[reallifenewsletter] FCC - YS Student E-mail Newsletter #141

Wow! Was that ever an excellent trip!!
God spoke to us, challeged us, gave direction, expanded our horizon,
got us fired up. We had opportunities to serve, learn, give and grow.
And we had a great time doing it all!

I thank God for the donations toward the trip that provided the hotels
for us all and some other bonuses! I am thankful to all those who drove:
David, Chris, Emmy, Jen, Tessa and Debbie. I'm thankful for the hard work
on learning music, skits and preparing presentations.

High points of the trip included the times we got to serve:
Sunday morning, Tuesday Evening (many people said that was one of the most
meaningful);
and times God spoke to us:
prayer meetings (ranked by some as the best part of the trip), Bible study;
and times of fun:
Mammoth Cave exploring, white water rafting, the latin/Cuban restaurant

On Sunday, we heard from many about what God spoke to them/what they learned
or what was the most meaningful/important. I'd like to get those written up
because they serve as a reminder of what God did and an encouragement to us
all. So if you spoke Sunday or not, please send me a short summary of what
you learned or what was the most meaningful/important part of the trip for
you.

What I found to be interesting was that each part of the trip spoke to
someone
whether the music, each of the presentations, the prayer, the Bible study
etc.

Thank you and may God greatly bless you!!
-Nathanael

YS STUDENT E-MAIL NEWSLETTER #141
July 12, 2004

Contents
1. Something for Your Heart
2. Surf Report
3. Forgettable Fact
4. Potent Quotables
5. Parting Shot


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1. SOMETHING FOR YOUR HEART

Okay, so here's the deal. You're 47 years old and are doing fairly well
financially. You know a 90-year-old woman who lives alone in a rather nice
house. You figure she's not going to be around much longer, so you offer to
pay her $500 a month as long as she lives, provided you get her house when
she dies. If she agreed, would you make the deal?

We like to think that certain risks we take are "sure things," yet life
proves us wrong again and again. This very deal was made in France in 1965.
The 47-year-old man was a lawyer, so he wrote everything up, sat back, and
waited. And waited. And waited.

In fact, he waited until 1995. That's when he died. The woman, in the
meantime, was still going strong. Her name was Jeanne Calment, who is now in
the record books as the person with the highest age ever authenticated. She
celebrated her 122nd birthday on February 21, 1997, and died the following
August. By the time of the lawyer's death, she had received 900,000 francs
($180,000) for her house--three times its actual value. On Calment's 120th
birthday, the lawyer joked, "We all make bad deals in life."

His comment pretty much sums up the moral of this story, but perhaps we need
to take a closer look at why it was such a bad deal. It's the same reason so
many of us make bad deals: we're suckered into looking only at the
short-term consequences of the things we do. We convince ourselves we're
thinking long-term, but we're wrong.

Maybe we turn our backs on long-time friends, hoping to move up into a more
exclusive social group at school, but end up with NEITHER set of friends.
Maybe we spend every available dollar on clothes and entertainment, hoping
to establish a decent image, but eventually find ourselves with neither
image nor cash. As we look back over our lives, many of the hopes and dreams
we thought were long-term turn out to be quite short-lived.

Several of our decisions are much more short-sighted than we would like to
admit. We certainly need to plan for the future and make wise decisions in
that regard. Yet let's learn from this French lawyer that we won't always
see our best intentions come to fruition. His $180,000 investment didn't pay
off (for HIM) at all. Just think what else he could have done with the
money.

There's probably not a day that goes by when you won't have an opportunity
to make a decision that has eternal consequences. Any time you choose to
talk to a loner, to volunteer for public service, to commit yourself to a
worthwhile church project, or to make some similar decision, you never know
what the results might be for someone else in the context of eternity. So as
you make your long-range plans, never forget to make the most of today as
well.

On your own ...

Read Luke 12:13-21.
http://biblegateway.com/cgi-bin/bible?language=english&version=NLT&passage=L
uke+12%3A13-21

Why do you think Jesus told this parable? The man's decision to build bigger
barns seems practical, so why is he used as a negative example? What do you
think Jesus means when he encourages us to have "a rich relationship with
God"?

2. SURF REPORT

~ ePrayer
Prayer is our way of communicating with God. We share our needs and our
thanks through prayer. We gain strength from it. And when we lift our hearts
together in prayer, our strength multiplies. That's what this site is all
about.
http://eprayer.com

~ Teenpoint.net
An online Christian teen community
http://www.teenpoint.net/


~ United States Naval Sea Cadet Corps
Pride. Service. Patriotism. Those are the cornerstones of the Sea Cadet
Corps. This service organization promises "the adventure of a lifetime." If
that sounds interesting to you, check out this site.
http://www.seacadets.org

3. FORGETTABLE FACT

Great white sharks can hear sounds from over a mile away.

4. POTENT QUOTABLES

All that is not eternal is eternally out of date.
- C.S. Lewis

We have all eternity to celebrate our victories, but only one short hour
before sunset in which to win them.
- Robert Moffat

In making our decisions, we must use the brains that God has given us. But
we must also use our hearts which he also gave us.
- Fulton Oursler

5. PARTING SHOT

If we aren't supposed to eat animals, why are they made of meat?

Copyright 2004 Youth Specialties









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