Tonight is our last night for Wednesday night IMPACT! In order to celebrate the year we will be having our very own amazing race in downtown Zeeland. Students will be on teams and will follow hints to complete tasks. Thank you to all the parents who have volunteered to help out! The team who completes the most tasks at the end of the time, will win a prize! This should be a fun night. 

After Spring Break, on April 12, 19 and 26 we will be having Highway 56 which is a program for current 5th-6th graders. We will meet in the youth center from 6-8pm, eat pizza, have a devotional time and then have time to hang out and allow students and leaders to get to know each other. On April 19 we will head to BAM! for a night of bowling and fellowship. We ask that students meet in the parking lot at 5:30pm. We will eat pizza at BAM and be back in the parking lot at 8pm. The cost for this event is $10. 

Safe travels if you are heading out for spring break!

Scoggan, one of our IMPACT leaders and Intern here at First, will be sharing his story with students this Wednesday! Our stories are powerful because we get to proclaim the gospel through them. Students will have the chance to think about their story and how Jesus has impacted their lives. They will then practice sharing their story with one other person in their small group. Feel free to ask them about the process we walk through to express one's story in 3 minutes by answering 3 questions and encourage them to practice sharing their story with you! 

Next week is our last night of IMPACT for the school year, can you believe it?! To celebrate this semester we will be running an 'Amazing Race' in downtown Zeeland. Many of you have volunteered to help run stations and we are so grateful that you are stepping in, thank you! Students are more than welcome to invite friends to join us for this fun night of celebration!

Highway 56 will be starting up after spring break on April 12, 19 and 26. This is for current 5th and 6th graders to get to know each other and the leaders. More details coming soon!

The 5th graders will be joining us tonight to meet leaders and get a taste of what IMPACT is like on a Wednesday night! We are on our last checkpoint which is "Meaningful Friendships". We will talk about how our friends or the people we spend our time with, will effect the quality and direction of our lives. Students, and people in general, have a deep desire to be known and accepted by others. Because of this we don't always choose the wisest people to spend their time with. It can be easy to try and justify the behavior of our friends by not partaking in the activities or choices being made by the group but by just being around. At some point though, we will face consequences. We will look at Proverbs 13:20 to discuss this point. This passage says, "He who walks with the wise grows wise, but a companion of fools suffers harm". We will talk about how our judgement can sometimes be clouded when we allow fitting in and feeling accepted to be our focus rather than be with people who make wise choices. You can ask your son or daughter what qualities they want in their friends, how they have chosen the people they spend their time with and if they feel there are any friends who are making unwise choices that maybe they should create some space from. Friendships are a big part of middle school students lives and are greatly influential so this is an important conversation we will have tonight.  

Chris Zeller will be our guest teacher this week as we discuss how we are made in God's image and how sex is a part of that, even though we don't always talk about it. This lesson comes from our greater In God's Image curriculum that all of our children and youth here at First Church are taught. In God's Image is a whole-person approach to educate our children and youth about human sexuality.

Our lesson on Wednesday will focus how we are made in God's Image (Genesis 1:27 & Psalm 139: 13-16), where we learn about sex, what God has to say about sex (John 8). Students will be filling out a questionnaire titled, "Where Did You Learn about Sex" and this along with discussing how God created us will be what is talked about in small groups. If you have any questions or concerns please let me know! [christy@frcz.org]