Don’t just take it from us that we’ve got a great program – listen to what youth workers who participated this past summer are saying about Know Sweat!

“The organization, schedule, and the worship are just phenomenal. Thank you for allowing us to be a part; it is always a tremendous blessing.” – Benjie, Mt. Gilead UMC (Milligan 2)

“Thank-you for an awesome experience in Denver! Our group is very excited to share with the rest of the church next Sunday. We are following up with a local project; we are painting a house for a handicapped man in our own church.”  – Leona, Maranatha Mennonite Church (Denver)

“I have already referred your organization to another church in our area.” – Mark, Christian Fellowship Center (Cincinnati 3)

“I could go on and on. Thank you for pouring your time into great content (for the notebooks), and weaving the theme throughout EVERYTHING. Thank you for not entrusting worship to just anyone. For getting a speaker who could…well, how do I say this . . . speak! Wonderful. The projects were great. The set up was great. The food was organized. The non-negotiables are all there and you should be incredibly proud of your work this year!” – Brooklyn, Highland Park Church (Kissimmee)

“By all means go to Know Sweat.  The work is organized and the spiritual connection is excellent. “ – Tim , Laurens UMC (St. Louis)

“Christ In Youth does a great job of creating a service experience!  The projects are well thought out and resourced.  However, the emphasis is not completing a project but creating teaching opportunities.  I’ve always liked how Know Sweat effectively challenges students to go beyond the event/week and truly make service a part of their DNA”.   - Mike, Indian Creek Christian Church (Cincinnati 3)

Interested in attending Know Sweat next summer? Call Erin at 417-781-2273 or send an email to erin.tobias@ciy.com to request your free informational dvd or to ask questions about the program! We hope you’ll check us out . . . you’ll be glad you did!

“The most important thing about you is what you think about when you think about God”. Those words have followed me since my freshman year of college when a professor stated them for the class to digest. Thoughts influence actions, and as an image bearer, my thoughts should be reflective of His. This summer, the theme was “Engage Hope,” so I was obviously challenged to think about hope from God’s perspective.

When I look back on my journaled prayers from this past summer, I see a thread running through them showing my growth in understanding and responsiveness to hope. God has worked (and is still working!) on renewing my mind to reflect His with a fuller understanding of hope that originates and is exemplified through Him. As I entered into situations and interactions that stretched me through my time on the road with Know Sweat, I was challenged to pursue God’s heart and submit to transformation and refinement. To Engage Hope means to recognize and accept His love for me (and others) and act in response to that love. As I thought about God, it became clear to me that a key component of my refinement would be to embody the kind of hope exemplified through Christ.

This year Know Sweat focused on equipping and encouraging participants to be Kingdom Workers that engage the hope that comes from God. Each evening in Connection, students were challenged to write out ways they are currently and/or could be Kingdom Workers not only during the week of Know Sweat but when they returned to their homes, schools, and communities. I loved reading their responses. Hanging from clothespins were KW ideas ranging from “Clean up the dishes for my mom” to “volunteer at a soup kitchen” to “tell others in my school that they can have hope in God.” My heart was happy as I read their responses and I remembered the call to have faith like a child. Abandoning the constraints of middle school and high school societal expectations, ideas of how to engage hope (even if it might not be viewed as “cool”) flowed from the KS participants across the United States. It was awesome to see the youth realize that they, middle school and high school students, could actively engage hope, not only at Know Sweat, but when they went home.  Their words expressed an understanding that God wants people to know Him and His heart for all of His creation. To Engage Hope means responding through my actions in light of what God has done. As I thought about God, I thought of His ultimate sacrifice.

As I asked to experience, understand, and share the hope that I have in and because of God (a hope that is confident, certain, and eternal), I was challenged. Through repeatedly looking at the text of 1 Peter, praying through it, and being honest about how I use and currently understand the word “hope,” I began to see a bigger picture. Add to that my daily perspective from the pick-up as I visited the KS service sites, and the picture kept getting bigger.  It finally hit me that as I was in full pursuit of understanding “hope,” I was in fact being pursued as well. Through my pursuit of hope I was being equipped to Engage Hope through sharing about the one who pursues me. When I thought about God, I saw His persistent love for His creation and His desire to equip them to share His Gospel.

