Need Help With a Project

In October SALCY is having an event I am PUMPED about. We'll be watching the movie To Save a Life to 8th-12th graders and tackling these two statements/questions from the movie:

How far would you go . . . How much would you risk . . . How hard would you fight . . . To Save a Life?


and


What's the point of all of this if you don't let it change you?

This movie is one of the few "Jesusy" movies that I absolutely LOVE LOVE LOVE. All of the youth and parents who have seen it so far love it, and I'm so excited about this lock-in in October. It covers issues like depression, suicide, cutting, teen pregnancy, divorce, pressures of school and getting into college, etc.

Because of what topics this movie addresses, we could have some really intense conversations at the lock-in. So I had the idea to put together a reference sheet of phone numbers and websites for crisis situations. The youth can use it for themselves or for someone that they know. I'll make sure everyone goes home with at least one copy of this sheet. It turned into an all day project! Which is great.

This is where you come in. I'm posting the websites and phone numbers that I've found. 1) so that you also can have these as references 2) in case you have any suggestions about what to put on the sheet or what to take off.

I would love to hear your feedback!

-Suicide

If you or someone you know is/has attempted to commit suicide call 911 IMMEDIATELY.

24/7 Hopeline: 1-800-SUICIDE or www.hopeline.com

MO Suicide Hotline: 1- 800-356-5395

-Child Abuse

National Child Abuse Hotline:  www.childhelp.org or 1-800-4-A-CHILD

MO DFS Hotline:  1-800-392-3738

-Helplines

Community Counseling Center (in Cape):  1-800-356-5395 or 573-334-1100

Teen Advice/Support:  www.teenhelp.org

-Cutting/Self-Mutilation

S.A.F.E. Alternatives: www.seflinjury.com or 1-800-DONT-CUT

-Abuse, Rape, Domestic Violence, Incest, etc.

National Domestic Violence Helpline: www.thehotline.org or 1-800-799-SAFE

SEMO-NASV: http://semonasv.typepad.com/ or 573-332-1900

National Sexual Assault Hotline:  1-800-656-HOPE

-Eating Disorders

National Eating Disorders Association: www.nationaleatingdisorders.org or 1-800-931-2237

Faith Based Help for Eating Disorders: www.findingbalance.com

-LGBTQ

The Trevor Project:  www.thetrevorproject.org or 866-4-U-TREVOR (24/7 helpline)

-Addiction

Celebrate Recovery (Hurts, Habits, and Hang Ups):  JoAnne Erlbacher 450-0246

For Families of Addicts: www.al-anon.org

Substance Abuse Treatment Center Locator: www.findtreatment.samhsa.gov

-Depression and Counseling

To Write Love on Her Arms:  www.twloha.com

Mental Health Treatment Center Locator:  www.mentalhealth.samhasa.gov

Christian Counseling Services Locator: www.aacc.net

-Teen Pregnancy

Stay Teen (As featured on Secret Life of the American Teenager):  www.stayteen.org

MTV’s it’s Your Sex Life:  www.itsyoursexlife.com

Lutheran Family and Child Services of MO: http://lfcsmo.org or 334-5866

Anti-Resolutions

I find it interesting that even though I am not a student anymore my life is still run by school schedules, classes, school events, school rules, and the school calendar. When I plan the year for the youth group I still divide it into "fall semester", "spring semester", and "summer vacation" in my mind. (Which, in youth ministry, summer isn't really a "vacation" despite all of the traveling you do.) My planner is filled with dates of sporting events, school plays and musicals, and days when I'm picking kids up from school. It looks remarkably like my planner did when I was in high school and college. It's as though not a whole lot as changed, which isn't necessarily a bad thing.

Advice for Teenage Girls- My Two Cents

 I hope you all liked reading what others had to say about relationships and what they would tell Jr. high girls about guys and relationships. It's so impressive to me that people took this so seriously and really thought about what they wanted to say.

Well, I thought that I would put in my two cents. This is what I would tell young women today about love, dating, sex, and relationships.

If You Could Tell Girls About Relationships... Part 2

I think I'm finally recovered from the Twilight Lock-In last week. Just in time for our trip to 6 Flags too!!!! Oh summers in youth ministry. It's so fun!

Recap: In my last blog I told you all about how I asked various women for their advice to jr. high girls about relationships and then gave you their answers.

