The name above all names - Immanuel

For some reason this has always been one of the parts of the Christmas story that I love the most, the name Immanuel - "God with us" .

I guess it's most powerful in the context of the Christmas story because even though we know that Jesus was both God and man I think we tend to forget and like many of our kids feel like , " Jesus is perfect because , well he's God and it's easy for him to be Holy cause he can perform miracles when ever he wants...."
But I think the biggest miracle is that Jesus choose to make him self vulnerable to the point of being a baby.
One thing I've learned from having Gideon around is that babies can't do much of anything besides being cute!
I mean isn't it crazy that God decided to go through 30 normal years of earthly existence as a carpenter before his full on ministry started.

It's the time of his life on earth that we know the least about but how amazing is it that we have a God who willingly endured 30 years of hum drum life as a carpenter in a poor family with tons of brothers and sisters patiently awaiting the destiny that was set before him to die on a cross for our sins.

What does this have to do with Young Life and kids? Pretty much everything.
It's the truth that comes with the name ... Immanuel....God with us.

When we go up to the school and embrace the awkwardness of trying to start conversations with kids we don't know and who may reject us we know that HE is With US.

When we wonder weather or not our ministry is ever going to take off and explode we know that our God waited 30 years before his took off!

We know ultimately that when we think about what we have to offer kids that we don't have anything apart from Christ but as Peter said to the beggar asking for money, " Silver and Gold I have not but what I do have I give you , be healed in the name of Jesus Christ. "

I am Second

Hey guys check out this awesome website I just found.

It's basically just really cool short video's of people telling their testimony and why God is first and they are second.

It's really powerful and I hope is a good reminder for us.

http://www.iamsecond.com

He knows whats up...

So the only reason I am doing this is because my minifeed on facebook (in reference to Chris Girardi) said...

Chris is man that's so great, any way you could rewrite that at some point on our blog it's too good not to share.

HAHAH. That is so funny to me. I'm always nervous for the day where it says..Kristen is Andrew Addison and the world will know who I am stalking...o wait. opps...(jk jk)

So last week before Stake and Egg I was walking over to Wilson from the metro and just had the normal sense of, "Oh great, what am I going to do now that I am here." This sense of uncertainty and awkwardness doesn't seem to ever fully disappear and I have realised the best way to cope with it is truly pass it over to God. I had level 1 contact work in my head, just be there to be seen. I knew that the Lord would just have it pan out according to his will. Anyway, I also started praying to see our campaigner kids, and for some reason Abby popped into my heart. Abby is someone who doesn't have any set beliefs yet but she is great because she is so open to finding as much information as she can to make her own decisions, and eventually have a faith of her own. So, as I was thinking of Abby, the school bell rang at 3:15, and Abby was the first kid out of the high school that day. I literally bumped into her trying to enter the school while she was leaving. She quickly asked what I was doing there and I think I said, "I don't know, hanging out? Wanna go to stake and egg with some of us?" She was game and then spent rest of the afternoon really opening up. Chris told me that she signed up for the ski trip on facebook and I know she seemed pretty into too. Also, she is a kid who is not afraid to introduce us to her friends...which is BOMBBBB. I just really think it is so cool how I had no real clue of what I was going to do at Wilson that day, then the Lord put Abby on my heart and then literally had me bump into her two seconds later. He knows whats up...

Future of Campaigners/ Club/ few other things

Hey guys, So it looks like November is going to go down as the month we didn't have Campaigners and were forced out of our comfortable bubbles to do some major contact work at Wilson.

I'm going to go through the C's and give you a brief update for our Wilson team
Contact Work- Praise God Kristen Fagley started helping out w/ coaching the swim team, and that we found an awesome opportunity to help out Monday-Thursday after school from 3:15-4:15ish handing out snacks to kids taking after school classes.
It's a pretty sweet C.Work opportunity so if you're free any of those days M-Thursday let me or Kaleah know and feel free to join us.

