Club Update

What do you call 100 kids running around with plastic sheets tied around their necks like capes?  Superhero Club.  For this club we told all of our kids to dress up like their favorite superhero, or perhaps create their own superhero.  We provided the capes for kids who didn't dress up - not one was wasted!  You've never truly seen a crazy superhero until you see what a junior high kid can think up...

Once we started club we split the kids into four groups to play some superhero competitions.  The groups were the Avengers, the Justice League, Super Friends, and the X-Men.  The most intense competition was our edition of Family Feud: Superheroes, where the kids had try and guess the survey answers for Best Superheroes, Best Superhero Powers, Most Effective Batman Gadgets, and Superman's #1 Power.

The talk portion of club was a little different for me because I wasn't the one who delivered the talk!  One of our leaders stepped up and gave a talk about how Jesus knows us better than anybody.  She talked about how Jesus approached Philip and Nathanael and called them as disciples.  In that story, Jesus talked to Nathanael and told him everything that he had done earlier that day before Philip had called him to come and see Jesus.  Jesus showed Nathanael that He knew him even though He had never met him.  Nathanael responded by proclaiming that Jesus is the Son of God and King of Israel.    

It was such a great talk because it hits home for everybody.  Everyone wants to be known.  We all want to be popular, respected, and loved.  The sad thing is that most of us attempt to appease those feelings through worldly things that ultimately leave us feeling empty inside.  But that is not what Jesus offers us.  He offers us love that is unending and love that is from somebody that truly knows us better than we even know ourselves.  He cares for us, teaches us, and loves us.  And when you respond by faith to the fact that He died for you by placing Him at the center of your life, you can truly feel His everlasting love and grace.

The greatest thing about WyldLife is that it is a ministry based on relationships.  We try to know these kids.  We spend time with them, talk to them, attempt to lead them.  But we will never be able to love these kids like Jesus does.  And that's why we point them in His direction!

Please continue to pray that kids in Lake Highlands and all across the world will get to know Jesus.

-Brody

Breakfast Club

With all of the crazy weather that Dallas has been having for the past two weeks, we finally got to have our first WyldLife club of the semester.  The theme was Breakfast Club, so the kids came dressed in pajama pants and house shoes.  Everything we did at club had to do with breakfast!  I even had a few kids ask me if we were going to watch The Breakfast Club...  That made me laugh.

Anyway, we had breakfast/morning themed music, games, and skits.  Kids competed in a blindfolded pillow fighting tournament, a challenge to see who could drink a blended up McDonald's Big Breakfast Combo the fastest (7th grade girls won...), and a few other crazy games.  We also pulled out the classic skit where you have a single glass of water, a tooth brush, and tooth paste, and have 5 leaders walk up and brush their teeth with the toothbrush and tooth paste provided, one after the other, with the last person drinking the leftover toothpaste/water in the cup.  The kids liked it.  I was really disappointed I didn't get to take part in that...

The talk that I shared with all of my junior high friends was about how you have to have faith to follow Jesus, but that having faith in Him means that you follow Him on a daily basis.  I read from Matthew the story of the Roman centurion who showed his great faith in Jesus by believing that Jesus could heal his ailing servant by merely uttering the words that he would be healed.  Then, I showed them the clip from Indiana Jones: The Last Crusade where Indiana proves his faith by stepping out into the canyon that separates him from the Holy Grail.

I explained to the kids that in order to be saved it is necessary to believe in Jesus, but that having a relationship with Jesus isn't solely about going to heaven.  In order to experience life to the full in a relationship with Jesus, they will have to choose to follow Jesus on a daily basis.  Learning how to follow Jesus with decisions in life is something that everybody needs help with, but choosing to start following Jesus daily only requires faith.  If you have faith in Jesus and trust that His way will lead you to life, then He will guide you in the right direction along the way.

Recently, I've felt compelled to share bold truth with our kids.  In a ministry aimed toward non-believers, we tend to water things down a bit so we don't seem too intimidating and scare kids away. However, with this club's message I decided to forgo the water and give it to them straight.  Judging from the response I got after club, the talk seemed to be received well.

Thanks for reading!

Please pray that all of these kids will choose to follow Jesus daily.

Until next club,

 Brody

The New Year

Lake Highlands WyldLife kicked off the New Year with our annual Bus Tour.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with Bus Tour, it’s an all night event where we take kids to various places throughout the night on school buses.  Last Saturday, we took 135 kids to a Mavericks game, had an all-area club (with over 400 kids), had a huge snowball fight, went to Main Event, and finished everything off with donuts and a movie that morning.  Everyone had a blast, including the leaders.  It’s always funny to read about kids’ reactions to an event from their Facebook statuses. My favorite was “Bus Tour 2011 = amazing.”

The best part about Bus Tour is that it’s twelve straight hours of leaders getting to hang out with kids.  Sharing experiences like these together tends to start great friendships between kids and their leaders.  Towards the end of the all-area WyldLife Club, we had a staff member give a talk that explained the Gospel to kids.  The talk was centered on Jesus’ interaction with Zacchaeus, a tax collector from Jericho.  When I asked a guy in my group what he thought about the talk, he said, “It was really cool to hear that story from a different perspective.”  The speaker focused on what it may have been like to be Zacchaeus, what he might have gone through before his encounter with Jesus, and what he might have been like afterward.  The fact that one kid understood what Zacchaeus went through and that Jesus had reached out to him and knew his name is huge.  With junior high kids it’s always hard to figure out whether they’re actually tracking throughout a talk or not.  I have confidence that the kid in my group wasn’t the only one who understood that Jesus knows everybody’s name and wants to have a relationship with them.

So not only is Bus Tour a time for kids to have fun and an opportunity for leaders to get to know their grade of kids better, it’s also a time for kids to meet Jesus.

With the beginning of a new school semester comes the beginning of a new semester of WyldLife.  The spring is always a fun time for our junior high ministry.  Our club night switches from Fridays to Tuesdays, and we also throw in a few fun events for the kids throughout the semester.

Thank you so much for taking the time to read all about our Bus Tour and the beginning of the semester.  I would really appreciate your prayers throughout the spring.  One of my biggest prayers for us to find more leaders.  We are always in need of solid men and women of Christ that are willing to sacrifice their time to share Jesus with junior high kids.  If you are interested in serving, or perhaps know somebody who would be, please contact me at brody.lyons@gmail.com.  We're always looking for more help!

Blessings,

Brody