must have" locked in their hearts and minds.

The first message was all about the gospel and how they can know God personally. It was all taken from Ephesians 2:1-10. Ang shared her testimony and at the end of the night we had a number of students trust Christ as their Saviour for the first time. Wow.

It's becoming more clear to me that God has no interest in showing up in our lives only once in a while. He wants to be a continual presence and power as we seek him and cry out for more.

So join Ang and I as we pray for more of him at Harvest Youth throughout this series and beyond. He's not done.

WedWednesdayNovNovember28th2012

Harvest Youth

Posted Wednesday, November 28 2012 @ 8 AM byMike Armstrong Tagged Youth 1 comments Add comment

God is doing stuff.

I thought I'd take a second to let you know about some of the great things happening these days at Harvest Youth. No, I'm not really going to mention upcoming events, like WinterFuse which is happening January 11-13 for Sr. High and January 25-27 for Jr. High up at Muskoka Woods ($160/student and payment is due Christmas Eve)... But I won't get into all that here... :) The purpose of this today is to explain to you how God is moving in our students. To be honest, this fall didn't really go as I expected at HY. Our group has struggled a bit relationally, passion in worship has been lower than we would have hoped for, and my own heart has struggled to remain on fire through it all. Just being honest.

That being said though, the leaders and I began to pray for more of God's glory to come down on our Tuesday night ministry and you know what? It's happening. It doesn't always happen in a face-shining-better-put-on-a-veil kind of way, though we've had some of that for sure. Sometimes I can tell God is working when a student I haven't had a serious chat with in a while writes me a letter about what God's been doing in her life. Sometimes it's when I see a student broken in one of the hallways with all his buddies gathered around him praying. Sometimes it's when I see a leader connecting with a student who I know doesn't like coming on Tuesdays - but who does after that connection has been made. Often times it's when a leader comes running up to me explaining that he or she just had the "best small group discussion we've had in months!"

God is doing stuff. I've had the privilege of witnessing relationships improve through mutual forgiveness and a commitment to biblical community. I've seen students plagued by various fears step out in faith and trust God. I've seen leaders catch fire with a renewed passion for Christ and youth ministry. I've seen new students make connections in a way they never expected.

At the end of the day a lot of prayer and plain ol' hard work goes into these things and everyone's contributed to that. Please keep praying that we would see God do even more.

Mike

PS. My job rules.

ThuThursdayDecDecember1st2011

Why Young Christians Aren't Waiting Anymore

Posted Thursday, December 01 2011 @ 8 AM byMike Armstrong Tagged Youth 0 comments Add comment

Recently I read this article from CNN.com and my response was sadness and disappointment. Many Christian young people don't wait to be married before they have sex. Now let's be clear, this has been the case for a long time - it's nothing new. What made me sad is that according to this article, young Christians don't seem to think it's wrong to engage in premarital sex. It's a sad commentary on just how much our culture has permeated the church and shows that generally speaking, the church has not done a good job of teaching our kids how to stay pure and why. Of course we need to remember that we all make up the church. So that begs the question: what are you doing to ensure that your children are properly equipped to remain pure and stand for righteousness in the face of the immense pressure to give in to every whim and desire they deal with every day?

All of this is why I'm so excited about our RelationSHIFT event that we're doing in the spring with our senior high students and you won't want your high schoolers to miss it. It's a two day gathering where we discuss issues surrounding sexual purity and explain what the Bible has to say about these things. Read this article and may it lay the groundwork for some Christ-centred discussion with your own kids.

Why Young Christians Aren't Waiting Any More

ThuThursdayJulJuly14th2011

HY Missions Update

Posted Thursday, July 14 2011 @ 8 AM byMike Armstrong Tagged Global Ministries Youth 0 comments Add comment

Well everything is going really well so far. We're currently enjoying some downtime which is why I am able to write this. Our team members are doing things like playing cards, guitar, reading, resting and bonding right now which is a nice break from all the work we've been doing.

