It’s a BIG week in the Mt. Haley Youth Ministry as we prepare for the annual Youth Garage Sale at the Grahams. Thank you to everyone who has donated their “treasures” to ensure we make some money with a great sale. The weather calls for sunny and in the 70’s for the sale on Friday (May 1 & 2), so we should be counting our profits by the time you read this. Olive’s yard was also completed this week as 8 dedicated kids worked their tails off and completed the project in two days. Thank you Olive for supporting the youth so generously and providing us a beneficial fund raiser every spring and fall. The Mother’s Day Hanging Basket Sale orders are due this Sunday (May 3) so they can delivered to Mt. Haley on Friday, May 8th. Pick-up will begin at 1:00 Friday afternoon. We will be having one more Gift Card sale the last two weeks in May to help people prepare for Graduations and Father’s Day. With your blessings and help, everyone going to State Youth Convention should have their money earned to pay for their weekend.

Speaking of State Youth Convention, we have a team of 16 students and adults ready to attend on the weekend of May 15-17, 2015. This year’s speaker is Rev. Dr. Todd Faulkner, campus minister of Anderson University. The worship leaders are Alanna Story, a new and upcoming Christian band. Our theme is “Rise Above” based on Matthew 26:41 which says: “Watch and pray so that you will not fall into temptation. The spirit is willing but the flesh is weak.” One of the goals of SYC is to become stronger students for Christ and we have BIG expectations. Also, many things are different this year for the convention. We are staying in different dorms, having new seating arrangements in the auditorium, eating all in one place, but having the athletic tournaments, pizza party on Friday night and the talent search. Impact Kalamazoo will also happen on Saturday afternoon as we reach out to serve the city of Kalamazoo. It will be AMAZING!

We are half way through a series called “Knowing God’s Will” and that will continue for two more weeks. In those lessons, we have looked into “How Do I Know God’s Will?’ which will show the students that God has given us several ways to help us know his will. Of course, after that we did “Doing God’s Will” and talked how we can use our abilities to do God’s will with our hearts, souls, bodies and minds. Next we will be “Charting Our Future” and equipping the kids to do God’s will. We will finish out with “When You’ve Messed Up” because we know that we are all sinners and we mess up. Last week we attended the Michigan Singers Concert at the Floyd Church of God. It was an excellent concert and was good to see many of our friends from Floyd CHOG and Meridian CHOG in the group. Maybe next year we will have some participants. Looking ahead, we will have Youth every Sunday night except for these dates: May 10 (Mother’s Day), May 17 (SYC) and May 24 (Memorial Day). The last day of youth for this year will be Sunday, May 30, 2015.

On Sunday mornings we have begun a series called “Being God’s Champion,” a study for maximizing your Christian potential by looking at the characteristics of a champion for God. So far, it is going great! GRADS @ Grahams continues and we are finishing the spring with a Bible Study on Proverbs.

On Friday, April 10th, we had our annual Youth Lock-In at the church. It was well attended with 18 students spending the night. We also were challenged and inspired by the movie, “Do You Believe?”, that we attended to begin the evening. It was a night of food, games and lots of fellowship.

On Sunday evening June 7, 2015 at 6:00 PM we will be having a “David Beam and Guatemala” event in the pavilion at the Meridian Church of God. Everyone is invited; those who have gone to Guatemala, those who would like to go and everyone else who prays and help us sponsor our annual mission trip. Area churches are being invited also, and David Beam will be able to share with us in one stop in the area. More details will be forthcoming on the event and we hope you can attend.

Our summer schedule is still in the “planning stages” and will be announced soon. Connie and Jerry will be attending the Church of God Convention 2015 on June 22-25, 2015 in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the Leadership Summit 2015 in Lake Wales, Florida on July 7-11, 2015. Ideas we are kicking around for summer are Michigan Adventure, Day @ the Beach in Ludington, Loons Game, some theme parties, softball game and other ideas. We are also exploring a Mission trip to Detroit if we were to have enough students interested. The plans will be completed soon!

Parents and church, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship. Thank you for sharing your son or daughter and our congregation for holding the youth up in PRAYER.

Love God, Love People, Live It!

Blessings,

Pastor Jerry