Summer Break is now OFFICIALLY over, and the Fall semester is upon us!

Just wanted to congratulate all of you who participated in the Summer Challenge and practiced using your time wisely and being a servant this past break! Be sure to remember those verses and recite them to yourselves regularly so that you don't forget them!

For those of you who went on the Mexico Mission Trip, we hope that you'll always treasure what you learned there about God and how He wants us all to be ministers of the precious gospel He's entrusted to us. May that empower you to be bold and courageous on each of your respective middle school campuses!  

Looking forward to the upcoming year!

Joshua 1:9

Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be frightened, and do not be dismayed, for the Lord your God is with you wherever you go.

We had a blast with you guys this past Friday during our Brother's/Sister's Night!

The guys drove out to Anthony Chabot Regional Park, where they had small group time, learned how to build a fire, and roasted sausages. The 6th grade boys were challenged with Ecclesiastes 4:12 to be brothers to one another and stand firm in their faith together, the 7th grade boys focused on Matthew 5:16 in letting their good works shine before others, and the 8th grade boys were challenged with 2 Corinthians 5:17 to be new creations.

The girls stayed at HB and learned about the importance of having a growth mindset as opposed to a fixed mindset when thinking about their skills, intelligence, and character. Afterwards, they had a Dessert Iron Chef competition, where each team of girls competed to make the most awesome sushi platter out of candy and rice krispie treats!

The guys demonstrated their dominance over fire and proceeded to roast meat over it in the typical male fashion.

The girls gathered to watch a TED talk about having a growth mindset. They learned that not only is this mindset important in daily life, but it's also essential for persevering through discouragements and setbacks they face in their spiritual life too. Some of the staff shared about their own struggles to grow in the areas of drawing, learning Photoshop, playing the violin, and cultivating a prayer life.

Afterwards, the girls faced their greatest opponent yet: a cranky grandma with a fixed mindset! Each grade of girls had to try to convince Grandma why it wasn't too late to start learning and growing, even in her old age!

Afterwards, the girls jumped into the Iron Chef sushi competition!

All of the results were PRETTY AWESOME...and delicious.

Congrats to everyone who completed the Summer Challenge! We had a lot of fun at Great America with you guys!

We're super proud of everyone who kept up with DTs, memorized verses, read a book about a Christian hero, and practiced servanthood at home by doing laundry, washing dishes, and vacuuming! You guys really made good use of your time this summer!

Keep up the good work! Hope to see you again next year!

This past Sunday we prepared for our monthly visit to a local convalescent home to share God's love with some of the residents! Thanks everyone for your hard work!

We learned how to make tissue paper flowers to give to the residents during our visit! Each flower had the verse Romans 8: 1-2 attached to it, so that we could share with the residents the good news that faith in Christ can set them free from the punishment of sin

Afterwards, we practiced singing the song "Lord I Lift Your Name On High," which talks about how Christ came to the earth to save us with his death on the cross and resurrection, inspiring us to praise Him and lift His name up wherever we go.

Our very own Element students supplied the background music! 

Don't forget the hand motions! 

We're thankful that you guys are growing in love for the elderly! Excited for our next ECM visit!

I don't know about you, but I thought the summer breakaway this past week was packed with pure awesomeness, coolness, funness, and other great things that end with "-ness"! But seriously though, this year's summer breakaway was a highlight for so many of us. Not only did we play some ridiculously fun games and get our blood pumping with aerobics, but we also learned about the amazing and extravagant love that God has for us through the parable of the prodigal son. Many of us committed to strengthening and honoring our relationship with God at this retreat; now that we're back in good ol' Bay Area, let's spur each other on to love God and love other people!

Anyways, here are a few snapshots of what our retreat, we'll hopefully show a really cool video recap at our Sunday service!

It may be hard to tell from this picture, but the 8th grade boys climbed 65 feet up a tree, and then jump off the platform to catch a trapeze bar hanging about 5 feet away. No wonder this course was called "Leap of Faith"...

Our very own MS staff gave the messages based on the parable of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15. Lots of us were impacted by just how merciful and compassionate God is to us. 

Small group times were a great opportunity to recap the messages and pray over the themes.

Don't forget about the fun games we played! The "Blanket Game" is always a classic. Somehow, participants always end up dressing up like desert nomads...