As a reminder to you all, a group of 13 students and four leaders from Harvest Youth Sr. High are on a missions trip in Bradford with CrossTrainers this week helping run a Vacation Bible School for kids at a local church in town. We've finished three days so far which has us leading kids ages 4-10 though worship, games, scripture memory, crafts and more. It's been an incredible time of building relationships with both the kids and CT staff. The students are growing and learning which has been cool to see. In the afternoons we've been painting the outside windows on the building that CT operates from in the heart of Bradford. It's been disgustingly hot but there hasn't been so much as a complaint from the students about it. They've been working hard painting and cleaning the place from top to bottom and it's been a huge blessing to the CT staff. They are blown away at what God is doing through our group.

Here's a picture of the team getting ready to run the VBS as well as one of them prepping the windows of the building we're painting.

Please pray for our team - that we would continue to stay unified and have positive attitudes. Also pray that there would be much impact for the kingdom through what we do - for children to come to know Jesus as Saviour and for much fruit to bear in their lives. We're grateful for your prayers and your support!

Mike

ThuThursdayJunJune2nd2011

Harvest Youth Update

Posted Thursday, June 02 2011 @ 7 AM byMike Armstrong Tagged Youth 1 comments Add comment

I often have people ask me, "Hey, how's youth going?" I often reply with the very well thought out answer, "Good." My attempt here is to expand on that answer a bit and let you all in on a few things happening at Harvest Youth in the next couple of months.

It's pretty hard to believe that the year is winding down and as of today we only have two more weeks of youth before we change things up for the summer. For our last youth night of the year on June 14 we're going to celebrate all of God's goodness to us this past year. We've done this the last two years and I've always been amazed at the testimonies from students and leaders as they share how God has changed them, challenged them, revealed himself to them and for some, saved them. This year we'll be having the youth from HBC Muskoka join the festivities. We're going to move everything into the gym at TCS (Sunday morning style) and worship the Lord with thankful hearts.

Something huge that's happening this summer is that we've assembled a Sr. High missions team that is heading down to Bradford in early July to help serve at CrossTrainers, led by Josh and April Schrader. While there we will be helping to run a VBS program, serving needs within the community and at the CrossTrainers headquarters. We'll be camping out, having bonfires, worship nights, and more. The students have already been meeting to plan out everything and are chomping at the bit for July to get here. Please pray for humility and unity as a team, a heart to serve others and for lives to be changed to the glory of God!

This summer's plan also includes the customary Man Up canoe trip, beach days, an outdoor movie night, scavenger hunt, some golf and continued mentoring relationships with Bibles open with God's Word being studied and applied. It promises to be a fun and extremely busy summer and just writing this is firing me up!

So if you're involved with Harvest Youth at all, look for the summer calendar which will be available soon and all our events will be posted on our website here.

Mike

P.S. I love my job

WedWednesdaySepSeptember15th2010

HY Teaching Calendar

Posted Wednesday, September 15 2010 @ 9 AM byMike Armstrong Tagged Youth 0 comments Add comment

I get to do a lot of cool things with my job here at Harvest (ask me about Sphere Evasion some time...) but one of my favourite things to do is put together the teaching calendar for our youth nights on Tuesdays. Why? Well, because it's cool to think about how God's Word is going to impact our students (not to mention me) throughout the year.

We've started a little tradition on our last Harvest Youth night of the school year in June where students get a chance to speak up and share what they've learned over the last 10 months, how they've grown and how they've seen God move in power. I've been so blown away to hear the testimonies - God is at work in our youth. Lives are changing and the Lord is glorifying himself - that's what it's all about.

This fall we'll be in a few different places. The first week will be a message from the book of Habakkuk which is all about God's plan being perfect - so let's rejoice, regardless of how we feel. After that we move into a series on the Four Pillars. Our church is all about them and so are our youth. We'll then go into the Christmas break with a series from Luke 6 called "Jesus Says" - check that chapter out for yourself and imagine how great things could be if we had it all click in our church. Please be in prayer for our youth as we dig in. I sense big things for them this year as the leaders and I are chomping at the bit to get started.

Mike