Once again Fusion youth are leading the congregation in a collection of items to share God's love through making Easter baskets for kids in need. Donations are due March 29th and we will stuff baskets that same afternoon 12-12:30.

The nerf blast was a blast!

Fusion helped lead activities during today's epiphany party. After hearing the story of the Magi from the Bible the children made crowns becoming Wisemen and Wisewomen. We helped them travel along a life size board game following the Star of Bethlehem. Along the way we helped them decorate cookies and wrap a gift for Jesus before reaching the final destination- the cross at the alter.

Today we discussed James 2:14-17 after watch a clip from Batman Begins. In the movie clip, Bruce Wayne and his friends have just gone swimming in the fountain of a fancy hotel. Bruce runs into his old friend, Rachel and is a little embarrassed. He tells her this isn't really who he is. He's still the same guy he used to be. Rachel tells him that "it's what you do that defines you".

In the verses of James that we read, it says the same thing: faith that doesn't show itself through actions is no faith at all. It's useless.

We talked about how we show our faith through our actions. The youth came up with great ideas including going to church, helping others, being nice and standing up for another kid if they are being bullied.

This afternoon we talked about how youth group should be a safe place. A place where we can all come and be free to be ourselves without worrying about people being mean or making fun of us.

We decided since we want it to be that way, maybe we should do somethings to make sure it is that way.

Our activity today showed one thing we can do to make our youth group a safe place to be. During our game, we divided into two teams. The goal was to have each team member take down and rebuild their team's tower before the other team. But, when it was your turn, you could either build your tower or use your turn throw a ball to knock down the other team's tower.

After the activity we talked about how frustrating it was when someone knocked down your tower. We thought about how nice it was when our friends cheered us on. By playing the game, we learned that even though it might have seemed easier to knock down the other team's tower, that didn't really help win the game.

We made the connection between the tower game and how we can use our words to build each other up or tear each other down. We looked in the Bible and read Ephesians 4:29 and discovered God wants us to build each other up with kind words. The group decided, since we want our youth group to be a safe positive place to be, we are going to work hard to only use kind words with others, especially at youth group. :)

Fusion youth had a blast at today's youth group. We did a lot of playing and getting to know each other. We also did a post it note flurry to help come up with some expectations for how to treat each other, fun activities we'd like to do and ideas for service projects.

We have an opportunity to attend the Oct 5th Titans game with First Lutheran Nashville.  A tailgate will begin around 10:30.  Tickets will be $36.  It is possible to fundraise to alleviate some of the cost for the youth. 

And, as always, it's church policy that no one will be left out due to inablilty to pay.  The beginning of the school year can be especially expensive and things can add up quick for families with more than one youth.  Please contact Pastor or Christina privately is we can help make it possible for your youth to attend.

Families and church members without youth are welcome!  This is a youth ministry event, so we will provided chaperones and transportation for youth not attending with their families.

Please give me a tentative yes or no today!