Like us on Facebook Follow us on Twitter Forward to a Friend Click this Picture for Heartfelt Newsletter Heartfelt is designed for busy families who want to grow body, mind and spirit, and who want support and encouragement. CLICK THIS PICTURE FOR SUMMER TRIP PERMISSION FORM TRIP DATES ARE JULY 5-13, 2012 Fill out this form and return it to Greg’s office by February 6th with a deposit of $150 if you want to go on the trip to Washington, DC this summer.   Sign up and share our newsletter! This year, as you can see, our emails look a little different! We are trying out a new service called MailChimp. Our hope is to be able to communicate more broadly to more people over more platforms in the simplest way possible! Greg is going on Paternity Leave! Greg will be on paternity leave during the months of February and March, but don’t you worry! Sandy and Scott Hill and Pam Ziegler have agreed to take up his duty for the middle school students on Wednesday night and Bob Brydges has agreed to help out with high school students on Mondays. If you are interested in helping out contact Ron Werner (ron@nativitybend.com) or Donna Jacobsen (dj@trinitybend.org) to jump in. If you have an emergency, please contact Steven at the church office. Middle School Middle School will continue to meet at First Presbyterian Church on Wednesday nights from 5:30-7:30 PM through the end of February. Starting in March our meetings will move to Trinity Episcopal Church at 469 NW Wall Street Bend, OR. High School- Parent’s sign up to provide food for Monday nights! Email Denise Wright at Denise Wright sigley10@gmail.com High School will continue to meet at Common Table Monday nights from 6:00-8:00 PM. Click on the picture of the Lincoln Memorial to the left to get a Medical and Permission form for the Washington, DC trip coming up July 5-13. Forms and a deposit of $150 are due to Greg no later than February 6! Scholarships are available but you must talk to Greg before February! You can also click here for the form! Speaking of Platforms… There is a new way to “follow” what’s going on with the BendFP Youth. Here’s how it works: You text the phrase “follow bendfpyouth” to 40404, and that’s it! Every time a tweet comes from the bendfpyouth twitter account (which I promise will be less than 5 a week) you will receive a text and have the most up to date info. If receiving texts isn’t your thing, don’t worry! We have roughly 12 different ways to communicate information about our youth ministry. If you have a facebook account, I would encourage you to “like” BendFPYouth and the Bend Youth Collective pages. If you have a Twitter account I would encourage you to follow BendFPYouth. If those don’t work for you here are some other way that we give out information: Faith Notes, Bulletin (see you Sunday), E-News (sign-up here), Blog, Website, Calendar, Email list (if you’re getting this you’re on it), Text, Phone Call (make sure I have your current information), and Personal Contact (see you at church). I hope that covers it. If not, we’ll send a carrier pigeon or something. Blessings, Greg

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]]> http://bendfpyouth.wordpress.com/2012/01/27/youth-and-family-news-2/feed/ 0 Greg Medical and Permission Form for Washington, DC http://bendfpyouth.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/middle-school-youth-group-is-cancelled/ http://bendfpyouth.wordpress.com/2012/01/18/middle-school-youth-group-is-cancelled/#comments Wed, 18 Jan 2012 18:45:45 +0000 ggbolt16 http://bendfpyouth.wordpress.com/?p=952 ]]>

Middle School youth group is cancelled tonight January 18.

We will be back next week.

If you have questions call your youth leader

Be careful, stay safe and warm! We will resume our regularly scheduled program next week!

If you have any questions feel free to call Greg (541) 350-8074

20 youth and adults helping out at Bend Community Center Thrift Store Warehouse

Here’s an excerpt:

A San Francisco cable car holds 60 people. This blog was viewed about 1,100 times in 2011. If it were a cable car, it would take about 18 trips to carry that many people.

Click here to see the complete report.

In the winter, we continued our step out in faith to do something completely out of the box with the Bend Youth Collective. After meeting with the high school students at Common Table we have found that the idea to love like Jesus is broader than our own community. We have had deep discussions of the radical teachings of Jesus Christ, we have explored what it means to feel left out, we have had a WHOLE lot of fun and the bonds between our students are growing stronger and broader every day. We look forward to more service, fellowship and learning opportunities as we continue to live into this new partnership.

