Music, fun, and TOMS! Let’s get together to express ourselves and help children in need by customizing our own blank, canvas TOMS. Invite friends and family too! The event is May 14th but we need to order our shoes by April 25th! Please place your order and submit your money for your white canvas TOMS to Jeff Partain or Redlands Church of Christ by April 25th to receive the low price of $30 per pair. That includes shipping! If purchased after April 25th, the price is $40 and we cannot guarantee they will arrive by the May 14th event date. With every pair of TOMS you purchase, TOMS will give a new pair of shoes to a child in need. Learn more about TOMS shoes at Toms.com!

Please complete the form and return ASAP to Jeff Partain. If submitting a check for payment, please make out to Redlands Church of Christ.

Why Shoes #1
In some developing nations, children must walk for miles to school, for clean water and to seek medical help.

Why Shoes #2
Cuts and sores on feed can lead to serious infections.

Why Shoes #3
Often, children cannot attend school barefoot.

Why Shoes #4
In Ethiopia, approximately one million people are suffering from Podoconiosis, a debilitating and disfiguring disease caused by walking barefoot in volcanic soil.

Why Shoes #5
Podoconiosis is 100% preventable with basic foot hygiene and wearing shoes.

(P.S. If you are willing to help sponsor a retreat scholarship, please see Jeff. Any amount will help…$5, $10, or $20 can make a big difference.)

fridge or file drawer ($2). You get a beautiful calendar, and the proceeds will support our youth group. See Jeff or Michelle Partain…

I want to communicate a few things to you parents about this study. I am excited and a little nervous to start this study. Nervous because I truly want it to be a powerful and important experience for your teens. I have been studying and collecting material on the topic of sex and continue to be convincted about God’s plan for sex. I think this will probably be one of THE most important studies I’ve done with the kids while I have been youth minister. It’s looking like this is going to be a 4-part study (so we’ll have 1 lesson per month). And for one lesson in particular (probably the 3rd one) I’m looking to split the boys and girls into separate groups with separate locations.

The resources I have been studying and will be drawing from for this study are:
“The Power of Sex: Helping Students Understand God’s Plan for Sex” by Doug Fields
“Sex & Dating: A Bible Study for Youth Groups” by Michael and Hayley Dimarco
“Good Sex: A Whole-Person Approach to Teenage Sexuality and God” by Jim Hancock & Kara Eckmann Powell

I wanted to share this with you because this is not a subject I am treating lightly. I hope you will strongly encourage your teen to attend and will discuss with your teen what is talked about and presented. When I was growing up I felt like I had a great relationship with my parents and remember talking very openly with my father about sex. That being said - there were still certain questions that I had that for whatever reason I felt uncomfortable about going to my own father with first. I thank God for my youth minister (Steve Smith!) and that I had a Godly mentor with whom I could ask those questions.

The activity for this weekend will be a dinner and movie night Saturday night at 5:00 at the church building. There was talk of a potential trip to Magic Mountain scheduled for this Saturday, but to be honest, I don’t think we quite have the money in the youth fund to pull it off at this time. And after being gone for so long, I think it would be good to just hang out with the teens and have fun together. I’m looking forward to it!

On Sunday, September 25th, we will have a fundraiser LUNCH. Yup, you read that correct. Carol Parks and I are organizing a spaghetti lunch for the entire church. Because of this we will NOT be starting our Bible study on ‘God’s Plan for Sex’ that Sunday. We will begin that Bible study on Sunday, October 4th. I will let you know how you parents and teens can help for our spaghetti lunch.

Our row of seats in the terrace section.

Finally smiling in the shade!

This was the view from our seats - no zoom being used here…

Phil Wickham and his band putting on a great performance with the sun beaming down on them.

Sophie standing up and clapping along to Jars of Clay.

Yup, that’s Jars of Clay down there on the stage - the video screens on the sides helped.

Dan and Steve working the crowd.