My Epic Journey

Here is the information for this year’s EPIC Christmas Bash:

Time: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Where: Grace Point Community Church

Who: ALL EPIC Students

Cost: FREE!!!

What to bring: A gift (wrapped) under $5.00 for a gift exchange. Friends. Something to eat (See list below).

• Middle School—Desserts
• High School—Appetizers

November 22^nd–Parents’ Night Out

Time: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Where: Grace Point Community Church (2393 Peachblow Road, Lewis Center, OH 43035)

Who: Individuals with disabilities and their siblings.

What is it: Parent’s Night Out is a youth sponsored event that allows caregivers to drop off individuals and their siblings at Grace Point Community Church to be cared for and engaged in a fun-filled evening of activities.

Cost: FREE! This is a service of the Student Ministry at Grace Point Community Church

Please call 740.548.7718 by November 20th to reserve your spot

November 29^th—NO EPIC (Thanksgiving weekend)

November 29^th—HS ELF Night

Time: 5:00 pm to 8:00 pm

Where: Home of Dave and Traci Bleedorn (5356 Port Haven Drive, Galena, OH 43021)

Who: High School students

What: An opportunity to ring in the Christmas season with our annual ELF Night. We will be watching the movie, Elf. Fun games and prizes.

Cost: FREE!

What to bring: Guys—Pizza toppings (you will be making pizza for the girls). Girls—desserts

December—The NeverEnding Story Teaching Series

A manger. A baby. Shepherds. Stars. The Christmas story is one we look at with great reverence. The peaceful scene is recreated and plastered on everything from phone backgrounds to lawn decorations. But the Christmas story is more than a just a story we look back on and remember. It’s ongoing. It’s active. It’s a story that required a response over 2,000 years ago, and one that requires a response today. It’s a story that invites us to participate in it even today—because the Christmas story is the neverending story.

• Session One: invited to (December 6th)  When a story is small and distant, it really doesn’t have much impact in our lives, does it? It solicits a nod, a smile, a “that’s nice.” But it doesn’t affect us. It doesn’t move us. It doesn’t shake us. And while many people, us included, tend to approach the Christmas story, the story of Jesus’ birth, in a familiar, typical and remote sort of way, it’s not that kind of story. The Christmas story, at its very core demands a response—good or bad—from you, from me—from anyone who hears it.
• Session Two: participate in (December 13th)  The Christmas story is more than just one we respond to individually, it’s one we participate in—and we’re not talking bathrobes and kids in sheep costumes. The participation the Christmas story calls for is more earth shaking than a quiet stable and a clear sky with a bright star. This story shook the way the world operates when it started to unfold thousands of years ago. But it has the potential to do the same thing today when we become an active part of it. What would our world look like if we became a part of the vision God has for the world—a vision revealed with the birth of His Son, and rests on us now?

December 20^th—EPIC Christmas Party

Time: 5:00 pm to 7:00 pm

Where: Grace Point Community Church

Who: ALL EPIC Students

Cost: FREE!!!

What to bring: A gift under $5.00 for a gift exchange. Friends.

Middle School—Desserts

High School—Appetizers

February 12-14, 2010—The CHILL

Where: Camp Otyokwah (3380 Tugend Road, Butler, OH 44822)

Who: High School Students

What: This is our annual HS winter retreat. This year’s purpose is to get high schools students away from the stresses of life so that they can become one with the Trinity of God (i.e. the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit), to become one with themselves, and to become one as a community/family of believers (Ephesians 4.4-6)

Cost: $75.00. Please stop by the EPIC table to pick up an information/registration packet.

This Christmas, probably more than any other in recent years, we are hoping that life will get better. We are hoping that life will look differently next year, even if we’re not sure how. We realize that no one person or institution holds a solution, but we’re expecting something different, even if we’re not sure how that is going to work out. Words like hope, peace and love have a new meaning this year, don’t they? We’re waiting to have hope, peace and love in our lives, in our communities, in our world. Even if we’re not sure how it will all work out. And just like thousands of years ago, Jesus is the one who came to bring hope, peace and love to our lives then . . . and now. Jesus taught us how to find hope, bring peace and initiate love even when our circumstances are less than ideal.

Here is the schedule of lessons for the month of December:

Week One: Hope (December 7th)

Christmas is a time filled with great expectations. (Just ask Clark Griswald.) We expect snow to fall on Christmas morning. We expect that Martha Stewart-esque gathering. We expect a gift from that special someone. And for many of us, we expect our lives to look a certain way. But what happens when life doesn’t meet our expectations? How can we have hope in something bigger than what we want or dream? And how can that hope in something bigger really affect our lives—for the better?

Week Two: Peace (December 14th)

Why is it that Christmas is one of the least peaceful times of the year? Whether it’s the long lines at the stores or the stress of even how to make the holidays happen in this economy, Christmas can easily become something we just want to get through and survive. But peace, true peace, has little to do with what is going on around us. In fact, Jesus came to bring peace to our lives in a way that defies logic, and He also invites us to participate with Him in bringing peace to those around us as well.

Week Three: Love (December 21st)

Love is a word that we hear a lot. People love Christmas time. People love carols. People love casseroles, cookies and candy canes. But when it comes to loving other people, sometimes we are all talk. The word “love” is easy for us to say, but really hard to back up with action. Sometimes loving other people is hard, whether that person is within our family, or living half way around the world. It’s why we needed an example, a living breathing visual for what love in action looks like—and that’s the heart of the Christmas story.

No EPIC (December 28th)