As a leader, when your students want to start campus clubs, it can be difficult to know your role, how to resource your students, and what your involvement should be.

Youth Alive has many great resources for you as a leader as you support your students in starting and leading a club on their campus.

One great resource is the website. The site has many free resources ranging from curriculum for students to use in their Bible studies, forums for your students to find support and connect with other students across the country, and resources on the basics of starting a club.

Another great resource is the Campus Clubs Digisource. This CD-ROM is easy to use and provide a wealth of information and ideas for leaders and students.

The best way to help your students as they become involved in campus clubs is to support them. Make sure they have the resources they need to lead a club. Encourage and cheer them on as they take risks. If their school permits it, you may want to be available to your students by showing up for their first meeting or two. Make sure your students know you’re just there to support them and let them step up and take the lead of the club.

Yesterday I spent nearly an hour wandering aimlessly around the grocery store in search of a can of pumpkin. Since today is the first day of fall, I wanted to celebrate by baking some pumpkin goodies. But, apparently I’ve missed out on the hubbub of what is turning out to be the Great Pumpkin Shortage of 2009. 

So instead of symbolically putting on my scarf and fall jacket in the kitchen by filling the house with the smell of pumpkin bread, I had to settle for lemon ricotta muffins (which, by the way, turned out to be quite the tasty treat). 

In my world, the first day of fall is always a day to celebrate. Since I grew up in the northern Midwest, I relish in the cool weather. I’m one of the rare individuals who actually enjoys days getting colder and colder until you can actually see your breath in the morning and have to bundle up to look like Randy in A Christmas Story in order to go outside. 

Seasons changing are such a beautiful reminder that everything in life is cyclical. The long silent death of winter gives way to spring with its new growth; summer is the time for things to flourish, and fall is the time for things to mature, change, and start to die. 

Fall, more than any other season, reminds me of God’s faithfulness to me. It seems like fall has always been a season of change in the world around me as well as in my own life. Big moves, job changes, and relationship changes seem to always happen during this time of year. The change of weather reminds me of how things have changed in my life and how God has remained faithful in every season. 

Psalm 25:10 (ESV) says “All the paths of the Lord are steadfast love and faithfulness, for those who keep his covenant and his testimonies.” Even though things in my life haven’t always been perfect and big changes have thrown me off course to the point that I didn’t know if I’d ever find my way back, as I’ve continued to find refuge in Him, He’s been faithful to keep me with His steadfast love. 

As things have changed in my life, there’s always a point of deciding to die to myself and rely on God’s faithfulness to keep me, realizing that even though things might not look the way I’d thought they would I can trust that God is good and faithful. 

Even though things outside are dying, hibernating, and moving south, these changes are so beautiful. God set the leaves changing color, birds migrating south, and even beautiful fall produce as reminders of the beauty that comes in dying. 

So, today I’m listening to “The Great Pumpkin Waltz,” sipping coffee, eating my non-pumpkin fall muffin, and reflecting on God’s faithfulness to me in every season.

Shopping for school supplies was one of my favorite yearly traditions. I loved to match my notebooks and folders for each class and come up with a color-scheme for my locker décor. But what I loved most was the loose-leaf paper. I loved opening the package and finding 150 pages of crisp, white paper just waiting to be filled with notes, doodles, and stories. I still get a little nostalgic when I see a stack of blank college-ruled paper.  

It seemed like the stack of paper was a great representation of what happened every fall. Getting dressed in new school clothes and still-white sneakers made it feel like anything was possible. New classes and new teachers meant a fresh start.  

Even though I was a fairly good student and enjoyed school, there was something about being able to start fresh that I looked forward to each year. No mistakes, no victories, just a completely blank slate. 

