Crazy Spring Part III - Lacrosse

Ambridge Area Lacrosse started this spring. It has been a fun spring as 14 middle school aged boys have had the chance to learn lacrosse. The Ambridge Area team is the first boys team in Beaver County and played its first game against Moon on April 20th. We have yet to get our first win but our youth are having a great time and are seeing God glorified in sports. Here are some pictures from our first season...thanks Christina


Before the start of our game at Sewickley Academy



A Saturday Practice



We are the team in blue

Crazy Spring Part II - Youth Alpha

Alpha is a program developed by Nicky Gumbel, in which basic Christianity is broken down into 14 or so sessions. In Alpha, God, Jesus and the Holy Spirit are discussed as well as faith, the church, the Bible and the devil. The program has been used all over the world and I have personally have participated in it several times. Church of the Savior where Shea and I attend decided to start a Alpha program this spring and in it a youth Alpha program as well.

Our leadership team has worked with youth who come from all different backgrounds this spring. We have had youth who attended church or church related activities several times a week to youth who don't attend church at all. My favorite story from the past several months is this one...

For one of our sessions we were going to talk about the Holy Spirit, what it is, where it came from etc. We (the leaders) met right before the session and we were a bit concerned that the youth did not know who exactly Jesus was and know Him as their Savior. So, instead of talking to the youth about the Holy Spirit, we spent the whole session talking to the youth about Jesus and answering questions about Him. We talked about Jesus' life and why He had to come, why we needed Him and how He can be a part of our lives. It was an awesome experience and I hope that one day when the youth look back on that day they will remember the things we talked about and how their relationship with Jesus started that day or was accelerated.

Crazy Spring Part I - New Wineskins

Over the next few post I am going to try and update you on our "Crazy Spring", God has given us lots of responsibilities over the past few months, one was the New Wineskins Conference.

New Wineskins is a conference that happens every three years that invites people into a conversation about Christian missions. Ambridge Youth Ignite led the middle school portion of the event. We had a great time with the youth, we talked about loving God, loving our neighbors, loving other Christians and being sent out into the world. Also called the four commandments by this man, Whis Hays. We did two things really stand out, first we created tye dye t-shirts for youth in a specific foster care system (loving our neighbors) and we also made mosaics from broken tile on which we wrote our sins against our fellow Christians (loving other Christians). It was really fun and the youth got into what we were teaching. Toward the end of the weekend, several of the youth were praying for the salvation of their friends back home. They were inspiring me.

I am thankful for the youth that attended and for Sadie and Shea who served the youth along with me.