Our youth group has changed a lot from when I first started here.
When I started working here almost 5 years ago, we had about 10 teens and we met in a very bleak looking youth room on whatever rag tag couches we could find. I would teach a Bible study and we'd chat for a while and everyone would go home. Now, several years and many changes later, we are getting ready to re-vamp our youth room into a cafe/lounge... but we no longer fit in there. We hold Wednesday night services in the gym, and we have over 100 active teens. Probably about 150. We have a teen worship band, and we even take an offering. I just wanted to share a few pictures of what a Wednesday night typically looks like now :)

First of all, it takes several wonderful volunteers to run things the way we do. In addition to Javier and I, we have 3 key leaders. George and Shannon who have been helping since the beginning of 2007 and they're WONDERFUL. They help with so much.
We also have an intern from Biola who has been with us for the last year and a half or so. Her name is Sarah.
When the kids get there around 6:30 (although some of them start coming as early as 5 or 5:30...), we have the gym and teen room open for them to play basketball, or soccer, or just hang out.
During that time, we also open up our snack bar (which will be new and improved when we do the youth room renovations! Right now it consists of snacks on a table in our gym...) Shannon takes care of that and she does a GREAT job!
Around 7:00 we start setting up one half of the gym for the service. George does the majority of the work on that... he sets up and runs all of our sound equipment. In addition to the sound, we set up a stage, chairs, room dividers and a cross.
It's also during that time that Shannon takes care of getting teens to take the offering and making sure that everything is covered and running smoothly. George tests the sound, and Javier and I are working on the final few things for announcements and helping wherever we can. Sarah makes sure all the teens are where they're supposed to be.

The we start the service by having the teens come and find a seat. Whoever is NOT teaching that night (me or Javier) gives the announcements and gets the kids settled.

Then we turn down the lights and our teens lead worship.
One thing I'll say is that our teens have learned to WORSHIP... rather than just sing.
During this time we also encourage the kids to use the cross as a place to get away from their friends and distractions and focus on God and pray. They do. It's pretty cool.
After the worship, Javier or I will get up and speak. Right now we're going through the book of John.
Sometimes we'll ask questions, or even incorporate the teens into what we're talking about.
At the end, we always challenge the teens to take action. Publicly. We often ask them to get up from where they're at and come forward, or go to the cross. They do. It's pretty cool. We also ask if anyone wants to accept Jesus. We have been blessed with many responses to that! We close the service with a time of prayer and worship.When the service is over, the teens help break everything down and put it away, and then the gym and teen room are open again until they all go home. Sometimes we're there as late as 11:00pm, but it's a great thing to have teens that WANT to be at church.

Things have changed a lot in the last few years. God is doing GREAT and HUGE things in our youth group and I am so excited to see where He takes us next!

Sunday was AMAZING!
The service was great.
God moved (as always) :)
But one REALLY HUGE thing happened!

Brian accepted Jesus!

Now it's always a big deal when one of the teens accepts Jesus. We celebrate with them and we're excited. We are fortunate that this happens quite often in our youth group.

But this time... it was even more exciting. If you don't know about Brian... you need to read his history. I have written about him several times, but never mentioned him by name. Check it out:

Click Here to read the blog I wrote about how he came to our youth group.

Click Here to see him dressed as Santa... for no apparent reason...

Click Here to read the latest blog about Brian where he's struggling with God.

This kid has been a rollar coaster of questions and emotions... he's struggled, fought and wrestled with the idea of God and who God is, and why God would love him. He's gone from being an Atheist, to believing that there COULD be a god, to believing that there probably is a god... but why would he want me, to believing that there is absolutely a God, but needing a miracle to prove it, to asking Jesus into his heart!

He was so excited on Sunday! He was telling everyone who would listen that he "accepted Jesus today"... and his face just absolutely GLOWED!

I dont know all of the circumstances that lead up to his decision on Sunday, but it was about time! Boy is God great! And He sure does answer prayers! There were people all over the country that have been praying for Brian. And on Sunday, those prayers were answered. I thank God that I got to see his journey... but even more, that he loves Jesus now!

Here's Brian with our Intern Sarah at church on Wednesday.

Sometimes I cannot help but laugh right out loud at some of the things the kids say and do.

