April 1, 2020
Hi Youth Group Parents, Families, and Staff,
Upcoming Youth Events:
All In-person Youth Events Have been Cancelled until Further Notice.
Student Devo Through Joel:
I’ve uploaded another video on Youtube of the lesson for this week. We’re doing a broad overview of the story of the Bible to wrap up our series. I encourage you to watch it with your students and make it a family activity. I got some good feedback that other families did this, and it seemed to be fruitful. I also tried to make the video a little shorter this time.
As well, here is the Romans Devo for this week on chapter 4!
Lastly, I wanted to mention again that most of our youth group students are using the app Discord in order to stay in contact with each other during this break. We’ve been able to share prayer requests, and we’ve been doing two Bible studies a week through the book of Hebrews over the voice chat feature in the app. Of course, it is up to you, the parents, as to which apps you’ll allow your students to use. But I wanted to continue to mention it as I’ve found it to be extremely useful so far!
Next week I’ll be getting information out about doing a youth group Zoom call on Wednesday evening so that the students can all connect with one another. Please stay posted for that information.
As always, I’m here to be a resource and to help in whatever way I can during this difficult time. Please, if you have any needs, or if you kids need someone to talk to, know that I am available to help! Feel free to text me at (360)936-1415 and I’ll get back to you as soon as I can.
I’m going to continue to post the other resources that are available below so that they stay fresh for if you’re looking for things to do with your students during this break.
Ways We Will Stay Connected as a Youth Group:
- Google Classroom: Please have your student sign up for our EBC Youth Group Google Classroom page. They can do so by going to classroom.google.com. Once there, they can login with their email account, and then join our EBC Class Page by entering the classroom code: 4pc6d6r. On this page I will be posting announcements, encouragements, etc. The students can respond with comments, and stay connected to each other on it.
- Zoom Chats: I will be trying to host Zoom chats/have our Youth Leaders host some Zoom Chats with their small groups in order to keep us all connected throughout this forced break. I will post on the google classroom more information about these chats, along with emailing you all the details.
- Discord Server: For any students who are interested, one of our students is helping me set up a “Discord” server for our youth group. Discord is a safe server that your students can join on their devices. Students can follow this link: https://discord.gg/SBWuwa to join our Discord server. On it, we can easily do text chats, along with voice chats with their youth group mates.
Ways to Continue Engaging Your Students at Home:
- Family Worship! If you’re not already in the habit of doing family worship, or devotions together, I would highly encourage you to take this time to start something. Maybe take a small Epistle, like James or 1 Peter, and read a section all together. Here’s a great resource for doing a short Bible study using what’s called the Swedish Method: https://www.desiringgod.org/articles/six-questions-to-ask-when-studying-the-bible-in-a-group
- Family Time! I encourage you to use this time to do things you wouldn’t normally do! Play some games together (even some VIDEO GAMES together), make food together, talk about your childhood, re-live the things you did when you were sick as a kid with your own kids. There are a limitless amount of creative things to use this time well.
- Weekly Devotions! Myself, and the youth staff will continue making devotions for the students to work through. Maybe consider doing these as a family! We just started the book of Romans last week. The latest devo on Romans 4 is attached here.
- Short Video Messages: I’ll be working on a short message per week that you and your students can watch together. We’ve got two more weeks in our “Story of the Bible” series, and I’d still like to finish it. I will email these/put them on the google classroom page, along with some questions to discuss with your students. Link is here
Other Resources:
- Book List: Here is a short book list that I’ve worked on for you all. Most of these books will be $10 or less on Amazon, and would be a great way to invest in your student during the break. If I get enough response, I’d be happy to create a Zoom chat book club for one them!
- Catechism: Recently, I’ve been exploring the idea of trying to start catechizing our church. A Catechism may seem archaic, but they are WONDERFUL ways to learn solid, biblical doctrine. Check out http://newcitycatechism.com/ and consider trying to memorize one or two a week with your students.
- The Bible Project: If you’re looking for a “curriculum” for your students, why not “assign” them a couple of Bible project videos per day. They could watch them, and then write a summary of each of the one’s they watched so that you can discuss them at the dinner table together.
- Ask Pastor John: Especially for your high school students, have them explore a couple of Ask Pastor John episodes per day. There are HUNDREDS of podcasts in which John Piper goes into depth tackling a huge breadth of Biblical topics! Have them write some notes and share them at the dinner table.
With you and for you in Christ,
Ryan Aufenkamp
Categories: COVID-19 Isolation Time, Youth Night Updates