Our middle school students have been meeting at the churches every Wednesday. Every week we pack about 100 backpacks of food so that children on the free and reduced lunch program will have food for the weekend. It has been remarkable to watch youth who receive these bags pack them for others. Those that are in need are providing the help for others, it is a highlight every week to watch kids help their friends. Our small group discussions are deep and thoughtful; they open up and share their joys and concerns. Our community is growing into a wonderful and supportive community of diverse backgrounds and experience.

This summer we took 38 people to Los Angeles for an Urban Immersion Trip with our high school students. We stayed in Angelic Lutheran Church in the Pico Union District of Los Angeles. We worked, played, ate, and created some magnificent space for our youth to grow. Here are some thoughts from two of them:

“The most important thing I learned, though, was that often times prejudices are forced on us by our society, religion, government, race, or our ignorance. The steps that we took on our trip to really immerse ourselves in other cultures were life-changing. I wish that everyone in the world could try doing it for a week. I have always thought of myself as an open-minded person, and I still learned so much about things I thought I knew all about.”

                        -Jasmine Wright, Senior Summit High School

“Overall this trip was an amazing experience. I grew close with those around me, and I feel like I came back carrying a great amount of knowledge and love. I am looking forward to spending time with the friends I’ve made this summer, as well as accompanying them on the mission trips to come.”                 -KT Ainsworth, Senior Bend Senior High

We also took 9 to CITY CAMP, a middle school camp in Salem, Oregon. For several days, we played, prayed, worshipped, sang, and worked. There were amazing experiences at several different organizations that feed hungry people, there were laughs had at the North Clackamas Aquatic Center, there were holy moments in the youth room at Westminster Presbyterian Church. Here are some quotes from the week:

“I saw God today!”

           –Manuel Ponce, 8^th Grader Pilot Butte Middle School

“Greg, when we get back I’m going to do your job!”

                –Elijah Tucker, 6^th Grader Cascade Middle School

We also took 13 high school, college, and young adults to Nicaragua. We spent most of the time in Condega, a small town in the Estelí region of Nicaragua. Condega is a Sister City of Bend and created the foundation for us to start to build relationships for our brothers and sisters in Central America. I think one of our college students sums it up best:

“Before we left, Ron [leader at Nativity Lutheran] said that he didn’t have a doubt in his mind that this trip would somehow change every one of our lives and he was right. Being back home is amazing, I love being able to drink from the faucet and not having to soak myself in deet every morning, but I can’t help but wish I were still in Nicaragua with all of the other amazing members of our Team.”

                           -Caitlin Jarvis, Senior University of Oregon

As you can see, we are very busy! In my own ministry, it has been remarkable to learn and grow with you all over this almost four years of ministry.

As I sat in worship one Sunday singing with the Praise Team and looking around at all of the college students returned from school, all the youth singing, helping with worship, all the families smiling and singing I was struck about how blessed I am to have a church family that gives me space to grow and helps me along the way.

The only words I have left are, “Thank You!”

Respectfully Submitted,

Rev. Gregory G. Bolt

Pastor of Youth and Their Families

First Presbyterian Church—Bend, Oregon

Here is the text from the sermon I preached December 4, 2011 at First Presbyterian Church. The texts were Isaiah 40:1-11 and Mark 1:1-8.

And here’s a link to the audio. How do I spend less?

This season of Advent we’ve invited you to join us in a conspiracy of sorts, an Advent Conspiracy. An opportunity to Enter the Story of waiting, the story of preparing, the story of hope, the story of joy that we find ina manger in Bethlehem; the story of God becoming incarnate in an infant, born in poverty; an infant that would show us a new way to live, a new way to interact, a new way to be.

I will be honest this week’s question: How do we spend less? is a hard one for me. It’s hard because one of the main ways my family shows love is through the giving of gifts. All my life, whether at the holidays or just because the way that my family says, “I love you” is through buying each other gifts.

A few years ago a book came out to help married couples communicate more effectively and help them to understand their partner. This book was called the 5 Love Language. Dr. Gary Chapman explains that these love languages are ways that people show and interpret love.

My family shows and interprets love through little gifts, it doesn’t have to be grandiose or expensive it’s just something. “Hey, I thought of you today and I bought you your favorite candy bar.” “I saw this book on the half off table and I thought you’d like it.” You know stuff like that.

