Pulling from discussions a lot of youth are talking about in today’s world, plus some themes found in the popular movie “Fireproof,” we will seek answers to the following questions:

• How did/does God show us his unconditional love?
• Why should we love (God and others)?
• What should be the main reason/motivation for serving God and others?
• Do we obey God’s commands because of the consequences (good, e.g. rewards, or bad, e.g. we get hurt)?
• Do we serve the church/do things for others for selfish reasons?
• What sacrifices do we need to make to fully commit ourselves (or give our all) to God and his will?
• How do we learn (or what steps can we take) to love God/someone unconditionally?

On Friday night, the discussion will center on “How God showed/shows us His love, and His command on how to love,” followed by a sermon wrap-up by our guest speaker for the weekend, Pastor Edrey Santos.

For Sabbath, we continue with our theme of “Love” with Pastor Santos. As usual, potluck will be provided. The fun will continue on 2pm Sunday as we celebrate Mother’s Day, and will be filled with games, food, and fellowship. Come out… be blessed… reunite with old friends and make some new ones as well. Hope to see you guys there!

The newest edition to our youth curriculum is lovingly called Faithbook. Funny enough, the term Faithbook has evolved to mean a handful of things to us. But first – the beginning. Richard introduced to us the concept of a youth Bible study using a prayer journal. The youth leaders take turns providing a passage of scripture as a topic for the night. We utilize the R.E.A.P. method to analyze the passage. Here is the broken down acronym:

R – Read and write down the scripture
E – Examine the text. What is happening? Who is speaking?
A – Apply the text to your life.
P – Pray. Write out a prayer that’s honest and real.

Praying with the people you love is the best way to grow as a person AND as a youth group, as Richard shows us

We are given time to write in our journals (Faithbooks) and discuss the topic. However, the option to share your entry is optional. Privacy with the Lord is respected. The purpose of our Faithbooks are to encourage the youth to delve into the Word for guidance in ALL aspects of their lives and to draw closer to Christ and be able to claim a personal relationship with Him.

Today, not only do we call our jounals “Faithbooks,” We also call this youth worship time as “Faithbook.” We also use it as a verb, as in, “What time are we gonna Faithbook?” Use all three in a sentence and you get “Don’t forget to bring your Faithbooks to Faithbook so we can Faithbook.” It’s been a blessing for our youth in so many ways. I look forward to it every week.

- Jennye Baysa