Campaigners- We will officially not start Campaigners back up again till the Wednesday after Thanksgiving. It turns out they have one last play rehearsal on Wednesday so if any of you guys are around Thursday I am planning on meeting kids from the play over at Steak and Egg after school.
I also had a cool meeting with Ms. Miles at the IJM office in Virginia this week and we are in the planning stages of a small fundraiser with them next year which we hope will serve on two fronts as an opportunity for our kids to become more knowledgeable about some of the injustices going on in the world they may be unaware of and also as an opportunity for us to reach out to some kids at Wilson who may be opposed to Christianity but can't argue with a good cause. I will keep you posted but for now we are planning on having some one from IJM come out to share on December 17th for Campaigners that will be followed by a Christmas Party / White Elephant Gift Exchange.

Camp- For those of you who couldn't make Leadership this past Friday the main thing we talked about was that even though we have a great goal of getting to know 200 kids by name this year and getting 25 kids to camp that ultimately what drives us is having a direct impact on even a single kids life.
I gave out a sheet with some practical suggestions for how to make an impact and Disciple a kid and Kaleah and I have attempted to match you up with somebody so if you don't know who your kid is ask Kaleah and she'll hook you up.
What this has to do with camp is that I want you to start by contacting your kids parents and telling them about our ski trip Jan 30-Feb1st price $200 and deposit of $50 due by the end of the month if possible (price is negotiable for those kids we think need the help).
Bottom line here is we need to act now especially with those kids we already know well and who have been to camp before to get them signed up and get their friends signed up.

Club- As we've talked about before one of our goals this year is to kind of transition some elements of Club and Outreach events into our normal Campaigner group and opportunities to just reach out to some new kids.
More on this soon but just be praying about a harder push towards getting Club started when we get back from Camp in Feberuary and some cool outreach events leading up to it in December and January.

contact work

for your enjoyment...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSuUXMqHSmE

Sacrifice

I've been thinking about that word for some reason over the last week.

What does it mean to sacrifice? What kind of sacrifice is pleasing to God? How much should we sacrifice?

In general the Lord has been prompting me to get more specific with how I define vague Christian terms like sacrifice, and "living for God", "doing his Will", "reaching people/kids"....what do I mean when I say those things?

I make these kind of statements all the time with out really thinking through the specifics of what it's going to cost or what I'm going to have to sacrifice to "reach a kid" for example.

The fact of the matter is that when I'm honest with myself I know that when I think of truly reaching a kid and having an impact on their life I want to see a kid who has gone from Death to Life. I want to see a kid's life transformed. I don't want to just see a kid who tolerates Jesus, I want to see a kid fall in love with him so much so that he can't help but tell his friends about him.

I would give up knowing 200 kids by name and taking a gazillion kids to camp in a second for the privilege of seeing this true transformation in even one kids life.

So what does this have to do with sacrifice?
Well I'm realizing that to have this sort of impact on a kids life I'm going to have to make the ultimate sacrifice and lay down my life.

This is what Jesus says in my all time favorite passage of scripture from John chapter 15 (the one my Mom read at my wedding that made me weep like a baby)
13Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends.

To try and sum up what I am feeling right now it's that knowing 200 kids by name is still a great goal that I think we can accomplish together this year as well as getting 25 kids to camp , and getting Club going strong at Wilson.
However the goal that is going to cost us everything is going to be "laying down our lives", for one kid and seeing that kid walk from Death to Life a brand new creation!

One last thing and I'll shut up. Sacrifice is one of those kind of trigger words for feelings of guilt, like you hear about what you should be sacrificing and you even read this blog and feel bad about not doing more than you have so far and that is not what it means to sacrifice.

Guilt has no part of it!

And it's not doing something for the recognition of others in fact through out the sermon on the mount in Matthew chapter 5 Jesus says to do things in secret so as not to be doing them out of wrong motives ie. so people pat you on the back and take notice.

What it is however will cost us, it will inconvenience us, it may annoy us, it will be uncomfortable, it will take time we don't have, and it may even be painful But....I think this is what we all signed on for.

