The Saturday before Christmas, we took a group of teens to Portland for a service trip. With Santa hats and bags full of wrapped mittens, socks, hats and scarves, we walked around downtown Portland and handed out our presents to the homeless. The teens were surprised at how many people there were who were in need of such simple items like socks and mittens. It was a very meaningful time for everyone and those from our group kept talking about how good it felt to make a difference in so many people's lives.
Merry Christmas everyone!!!Have a great holiday!See you all in the new year! Check back soon for pics from ice skating as well as the Portland Service trip.
Last night we went to the Relient K & Toby Mac Concert. It was an awesome time and we all had a blast. My favorite was Toby Mac. His performance is always fun, energetic and makes you want to dance. Check out the pics!
Sorry, my camera is not good at taking pics in the dark so you can't see the stage so well in these. Oh well.
Happy Advent everyone! Seriously, where did November go? I hope all of you are staying healthy and keeping up with school, sports, and other activities. It’s a busy time of the year, but don’t worry, Christmas break is almost here!
I remember my senior year of high school I spent my entire Christmas break filling out college applications and writing scholarship essays. Those were fun times (not really :P). I had to do it because going to college was important to me. I wanted to get into a good school and I wanted to make sure I could pay for it too! I’m sure many of our lovely seniors are going through a similar time of preparation, whether it be college applications or figuring out what you want to do after high school. It takes a lot of work but in the end you know it’ll be worth it and your hard work will pay off.
In the season of Advent, we encounter a similar situation. But instead of graduation day, we have an even greater day ahead of us…Christmas! A day of celebration for the birth of our savior Jesus. This date also requires a lot of preparation as we await the coming of Christ. You wouldn’t wait until the day before graduation to fill out your college applications would you? Nor would you wait until the night before a European vacation to prepare for your trip. Would you wait until an hour before an extremely hard test to study? Would you wait until 5 minutes before the homecoming dance to get ready? My point is that there are many things in life that we have to prepare for and if it is important to us, we make the effort to complete those preparations.
Advent is all about preparation and it is also about hope. We know that Jesus will come again but we do not know when. Yet, we wait in hopeful anticipation for the time that we will one day be with Christ.
"But of that day or hour, no one knows, neither the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father. Be watchful! Be Alert! You do not know when the time will come." ~Mark 13: 32-33
Is your Advent season filled with hope and joy? If Jesus came right now at this very minute, would you be ready to greet him?
