This Friday, we had a FRY day. Everything from our middle school room to our new element T-shirts just smelled… lovely.

But before that, we had a chance to review and thank God for 2018 and pray as we look forward to 2019 in an interactive way!

On Friday we watched a live talk show on the meaning of Christmas, hosted by Tabby and Levia! And afterwards celebrated our Element MS Christmas Party with a gift exchange extravaganza.

After church, we had an opportunity to volunteer at an organization called Keen or City Team Oakland. Here’s what some of us learned from this experience!

“At City Team we helped pack lunches for people who are homeless. I learned that City Team does so much to help people who are in need.” - Nathan Lee

“On Sunday we went to Keen where we played sports with kids who have disabilities. It was fun. One thing I learned is that everyone is valuable regardless of having a disability or not.” - Timmy Tung

This year, I was one of the message givers for the Angel Tree Christmas Party. Me and Ellen worked really hard to make the message clear and understandable, so that our guests would be able to learn about the gospel and the true meaning of Christmas. We ended up having 4 adults and 4 kids (including a baby), and our time together was fun and memorable. The best part of being at the party was getting to know the kids and becoming friends with them, even though you only knew them for a day. We all had a lot of fun, and I can't wait to do it again next year; to see new and old faces and make connections with new people that need to know who God is.

By: Mikaela Fitz

Last Friday, Alex, Andy, and Johnny (via video) gave us a talk about the existence of God. We split into three groups, and they each gave their piece of the talk, as they explained that the universe had a beginning, a designer, and an author.

Later, Tim led us in a series of Braveheart games at Bladium.

Both the teams were given a secret component... a vegetable. We also got (foam) swords we could use to "kill" anyone. 

This post was brought to you by - Rebecca Choi

This Sunday we ended our last Element Ops session by showcasing all that we learned!

Our sound team was doing all their work in the background, of course.

And our video crew surprised Emily with a heartfelt Thank You Video!

This week we partnered up to purchase and pack Christmas gifts for children in third world countries. We wrote letters to share with them the greatest gift of all, the gospel!

This Friday we started off the night with our annual Thanksgiving Party!

Afterwards, Kristen and Alison led us in ice breaker games!

After Alpha, we ended the night with Thanksgiving themed skits and lots of laughter :)

This weekend, every ministry from our church, from our Joyland children’s ministry to the Elderly Care Ministry, gathered to share and appreciate how God has been working in us this year!

Middle School debuted our middle school praise band before the congregation, playing, jumping, and singing our hearts out to “This is Living”. The whole church joined us in being Young and Free!

HS, MS, and AYM, sang to our rendition of “You will be Found” expressing our gratitude that God has found us, and proclaiming our faith in God who can also find the many youth in our generation who feel lost and alone.

This week Jacob, Jacob, and Jesse (J cubed) addressed the question, “Why would a good God send people to Hell?”

Afterwards we had our very first Element MS Pumpkin Derby!