The general advice given was: don't let a guy ruin your dreams, be friends first, be yourself, don't rush into anything you don't want to do, put your relationship with God first, be honest, don't worry, listen to your gut, you are beautiful, find a man who loves God, God has a plan, and a healthy relationship is hard work.

If You Could Tell Girls About Relationships... Part 1

As many of you may know, Wednesday night I held an all-girl Twilight lock-in where we went to go see the movie Eclipse. Many of you told me I am insane... I won't argue with that. Haha.

For the lock-in portion of the night we did some guy talk. Which makes sense considering it was with a bunch of  jr. high/going into high school girls who just saw a Twilight movie. (They LOVE Taylor Lautner, it's so funny!) As I was preparing I thought that it would be really cool to get some insight from women who are older than them.

The responses I got? WOW! So awesome! I was completely floored by how many people responded and gave such awesome answers. I asked St. Andrew members, non-St. Andrew members, Christians, non-Christians, single, married, dating, engaged, ages 20-60's, etc. The variety was so cool and everyone took it so seriously. Then even beyond that, everyone wanted to know what everyone else was saying. Therefore, the blog. Some people wrote a lot, which was great, but it would take up way too much space. So I'm only going to do highlights/summaries/short quotes of what people said.

Chief of Hypocrites

The other day I was going to write a blog entitled "What Bothers Me About Books Today", or something a long those lines. I was going to rant and rave about all of these books that I see at bookstores lately and how terrible they are. Particularly non-fiction books for Christian women.Don't get me wrong. Not all of these books are terrible. I've enjoyed a few of them actually. I thought that Captivating was wonderful. But I can't help but get angry when I see these books at times. They have titles such as "Who Holds the Key to Your Heart", "Feminine Modesty", "The Quest for Meanness and Quietness of Spirit" (No I am not kidding about these titles.) or they are intended for mothers. The most common I find are the ones that talk about romantic relationships. How to find the perfect Christian husband of your dreams, how to keep the perfect Christian husband of your dreams, or what to do while you wait for the perfect Christian husband of your dreams. Basically it's saying "a good Christian girl must get married and have lots of good Christian babies and then you will be fulfilling God's plan for your life. And if you haven't found him yet, it's OK because you will someday or something is wrong with you." Did you know that I actually saw a book in the Christian section called "How to Avoid the Ten Mistakes Single Women Make"? Yeah. You read that right.

Oh I'm sorry, I thought I was defined by my relationship with Christ, not by my martial status. My apologies, I'll get on that right away.

EXCUSE ME????? I don't think so.

Truth and Dare

One of my youth came up with that idea in a way to be honest. Truth and Dare.

I was telling one of my 8th graders that I was working on planning our Jr. High Getaway for June. We started to talk about what we did the year before and how we had gone in a cave and how most people in the group had never done that before. She told me that might be a good idea for this years theme. To in a sense dare everyone to do something over the weekend that they had never done before. So I started to think about it and remembered how last year the group also really enjoyed playing the game Truth or Dare that weekend (like any other jr. high kids).

So this year's theme for the Jr. High Getaway is "Truth and Dare". God's truth, so now what is He "daring" you to do?

Now all we need is a theme verse/story. Originally I thought of 2 Timothy 1:6-7 "For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline." It made me think of being willing to take risks and God challenging us.

I also went to BibleGateway.com and I searched for "truth." Do you know how many times Jesus says "I tell you the truth"? Almost anytime (in the NIV translation) the word "truth" is mentioned it's Jesus saying "I tell you the truth", and many times it's followed by an action. A dare if you will.

Look it up, tell me what you think. Any suggestions for a good theme verse for my Jr. High trip?

Telling my Story

I had taken a hiatus from reading Donald Miller's book A Million Miles in a Thousand Years, but this morning I picked it up again. At the beginning of the book he talked about a friend named Bob who wrote down everything he remembered. Which I think is a great idea and I've been debating with myself if maybe I should start to do the same thing. I just read the chapter where Donald met Bob for the first time, and let me tell you, Bob and his family LIVE AN AMAZING STORY. I won't tell it to you because I think you all need to go read the book and find out for yourself. It's fantastic. Do you know what I thought though after I read it?

EPIC FAIL EMILY. Sitting at my desk, checking facebook, talking to a college friend on instant messenger, and reading a book. What kind of story is THAT???? Fail Emily, fail. So I'm back to thinking about my story. What kind of story is my life telling?