Mike King

TEAM DAY District NYI Youth Worker Training Saturday, February 23rd

Mark your calendars for this valuable opportunity to come together with other youth workers from around our KC district to learn and grow together!  The cost will be $15 which includes lunch .  Click here to register for this great day of training, resourcing and connection.  Below is the great youth worker line up we have for this year...many of these speakers are people who have spoke at national youth ministry conferences, so it's like attending a national conference at a great local ministry price!  Please invite as many youth workers as you know.  Scholarships are available if you know someone in need - Contact Tom Craig at tcraig@olathewestside.org if you or someone you know needs a scholarship to attend.

Peasant's Day Feast on President's Day

                              

On Presidents’ Day, February 18th, as our country remembers the privileged and the powerful, we gather together to honor the peasants and the poor like we did three years ago. Join us for the Peasants’ Day Feast to package thousands of meals that will be shipped to countries experiencing urgent food crises. Together, in fits of passionate action filling bags to boxes, boxes to pallets, and pallets to shipping containers with humble, life-giving feasts, we awaken an imagination of another world, another kingdom, another King. Groups, youthworkers, families, individuals; all are invited to give food and clean water to the poor and powerless. Join us for our Peasants’ Day Feast. Sign up now. Download posters and flyers for this event here. Click these links to learn about Youthfront's Something to Eat™ and Something to Drink™

Have I succeeded?

This morning I read the following quote from Ralph Waldo Emerson. The question, "Have I succeeded?", caught my attention. Sometimes I ponder the reality that 50 years after I die no one will remember who I am. Not trying to be morbid or depressing, it's just the truth.

Everyone is talking about Abraham Lincoln these days. Lincoln played a prominent role in President Obama's recent Inauguration. Hundreds of books have been written about him and a new one has just been released. Stephen Spielberg's recent movie about Abraham Lincoln will soon be winning multiple Oscars at the upcoming Academy Awards. Abraham Lincoln has been dead for nearly 150 years but almost everybody remembers him. Most would agree that he was a very successful person.

A century and a half years from now no one will remember me. So the question, "Have I succeeded?", caused me to ponder. My heart rate quickened as I read Ralph Waldo Emerson's quote. I felt affirmed with each statement he made. The weakest link for me was the "garden patch" comment but I have done a couple rounds of nurturing a flower garden, so I'll leave that in. Based on Ralph Waldo Emerson's opinion, yes, I think I have succeeded.

"To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch, a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded." Ralph Waldo Emerson

HT to MinEmergent for this quote.

Excellent TED talk on Why the Right and Left Can't Get Along and How we Might Move Toward Cooperation and Civility

Peasants' Day Feast 2-18-13

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Peasants' Day Feast 2-18-13

In the midst of our prosperity, we so quickly forget.  Today marks the 3rd anniversary of the earthquake that devastated Haiti.  In the days following, thousands filled Youthfront’s auditorium to pray and to pack thousands of meals that were then shipped to respond to the crisis there. 

On Presidents’ Day, February 18th, as our country remembers the privileged and the powerful, we gather together to honor the peasants and the poor like we did three years ago.  Join us for the Peasants’ Day Feast to package thousands of meals that will be shipped to countries experiencing urgent food crises.  Together, in fits of passionate action filling bags to boxes, boxes to pallets, and pallets to shipping containers with humble, life-giving feasts, we awaken an imagination of another world, another kingdom, another King.

Groups, youthworkers, families, individuals; all are invited to give food and clean water to the poor and powerless.  Join us for our Peasants’ Day Feast.  Sign up now.

Download posters and flyers for this event here.

Click these links to learn about Youthfront's Something to Eat™ and Something to Drink™

Peasant's Day Feast

On Presidents’ Day, Feb. 18, we’re going to be doing a push to have the biggest packing event in Youthfront’s auditorium since the earthquake in Haiti three years ago.  We’re calling it Peasants’ Day Feast.  As our country remembers the privileged and the powerful, we honor the peasants and the poor.  As much of the American church begins its Lenten fast, we chose a different kind of fasting--an Isaiah 58 kind of fast where we loosen the chains of injustice and share our food with the hungry.  

We’re also developing a way for churches to take a Something to Eat assembly line home with them so that their churches and youth groups can practice this “Lenten fast” by packaging meals onsite all the way through Easter.  We’ll also be developing a series of prayers and reflections for each week of Lent that focus on Christ, our spiritual hunger, and the physical hunger experienced by so many worldwide.