Here are a few ideas for continuing the tradition of starting fresh this fall: 

• Give someone a blank slate. Sometimes girls in our groups can earn a reputation of being disruptive, disrespectful, or simply difficult. Sometimes these reputations can serve to define her identity throughout her time in our groups. From time to time, it can be healthy to reevaluate why she gained that reputation and if it’s still a fitting description of her personality. Forget about her past actions and give her a blank slate. Give her an opportunity to gain your trust again. If you find that she’s matured, make sure to let her know how encouraged you are to see the positive changes in her life. 
• Change your schedule. The simple act of having a different schedule than the previous year was sometimes enough to help me change some of the bad habits I’d developed the year before. Getting back into the fall schedule after a more relaxed schedule in the summer can be a great time to try getting up earlier to spend time with God. Moving your daily work out from afternoon to early morning can save time and change the way you feel all day. Scheduling a date with your husband or for a family game night can be a great way to relieve stress. 
• Get organized. Every fall, my mom required me to go through my books and assignments from the previous school year to make room for the products of the new school year. Looking forward to new school supplies made it easier to get rid of things I’d been hanging onto. Fall can be a great time to go through your closet and give away some of your old clothes to make room for sweaters and coats, to finally clean out that junk drawer, or to re-organize your office. 
• Make a resolution. It seems like the new school-year resolutions I made usually stuck much better than the New Year’s resolutions I made in January. Being busy with school year activities can make breaking a bad habit easier. Having a more structured schedule can help start a good habit. 

So, go walk the aisles of new school supplies and get inspired to start fresh!

Have you ever struggled to come up with creative ideas to make your Friends or Girls Only Club more unique and exciting? In an effort to help you come up with fun ways to keep your girls engaged in Friends & Girls Only, we now have free, downloadable resource pages for each Friends & Girls Only unit. Each packet includes ideas for Projects & Adventures, suggestions for related resources, and additional discussion questions for each lesson.

Friends resource pages can be found here: http://ngm.ag.org/impact/mgcresources/clubs/tgm/friends/ under the “Unit Resources” heading.

Girls Only resource pages can be found here: http://ngm.ag.org/impact/mgcresources/clubs/tgm/go/ under the “Unit Resources” heading.

Enjoy!

As girls get older, it can be harder to motivate them with the promise of a sticker for perfect attendance or successfully reciting a memory verse. Here are some ideas for gifts, prizes, and other ways to motivate girls.

Jewelry. Though fine jewelry can be a great motivator (especially for big accomplishments), you don’t have to spend a fortune. Stores like Forever 21 or Charlotte Russe are great places to start looking for fun costume jewelry. Often, rings and earrings come in multiples that can be divided and re-packaged in something like this for a really inexpensive and fun present. If you’re wanting to reward your girls for graduating from high school, Friends or Girls Only Club, or commemorate a commitment to purity, something like this would be a great option. Also, Etsy is a great site for connecting with custom jewelry makers. If you contact them directly, many vendors will be willing to cut a deal for larger orders.

Journals. Despite technological advances, many girls still keep old-fashioned journals. Now is a great time to shop for notebooks and journals. Any store that sells school supplies will have reasonably-priced notebooks and journals. Urban Outfitters has great notebooks that are usually 3/$10. If your budget is a little bigger, Anthropologie always has beautiful journals.

Events. One of the best ways to motivate girls to work together is to offer to throw a party for them if they reach their goal. Host a fancy dinner party in your home and ask your youth pastor and other youth leaders to act as waiters for the evening or have a girls’ movie night complete with ice cream sundaes and popcorn. To reward individual achievement, often something as simple as offering to take girls out for coffee or out to lunch is a great motivator.

Keep your eyes peeled for inexpensive prizes. Target’s $1 bins are an excellent source for cute, fun gifts. Stay on the lookout for the annual sales at Bath & Body Works for great deals on lotions and soaps for girls. I like to keep a stash of small gifts on hand that for birthdays and hostess gifts as well!

As I write, I’ve stopped by the office to tie up a few last-minute loose ends. Half of the national Girls Ministries staff is headed to Orlando, Florida for this year’s General Council. We’re looking forward to some great time with our district leadership, followed by reconnecting with old friends and meeting new ones!

For the first time ever, we’re hosting two separate booths - one for NGM in general and one just for Teen Girl Ministries. We’ve got a lot of exciting things in the works, so if you’re going to be at General Council, swing by our booths!

 I’ve managed to fit everything for 12 days into suitcases - now, let’s just pray that my suitcases are under the weight limit!

