Sometimes We Forget

Sometimes we forget: special dates, important facts, and even where we are going from time to time!  I was listening to the radio a few days ago and the DJs were talking about a recent study of the mind.  In the study the researchers found the part of the brain that holds short term memory is very small, so small that we can only hold 7 short term facts at a time!  This explains a lot!  I am sure for you as well!  It amazes me the things that can slip from my mind each day!  They went on to talk about how important it is to take those important “we must not forget” things and store them in our long term memory!  I got to thinking about all that is stored in my long term memory, the song lyrics, the memories, the Biblical truths I have learned throughout the years, the people I cherish!  So much I hope to hold on to for the rest of my life, and some well, that probably should have slipped out long ago! Who really needs to know the lyrics to Achy Breaky Heart!

It’s hard to believe but sometimes we even forget the purpose God has given each of us as Christians!  As we are reminded in Matthew 28: 19-20, “Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age.”   Ingrained in every aspect of our lives should flow our desire to glorify the Lord through serving others! This is what we call missions!  This is what we should call life!  Each day we should wake up and think how I can share the love of Christ with the lost world today.  It’s a challenge.  Life happens every day, we don’t live in a place or time where we have the luxury to sit for hours and contemplate how we can change the world!  We must get up and at it and change the world in the process!  What we do have is the blessing of the Holy Spirit working among us, preparing the way for His children to be the mouth piece for the gospel.  Let’s train and encourage ourselves to look for places the Holy Spirit is working and jump right in!  It doesn’t have to be moving to Africa, it doesn’t have to be an outreach event that reaches 15,000; it just has to be following the commands of God to share our lives with others in a way that points to Him! 

Congratulations to Alyssa Hargrove from Culleoka, TN for being selected as a 2012 National Acteens Panelist!

5 Reasons Not to Miss Connection 2012!

Looking for a great opportunity for your teen girls, check out Connection this spring! Connection is a missions conference for girls in grades 7th through 12th held in Gatlinburg each year. Girls will experience a weekend of worship, fellowship, conferences and much more! The theme this year is Not Ashamed and girls will learn how to live their faith boldly, sharing the love of Christ with others! Still not convinced, here are 5 reasons your girls shouldn’t miss Connection 2012:

1. Fellowship! Not only will girls bond with the group they come with but will have many opportunities to meet girls from around the state. There is something amazing about fellowshipping and worshipping with hundreds of other girls that blossoms friendships!

2. Missions! This is the heartbeat of Connection. Ingrained in every aspect flows our desire to glorify the Lord through serving others!

3. Conferences! Girls have 7 opportunities to hear from missionaries as well as other missions leaders who will teach the girls how they can be more missional.

4. Other teens recommend it!

            “I always enjoy Connection and learning something new each time! It helps me to listen to what God is saying to me.”  Lydia Huggins, Junior, Erwin, TN


            “I always am encouraged by the older girls and women who lead the conferences. They're all so on fire for the Lord and that just makes me wanna be on fire too!” Alyssa Hargrove, Senior, Culleoka, TN


            “I loved Connection because of the worship, conferences, and learning about ministries like Sweet Sleep! Alison Ferguson, 8th grader, Bon Aqua, TN  

5. Fun, fun, fun! Although the missional worship, fellowship, and learning are the coolest part of Connection, the truth is it’s a lot of fun! Don’t believe us, check it out yourselves!!

“So do not be ashamed to testify about our Lord…” 2 Timothy 1:8

Tell us what you have learned by participating in a mission trip?

by Brooke Cole
2011-2012 Acteens State Panelist

           Over the summer, I chose to serve as a summer missionary with the North American Mission Board. I was chosen to serve on the Maryland/Delaware State Traveling Team. Maryland was not my first choice for several reasons. I wanted to serve at a church near my home so that I could visit my parents and friends on the weekends. When I first found out that I was going to Maryland, I was a bit disappointed (in fact, I think I cried). Two months was a really long time to be gone, and I wasn’t even sure where Maryland was! I seriously considered not going on the trip. I was scared. After a lot of thought and prayer, I decided that God chose me for this trip for a reason and that I was going to trust Him every step of the way.