So when I tell my family, we are going to spend less this year and we would like you to as well, it’s like telling them not to show us that they love us. It’s really hurtful, I can hear it over the phone. Even though my parents and sister are flying all the way across country to spend time with us this Christmas (which as you know if pretty expensive and a wonderful gift in and of itself) it is necessary for them to give us and our children something, some token of their love.

Who am I to tell my family that they can’t speak in the only language they know?

My hope is that while we think about spending less, we will hear spend differently. Whether that’s a gift from the Alternative Christmas Market or a donation in honor of your loved one to a worthy cause, or a check to them in the amount you were going to spend to them inviting them to give it away to the something they feel passionate about and tell you why.  There are a million different ways to spend, that can not only show how much you love but also can do good for someone else.

Sometimes I think that we spend because that is the only language we think is out there, we don’t know or have never heard of a different way. There are tons of ways you can give or receive a gift that doesn’t cost you any money.

Let’s look at some of the ways that a gift that didn’t cost anything has touched the lives of our community.

In the passage from Mark this morning we hear about John the Baptist, cousin of Jesus, standing in the wilderness saying, “Hey everybody, something’s got to change and I know that soon someone will come and show you. I can point to him. And he’s going to change everything.”

That’s what we are doing, we are waiting, we are preparing for something fantastic, the birth of the savior, Jesus, who came as an infant, not a mighty king, who broke bread with his enemies, not decimate them, who at every turn did something unexpected.

Even the one who was proclaiming his coming was unexpected. He was in the wilderness wearing camel hair, eating locusts and wild honey. He wasn’t in the halls of power, he never intended to go there, John the Baptist was setting the table for the banquet to come.

He said wake up, there’s something wrong here and I know who’s going to show us how to fix it.

I think right now in our world, in our society, in our economy we are at a crisis point. We are at a point where mere tinkering isn’t going to fix it, we need to completely overhaul the systems we live in, that we have become a part of, that we have fed into. I believe God is doing something new.

Now you might be saying, “You’re crazy!” You’d probably be right. Crazy enough to think that a system that is reliant on spending more and more is unsustainable, crazy enough to believe that an economy based on speculation can’t hold, crazy enough to think that there are people in this world that are willing to stand up and say I’m tired of living the same ole, same ole.

People willing to say enough!

People willing to say that for living in a “Christian” nation we don’t live very Gospel lives.

I’m not an economist, I’m not a businessperson, but I know that some of you are. I may be too young, too naïve, too Pollyanna. But I’m willing to bet some of you are too.

I heard on the news this week that Black Friday was a success for retailers. Consumers spent millions of dollars, that they out-shined projections and that Cyber Monday was the biggest day of online shopping ever. The stock market was up; people said there might be light at the end of this dark tunnel that we’re in.

From what little I understand about the economy and job creation, we need people to spend money in order for more jobs to be created. More cashiers and stockers, more manufacturers, more everything…but we also need people to have jobs in order to make money to buy more things to create more jobs. This is wholly unsustainable to me.

I know that maybe an oversimplification or a complete misunderstanding. If so, please help me understand. I’m willing to sit down with anyone who is willing to help me understand this. Because it seems to me that we need a change. We are begging for a change, we aren’t going to make it if we don’t change.

I don’t have all the answers, really all I have at this point are questions, but I know that Christ came into this world in an unexpected way and I trust that Christ will continue to come into our lives in unexpected ways. I pray that a gift will unexpectedly relieve the suffering of some of the world’s poorest, I pray that God will call those blessed with knowledge of how economic systems work to sit down with those that understand how just systems work and try and figure out how we can have a more just economic system.

The time is now, Christmas is coming, the savior of the world is coming to shock us, to challenge us, to call us to a new way of loving the lord God with all our heart, soul, mind and strength and loving our neighbors as ourselves.

Remember Christmas can STILL change the world!

May it be so!

In it they say, “Jesus has two dads, God and Joseph.” Which got me to thinking. Joseph was an adoptive parent, which if you think about it is pretty cool.

Here is the video we started with:

“Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”

I wonder if this speech is similar to the one that Moses gave to the Israelites shortly before his death?

This speech by Martin Luther King, Jr. occurred in Memphis shortly before he was killed by a sniper’s bullet.

