CSM Parent Newsletter

Parents! I hope that you enjoyed your Spring Breaks and some time away with your kids. As I am sure you are well aware, next Sunday is Easter. In preparation for this Easter, I want to challenge you to allow for time alone with God and with your families to reflect on all that Christ has done for us. I have given the students a plan on the CSM page; it goes as follows: Monday: John 13-14 , Tuesday: John 15-16 , Wednesday: John 17-18, Thursday: John 19-21 , Good Friday: Luke 22-24 , Saturday: Mark 14-16, Resurrection Sunday: Matthew 26-28. I know this will allow the Spirit to move in you as He moves in the lives of your children. Please don’t let yourselves get “busy” this week and miss out on the importance of what we celebrate this week; God humbling Himself to human form, walking among us, dying for us wretched sinners, and paying for our sins, giving us SALVATION! This month we are going to be starting a series called “Get in S.H.A.P.E.”. The purpose of this series is to help students see how God has uniquely “S.H.A.P.E.d” them to do ministry. I am hoping that out of this series we will be able to kick off our student leadership program. Each week, we will be going through each of the letters, the weeks are as follows: Morning: Evening: 1 – Spiritual Gifts 4 – Spiritual Gifts 8 – Easter (no meetings) 11 – Heart 15 – Ability 15/18 – Ability 22 – Personality 22/25 – Personality 29 – Experiences 29 – Experiences High school parents, make a note that we will be combining High school and Middle school on the 4th and 11th of April due to Young Christian’s Weekend and Easter. This month we have one big event. We are doing our annual 30 Hour Famine. It will begin on Friday, April 13th, (eek!) at 6:30 pm and go till Saturday, April 14th, at 6:30 pm. Just so you know, we will be fasting for the course of 30 Hours to help students one, gain better insight to what its like to go hungry, and two, to pray for those who are without food and oppressed. As a lead-up to the event, we ask students to try and raise as much money as possible to give to World Vision. Every $30 raised gives food for a child for an entire month! Those packets can be found in the Rafters on our information table. This past month has been quite a month of preparation for this summer. There are tons of things that are going to be happening, but I want to make mention of two of them. Breakaway 2012 will be happening June 22-24th. We will be heading down to Windermere this year. They have tons of things for us to do at a very great price. The base cost of the trip will be $100. When your child signs up, they will also be signing up for their free time activities on Saturday afternoon. Depending on what they choose will also affect the total cost of the trip. There is a good amount of cheap to free activities for those of you that are on a tight budget (which in my opinion are equally as awesome)! We will be mailing those forms out to you this week, so be looking for those in your snail mailboxes and/or grab one upstairs in the Rafters. Also this summer, we will be taking some of our high school students to South Dakota. Due to some scheduling issues with the camp we had to change the dates of the trip. We will be leaving on July 15th and returning on the 21st now. I am so sorry for the change in dates, and if this makes a conflict with anyone that was able and cannot go now. With that in mind as well, we will have team meetings to lead up to our trip. The training dates are tentatively scheduled as follows: May 6th, May 20th, June 10th, July 1st. Summer is a time for relationships. My vision and goal for summer is to provide activities and events that spur on community within our group. We will continue our normal Sunday morning circle groups. During the week we will be holding a weekly Monday in Motion and Bible and Biscotti (Thursdays). Mondays will be geared as a time to hang out, play games, and enjoy a short devotional. Thursday will be geared toward diving deep into the word, led by myself or another leader. Also, twice a month we will be meeting in houses as a laid back alternative to our usual Evening meetings. With that said, we will not be meeting in the evenings as we do during the school year. All of the dates and activities will be announced next month. Lastly, We need your talents and abilities! If you are interested in going on one of our trips, we would love to have you! If you are interested in getting more involved, please do not hesitate to contact me and let me know! We would love to have you as part of the CSM team! I want to thank you all for entrusting our ministry with the responsibility of helping you disciple your children. I am very excited for what God is doing in our students’ lives and what He is going to do. I continually pray for you and your children, “The Lord bless you and keep you; the Lord make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the Lord lift up His countenance upon you and give you peace.” May the God of peace and all wisdom guide your hearts and minds. To Him be all the glory, honor and praise! Amen. Ben Wahlman