Daily, I rode in the pick-up truck to the worksites; daily I saw neglect: neglected homes, neglected communities, and neglected individuals. I was tempted at times to feel “hopeless” as I became overwhelmed with not only the physical task at hand, but the indications of spiritual depravity as well. However, God reminded me that nothing and no one is beyond redemption. As I engaged with His heart, the eyes of my heart were opened, and I saw deeper than exteriors. I saw the neglected experiencing transformation. Groups had traveled from all over the US to actively engage hope through service. When I thought about God, I saw his heart for those that were far from him, the poor, the widow, the orphan – and I was filled with hope. As I observed the completion of the work projects each week, I was able to see that God’s hope was being tangibly lived out through the groups and that a taste of it had been experienced by the recipients. When I thought about God, I thought about His power, presence, and redemption.

This summer I learned anew that we have hope in a God that is calling us to himself. In light of that, I know that I am being equipped through pursuit and refinement to engage that hope by sharing it and actively living it out.

The summer season has come to an end for Know Sweat; participants from each week have left and returned to their everyday lives, currently gearing up for a new school year. As they enter back into their daily routines, I pray that when they think about hope, they know that it comes from God and is confident, certain and eternal.

Please continue to pray for the students that participated in each week of Know Sweat.  Pray that they may continue to experience and see the hope of God and carry that hope to others in their lives.

We know that the programming we put around your service is what really makes Know Sweat effective. In order for your students to grow as Kingdom Workers, it takes a collaborative effort. We provide a number of resources during the week to help you maximize time with your students. Each day, your work is built around Four Pillars that we call “Search”, “Refresh”, “Connection” and “Download.

SEARCH: Morning devotions that start your day. These topics help your students study scripture and provide a foundation for everything they will see and do that day.

REFRESH: Work-site discussion time we design for you.This provides a time to remind your group of the lessons they learned during the morning and a challenge to apply them throughout the rest of the day.

CONNECTION: Each night all participants in Know Sweat come together for a time of worship through singing, teaching, interactive activities and videos.

DOWNLOAD: Small group time to process through all that was experienced and learned throughout the day with your group. General discussion points are provided for you, but this time is specifically for you to meet your students where they are at after each day.

“It’s more than just the service.  It’s the program and the package all together that allow for a better opportunity to change students lives for more than just a week.” – Pete Ramsay (Milligan 1)

Know Sweat has now completed its first two weeks of the summer and as we prepare for week three, all three of our teams will be busy. Omaha, Nebraska, Kissimmee, Florida and Cincinnati, Ohio will serve as hosts as just this week alone over 500 students will Engage Hope as they serve others. Know Sweat has been blessed with a great deal of media coverage by both newspapers and television stations which has resulted in incredible exposure for our program. Last week an article in the Cincinnati Enquirer alerted a local youth pastor to our program and they will now be attending our final week in Cincinnati as a part of Know Sweat.

This summer our theme digs into the book of 1 Peter and one of the most moving nights has been when we address how we as a church are “Built into Family”. The “work” we do as the church is important but so is the witness we give by how we work together. It is possible to paint a house but demonstrate the wrong things through our attitudes and interactions. Please pray for the groups as they serve that their conversations and support of one another will match the testimony their work is doing in communities all over the country.

We are thankful for your support of Know Sweat as it allows us to serve those in need, those that provide assistance to others and ministries who are living out the mission of Know Sweat on a daily basis in the communities they live in.

This past weekend, a group of CIY staffers (from Know Sweat, Superstart!, Move, Engage) participated in the  Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon  (marathon, half-marathon, relay teams, and 5k)as a part of  team Active Water. This year, all CIY programs are partnering with Active Water through event offerings to raise awareness of the global water crisis and to encourage students to actively participate as Kingdom Workers in that cause. If you would like to learn more about the CIY/Active Water partnership, click here.