I wonder if Martin Luther King, Jr., I wonder if Moses wishes they had been able to see the promise land, to actually get to the Promised Land.  I know I would have, but Moses and MLK had great a legacy they had set the stage for those that came after them to cross the Jordan, to enter the Promised Land. There was and is work to be done but these men left us with tools in order to face the stress and fear of the journey.

Today, we continue our series, “Spiritual Courage in Economic Grief” and this morning we tackle questions of legacy. What legacy do we leave in our family, our community and our world? How do we invest ourselves in others?

As many of you know my wife is very pregnant with our second child. It could be any time now, we’re hoping for a couple of more weeks but we could get to meet our son any day, which is incredibly exciting and also pretty scary. As a husband and a parent, I’ve started to think about things in a different way, now it’s no longer only about my wants and needs but the needs of my wife and the needs of my children. Sometimes I have to sacrifice what I want to do so I can be there for my family.

I also have started thinking about what happens if I’m not here, what do I want my children to know deep within them that will help them in their own journey. With that in mind I found myself in the office of a life insurance agent as Heidi and I try to plan as best we can in case one of us isn’t there.

I think both of those things are important, being able to provide financially for those that come after me, for my children, but also emotionally, mentally, spiritually provide for them the knowledge that will hold them up in their own times of grief, the wisdom that will guide them and help them to become leaders in their tribes when they are called.

All of this has caused me to think about what legacy are we leaving, especially in the current context we find ourselves. What legacy is our denomination leaving, what legacy is First Presbyterian Church leaving, what legacy are you leaving?

Will the legacy of the Presbyterian Church USA be one of bickering over who can and cannot lead worship or be one that stands with the poor and those suffering from injustice? Certainly, we have a long history of responding to the needs of those in need but will we be able to let go of our institutions and bureaucracy when they have out lived their effectiveness?

Our denomination will die, that is a fact. As the psalmist says, “You turn us back to dust.” The beauty in that is we get a choice in how to live, we will be guided by fear holding on tightly to our structures and our system simply because we have always done it that way or will we live by love, trusting in the God, who is with us, has been with us, will be with us no matter what. The psalmist also says, ^“You sweep them away; they are like a dream, like grass that is renewed in the morning; in the morning it flourishes and is renewed.”

In the morning it flourishes and is renewed. The hope and trust in the resurrection is what guides us to know that, it may not be easy, but it will be ok.

In this time of economic grief, in this time where it feels like we need to hold on more and more tightly to the stuff that is OURS, when it feels like we need to start developing strategies to shield ourselves and everyday on the news seems likes doomsday. It’s flat out terrifying.

It is precisely this time that we need to remember the story of Moses, the story of MLK, they had been to the mountaintop, they had seen the Promised Land and they knew, they trusted that we would get there.

If you remember the story of the Israelites, you know that under the leadership of Joshua they crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land, but unfortunately that was not the end of their struggle, they dealt with war, famine, exile, return, exile, and on and on, after they entered the Promised Land. It may not have been easy, but it will be ok.

I don’t know if MLK would believe we’ve crossed the Jordan into the Promised Land yet but I know he would believe there is work to be done. With unemployment at the highest level it’s been in generations, with corporations having record profits, with people taking to the streets to try and “Take Back America”, whether they be from the Tea Part or Occupy Wall Street, this certainly doesn’t sound to me like the land of milk and honey. It sounds to me like a land of pain and suffering, of miscommunication and anger, of hatred and fear.

I have a confession. I too have been to the mountaintop…literally; I have been to Mt Nebo, or at least where they believe it to be. I have looked out into the Promised Land and I have seen where we are going.

I have seen the Promised Land in the piles and piles of Kits for Kids that have filled this church year after year; I have seen the Promised Land in the hundreds of families who receive food baskets every year. I remember specifically three years ago. It was the first year we had a manger here in the front during Advent. The manger was overflowing with toys and coats and clothes. While we were distributing baskets, someone offered a coat to a child who was cold, then in what can only be described as holy chaos, the coats and toys and clothes were laid out, and those people receiving baskets also received a new coat, a toy for Christmas, a new outfit for school. No one took more than they needed and all left with smiles and warmth, both physically and spiritually. Was it what was intended? No. Was it what was expected? Certainly not. Was it what God had called us to in that moment? I believe so. Was it part of the legacy of this church? Yes.

