One of the coolest aspects of CIY is that we get to be apart of something much bigger than just our own program. Our office is fun because all year you hear all the different ideas and planning meetings that happen for each program as they get ready to hit the road. I am always super anxious to go out with these programs to see all their ideas come to life at the event. This year I had the privilege of going to Know Sweat.

I will be honest, I didn’t really know much about Know Sweat except that they worked on people’s houses, yards, etc… This semi interested me since I used to work on a construction crew in college. When I got there my eyes were really opened to what Know Sweat does. They worship, teach, fellowship, play, SWEAT like crazy, and heal broken hearts through a simple can of paint or cleaning up someone’s yard. What is even more amazing is how they open the eyes of students so they can discover how they can use their abilities to work for the Kingdom.

Today I received an e-mail from Know Sweat staff Tom Nobis about some girls who were in Kissimmee, Fl at Know Sweat. While there they learned about Active Water, an organization that all CIY programs have partnered with throughout the year. These girls had their hearts opened up to a need in the world and have stepped up in a major way to raise funds to buy bio-sand filters for people in Zambia. Here is what Tom’s e-mail said:

Hey Guys…

This summer we had a couple girls from our Kissimmee week that started a little business to raise money for active water.  They are making little birds (which they call Birds of Hope) and selling them to raise money.  It is a pretty neat little story but if you want to see what they are doing, check out the facebook page.  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Birds-of-Hope/114154605300456?ref=ts

I don’t know about you, but this story touched me. I would encourage you to do one of the things below to get involved in this continuous ministry to bring clean water to people in Zambia.

1. Pray about how God can/will use you to help people in Zambia.

2. Order a copy of  “Zambia’s Song” from CIY to learn more about the water crisis. http://bit.ly/ce4lJP

3. Check out the “Bird’s Of Hope” facebook page and buy a few birds to support their effort.

4. Check out http://www.activewater.org/ to find out more information about their ministry.

5. Tweet or facebook about the water crisis  so other people can become aware of this issue as well.

Mathew 5:13-16: “13 You are the salt of the earth. But if the salt loses its saltiness, how can it be made salty again? It is no longer good for anything except to be thrown out and trampled by men. 14 You are the light of the world. A city on a hill cannot be hidden. 15 Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. 16 In the same way, let your light shine before men, that they may see your good deeds and praise your Father in Heaven.”

Well today marks it! We are officially seven weeks from the start of the 2010-2011 tour! We are SUPER pumped about how the tour is coming along and how things are shaping up for this year. I will be honest though and say that sometimes I feel a little overwhelmed with some of the tasks to complete before we hit the road.

I was finishing up my “to-do” list the other day and had a moment of “WOW” that is a lot of stuff. I was blessed to have Patrick take a few moments to just sit down, relax, and talk about life. He just encouraged me with truths that God is right here with us in the midst of the busyness of the tour and He is providing for our needs. It always is funny how God will take what we are teaching the students each year and walk us through it ourselves.

This year we are teaching from Joshua 1:9 about fear. We are teaching the preteens that God is with them so they can face their fears. We are teaching them to Know that he is right there with you so you can boldly face unfamiliar or sometimes scary situations. That is what I was facing this week. This week I was frustrated that somethings were taking longer to come together than others, working out some contracts with venues and hotels, changing web content, etc… Then I was able to just relax because I do know and do believe that God is standing right here next to me and He will work it all out. This is His ministry and we are just vessels in it.

I just wanted to encourage you today to remember that God is with you. God does care and he will walk you through the scary, frustrating, or busy times. I also want to ask you to remember our team in prayer over the next seven weeks. Please continue to pray for creativity, organization, wisdom, rest, and peace in what God is directing us in.

Feeling rejuvenated and super excited to see all of you over the tour!

Aaron

This is a testimony Stephanie Beasley from Central Christian Church in Fort Smith, AR, came to SuperStart! for the first time in Tulsa:

I would highly recommend CIY SuperStart to any parent or youth pastor! When my husband asked me to attend with our youth group in his absence, I thought, “Here we go, just another conference.”  Much to my surprise, I personally loved it!  Yancy engaged the students in worship, allowing them to sing and lift praises to the Lord.  She taught new songs that my own children are still singing.  The Lads were incredible!  They were hilarious and relevant.