We were talking about Lot and his wife turning into salt in Sunday School last week. One of the kids (after some thought), says, "If I turned into salt, would you use me on your french fries?"

:) :) :) :) :)

Javier was reviewing with the teens about something he'd talked about the week before. The conversation went like this,

Javier: What did I say last week about Satan?
Teen 1: That he's a piece of crap.
Javier: No.
Teen 2: That he has no power.
Javier: Yeah, that's right.
Teen 1: Crap has no power...

I did laugh out loud at that one. I just can't hold it back sometimes.

:) :) :) :) :)

Some of the kids are taking a leadership/discipleship class with the adults. My dad was teaching one night and came home with this story...
They were talking about what Heaven was going to be like.
Teen 1: Can I have wings when I get to Heaven?
Teen 2: You wont even have a body... you'll just be a squiggle... with a tail!

:) :) :) :) :)

I find so much joy in this job. it is really neat to see lives changed right in front of me and to see kids "get it". But not only at those points... the whole journey. These teens are amazing people and they have so much going on in their heads... I love it when they share with us!

I grew up in Oregon.
Home of snowy, rainy winters...
...weather below 60 degrees (and if it gets above 60, you wear shorts!)...
...warm clothes (including but not limited to: hats, scarves, mittens, coats...)...
...icy roads (yes, ice. it's not just for cooling down your drink!)...
...warm boots (complete with socks!!)...
...real fires in fireplaces (used for warmth!)...
...and common sense.

I now live in Southern California.
Home of dry, warm winters...
...weather that never goes below 70 (and if it does, people panic)...
...t-shirts and shorts (even in the rare rain storm)...
...icy cold cokes...
...flip flops (even if it is weirdly cold or wet)...
...fireplaces that are just for show...
...and NO weather sense.

Dont believe me? Check out these pictures of my teens in the snow... PROOF!!!

Shorts and T-shirts...
Yes... those are flip flops...
Shorts and a t-shirt... and he's even THROWING A SNOWBALL!!!
More shorts... although at least he has a sweatshirt on...T-shirt... notice the waterproof pants UNDER the ripped jeans???

t-shirt and glove??? But only ONE glove...
t-shirt and gloves... at least he has both of them...
Notice how bundled up I am??? She's wearing a t-shirt.
a scarf with a t-shirt... at least he has it wrapped around his neck!


We were getting ready to go to winter camp, and Javi comes out with a scarf draped around his neck. He says, "Did you know that they ACTUALLY keep your neck warm???"

Wow. 100 posts. I still remember starting the blog about a year ago and worrying that I wouldnt have enough to write about. But I have LOVED writing this blog... and going back and re-reading it too! I hope you've all enjoyed it as well! I'd love to hear from you if you're reading... because the only way I know is if you leave me a comment.

I can't believe that we're already done with another winter camp! It seems like we just had last years! But Winter camp 2009 has come and gone... so here's how it went down...

First of all, we had about 40 people go! Which is really quite something considering there were only about 150 in the whole camp... our youth group is really growing!!! Last year we took about 25. Because our bus is not in commission right now, we had to take a caravan of 9 cars!!! We had some wonderful people volunteer to drive kids up which was awesome. Javier's parents were among them:
As soon as we got there, snowball fights ensued... and they didn't cease until we left the snow.
luckily, the kids were so excited to be in the snow and at winter camp, that they had great attitudes... even as they were getting pelted by incoming snow.
We had a few kids that came with us that had never been to an event with us before. It was an AWESOME weekend of bonding with our kids... they really opened up to us. Over and over I heard them saying that our youth group is like a "family".
One time we were at the snack bar, and the guy working it asked us which group we were with (there were several groups up there), and Chrisha blurted out "CERRITOS!!! WHOOOOO!!!" and the guy started laughing because that was not the group, but rather our church. He said "It's great to have church spirit!" to which Chrisha replied, "we're not a church... we're a family!" It's really cool that our kids feel that way about us. I sure feel that way about them!