            When the morning came for me to leave, we packed up the car with my two duffel bags that I would be surviving with for two months. Saying good-bye to my parents was no easy task, but I managed. Then I waited all alone for my flight. I was going into uncharted territory, trusting people I had never even met and going places I had never been. I’m a country girl and I was about to enter a very big city. I was the first of my teammates to land in Baltimore. When we had all met one another, I kept thinking that it was going to be a very long summer. Imagine four young women who had never even met spending every moment of their lives together for the next two months. It was a daunting thought. But we survived. We became a family. God has a reason for everything, even if you don’t see the big picture. It is not always easy to put your trust in Him, but I promise, it’s worth it!

Tell us what makes Acteens different from other things in your life church?

by Miko Bloom
  2011-2012 Acteens State Panelists

Acteens is one of the few Youth activites at my church.  Acteens is a place where girls work on projects and take lead of other mission projects.  Acteens is so different because how many places do you know of where teenage girls are put in charge of putting projects together?  Not very many.  When most people see a group of girls working together they usually think they are causing trouble, but at Acteens they are just trying to make the place we live a better place.  Acteens is so differnt in so many ways. Girls working with other girls to build friendships, worship, and service for others. These things can really make a change in our souroundings and the people we encounter everyday.

Tell us what you have learned on Acteens Activator’s Trip

by Alyssa Hargrove

2011-2012 Acteens State Panelists

Last summer I had the opportunity to go to Naples, Italy on a mission trip, along with 59 other people from Tennessee, to share the gospel to the people there. That mission trip really opened my eyes to many different things and changed my heart forever.

Naples is a very large and packed city with four million people in the city. Only a small percentage is Christians, while most people are Catholic. Most of the people are Catholic because of their ancestors, not necessarily because they want to be. It’s just as if that’s the common thing to be there. The families there are so close that when one becomes a Christian they almost get disowned from their families. Unlike us, where most people would be excited for us. This really opened my eyes because I’m very close to my family. I would be sad to think my own family would disown me for making the best decision of my life.

When in Italy my only fear was the language barrier. I knew very little Italian. I almost felt weak. How can God use me to witness to these people? God really did prove me wrong! Even though we didn’t speak the same language, we understood one another in some way! And even if we never understood each other, I know the Italians saw Jesus’ love through us.

I learned that God can use me! I just have to be willing to let Him use me.

Connection 2012

We are well on our way planning for Connection 2012!  I look forward to what God will do in each girls life that attends!  If you have never been before this is the year to start!  Leigh Gray will share with us from her heart during Bible Study and Cindy Johnson will lead us in song!  They are both fantastic women of God that will have tranformational things to say! 

Conferences this year are coming together and back by popular demand are leaders like Sarah Valley, who will be taking on a new role as a conference leader, and Jeff and Rachel Henry, and the fabulous Shingletons!  We are expecting great missionary speakers to share with us their experiences from around the world!

Again this year we have the great opportunity to be a part of offering at Connection for the TN WMU to build a missionary house.  Missionary houses are used by career missionaries that are state side in the US! 

Now that you are convinced you have to be there, here is a link to register!!  (or you can just read more information that will help convince you)

Connection Registration and Information

Pictures from last year:

What the TN WMU Acteens Scholarship 2011-2012 Recepient...

