Reverb Student Ministries

We have had our first meeting and it was great!  We were able to meet in our ministry teams and begin planning our gospel ministry to the international communities of Atlanta!

I’ve had to re-do some of the teams due to changes in the participants.  The new teams can be found by clicking here.  Your 2 “Team Leaders” are at the top of your team.  Check with them on details for your job assignment.

Our next meeting will be Thursday, May 10th from 6pm-7:30pm in The Studio at CBC.

Also, keep Wednesday night, June 13th open.  We will be ministering to our Summer AWANA program that night from 6:30pm-8pm as part of our  preparation for the mission field.  We will be in our teams and sharing a lesson from our Backyard Bible Club material.  It’ll be a blast!

Remember to pray for your team, the adults and the children we will be ministering to on this trip.

Here’s a note from one of our wonderful teachers, Mrs. Nancy Page, about how God blessed her by blessing others:

The Best Christmas Blessing I Almost Missed

We began getting emails to turn in a name of a family who needed help for Christmas, I immediately thought of a little boy in my room. Because I thought I was “so busy” I did not respond ASAP.  I received an email that said it was the last day to turn in a name. I went to turn in the name to our PTO rep and found out they had already identified a family. I knew I had waited too late.

Every time I looked at the little boy, I felt as if I had let him down and he did not even know. God would not let me forget him. When I got to church that night, Reitzel Murphy asked me if I knew any family who needed food for Christmas. I told him I had just the family in mind. This year our school gives fruit and vegetables out to the children at break. The sweet little man in my room eats each item and asks if he can take home the extras. I knew he would appreciate this help. Mr. Reitzel gave me $100.00 for the family.

The next time I went to church David Woodis came up to me. I taught his son Zack (who is now a grown man with a family) when he was in 2^nd grade. David asked if I might know of a family who would need help for Christmas. I told David the story and that I would appreciate anything they wanted to give. Zack put $300.00 dollars in the mail.

In a few days, I read an email from Bro. Justin stating that he wanted the youth to give $5.00 each for a family rather than swapping gifts. I asked Bro. Justin if he had a family in mind. He said he did not. I told him the story. The youth collected $247.00 dollars.

At the beginning of school, all fourth grade teachers were given $100.00 from the tech school called philanthropy money. We were to pick a way to help in our community. I asked Mr. Hamilton if I could use our money for this cause. He told me to get the Walmart card.

My Sunday School class had been studying about giving. We decided to meet after church the Sunday before the kids got out for Christmas to go shop for the family. Initially, I had sent home a form to the mom and asked if she would like for us to help her boys for Christmas. She was very receptive to the idea. We collected sizes from the three brothers. We also had a place for them to list favorite things and favorite colors for each boy.

Our 10^th- 12^th grade girls Sunday School class had the best day shopping and purchasing three new pairs of Nike tennis shoes.

The girls found the correct sizes in each of the boy’s favorite colors. They bought jeans, shirts, PJ’s, toys and three new bikes. The girls wrapped the presents. We found three 5 feet tall stockings to put the gifts in.

I had gotten a list of their favorite foods, but had not planned really well before going shopping. I loaded the buggy with the favorites. As I checked out, the ticket was $108.00. Mr. Reitzel had given me $100.00. WOW J

I called the mom and asked her when would be a good time to bring the items over. She asked me to bring them to the grandmother’s house so she could hide them from the boys. At this time, she told me that the grandmother had been trying to get her to get started in church.

The first week we came back to school the sweet little man in my class asked me if the clothes he was wearing was what I had bought him. I told him I did not know that he knew where they had come from. I told him they were not just from me, but from lots of different people from Clements Baptist who love Jesus and wanted to do this for him and his brothers.

I continue to thank God that he gave my family and church family the opportunity to partner in the Best Christmas Blessing Ever!

-Nancy Page

Our domestic mission trip this year at CBC will be in Atlanta, GA ministering in the surrounding areas to children and adults.  We will leave on Sunday, June 24th and return on Friday night, June 29th.

We will be doing Backyard Bible Clubs in many different apartment complexes.  If you are unfamiliar with this type of ministry just think of a “mobile, on-site VBS”.  We will have Bible stories, songs, games and activities!  We will need plenty of students and adults to help lead these teams!

These areas will be populated with mostly internationals.  Well over 100 countries are represented in the areas we will be ministering!  We are partnering with Whirlwind Missions and their fearless leader, Tim Cummins.  To learn more about the area and their ministry simply visit www.whirlwindmissions.org.

Please attend our informational meeting on Sunday, February 12th at 9am in The Studio (youth room).  You may have to step out of Sunday school early or, for you 11am Sunday school folks, come a bit early to find out how to be a part of this exciting trip!  