For the chance to see a life change and I'm speaking to myself right now , I know that for me to see that kind of change I can't just go up to the school casually hoping to run into a few kids or calling a kid up once every few weeks to go to the movies.
I need to be intentional the way Jesus was about including at least one kid in the every day parts of my life, my work , and my family. ....

I need to know their family, everything about them, and not in a stalky creepy kind of way but in a way that says I am investing in you and like the women at the well said of Jesus to her community , "Come see a man who told me everything I ever did".



I know I'm preachin it right now but I can't help it. I'm fired up at the thought of each of us having this sort of relationship with a kid.

If you actually read this whole thing I'm impressed and hope it made some sense.

I love you guys and hope and pray that we will all be a part of something huge and transformational in the life of a kid.

Frank

Last week a young man by the name of Franklin was shot and killed in D.C. This young man went to Wilson High School. I didn't know him at all I didn’t even recognize his face. But when I came to AVID tutoring the day after, I notice right away that one of our students was upset. When the teacher asked her if she was ok she quickly blurted out that she knew the young man that was killed and that it happened on her street. She heard the shots, saw the sirens, saw his body get put into the ambulance, and got the news later that night that he was dead. I got to hear this story from her and hear all about her friendship with Frank in AVID class. It grieved my soul to see her pain and sorrow. Not only was I sad for her but I was sad for our community as a whole. Sad that kids had to witness firsthand the epidemic of violence. It’s an epidemic that stretches so wide in the U.S. It stretches to my home town in Richmond California where one of my friends a year ago was murdered at the age of 21 leaving behind a 2 year old daughter. I wonder just as the kids wonder; will it ever end?
However, in a world that seems rotten, it is that we know the one who preserves it. And know that God has called us to be salt and light in this world. It is an honor to pursue kids like Lauren who have been bruised by the tragedies of this world, and an honor to hope and believe that her world can be changed through Christ. This is why we do young life so that kids can be saved not just from hell, but saved from the hell they go through here on earth. And although we cannot fix their problems we can introduce them to someone who can. I didn’t get a chance to reach Frank but I pray that I can reach Lauren, and that we in Young Life D.C. can change communities one kid at a time.

Leadership meetings / a sense of Urgency

Hey guys, hope everybody had a great weekend.

Kaleah, Sam, Della, and I worked our butts off for Christ this weekend washing about 5 trillion dishes and making approximately 5 gazillion quesadillas. It was a great time and 200 people from all over the East Coast were in attendance for the Leadership conference.

Leadership this Friday @ 6pm at Tennlytown Starbucks followed by Wilson Home Football Game

Please let me know if you will not be able to attend.

Also I have attached a link to Wilson's calendar of all sporting events. Between JV and Varsity there is almost something going on every day so please take a look at it if you're still trying to figure out some creative things to do for Contact Work.
http://www.wilsonathletics.org/index.cfm?action=main.calendar

Also as mentioned at our last Leadership mtg. Kaleah and I will be contacting you guys in the next week if we haven't already to do kind of a mini- evaluation on your experience with YL so far and a time to check in with how your are doing personally and spiritually. We will also hopefully kill two birds with one stone and hit up some Contact Work after our meetings.

Last but not least my thought for the week (one thing I took away from this weekend) is that I need more of a sense of urgency in the work I'm doing at Wilson. Sometimes I get bogged down in the administrative details and basically details in general of my job and have strayed some what from what got me hooked with Young Life in the first place, that is being available as the love of Christ to kids who desparately need Jesus.
I think sometimes we focus so much on the tedious details of our work and things that need to get done and forget about the things that give us life and motivate us to put in those extra hours.
I pray that Contact work is that for me and for you. That it wouldn't be one more task to check off on a long list of things to do but that it would be something that gives you life to get through the week.

Looking forward to seeing you guys Friday
Chris

" We are not trying to trick you, and we are not trying to flatter you"

These are the very direct words of Paul to the church in Thessalonica in 1 Thess: chapter 2.

