SDFA + Facebook = FUN!

I have recently signed up with Facebook to connect with old friends. So far it has been pretty fun catching up with people I haven't talked with in awhile. I joined when some friends of mine started up a group on Facebook for our old youth group. I saw so many of my friends and people I missed talking with, I had to join.

Our youth group was something special. I know most people would say the same, but truly our youth group was something special. We had great youth leaders who set the tone for what we were going to do. We had retreats, conferences, game nights, etc like most youth groups, but our leaders really set the bar high for us to strive for. We had youth leaders who cared about what was going on in our lives and took the time to make sure we knew that.

They wanted us to be outward focused which is hard to do in those teenage years. However hard that was for them to do with us made lasting impressions on all of us. We had groups that went to senior citizen homes and sang songs, we feed the homeless at the Rescue Mission, we went an played with kids who were in hospitals...the list goes on and on.

Our youth group had fun! Growing up in So. Ca is was hard not to. We hung out at the beach, we did activities all over the city, we ate lots of food, and the best part - TOLIET PAPERING. Really don't ask me who started it, but we had all out TP wars my entire middle school through high school years! Had a sleepover, we went toliet papering. We toliet papered everyone including the senior pastors house on numerous occassions. It was just something that our youth group did and everyone had fun doing it - including our parents!

Yes, I know all I have been talking about is fun and games, but we did have a great spiritual side to. Our leaders, Mike and Kristi DeVito, were the best leaders we could have asked for. The challenged us on our walk with Christ and our walks with each other. We also had an awesome leader named Kara Eckmann who now goes by Kara Eckmann Powell (married name) who started off as a youth intern and moved into Middle School Pastor. For me Kara was a mentor for me. She wrote me while she went away to college and kept in touch with me when she came home on breaks. She invested her time in me and that is something I have never forgotten or taken lightly.

We had many adult helper/leaders that stood beside us through the years - Denise, Dan, Kathy, Jeff, Pam, Nate, Brent, Tom, Laurie, Nina, Steve, Lynn...the list goes on. They all gave a little bit of them to help us. Forever we are grateful.

My husband and I cannot go into a church without thinking these words:

If not you, who
If not now, when
If not here, where

These words were thrown at us all the time. We could spit them back when asked, but somewhere with us spitting it back, it sunk in. My husband and I are permanently stained with DeVito and Eckmann's challenges for us to not just sit by and watch but be active, living participants in the church and in our everyday lives.

My girlfriend Rachel and I laugh about how DeVito has ruined church for us. We go into a church and we can't just sit there. We are always looking for a way to help. Trust me, we slow down and listen, but we can't just sit back and watch. We also laugh that now that we work with youth we can't just let them sit back. We want them to be active both spiritually and physically. We are raising the bar on for our students and lovingly helping them strive to reach it. We are holding our youth accountable just as our leaders did for us. Because if I don't do it, who will. If I don't do it now, when will it get done. And if I am not going to do it here in my youth group, where is it going to happen?

Thank you Mike, Kristi and Kara for your time in our lives. I hope you see how much of an impact your lives, time and hearts created with us. Just look at that Facebook page and see how many of your students still love you and loved those times together. Look at how many of your students are still serving the Lord. Look at how many of your students are in some sort of ministry opportunity now. That is all your seeds being planted day in and day out. It wasn't easy, but look now. This is just a small sample of what heaven is going to look like. The ripple effect of what you did is going to continue on and on.

I love you all. Thank you for your devotion and love.

I am a life that was changed!