Join us on Presidents’ Day, February 18 where hundreds from around the KC metro area will descend upon Youthfront’s auditorium to pack thousands of meals that will be shipped to countries experiencing urgent food crises.  Together, in fits of passionate action filling bags to boxes, boxes to pallets, and pallets to shipping containers with humble, life-giving feasts, we awaken an imagination of another world, another kingdom, another King.  Join us for our Peasants’ Day Feast.

For more information check out the website.

Another Opportunity to Work at Youthfront

Youthfront is currently seeking to hire a maintenance person to join the community at LaCygne. This person must have a unique skill set, be experienced in groundskeeping and maintenance, and also desire to live in community with others. This includes working, praying, and serving together throughout the year. The position includes housing on the 600 acre property and meals for 6 months of the year. If interested, please contact lacygne@youthfront.com , or apply online at https://youthfront.com/about/our-team/staff-application/ . We are hoping to have this position filled by January 18th.

Here is a position description for this role. Download LaCygnePermanentResidentDescription

Marriage Seminar with Grant and Emma Wood

My dear friends Grant and Emma Wood are leading a Marriage Retreat at the Embassy Suites on the Plaza!  Grant and Emma Wood practice at Resonate Clinic. They are amazing, so treat your marriage to this great weekend.

 

The cost of the retreat is $150 and includes an overnight stay at the Embassy Suites plus Breakfast and Lunch on Saturday. Register by Monday, January 14th, 2013. For registration or to get more information email Rachel Reynolds.

Joan Chittister on the Regularity of Prayer

100,000 Meals for Those Who Need Something to Eat

My dear friend and ministry partner Jeremy Affeldt has had another amazing year.  He pitched 10 innings in postseason play, with 10 strikeouts and no earned runs contributing to the San Francisco Giants second World Series Championship in two years.  Recently, Youthfront partnered with Generation Alive and AbleWorks to package 100,000 Something to Eat meals in East Palo Alto.  Check out this TV interview.

Jeremy writes about it (To Stir a Movement); 

If you watched Saturday’s video, you’ll know that we had a Something to Eat event in early December. It was a huge deal for me. It was hard to be away from my family, and hard for my wife since she was alone with our three little boys. But I asked God, and God covered us, man. Her parents came to help, and she flew in to see me.

We had over 400 kids packaging meals that day, to send to Haiti, Guatemala, and the Dominican Republic. We held the event at Cesar Chavez Middle School, in East Palo Alto. The kids were middle school and high school age, plus there were some families that came in with their kids and volunteered to help. We had kids from the College Track program too. We had a whole spectrum. It was really cool.

There were four or five shootings just in the last month in East Palo Alto, and nineteen murders on the year. It’s a very high gang area. And so we saw something awesome that day. We saw these kids come out and show that they still want to love somebody. They showed that they want to find joy in something. This was Jesus.

We had so many people show up that wanted to help, that we couldn’t even put everyone to work. So we asked the kids, “Who wants to take a break?” We had over 400 kids there, and not one of them wanted a break. Nobody volunteered to leave. So we had to have some of the adults step out, because not a single kid volunteered to take a break.

That is a fulfilling thing! One of the captains in the East Palo Alto Police Department came in to check out the event, and he told us, “This is unheard of in this community. This is not normal, what these kids are doing. This is awesome.”

That’s fulfillment for me. That’s part of the smile that I crave from God every day, and I felt it, because I didn’t do anything! I talked to the kids, I encouraged the kids, I helped out a little bit, but those kids did everything. I didn’t package any meals. Maybe I helped out a bit where I was needed, but these kids did the work, man, and they did it with joy. They had fun. I saw the smiles on their faces. I saw encouragement. What an awesome opportunity for these kids! I was just so thankful for it. And the community came together, and adults came in to hang out with these kids. I was so excited to see that. That’s what it’s all about.

I was fulfilled because I got to see 400+ kids package 100,000 meals and realize that they love like Jesus. They used unconditional love. They loved their neighbor as themselves. They fed people they’ve never seen before, and probably never will see, people from Haiti and Dominican Republic and Guatemala that they worked all day packaging food for. And they did it because they said, “We want to help people who are hungry.” Yes. It was Jesus.