Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
Last Friday-Saturday the youth ministry hosted the annual Middle School Overnighter at the church. For those of you without kids in the youth group, it’s likely you had no idea it was happening. The remnants of the night were few, thanks to the heroic cleanup efforts of the volunteers who waged war with our students for 14 hours, dusk to dawn. As you slept peacefully in your bed on Friday evening, close to 30 middle school students ate nearly 10 Costco pizzas, devoured 20,000+ calories of snacks, went to war in the trenches of the battle of nerf, and took down an enemy from the underworld known as the GROG. On this particular weekend our students looked more like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles than they did students. Cowabunga, dude! 🤙
Nights like that are GOOD. It’s so important for ministry to not merely be a place of learning, but a place where we have FUN. Where we do life with others and make memories. In youth min, we call this shoulder to shoulder ministry. It’s crucial for connecting our kids with their leaders. And, just like the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles have their Sensei, Splinter, to teach them in the trenches of combat – so too we are SO excited to announce our youth pastor candidate Jacob Abrahamson to teach our students in the trenches of ministry. We firmly believe that he will do a phenomenal job of pairing the crucial work of shoulder to shoulder ministry, with the ministry of the Word in EBC’s youth ministry.
The EBC leadership team has had many good opportunities to get to know both Jacob and Cana – to ask them questions and to see their character. Now, we are excited for the upcoming opportunities for you to do the same. I want to highlight a couple of them below.
Weekend Services, May 6-7 – Jacob will be at all three services sharing his testimony. While we’re excited for you to get to hear his story from up front, this is also a wonderful opportunity for you to meet him before and after services, and to ask him questions that you may have regarding his vision for youth ministry, or anything else you might think of.
Youth Group Q&A Night, May 10 – Youth parents should plan to attend youth group on May 10 in order to hear a little bit more about Jacob and Cana’s story. This will be a great opportunity to get to know Jacob and Cana on a bit of a deeper level. A good portion of this night will be dedicated to Q&A for Jacob and Cana as well. Part of the Q&A will be with students, so that students that have questions can ask them in the context of the group. Then, we’ll dismiss students so that parents that would like to ask more sensitive questions will have the freedom to do so.
Even if you’re not the parent of a teen – especially if you’ve got younger students who will be in the youth ministry in the coming years – please plan to attend to get to know the Abrahamsons! 🙂
Email Jacob or the LT Directly – I also want to encourage you, if you do have questions for Jacob and Cana or the Leadership Team, to email him or the LT directly to ask your questions. There is great deal of freedom to do so – and our hope is that you come to EBC Members meeting on June 4th having had all of your lingering questions answered. You can email Jacob directly at jaabrahamson@gmail.com. You can reach the LT via my email at raufenkamp@evergreenbible.com.
The Abrahamsons are also planning on joining the youth for youth nights during the month of May, and are planning to attend the HS Spring Retreat May 26-29. That said, there will be great opportunities for the students to get to know Jacob and Cana in the coming month as well.
I want to reiterate that the LT is SO excited to propose Jacob as our candidate for the role of Youth Pastor at EBC. Based on extensive conversations with the Abrahamsons and seeing the ways the Lord is already using their lives for His Kingdom building purposes, we believe he will be a great fit to help our teens learn to love and serve Jesus with their lives. We’re thrilled about the upcoming opportunities for them to share their hearts, and for you all to get to know them as well.
In Love and Christ,
Pastor Ryan Aufenkamp