The North American Mission Board did a piece on Tim and his ministry there.  I’m so excited to be working with him!  Watch it here:

Bro. J

The MPACT College and Young Singles are now experts on ‘blemished’ offerings.  This weekend we took a long, tough look at what Malachi had to say in regards to the offerings of his day…and our day.  This ancient rebuke has such modern application.  Examination of our offerings, attitudes and worship illuminated so many things.   The gospel we claim is worthy of our very lives.  The hope we have is secure in Christ.  Our worship is pure only with a correct view of His glorious cross.  Our families are dependent on God’s grace and love.  Let our offerings be not blemished but pure!  What a great weekend!  Check out our FB pics to see all that happened right here.

In January our MPACT College and Young Singles Ministry will trek to the deep, dark recesses of Ridge Spring, SC for a winter retreat to remember. This trip is open to all college and young singles!   Snuggled amongst hundreds of acres of wooded country is where we will spend the weekend of January 13th – 16th, 2012.   We will spend much time in Bible study but also lots of time in fellowship inside and outside.  This retreat has proven to be a great respite from the rigors of college life (and life in general) in years past.  Check out the Facebook event page here to keep up with all the details as the weekend approaches.  Pastor Tim will be joining us for part of the weekend also.  We are praying that God will continue to use this retreat as a means of refreshment and renewal for all our young adults.

Reverb and MPACT are excited to minister to our community this Christmas season.  Our Interpretive Movement teams and Renown Student Choir will be ministering at the Boys and Girls Club while other Reverb Students will be taking care packages to the Limestone Health Facility.   This awesome night of ministry will take place on Wednesday, December 14th.  Students will meet at the Boys and Girls Club at 5pm that night while others will meet here at CBC at 6:15pm to head over to the Health Facility.   Parents, please click here for a permission form for your child and other parent info.

Those wanting an update on the Famine total wait no more…the grand total raised has now reached $10,037.63 to send to Haiti to help minister the gospel and minister food and medical resources to those in need.  A huge THANKS to all those who gave of their resources and time!  This was truly an amazing thing to see happen.  More money will come in, but make no mistake, this weekend was not about money.  We can pat ourselves on the back and congratulate ourselves, but dollars don’t get you disciples – the gospel does.  Yes, we wanted to raise awareness of world hunger, raise money and experience hunger during the 30 Hour Famine. However, as we drew nearer to the Famine and we were able to dwell more and more on the subject of fasting and praying it became evident that this fast was less about dollars and more about disciples hearing from their Teacher. Experiencing hunger only to identify with those who are hungry is not life changing.  Fasting and hearing from God is.

The dollars are great, but through this time God revealed Himself in the areas of materialism, gratefulness, missions and true hunger in our students’ lives.  This is something dollars can’t do and many times it’s the dollars that we end up chasing instead of God.  The amazing thing is that He did this in a way you can only experience through fasting and prayer.  The testimonies of nearly all students were that of not just feeling sorry for those in need, but feeling conviction from the Holy Spirit to obey God’s word in reaching and ministering to them because His Word commands us to.  Many charitable organizations exist with the sole purpose of raising  money for the poor that have absolutely no interest in the things of God.  They see a need and want to meet it.  However, the gospel drives us, not needs.  I truly believe that truth became a reality in many young lives that weekend.

The money will be sown into the country.  Food will be eaten.  Medical needs will be met.  Supplies will be given.  But the eternal resonance of gospel ministry will resound forever.   This is what we celebrate!  The gospel changed lives stateside.  Now we will continue to pray for the recipients of our resources and for World Vision to carry out the ministry He began.

To see how World Vision uses our resources to impact countries, check out how they are working in Haiti click here.  Also see how they are working in other countries such as Malawi by clicking here.

Our first ever 30 Hour Famine was incredible to say the least!  Around 70 young people and adults chose to
fast, pray and raise funds to send to the country of Haiti.  God blessed our efforts and lives were changed!

First off, the gospel was worked into our hearts over the past several weeks as we prayed for Haiti, other poor countries and unreached people throughout the world.  We also told others about our 30 hour fast and asked for financial sponsors.  All the money raised will go to World Vision and their work in the country of Haiti.  To date we have raised just under $10,000 and the number is climbing!  This money will be sent off this week and will be providing food, medical care and other resources to those in the world who need it most.

We at Reverb Student Ministries and Clements Baptist Church would like to thanks everyone who donated, helped and prayed for this ministry.  Please continue to do so.

Expect great things from God, attempt great things for God. -William Carey.

Check the following locations.

Clements High: 7:15am every Friday in Coach Dye’s room.

West Limestone High: 7:10am every Tuesday in Mrs. Patrick’s room.

Not at one of these schools?  Find a First Priority movement near you at www.firstpriorityofnorthalabama.com.

If you are interested in getting a First Priority movement started at your school please contact Bro. Justin.  You can find out more about First Priority at www.fpoa.org.