Joplin aftermath

Yesterday we took a small group of individuals from Springhill to Joplin to help out a couple whose house was severely damaged. Their house is still standing but it has suffered some severe damage fromt he tornado. Springhill is going to have an opportunity to serve ur brothers & sisters in multiple ways over the coming days, weeks and months. It is going to be a long and arduous process and we want to do all that we can to help them through this difficult season.

So, here is the plan over the next couple of weeks. Springhill will be planning on taking mulitple teams down to help in the debris removal process for homes as well as looking for opportunities to help families in any way we can. As of right now we are encouraging everyone to make a $10 donation to Convoy of Hope by texting Convoy to 50555. For every $1 donated Convoy can get $7 worth of food and water. This is an awesome opportunity to be a blessing and be wise with our money.

Graduation!

I love this time of year. It is warming up, the gloominess of winter is turning into the joy of spring and the heat of summer. With all that school is drawing to a close and a special group of teens who have worked hard for the past 18 years are getting ready for a special occassion.

GRADUATION! The culmination of many years of work, battles, fights, emotional, spiritual and physical struggles. Today I want to conGRADulate all of our graduating seniors. Here is a list: Kylee Anderson, Taylor Arnott, Maleah Brown, Jeremy Edwards, Mark Harris, Christin Hartman, Nathan Kittleman, Dylan Louderbaugh, Lauren McCurry, Kylie Petersen, Seth Thomas.

We also have a special group of College graduates: Sarah Gott, Todd Wallace and Erin Ward. Congradulations to all of you.

Did God really say?

I was reading a blog today by Steven Furtick, pastor of Elevation church in Charlotte, NC and I thought I would share it with you. I hope you enjoy this read. click here.

Got Love?

Parents,

Over the past month we have been going over the whle dating, marriage sex debate with the teens. I wanted to give you a couple of books that I hope will be interesting to your son or daughter and will challenge them to think beyond what the world says about this whole issue.

First of all, let me be very clear that the Bible is the ultimate authority on all these issues. Second, just because I recommend reading a book doesn't mean that I line up with the author on every minute detail. I believe it is our job to read Scripture and then view and interpret everything we read or watch through the lense of Scripture. So, with that said let me recommend a few books that are written by Christians that I believe parents should read and go over with their teens.

For Girls:

- Sexy Girls by: Hayley DiMarco

- Technical Virgin by: Hayley DiMarco

- Every Young Woman's Battle by: Shannon Ethridge

For Guys:

- Every Young Man's Battle by: Stephen Arterburn

For both:

- Passion & Purity by: Elisabeth Elliot

- Dateable by: Justin Lookadoo & Hayley DiMarco

- Pure Excitement by: Joe White

- What's The Big Deal? by: Jim Burgen

- Sex: It's Worth Waiting For by: Greg Speck

These are just a few books that may help you bring up the conversation and discuss how Scripture talks about dating, sex and marriage. This is a big deal in culture and is something that has to be taught at a young age.

Paying Attention

So, I walked into our bedroom the other night and a few teens were on the internet. When I walked around the corner all of them got up and were embarrassed. They were listening to something they knew was questionable but still weren't bothered until I walked in. It got me thinking about what they might be listening to.

Now don't over analyze this or read between the lines too much. I love good music. Some of it is Christian some of it is not. But I watch very closely what I listen to. I received this great link here that I thought many of us might be able to think through and examine to find out what we are really listening to. Just a short challenge I thought you might enjoy.

Family Fuel

WOW! That is all I can say. We had a great sunday at Springhill with our Family Fuel sunday. I hope you come prepared next sunday as Dr. Rodney Reeves from SBU comes to bring the Word to the families of Springhill.

I got permission from Tom Hufty to post last night's "12 Cries Parents Need To Hear." You can also to listen to any of yesterday's messages here.

So here are the 12 cries and the need that is associated with it. Along with various other notes I wrote down to remind myself. I hope you enjoy them and I hope they help out.

* Kids will aggressively try to meet their needs.
* If their needs are not met at home they will go somewhere else to have those needs met.
* They will embrace the values of those who meet their needs.


1) Cool Scale
Need – Acceptance
- Kids will do anything to be accepted. You love them no matter what.

2) Compliment Starved
Need – Affirmation
- Love does not equal affirmation
- you have to be intentional in affirming your child.
- Find one thing a day they do well and praise them.

3) Confirmation Seeking
Need – Approval
- they need to know where the lines are.
- help your kids pick their friends.

4) Constant Strokes
Need - Affection
- kids need affection
- find ways to show affection daily

5) Consistent Safeguard
Need - Authority
- point them to the ultimate authority
- authority is a safeguard in life.

6) Common Schedule
Need - Access
- they need access to you.
- family must be a priority over everything else.


The following six were not talked about, but I will throw in my two cents on a couple of points.

7) Craving Significance
Need - Action
- children want to be contributors, we need to challenge them with the mission of the Gospel
- Give them actions steps that will help them reach their friends.

8) Character Struggle
Need - Attitude
- children are trying to identify and build character
- help them grow throw the difficulties by showing them the correct attitude

9)Continual Support
Need - Accountability
- be an accountablitilty partner with your children.
- that is your role as a parent. Help them learn from mistakes and prep them for difficult situations.

10) Childish System
Need - Adulthood
- don't allow your child to maintain childish ways.
- adolescence was never mentioned in Scripture because you went from being a child to adult.
- help them become an adult.

11) Culturally Seduced
Need - Arsenal
- The world is calling out to them trying to mislead .
- use them as weapons (arrows) to piere the darkness.

12) Counseled Structure
Need - Advice
- give them advice when needed
- remember you are their parents not their best friend.

I hope you enjoyed yeasterday as much as I did. Enjoy and I would love to hear you comments.

National Collegiate Student Week

Hey all you college students! I hope you are making plans for going to National Collegiate Student week August 7-12. It is going to be a great week with some challenging speaking from Matt Chandler. Make plans now to go. The cost should be somewhere around $200.