It's also the first year that we brought our intern, Sarah.
I really dont know what to say about this picture... other than that it is just so Sarah :) She came to us a about a year and a half ago from Biola and we love her! It has just been such a great fit! It was also George and Shannon's first camp which was sooo exciting (but for some reason, I dont have a lot of pictures of them)! All of our leaders bonded with each other and with our kids. We are so blessed to have great leaders who really LOVE our teens!
I often hand my camera to one of the teens and let them take pictures for a while... what we end up with is always a lot of fun :)
This is Javier and his son Javi... they have a very special relationship... but we all get a kick out of it...
The chapels were pretty good. The kids really connected with God. But one thing that I noticed is that this was not a "mountain top experience" for our kids. God has really blessed us at our church. Every week we have wonderful services and our teens connect with God. They dont need a camp to see God face to face, or to experience His love. They get that on a regular basis. So while the teens responded, and absolutely got something out of the weekend, it was really a neat realization that they are building strong relationships with God wherever they are!
Several of our kids are pretty musically talented and always seem to find a way to worship... wherever we may be. I think that's pretty cool :)
We had several game times when the kids hung out in the gym and played games. We never had all of our kids on the same team, because there were so many. We would have dominated. But it was fun to play with them and watch them have fun with each other.
But more than anything else, there was a lot of hanging out in the snow: taking pictures, having snowball fights, sledding down the HUGE mountain (more about that later), playing football, "snowboarding", and just having a blast!


I am not a very big girl. I am about 5 feet 3 inches and about 120 pounds... so most of my teens are bigger than me. Especially the boys. So when we get in situations like winter camp... I find myself eating it... a lot... and usually with the help of one of the silly boys...\

The boys sure were loving the football! (or maybe just pushing each other around...)

This was the result of that one...

We kept taking group pictures, but we could never quite get the WHOLE group in the picture...
The youth pastors (Javier and Me)
Yeah... it looks like a nice picture... but this is what REALLY happened:
And as always... I seem to get hurt. Here is the story of my injury... There is a very large hill (pictured below). The kids were sledding down it (you can see some of those pictures above). most of them were going to the second section (marked on the photo below as II) and sliding down, but a few of the more daring ones would go to the very top. Most of the teens were catching a foot or two of air as they hit the lip... several of them lost their sleds and rolled the rest of the way down the hill. Two of my boys decided that I should go down. I told them I'd go but only if they went with me. So we got one of the big sleds and headed up the hill.
We got to the middle part where most of the kids were going down and I stopped. But they kept going. "You have to go from the top," they said. "It'll be more fun!!!" So up we went. I watched a few other people go down and I thought, "I cannot do this! I'm going to die!" But no one else died, or even got hurt. I rememberd the story my dad tells of me as a kid wanting to go down the waterslide but being scared... by the time I finally did, it was so late that I only got to go once and I was bummed. So I decided to go for it. I was the first on the sled, but before I got on, I looked at my boys and said in my most serious voice possible, "If you push me down this hill by myself, I'm going to kill you."

**Side note: When youth pastoring, resorting to threats of death or serious injury is highly frowned upon. In fact... it's really a bad idea. And typically... I do not make such threats... but I blame it on adrenaline mixed with sheer panic.**

Everyone was watching...
So I sat down on the sled and sure enough, they shoved me down the hill and stood at the top to watch. I made it down the first section fairly easily... still sitting on the sled and I even thought for a minute, "Hey, this is kind of fun!"
But then.
It happened.
I hit the lip (labeled below as II).
And I flew.
Literally.
In the air.
At least 10 feet (as told to me later by the people watching).
But in addition to the 10 feet, there was a drop. So I basically flew in the air and dropped about 15 feet and landed on my head/neck/back (I landed right about where it's marked III) and then slid the remainder of the way on my stomach with my arms straight out in front of me like superwoman (I was wearing my wonder woman shirt that day... I should have known!).

Now, I know this is a little scary (especially because my mom and grandma read this)... but I am okay. It is another miracle considering how it happened and how I landed and all of that... the people who saw it happen were pretty scared that I was badly hurt. But I came away with just scrapes and soreness. God is really good. The boys, however, got quite an earful from Javier. Needless to say, nothing like that will ever happen again :)

All in all, camp was WONDERFUL! God did great things, our kids bonded with each other and with us, and a good time was had by all.

I'll leave you with our last attempt at a group picture (we're only missing 4 teens who had already headed down the mountain):