CIY participants in OKC

Spring in Know Sweat world is crazy busy right now! It is an exciting time for Know Sweat as we’ve experienced a tremendous registration response earlier than we’ve ever had in the past. We have actually closed 7 weeks already as they have filled up fast and expect to pass last year’s registration numbers within the next couple of weeks! We’re excited to see what God will do through all of the groups attending this summer and are pumped that so many new churches and returners are participating! All that being said, we’ve been busy with registrations! The guys, Matt, Tom and Ben, will also be doing doing site visits to finalize details in each of our Know Sweat locations within the next two months. If you feel so inclined, pray for them as they will be on the road a significant amount of time in the next few months.  This year we are also running two spring break weeks in Dallas, TX.  Two weeks ago 23 middle school students and sponsors from Wichita, KS spent their spring break with us and this week a group of 41 high school students and sponsors have traveled from Danville, KY to serve with Know Sweat.

The spring break trip participants have served and are serving at North Texas Food Bank, Mission Arlington, and on homes in need through our partnership with the City of Dallas (People Helping People). From Scraping, priming, painting, cleaning and clearing yards to packing weekend lunches for low-income students, sorting and creating boxes of meals to feed a family for a week and sorting clothes and donated items , the students are exposed to different needs and ways to serve. I was on the first spring break trip and it was exciting to hear conversations among the students about how they wanted to continue to serve once they arrived home. The following are a couple of pictures from the 1st spring break trip.

North Texas Food Bank

Working hard at Miss Imogene's!

Sorting Donations at Mission Arlington

This year, all CIY programs have partnered with Active:Water and will be focusing the event offerings on raising funds for biosand filters and wells in Zambia Africa. The entire CIY staff is excited to be able to mobilize students to serve as Kingdom Workers through this cause. Prior to the summer, CIY staff will be participating in the Oklahoma City Memorial Marathon in various races on April 25th as a part of team Active:Water! We’re not just “talking the talk” but we’re “Walking the walk”, er,” running the run”?

If you would like to learn more about the CIY/Active:Water partnership, click here.

On a recent trip to Dallas, TX, Know Sweat staff researched service opportunities for kingdom workers. During a time most often associated with fun in the sun, family vacation and relaxing, youth from Wichita, KS and Danville, KY will be serving in Dallas. These two groups have committed their spring break vacation to hard, dirty work that will connect themselves, and those they serve, to the heart of God. The youth will assist elderly homeowners with yard clean-up and repairs, serve a meal to the homeless, and assist in food distribution to many ministries and agencies in the Dallas Metroplex. They will be the first teams of youth who Engage Hope at a Know Sweat service project in 2010. Contact us if you would like  more information about Know Sweat or where to serve in Dallas, TX.

Happy New Year from chilly Joplin, MO! Now that the holidays have passed, we’ve all been back in the office this week. Today, the entire staff of CIY met together for an extended prayer time for the programs, participants and donors. Everyone is excited for all that God will bring about in this new year, and eager to do our work to raise up more Kingdom workers!

Currently I (Erin) am processing registrations for the summer and am excited to announce that our Kissimmee, FL location is filling up quickly. This will be the second year to be in Kissimmee,  so we’re excited that it is growing! We’re anticipating this year to be our biggest year yet for Know Sweat and are excited to see returning and new groups in 2010!

This summer we are offering a promotional price of $199 per person attending Know Sweat. For new groups, all participants are eligible for the $199 promo. For groups that have attended in the past three years, any additional registration above your most recent years attendance will be eligible for the $199 price.  For more information on this promotion and to calculate your savings, please visit our website. We would love to have you join us this summer!

This past week, Matt, Tom, Erin and Shawn traveled to the Tulsa and OKC areas to visit with churches and spread the word about Know Sweat. We visited over 82 churches in two days and had many great conversations with youth pastors. It was exciting to be able to share about Know Sweat, our $199 promotional price for next summer, and to hear how churches want to be or are already involved in service related activities!

We all enjoyed meeting new people and making connections. It was encouraging to hear from churches about how they are serving (or are looking for ways to serve) locally and internationally, and made me remember how great it is to be a part of the body of Christ. Hopefully we’ll have some of these groups join us in the summer of 2010!