January Newsletter Article

Here is our most recent 180 Degrees article for EBCI's monthly newsletter.

Youth Happenings
 

Happy New Year to everyone!  It’s hard to believe that another year has passed.  I am grateful to have had the opportunity to serve at EBCI over the past year, and I look forward to all that God is going to do in 2010.  May everything we do be for God’s Glory as we constantly seek first His Kingdom.  The leaders of 180 Degrees will continue to strive to be obedient to Christ’s call on our life to make disciples who KNOW Christ, GROW in Christ, and GO for Christ.

After taking a break for a couple of weeks during the holiday season, 180 Degrees will kick off another semester this week.  It will be a fun and eventful semester filled with worship, Bible study and teaching, fellowship, fun, service, discipleship and much more.  A few events that we have planned for this semester are paintballing, a spiritual retreat in the desert, youth-led service, mission trip, and much more.  At One-Eighty (Thursdays), we will explore a variety of topics, including evangelism, friendship, dating, and other topics.  On Friday mornings, we will continue our study on the Biblical Story.

We have had a few events take place since our last newsletter.  180 Degrees led a group to the Sonapur labor camp for our annual shoebox distribution.  The youth (as well as a parent) led the congregation in some instrumental music and singing.  Sri gave a message to the men followed by a prayer given by one of the youth.  Then, we passed out the shoeboxes/bags to the men and sang them a Christmas song.  I know that the men were encouraged by our presence and efforts.  May we continue to pray for and support our brothers in the labor camps.

On the Saturday before Christmas, a couple of youth planned our first Formal Foreign Food Festival (FFFF).  This gave us an opportunity to get dressed up and share various foods from our home countries.  These events always give us an opportunity to see how creative God is and how different he has made each of us.  It was an enjoyable evening that ended with a farewell video for Sri followed by prayer for him.  Sri has now left Dubai searching for the next step in his journey with Christ.  We will, and already do, certainly miss this dear friend and brother.  He has meant and continues to mean so much to so many people.