This Wednesday our students gathered together in the Xchange for our annual Christmas celebration.  It was a really fun night with both middle school and high school students.  Fortunately, it was cold outside so our students were able to get in the Christmas mood with some hot chocolate, apple cider, and lots of Christmas snacks!  One of the Christmas classics, Elf, was on the big screen while students decorated the tree and hung out in the Xchange. 

Once everyone had a cup of cocoa, everyone participated in a Gingerbread House Decorating Contest.  We had one house for every grade (6^th – 12th) and lots of candy and icing.  We gave everyone 25 minutes and let them go to town decorating gingerbread houses that will be on display during Christmas at Tallowood in a few weeks. 

Overall, each grade had some really creative houses, but the winning house was the seniors’ house (which had a little help from some battery operated lights – some cried cheating, but I say it is just the senior advantage!)  It was really cool to see what they came up with.

After everyone got cleaned up, we met around the Christmas tree and sang Christmas carols and read scripture.  We ended the night with a challenge from Rebecca to let our light shine to those around us, especially around the holidays.

It was a really fun night.  Now if only I could have eaten one of those gingerbread houses…

 -Micah

I am so excited because last night our youth staff spent a few hours with some adult leaders for Passion 2010 which will be held in Atlanta right after the holidays.  Passion is a ministry for college students led by Louie Giglio that has seen God do some pretty amazing things through them.  Passion has organized and hosted different kinds of gatherings in the past 20 years or so including OneDay, the Passion Conference, and the Passion World Tour.

This year, well technically next year, Passion is hosting Passion 2010, a four day conference (January 2-5, 2010) to gather college students from around the world in worship and prayer, instilling in them a passion for God and a desire to live all of life for His Glory.  This will be an amazing few days as students experience huge worship gatherings with as many as 20,000 people and then more intimate community and family groups that are as small as 8 people.  There will be some pretty amazing pastors and worship leaders too (Andy Stanley, Francis Chan, Beth Moore, David Crowder Band, Hillsong United, Chris Tomlin, Kristian Stanfill, and lots of others).

It is pretty exciting to be a part of all of this and to see how God is moving.  Jerome has recruited some amazing people to serve together at this conference as community group lead hosts and it will be great to reconnect with some old friends I haven’t seen in a while.  Laura and I are pumped to be able to serve at Passion together and to be able to recruit some old friends of our own too – we have some friends coming to Atlanta from LA to be a part of our community group team.  I can’t wait to serve all those college students with them!

Anyway, registration closes soon, so if you are a college aged student, get on it and go register NOW!

If you want to know a bit more, check out their promo video, below.

-Micah

Hey guys!

Not sure how many of you are on twitter, but you should totally check out Jerome’s tweets.  You can venture into the mind of J-Rome at http://twitter.com/TallowoodJerome.

Check it out… and become a follower.  He loves that!

-Micah

Laser tag, pizza, basketball, video games, a movie, and 130 middle school students…  What more could you ask for?  Our students had a blast at the first ever Fallapalooza this past Friday night.  Instead of the annual middle school retreat, we decided to try something new and have a one night middle school blowout at the Tallowood Center.  So, we dressed in tie-dye and peace signs in order to set the tone, and then students from all over Houston came to be together, have fun, and hear about Christ. 

We started the night with all you can eat pizza and soft drinks and then we all gathered together to hear a message from God’s Word.  After that, every student got a chance to play laser tag inside the Tallowood Center, which is normallya place for Bible study, worship, and office work.  It was an awesome opportunity to run around and play in an area that is usually used for completely different purposes.  Also, Battlefield Houston did an outstanding job of bringing in everything we could need to make laser tag in the Tallowood Center memorable (including lots of blow up buildings and barricades).

As students waited to play laser tag, they kept themselves more than entertained in the Xchange with basketball, Beatles Rock Band, ping pong, pool, more video games, and other activities.  Once every student, and even a few high school and adult sponsors, played laser tag everyone gathered in the Xchange for a movie and popcorn. 

At 11:30 pm, it was all over and students disappeared as quickly as they came.  But it was an amazing night to get to know new students and to continue to invest in students we see all the time.

Jerrell Altic from Houston’s First Baptist Church will be be leading us.

We will meet at 5:00 p.m., Friday, November 20th, on Tallowood’s main campus in Fellowship Hall East & eat pizza before heading west to Camp Tejas! The weekend will be filled with group Bible study, worship, food, Mud Football (an optional tradition), & lots of time to hang out with friends.

We will return to Tallowood by 10:00 p.m. Saturday night.

The cost is $79 and you can sign-up online at www.tallowood.org.

Note: All participants must have a current MEDICAL RELEASE FORM & Camp Tejas Release Form.

Questions? Contact Claire Elliott in the Student Ministry Office, (713) 468-8241 x8165 or celliott@tallowood.org.

On Saturday, September 26th, we are having an awesome Girls Event led by some of our own high school girls.  “What He Sees” is for all high school and middle school girls.  Come to the Xchange from 11 am to 2 pm to hear  Kathryn West and Emily Josey share what God has been teaching them about image and how He sees you as a girl. 

It will be a pretty awesome day, so come out and bring your friends.  And bring $5 for lunch too! 

Check out the facebook event and be sure to RSVP!

This Wednesday night, all middle school and high school students will meet together for a combined Impact and ReFuel at 7:30 pm. Doug Taylor, a former student minister and a great friend of Micah and Laura Cating, will share about his call to serve as a missionary in Arua, Uganda.  You won’t want to miss it!  Check out more info on Facebook.

And as always, you can come to the Xchange at 7 pm to hang out before we meet.  

The Taylor family.

Promotion weekend was awesome!

It is so great to see students full of energy walk, and sometimes run, into their new classrooms to meet the youth leaders that will live life alongside them for the next year. This was a day that we have been praying about for a number of weeks, and it went even better than we could have imagined. We are now even more excited about the year ahead as we learn more about His word and the life He has called us to lead.

I found a few pics of our group on the Student Life website! You can look for more here…

Looks like they had a great week!

work project sorting clothes

We are in Sherman, TX for Student Life Mission Camp with some of our 8th grade students.

Our group is spending the afternoons serving at a local shelter where we sort clothing donations. We’re working outside so it is hot but we are enjoying the time together.

Check out www.studentlife.com and click on find your student to see more and even listen to the worship services.

-Micah