The theme for the weekend was Good Works.  The students were challenged to do Good Works to show the love of God to others.  It was not only a challenge to my own children and the children in our youth group, but to me also.  What can I personally do to show God’s love to others?  My 6^th grade daughter came home and first thing Sunday morning asked our lead pastor if she could do a concert to raise money to buy Active:Water Biofilters for the children in Zambia. She did it all on her own and I was completely caught off guard when our pastor later asked me for more details.  My daughter has scheduled a time to meet with him to give further details.  I was excited that it sparked an idea in her that she could use her Good Works to help those who need clean water.

Needless to say, I was blessed more than I ever expected to be! My girls said, “I’m coming back and I can’t wait until next year!”   They have been listening to their Yancy CD, googling “The Lads,” and working on their Good Works to bless others and show the love of Christ!  Thank you for allowing our students to be a part of SuperStart!.  The weekend was challenging, relevant, and a blessing!

So here it is. The very first look into our new 2010-2011 tour! See if you can guess what our theme is at SuperStart! this year!

There is some incredible Kingdom Work being done by preteens! Here is a really cool story we got back about a group that came to SuperStart! this spring.

When we got back from SuperStart!, our kids decided to use their talents for basketball to do good works.  They had a brainstorming session and then held meetings every Wednesday night after their regular program at church.  Our kids were full of good ideas – they enlisted the help of other 4th, 5th, and 6th graders who attend our church but didn’t attend SuperStart!, and together they made flyers and registration forms, wrote skits to share with our congregation asking for support, and sent emails about their project.  We partnered with an area church that has a basketball court to put on the tournament (and they’re planning to attend SuperStart! next year, too!) and set up a concession stand.  Since our kids wanted this project to be “by kids and for kids,” they charged an entrance fee for the players of 5 non perishable food items apiece (they felt that kids could “afford” the fee without parental help, if they desired) and charged $2.00 a spectator.  While the adults attended the planning meetings and the tournament and were willing to lend a hand, the kids did almost all of the work and planning themselves.  They came up with ideas like asking their principals to announce the tournament on their school PA systems and asking congregation and community members to donate food items for concessions.  Altogether, our kids raised $162.21 and over 200 pounds of food for our local outreach center.  We learned a lot from our first year and are planning to make “Hoops for Hunger” an annual event. Thank you so much for your inspiring conference!  Our kids are already asking, “When will it be time for SuperStart! again?”

Erin Bowling

Hey roadcrew fans! I am super excited to tell you about this very cool thing that some of our staff is going to be doing in April after the tour is over. Four of our staff members from the tour will be running in the Oklahoma City Marathon to help raise money for Active Water. Active Water is an organization that we have partnered up with this year who helps provide clean water to the people of Zambia Africa through some pretty cool Bio-Sand water filters.

This year at SuperStart! we have been teaching the students from Ephesians 2:10 that they were created to do Good Works. At the event we challenge them to think of what God Given gifts they have that they can use for his Kingdom right now! We have seen some overwhelming responses. We have recieved stories about preteens who have organized garage sales, benefit concerts, and even a community basketball tournament to help raise money for Active Water. It has been amazing to hear these stories! These preteens have done something else….they have inspired our staff.

We have been so touched by what these preteens have been doing that we decided we wanted to do something outside of the tour to help raise money as well. Three of our staff members and our tour drummer will be running on April 25th to show our support for active water and love for those in Africa that they are trying to help. If you would like to learn more about what we are doing please check out our donation page at: http://www.active.com/donate/activewaterupick/superstart If you like us are inspired by what is being done through the ministry of CIY then please feel free to click on the “Donate Now” button to the right. Know that your money is doing huge things not just locally, but around the world. We are truley blessed to be a part of this ministry and to have people like YOU who step beside us in this journey. All for God’s Glory!

-The SS! Staff

Sharing what it means to serve in God’s kingdom has been an exciting message to share with preteens this year. But what has been even more exciting are all the stories we’ve been hearing of the preteens who have responded to this message. Here is a story that Steve Birchfield, a preteen pastor from Generations Christian Church in Orlando, Florida, wrote and shared with us.

“We took 21 students over to SuperStart in Orlando last year and had a great time.  In addition to what the students experienced at the event we had a few things happen afterwards that were really a blessing.  We had two fifth grade girls that were inspired to try and raise enough money to buy a water filter that was talked about at SuperStart.  They had a yard sale and raised the $75 needed to pay for the water filter!

As a group, we also had a food drive for a local mission that provides families with food and supplies.  One of our kids that attended SuperStart talked to his student council at school and they agreed to help collect food.

We truly had an inspired group of students that came back from SuperStart.  We are continuing to try and find service projects that the students can do.  They really have a heart to help others.  Thank you  for all that you and your staff does.  SuperStart has been a great event for our students to see that they can do good for God’s kingdom.

