This past Friday, we went to Castro Valley for a fun time of bowling altogether. At the end, we had a surprise challenge of Bingo Bowling! Teams had to do different things while they bowled in order to get a bingo. 

Check out the below pictures:

Join us on Friday for a fun time of bowling with Element MS! We'll meet together at 1255 Harbor Bay Parkway at 6pm. See you Friday!

Link to Element Waiver (just for newcomers): HERE

Link to Bowling Permission slip (for everyone): HERE

See the below flyer for details:

Time to introduce another cool, new thing we've been doing in Element MS! Recently these past two weeks, we've been building up our Bible knowledge in a fun and competitive way, by hosting a game of Bible Jeopardy on our Element Fridays.

We're going through the Old Testament. So far we've done Genesis and Exodus, and this upcoming Friday we'll go through Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. Each Element staff gives a short intro for a section of the Old Testament, and then students have some time to study the material. 

After studying, it's finally on - game time! Come join us this upcoming Friday for the final game of Bible Jeopardy, and see which team will win the final Jeopardy! Check out the below pictures of the Middle Schoolers playing it up:

Wanted to showcase a cool new thing we've been doing in Element - our brand new training program, Element Ops! 

For the next two months, college sophomores from Berkeley are hosting a variety of classes such as Vocals, Drums II, Art, etc. 

One class I wanted to showcase is a very important one for our middle schoolers - CODING!

Check out the below pictures of our future Google employees:

On 9/15, Element went to one of the world's most exciting cities... San Francisco, of course. :)

It was a really exciting time as we went to Pier 39 and tried out the 7D's experience and mirror maze. The 7D's provided thrills as we played a laser-blasting game simulation, and one of our youth leaders Jacob Chi even got 5th in Best Players of All Time! The mirror maze was extremely trippy, as we weren't sure what was a hallway and what was a wall - I myself, admittedly bumped into a wall a few times.

Everyone had a fun time, and we hope you can join us on our next outing!

On September 8, we kicked off the new school year with our MS Welcome Night! It was a great and fun night where our middle schoolers put on good food for dinner, a skit and message about identity and fitting in, and played volleyball and ate desserts. We wanted to start off the school year by inviting other people to come check out our group, and learn about what God might have to say. 

Overall, it was warm time of bonding and fellowship, as well as a time of thinking about what we're all seeking in life and how true it is that God's love is the only thing that satisfies. We hope that newcomers can be encouraged to check out Element and hear from God!

Hi everyone,

We're gonna kick off the new school year with a bang! This upcoming Friday night (9/15), Element MS is having a trip to San Francisco. We'll have a fun time of checking out the pier, touring other sites, and eating yummy desserts.

If you'd like to join us, we'll leave from 1255 Harbor Bay Parkway at 6:40pm. Please bring your permission slip and $10! Come to the Middle School room at 6:30pm, and we'll leave together for a fun night.

Is it easy to fool yourself? We think so. This past Friday, we listened to an important message on James 1:19-25 where we heard all the ways that it is possible for people to fool themselves - we think we're okay, we're good, we're better than others, but all along we're blind to the ways we fall short.

Our staff Eric Choi shared on his experiences when he realized he was fooling himself, and needed God's Word to set him straight. It's only through listening to and obeying God's Word that we see the truth, and the truth sets us free. However, we can easily dismiss God's Word and become like impenetrable missiles that don't let anything sink through! At the end of the message, there was a convicting activity where people wrote on paper what prevents them from obeying God's Word, and "disarmed" that thought by wrapping it around a nerf gun piece and dropping it.

And lastly, we ended the night with another obstacle course! This time about listening and obeying instructions. Our students had a fun time and they got the point of the lesson.

"But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like. But the one who looks into the perfect law, the law of liberty, and perseveres, being no hearer who forgets but a doer who acts, he will be blessed in his doing." - James 1:22-25

How do you grow in faith? When you go through trials!

This was a lesson the middle schoolers learned last Friday as we heard a message on James 1 by Misha. The message discussed how going through trials produces steadfastness, and that steadfastness leads to joy in the end because you come out with deeper faith and understanding. Our middle schoolers were challenged not to avoid the trials in life, but embrace them.

Before the message, the middle schoolers got to try this out by going through an obstacle course! The Element staff put together an obstacle course in the gym to teach the students that life is full of trials that we get to go through together. It was a fun and athletic Friday for sure!

Our Element middle schoolers had a packed summer, so let's recap it all!

FIRST, we started this summer off strong with our Element MS Summer Retreat (6/15-6/18) at Camp Alta. It was a wonderful weekend of bonding as we played fun games, ate good food,, gathered together to listen to messages, and even went on an exciting night hike!

The theme of our retreat was Revolution as our middle schoolers were encouraged to fight against society's low expectations of teenagers and spark a revolution of change. Many students made renewed commitments to God, and we had 4 people make first time decisions to accept Jesus as their Lord and Savior! PTL!

Pictures below from our summer retreat:

 With fresh commitments and renewed love for the gospel, we headed straight into our Mexico mission trip (6/22-6/30). We partnered with YWAM and got to bond as we did outreach together - we did a wide variety of activities ranging from: visiting orphanages and playing with kids, visiting rehab centers, performing skits outdoors, street evangelism, and even cleaned pig stalls!

One highlight from the week was that some middle schoolers performed a skit outside Walmart depicting our heart's need for Jesus. Afterwards, 4 people that watched the skit were really moved and came forward to accept the invitation to become Christian! Wow, it was truly God at work.

Pictures below from our Mexico mission trip:

And lastly, we ended the summer with a fun trip to the Great America amusement park! This was a reward for our middle schoolers who successfully completed our summer challenge. Students had to do different things like memorize Psalms, Hymns, help out with chores around the house, read books about Christian missionaries, and other things in order to grow in their faith.

We were proud of all our students who gave it a try, and those who completed it had a fun time at Great America!

Pictures below from our Great America trip:

Looking back, it's hard to believe everything that happened this past summer. However, we're all thankful for the ways God led us and helped us grow in our faith. The middle schoolers were challenged in many ways, and are now ready to head into the new school year looking forward to what God has in store!