 ...has to say about how this scholarship impacted her new college career:

For every high school senior the main priority is figuring out where you want to go to college. Luckily for me, I had known that I wanted to go to Union University for years and I felt that was where Christ wanted me to go, as well! So, after I received my acceptance letter my main priority changed to figuring a way financially for me to attend Union. I am very fortunate enough to have parents that have always been there to support me and help me as much as they can. Yet, I didn’t want my family to have to pay for my entire college education. So in order for me to financially afford college I turned to scholarships! I filled out one scholarship after another and I prayed every night that those scholarships would be enough! Then a day or two after returning from Connection in Gatlinburg, I was starting to contemplate on whether I should find a cheaper college because I wasn’t sure if the scholarships I had received were going to be enough. But then I got a call from my Acteens leaders and she said, “Sara! You got the Acteens Scholarship!” “Thank you, God!” was all I could say after that phone call. Luckily, after I received the Acteens scholarship several more came filing in. God had answered my prayers; He just wanted me to be patient.

Once September rolled around, I was thankful to say that I was a freshman at Union University. Union is a fantastic college and I encourage people all the time to come here. Union has so many opportunities for college students and there are so many charming people. Two of which are my roommates, Rachel Hudspeth (who I met through being a panelist) and Paige Eubanks. These two young ladies are two of the nicest, funniest, polite, and Christ-like people I have ever had the chance to meet. They have truly helped make my first semester an awesome one.  I feel that God has a reason for me to attend Union, and that would be for me to gain a closer relationship with Him. Since I am a Biology (Pre-Med) major, I would love to one day go into medical missions and I feel that Union is a great place for me to learn how to do that. I am so thankfully that God allowed me to find a way to go to Union and hopefully He will find ways for many other high school students to attend, as well.

Sara Gatlin, 2011-2012 TN WMU Acteens Scholarship Recepient

Tell about a project your Acteens group has done and what impact it made on you and your community.

By Lydia Huggins
2011-2012 TN WMU State Acteens Panelist

A recent project my Acteens group did was to show our gratitude for veterans for Veteran’s Day. We made cupcakes and thank you cards for the veterans at the Veterans Administration hospital in our city. We wrote encouraging notes on the thank you cards and decorated them with ribbons and stickers. We made regular cupcakes and we also made sugar free cupcakes for the diabetics. After icing the cupcakes and decorating them with American flags, we prayed over the cupcakes and cards. It took a whole afternoon to bake seventy-two cupcakes and two hours to write and decorate seventy-two thank you cards for the veterans that were hospitalized during that time. We spent a few hours at the V.A. hospital visiting each of the veterans. The time and effort it took to bake, write, decorate, and deliver our small gifts to the veterans was worth it when I saw their happiness from our visit.

I enjoyed handing out the cards to the veterans and visiting with them. They greatly appreciated it. Their families and the hospital staff were also glad to see the veterans remembered for their service to our country. We visited with one of the men for a while. He had had many struggles in the past year. Even in the most difficult circumstances, where others would have been sad and depressed, he still praised God and felt blessed. He encouraged us to keep doing good things for people because you never know what God will do and what a difference you can make in someone’s life.

Tell about a project that your Acteens group has done and what impact it made on you and your community.

By Sabrina Thompson
2011-2012 Acteens State Panelist

One recent mission project that our Acteens group has done is Operation Christmas Child. Operation Christmas Child is a ministry of Samaritan’s Purse, where groups or individuals can pack gift boxes to be sent to children all around the world at Christmas. At first we set our goal for 50 boxes. My Acteens group isn't that big so we thought that 50 was a reasonable and achievable number. We started promoting it around the church and asking for donations not only boxes but for the other things we needed. It was the start of football season and our choir director had the bright idea of calling local high schools and getting old boxes from the cleats. By the time our deadline came we had about 300 boxes. We were all really excited about having all these boxes but now we had to come up with the money to pack and ship them. During Sunday morning services we showed little clips about Operation Christmas Child and how these boxes brought so much joy to a child’s life. We eventually raised enough money to pack and ship all 300 boxes. One Saturday we all got together and had a shoebox packing party. We a good time and had amazing fellowship. It’s amazing what faith can do. It turned our little Acteens mission project into a church wide project and let a little church like Black Oak pack 300 shoeboxes. The small everyday things are easily taken for granted but doing things like this is what makes me realize how blessed I really am.