What a great reminder that you’re never too young or too old to do “good works” for God

So a few weeks ago I posted a video about a Plasma Screen TV lift that Matt had built in the Garage for our new video game stations. I just wanted to take a second to update you on the progress of the game stations due to the imagination, hard work, and creativty that overflows from Matt. Just amazing the gifts that God has equipped him with! This is a regular  8′x4′ sheet of plywood. In the CIY garage though it represents endless possibilities…

This is an 8′X4′ piece of plywood that has been transformed into the skeleton of SuperStart!’s new game stations! On a side note, there are 14 rivets per handle on this case for a total of 56 rivets just for the handles!

This is an 8′X4′ piece of plywood that is now the finished version of the outside of our new Video Game cases (minus the wheels). Amazing what can be done in a week with a simple sheet of plywood.

Check back next week for the final update on our new game stations once we have installed the TV’s and Wiis!!!

Here is a video from our first week out in St. Louis this year at First Christian Florissant. It was a rocking weekend! Thanks to everyone who came out to be a part of it.

What you will find below are some comments of things that people have said to us about SuperStart! this year. These comments were made by people in all different areas of ministry in their churches and by individuals who had been to SuperStart! before or were attending for the first time. Take a moment to see what people are saying about this year’s program!

“This was by far the largest group I’ve ever been able to bring to Super Start and it’s in large part to word of mouth of the kids who have gone in the last three years.  It is something the kids really look forward to each year.  And, I think the adults have just as much fun!” - Lori Putnam Children’s Ministry Director

“THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for this amazing resource!  SuperStart’s given me so many ideas about how to energize my own preteen ministry!” - Moselle Campbell Youth Minister’s Wife – “Unofficial” Preteen Minsister

“Thanks for putting on a great conference.  My kids loved it, even the 4/5/6 boys.  They really participated in the lesson and in worship.  I am looking forward to next years conference.”- Theresa Wolf Children’s Pastor

“Thank you for the opportunity to enjoy 24 hours with our preteens without having to exhaust myself concerning programming and events. I greatly enjoy the opportunity to connect with the kids in smaller groups, an opportunity I don’t often get since I’m usually the one running the show”.- Rachel Preteen coordinator

“Super Start for our preteens was like their very first rock concert! Worship and the stories were very relevant. We look forward to bringing our kids next year. We know the preteens that attended will be our best promoters for 2010!”- Terri Miller Children’s ministry director

“Thank you so much for all you do for pre-teens! This is such a difficult and awkward age. They aren’t little kids anymore, and they aren’t teens yet. They often feel left out. SuperStart is an awesome ministry that bridges that gap! We are a mega church and use SuperStart as a model for our childrens ministry programming!” - Kristi Mangold Administrative Assistant

“We love SuperStart and highly recommend it to all preteens!”- Loretta Montgomery Children’s Minister

“This was our fist time going to Super Start.  It was great!  I will continue taking our preteens to this event in the future.”- Shannon Hatfield Children’s Mininster

“This is a program that in invaluable to the church.  I appreciate that you work so hard to target an age group that needs Christ love so much!  I am so grateful for the work that you do and the energy and thought you put into it.” - Cari Gaddie Children’s Ministry Director

“I’m still loving that my students are learning before they realize they’re being taught! You guys do such a good job teaching our students…and it’s always a WON’T MISS for us!!”- Brock Rohrer Youth Minister

“The biblical message was EXTREMELY applicable to what pre-teens are thinking and feeling.” - Melissa Drummond Children’s Minister

“The teaching through out the program, never felt like teaching.  Students were learning while being entertained.” -Christine Sturgisw Director of Christian Education

“The worship was fantastic. Yancy engaged both the boys and girls in our group. The teaching time was also wonderful. The presentations captivated, challenged, and impacted our kids. The nature and execution of each teaching time gave them a lot to think about and work through.”- Kristi Stratton Elementary Director

“It was all great.  However I really enjoyed watching our kids connect with everything….they seem really to connect with the Active Water program.  I took 4 girls from our church when we left your conference on Saturday afternoon.  On the ride home the girls decided that they wanted to do a fund raiser just to earn money for Active water.  Thank you for sharing this with them.”- Tina Rudder youth leader

“We have had several students come home from SuperStart and want to help others.  Two students had a yard sale to raise money and another student has organized a food drive at his school.  As a group we are going to go help a ministry to feed families.  The message was very good this year!”- Steve Birchfield Youth Leader