Paul is sending encouragement to a group of very young believers who are being tempted and confused by the local " pagans" .

Sounds alot like our Campaigner group huh.
Let's imagine that they were on a 3 week camping trip w/ Paul and he has to leave suddenly only to find out that shortly there after many are falling away from the faith and being torn in what they believe and don't believe.

Last weeks Campaigners meeting right on the nose!

Well Paul's response among other things is to say (Girardi paraphrase), "You know what I didn't fail when I was with you" . I know God is at work and I am to please God not man. I didn't come to bother you, to trick you, I didn't wear a mask, I didn't come with a hidden agenda. "

So the Thessalonians may have responded something like this, " So why should we believe you over the scientist I just saw on Nova? "

and Paul would have responded a bit like this in 1 Thess 2: 8 " Well you don't have to believe me it's your choice but know this that I love you guys so much that I didn't just share Bible stories with you, I shared my life with you. (Paul thinks to himself but doesn't say out loud, is the scientist on Nova doing that?) "

To summ it up: In the end , love wins.

Friday presents an opportunity.

So again, just a quick update from my side of the world at Coolidge. I couldn't go to the leadership meeting because our Parent-Teacher conferences didn't end until 7:00pm. But, that day provided a wonderful opportunity for the gospel. Sometimes I forget about my co-workers and how much they need Jesus. Friday, a co-worker of mine who I worked with last year, came up to me and quite blankly said "I need help." Now it is important to understand this man is not a person I was close to last year. In fact, we did not get along for a variety of reasons. Not just personality differences, but my opinion of him because of the way he treated women, children, authority and his job in general has been very low.
This year, he works across the hall from me. And while I was fine with it, I never thought anything about it one way or another.
So you can imagine my surprise when he asks me to preach to him. He considers himself a Christian, which is one of the reasons I can't say I have a lot of respect for him, honestly. So I told him, "You are not going to like what I have to say to you. You should ask someone else." But he persisted. So, I told him the honest hard truth about Jesus and what it actually means to be a Christian and persist in living a life of truth. He listened! He actually sat there considering what I said. Unfortunately, before he could give me more comments, we were interrupted by a very angry father who told us all were all &%$*%$'s (if you get my meaning). He was escorted out eventually.
So, just to let you know, in my world, I have realized my ministry is more than my kids. And we'll see where that conversation takes us.

Taking it to the streets Jesus style

One thing I tend to often forget is that with Jesus ministry was not so complicated.

He went to where people were, he talked with them, walked with them, got his party on with them.

I think we do the same with Contact Work sometimes and I was reminded this week that some times the best Contact work isn't done with our fancy shmancy tutoring or coaching gigs but when we just walk around right after school when a gazillion kids are hanging out at the metro/ bus stop , or getting a two dollar slice of pizza (which you can get at Dominoes from 2-4 weekdays).

Bottom line, let's keep it simple and just get out there the way Jesus did showing up at boats to fish or Dominoes to eat pizza.