Another good ol' classic is Tug of War. Here, the guys pump themselves up to defeat their archnemesis: the girls...

Well, things didn't go according to the boys' plan. As you can tell from this picture, the girls celebrate wildly over their overpowering defeat of the boys team. It was like watching Germany playing against Brazil in the semifinals...

Hopefully you can join us next time! Keep your eyes open for our winter retreat in a couple months!

You may have heard about the epic Element Summer challenge that we're doing as a group this summer!  Hope you will all participate so that you can enjoy a summer of rich growth in your relationship with God & growth in your character (not to mention a free trip to Great America!)

For those of you who missed it, here's an updated check-off calendar to help you with the challenge:

//DOWNLOAD THE CHECK-OFF CALENDAR HERE//

If you need a copy of the Summer Challenge, you can find it on the Summer Challenge page HERE>>

If you have any questions, please ask your teachers! We're in this with you guys!

The Mexico mission team returned from our 1-week trip safe and sound on Monday. Pretty much all the students and teachers agreed that it felt like both a really short and really long week. A lot of us wished that we could have stayed longer to serve in Mexico!

Anyways, I'm sure you're dying to see some pictures of our action-packed week, so here we go!

Before we left for the long drive down to Mexico, we prepared fun skits and dances and learned how to make meaningful arts and crafts.

The different colored beads represent various milestones in our lives. For example, the red represents the blood of Jesus shed on the cross for us, and the white represents the new life we have in Christ!

We definitely worked out our leg muscles by practicing our Joyland songs!

Oh man, the food at Ensenada was awesome! Many of us went for seconds (some people went for thirds and fourths...).

Starting off the morning with Proverbs. Definitely a great book about finding wisdom

Part of our training was learning how to build makeshift shelters using very little resources. It was an eye-opening experience for us to see how many of the Mexican people lived.

Finally, we headed out to the fields to meet people and tell them about the gospel!

A lot of outreach involved running outside and playing tag. It was definitely hot weather, but we really pushed ourselves to create a fun atmosphere for the kids!

A lot of our ministry also included picking up the trash in the area. Some of the local children chipped in to help.

One of the exciting projects we took was building up an outhouse from scratch! As you can see here, Daniel is painting the windows.

Our finished product! Happy that we were able to provide sanitation for the colonia.

Our skits were both funny and poignant! The audience enjoyed watching our performances.

Of course, we performed our famously fun dances for the kids to enjoy! As you can see here, "Amazing Love" never fails to get the crowd dancing.

The week felt both really long and short. We're grateful for the YWAM staff giving us this opportunity to serve in Mexico!

Well, that gives you a tiny glimpse into the action-packed week we had in Mexico. Thank you so much for praying for us! It was definitely a powerful time where God worked not only in the Mexican people's hearts, but also in our own. We hope that you join us next year!

If you need a soft copy, the DT Journal for this week is now available for download!

Download MIDDLE SCHOOL Devotion Journal for June 23 - June 28 »

On Friday, the teachers prepared a delicious BBQ dinner for us at Godfrey Park. Afterwards, we played soccer, heard a special talk from Teacher Steve about how we can use our time wisely in the summer by loving God and serving others, and sent off our 8th graders with customized farewell frames!

MmMmMm melted cheese and meat...

The food got demolished!

Some students pulled some World Cup-worthy moves during the sports time!

Afterwards, Teacher Steve gave us a rousing talk on making the most of our summer through serving the people in our lives and learning more about God. Let's all spur each other on to finish the Summer Challenge!

After Steve's talk, we got into our small groups and wrote down one thing we learned in Element and one thing that we were thankful for this past year.

To end the night, we passed out photo frames to the 8th graders to congratulate them on graduating middle school. 

Thanks for all your hard work, 8th graders! We'll miss you!

Element MS Mexico mission trip is only two weeks away, and in preparation for it, we've been spending every Sunday in May and June doing our devotionals, praying, training and getting our hearts ready to serve others in Mexico.

This past Sunday, we went around to different stations with different prayer cards. We spent time lifting up prayers for our upcoming trip. Here's an example of some prayer cards:

We're excited to be going! Please pray for us to grow in heart and concern for the people that we'll meet in Mexico!