I have seen the Promised Land in our students in the youth group; we are from 10 different countries, 5 high schools, 8 middle schools, including home schools and 3 churches. We have moved thousands of pounds of food in Los Angeles, we have ask questions about why things are the way they are and we have created space for all kids to express themselves to be vulnerable to shed tears to be real. I have watched a freshman sob while talking about his family situation to the group, while another freshman, his friend, with his arm around him gently holding him and letting him speak.

I have seen the Promised Land in our students who have for their whole lives been recipients of help become the givers of help. I have seen the joy in their eyes when they say, “I’ve never been able to help before, and this is awesome.”

I have seen the Promised Land in two of our college students who raised over $1,500 for an orphanage in Nicaragua in three days. I have seen the Promised Land in people welcoming each other and taking the time to listen to the answer to the question, “how are you doing?”

I have seen the Promised Land in the people that quietly give of their time, talents and money to organizations and causes they feel called to.

All these visions of the Promise Land lead me to the question. How will we as a congregation witness to the existence of a Promise Land, when it seems as if we are stuck in the wilderness?

Will we be guided by fear, seeking to maintain a death grip on the stuff that we have? A beautiful sanctuary, clean carpet, a big building

Will be open to what Jesus called the greatest commandment, “To love the Lord God with all your heart soul, mind and strength and love your neighbor as yourself.”

Will our legacy be that we died with the most stuff or will it be that we died, having lived our life sharing the spirit of wisdom with those around us? Reminding them that God loves them, no strings attached. Will be witness to the hope found in Jesus that it might not be easy but it will be ok? Will we leave a legacy on this town, on this denomination, on this world that we were faithful when it seemed impossible? Will we stand with those around us who are suffering, will we be a place for people to find refuge, will we lead the path through the wilderness of this time of economic grief, even when no one wants to follow and people are calling us to turn around? Will we have the strength, the courage, to continue to respond to God’s call to welcome all comers? When First Presbyterian Church is gone what will we have passed on to those around us? How will we show spiritual courage?

These are tough challenging questions. I think about them everyday I work with the young people of this town, hoping that I am able to impart some wisdom, hoping I am able to provide them with some tools to deal with their journey ahead.

A few years ago a sociological study came out examining the tendencies of the various generations in our world today.

The G.I. generation, those born around the turn of the 20^th century, the Greatest Generation, those born around the end of the Depression, Baby Boomers, those born after World War II, Generation X, that’s my generation, those born between 1965 and 1980 and Millennials, those born between 1981 and 2001.

This study called the G.I. generation, a generation of builders, the Greatest Generation was a generation of maintainers, the Baby Boomers were a generation of destroyers, Generation X, my generation, were ignorers. In this study that means the Millennials are the next builders.

That means those people 10-30 years old are building things, they are building the structures that will be maintained by those who are being born today. These Millennials aren’t apathetic, they aren’t disconnected, they aren’t selfish any more than anyone else. They are becoming organized, they are doing work, they are building.

We see them on the news, in the streets, chanting, “We are the 99%!” We see them, returning to their faith, but not a faith based on platitudes and rhetoric, on big buildings and social status, but one based on living out your beliefs not just believing them. When I see these people when I hear their passion, and their commitment. It is a passion and commitment I see in you, in the faces in this congregation right here, right now. Young and old. I hear your stories I know your struggles; I know it’s scary. We have an opportunity to be the message of spiritual courage in the face of economic grief.

We have an opportunity to help; we have an opportunity to help this town, this denomination, this country build structures that will be based on faith and trust in something bigger than itself. We have an opportunity to model for them; we can be Moses to their Joshua.

It’s up to us.

It’s up to us to rally together, to hold on to one another, to listen to each other, to love one another…warts and all.

It’s up to us to provide the spirit of wisdom that will guide them to continue to risk in the face of fear, to love in the face of hate and to stand up when the world is telling them to be quiet.

Let us not be remembered by how long we are here, but how we were here.

And in the word’s of Dr. King, “Like anybody, I would like to live a long life. Longevity has its place. But I’m not concerned about that now. I just want to do God’s will. And He’s allowed me to go up to the mountain. And I’ve looked over. And I’ve seen the Promised Land. I may not get there with you. But I want you to know tonight, that we, as a people, will get to the Promised Land!”

May it be so.