Saturday, February 20, 2010

Blue Skies

The past week has been really good!...Along with the weather. We've had many beautiful days in a row with lots of sunshine and little to no rain, which for Kilkeel is quite a blessing :-).

Monday and Tuesday of this past week we had half term break at the high school. So all of the students had those days off of school. I got together with one of my mentor groups on Monday. We hung out, I made some Chicago style deep dish pizaa (which they absolutely love!), played some xbox, and watched a dvd. It was a great opportunity to connect, hang out, and continue to build relationships with some of the young men that I work with. It's exciting encouraging them and watching them grow in their relationship with God.

The meeting that we had for E.T.C. went really well. There seemed to be a lot of positive feedback and discussion about it. There are still a couple other meetings that will need to be had within the next week or to before we are able to pilot it. So please continue to pray for us as we try to fine tune this curriculum so that we can use it amongst our young people to encourage and equip them to live Pure lifestyles.

Tonight we have have a Youth Fellowship outing to go Bowling and Laser Tagging. It's our first YF outing in awhile, so there is much anticipation and excitement for it :-). I think we have about 30 students going, so it should be good craic!

This coming week is a pretty normal week with mentor groups and SU. I will be speaking this week in SU about relationships and purity within them. So pray that God would direct and guide me as I prepare for that. Also we have our Senior SU Weekend coming up the first weekend of March. We are starting to get things ready for that. So you can be praying for that as it comes up as well :-)

Thanks for your continued prayers and support. It is always very encouraging to hear of friends that are keeping up to date on my life and all that God is doing...so thanks!! Also, if you could, I found out this past week that my dad had pneumonia. Could you please pray for him that he gets better and gets back to full strength. Thanks again and may we continue to keep our eyes on Christ!

Yearning for Him,
Jason

Monday, February 8, 2010

Busy Busy Busy....

Things have been in fully swing lately (well, I suppose things are always in full swing!), but the last couple weeks have seemed to be more packed than usual. Let me give you the highlights of what has been going on in the life of Jason Kemper ;-).

This past weekend I had the great opportunity to be the speaker for our Junior Scripture Union Overnight. We took a group of 70 students (age 11-14) up to Lisburn Friday and Saturday. I spoke from Romans 12:1-2 and talked about living a lifestyle of worship for God, which involves every moment of every day and not just when we sing or when we go to church. Many of the students really seemed encouraged and challenged as they thought of ways to apply it to their own lives. So praise God that we had a great weekend. Apart from the speaking, we took them swimming and went to the cinema...so it was a great craic and everyone seemed to enjoy the weekend.

I've also had the chance to speak at Sunday morning Bible class yesterday and Youth Fellowship. Both of those went really well. In youth fellowship, we are in the middle of the series where we are talking about Jesus' second coming and the anticipation and Hope that we have when He comes back to redeem us and the rest of creation to the way that He intended it to be. Many of the students have really been enjoying it.

Along with that, I've also been continuing with the mentor groups. I have three groups that meet on a weekly basis, and it has been great to come along these groups of young men to encourage and challenge them to live out their lives for God. God is really working through the groups and it has been great getting to know some of the young people a wee bit more.

Let's see, what else is new. OH!! I just received my Provisional Drivers License in the Post. That means I will shortly be taking the written test and then the behind the wheel test....then shortly there after will have a Northern Irish Drivers license and be able to upgrade the scooter and get a car :-). So that is really exciting :-)!!!

Some highlights that are coming up this week, is that tomorrow Samuel and I have a meeting to discuss our E.T.C. Curriculum (Every Though Captive). It is a meeting with some of the local church leadership to allow them to ask any questions and hopefully continue to move forward with it. Our hope is that by the end of February, we will be ready to launch a pilot of our program and see how it goes. Pray that God would continue to guide and direct us in that while giving us wisdom and discernment as we continue to fine tune it and write the lessons.

Also, this coming weekend is mid term break at the high school. So everyone has Friday through to next Tuesday off. So it will be a great opportunity to connect with some of the young people outside of school and just enjoy a bit of craic and carry on....so I'm really looking forward to that.

I just want to thank everyone out there that keeps up to date on my blog :-). I appreciate your continued prayers and support (and occasionally patience when I forget to update it ;) ). God has been and is continuing to do some really cool things over here. It's also been exciting to see some potential doors that He might be opening up for the future....but we'll wait a wee while to see what happens..so watch this space :-). May we continue to keep our eyes on Christ!!

Yearning for Him
Jason