So Here's the Deal

Far away at Coolidge, on the edge of the city, my crazy little classroom holds a catastrophe of events as the days pass on, edging us ever further to the next Federal Holiday, when we can all sleep in and breathe easy. Among those events are the following:
~ Wednesday, Sept. 24. See You At the Pole day. Coolidge has NO flag pole. Who knew? So I took the steps in the front of the building. I prayed alone for about 40 minutes. Dr. Bennett forgot, as did the kids, apparently. But it was good. I like Jesus and I felt like he showed up. Until...
~ 2nd Period: when I screamed at my kids so loud I promptly lost my voice until yesterday morning. Jesus seemed to evaporate from my soul that hour. It was sad.
~ Thursday, Sept. 25th: Lots of teachers start commenting on my sign up poster which clearly states YoungLife Bible study. "Is that legal?" "Are you allowed to do that?" "Does the administration know you're doing that?" To which, I probably shouldn't roll my eyes, and say "Yes, silly, this isn't an undercover operation, obviously." But I do that. The questions continue until one teacher actually says, "Hey! Can I help?"He's cool. I don't know who he is. But I'll find out.
~ Friday, Sept. 26th. No kids showed up again for YoungLife Bible study. Neither does the cool teacher who said he would. But it's all good. I don't know what I would have done if they showed up. It was not the best week in the world. Even in perspective. It was the worst one. Even with the right perspective, which I maintained.
~Monday, Sept. 29th. Two girls (Tia and Tania) who are not in my class but who have taken up hanging out in my class during lunch time instead of roaming the halls promptly inform me that because that morning Tania's boyfriend's 3year old daughter just died that she no longer believes in God. Clearly, its a challenge. Which I meet. Or rather, God does. And they leave overwhelmed and believing in God and maybe not hating Him. So they sign up for YoungLife.
~Tuesday, Sept. 30th. Tia and Tania come back. Not unusual. Tania asks me about the sacrament and what the purpose of two years of Catholic Confirmation classes are and why don't fish bleed. Fish do bleed and I explain the rest. We decided that we are in, fact, holding YoungLife, and so they sign in and I give the sign in sheet to our after school program lady and YoungLife is set to go. Just in the nick of time. (Oct. 1 was our deadline to meet.)
~Also, because of the many students I have coming up to me explaining they have band and football practice after school on various days, YoungLife will now take place during lunch period for those whose lunch hours fall on the same hours as mine, as well as after school on Tuesdays and Fridays and this Thursday. Because there is no school on Friday.
~ Also, at some point during the day, two students, Tziania and Iesha put their names and grades on my sign up sheet. Score!
So we'll see how this goes. Clearly out of my hands. I'm just there.
See you all in a few weeks. Football will end soon and then my kids won't be devastated they don't see me on Friday nights. As if it isn't enough trouble getting them to come to class on time. Sometimes the mixed signals they send are enough to make a teacher go mad.

Saturday Surprise

First of all...I feel honored that my picture is gracing the inaugural post of this blog! On to my story...

Friday night after our stellar leadership meeting I hopped in bed and begrudgingly set my alarm to wake up at 7a.m. the next morning. My boss had pulled a last minute "I need you to be at this volunteer event Saturday morning." A colleague picked me up around 8am and we set out to the Geico building at Chevy Chase for a Boys & Girls Club event. I was feeling somewhat frustrated with the disorganization of the set up and lamenting over lost hours of sleep when two young men came up to me asking how they could help. Apparently I looked like I knew what I was doing. We got to talking and it turns out they both attend Wilson High School. Suddenly my morning just got better! I was so excited to just talk to them and see what they were about.

Alonzo is a Senior at Wilson and plays on the football team. (Awesome, I thought...someone to cheer for at the next game.) Louis is a Senior as well. He doesn't play sports but has trombone and clarinet lessons on Wednesdays. Like most high school kids they had left the majority of their 100 hours of required community service to finish their Senior year. That is why they were at the event on Saturday morning helping kids throw bean bags through a hole and playing Geico "plinko". Both of them live off the Georgia Ave. metro stop and neither of them had heard of Young Life. Louis continued asking questions about it though and at the end of the conversation sounded interested in checking it out at one of our kick off events.

My lesson learned (one God unfortunately has to continually beat me over the head with) is that God strategically positions us where He wants us. So as we think about contact work with kids it's good to remember that we just need to be ready and willing to talk and God will provide opportunities whether on campus at Wilson or on a random Saturday morning.

Contact Work at Wilson High 08/09

Hey guys so here's the blog I was talking about at Leadership last Friday. I think this is going to be a great tool for communicating opportunities for Contact Work, our goals as we continue to add kids names to our list , tips on how to do Contact Work effectively, as well as prayer and praise reports from the field.

Only our team will have access to this page for security reasons and you will all have the capabilities to add and edit things on the page so feel free to add names and posts etc.

I hope you guys are having a great week and I hope this is helpful.

Let's keep praying and encouraging each other as we see this list of kids grow and as we impact Wilson High School with the love of Christ.