Anyone who has ever taken a group of teenagers into a public building with more than one floor has witnessed the fascination teenagers have with escalators -specifically, their fascination with attempting to go up the escalator the wrong way. There’s something about the challenge of trying to beat the escalator at its own game that is irresistible to mischievous teenagers with excess energy to burn.

On more than one occasion, I’ve observed with embarrassment as teenagers scramble awkwardly up the escalator causing escalatorial rule followers to dodge flying limbs in an attempt to make it down in one piece.

In a few short days, I’ll be at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida for General Council and the National Youth Convention/Fine Arts Festival. Undoubtedly, the escalators will shut down and require maintenance at some point during the week due, in part, to this phenomenon. It turns out that escalators weren’t designed for this function.

However, this uphill climb compounded by the constant downward motion of the escalator seems to have some similarities to our relationship with God.  There are times when our walk with God can feel more like a climb. And if we stop moving forward, we’ll lose ground.

As leaders, there are many times when it feels like our personal time with God isn’t as personal or quiet as we’d like it to be. It can turn into another task to accomplish before we start our day or it’s shoved to the end of the day when we’re so tired we can hardly keep our eyes open. Sometimes, the only time we spend praying or studying is really sermon or lesson preparation.

Our time with God wasn’t meant to move us forward in our ministry, get us on God’s “good side,” or even to empower us to impart wisdom to our students. The sole purpose of our time with God is to refocus our eyes, readjust our attitude, realign our hearts, and reconnect with God. When we commit to take time to do this, He is faithful to meet us there.

Matthew 6:6 (NIV) says “But when you pray, go into your room, close the door and pray to your Father, who is unseen. Then your Father, who sees what is done in secret, will reward you.”

A friend recently recommended a great writing by Andrew Murray on this subject. Murray asserts that our personal time with God is incredibly important, arguing that “Next to receiving Christ as our Savior, and claiming the baptism of the Holy Spirit, we know of no act attended with larger good to ourselves, or to others than the formation of an undiscourageable resolution to keep the morning watch.”

Moving upward is so much simpler when we recognize the intended purpose of the escalator and use it correctly.

Just because school’s out doesn’t mean you should let your girls’ brains turn to mush. This could be a great opportunity to read a book as a group or start a Bible study. Here are a few ideas for summer reading that will keep your girls engaged:

The Live Free Series. This series is by Jan Kern. The books are independent, so you can start with any book in the series. These books cover real life issues like purity, self-injury, and online addiction, so choose a topic that you’ve overheard your girls talking about or know they struggle with. 

Idol Girls. This book is by Hayley DiMarco. It’s an excellent book that helps girls explore what they worship, what they think about, and what consumes them. Living in a world that puts a high premium on owning things can be difficult for Christians who are called to store up treasures in heaven, and this book can launch you into a great discussion about living differently than the world. 

I Married Adventure by Luci Swindoll helps girls look at life through the lens of opportunity. Luci Swindoll is the founder of Women of Faith, worked for several years traveling for Mobil Oil Company, and has never married. Luci is a great example of how to live a fulfilling life, and this book encourages girls to seize opportunities and look for adventure in everyday life. 

The Hiding Place. I have read this book, by Corrie ten Boom, at least five times. Corrie writes about her experience during World War II helping Jews escape Nazi Germany and eventually ending up in a concentration camp with her sister and father. A gentle warning: read this book with a box of tissues nearby! 

The PB&J (Pocket Book & Journal) Series by Hayley DiMarco covers a range of topics including dating, modesty, sexual purity, and mean girls. These books would make a great independent study or small group book. 

Deal with It. This book is a 12-week study on teenage girls’ anger by Mary Huebner. It can be incredibly difficult to deal with anger and maintain a good attitude. This study can help girls learn to deal with anger in a healthy, Christ-like way. 

Enjoy the Silence by Maggie & Duffy Robbins is a 30-day experiment in listening to God. This book provides a portion of Scripture to read each day, plus questions for meditation on the reading, and a challenge to listen for God’s voice.

I need to preface this blog with something: I have an irrational fear of birds. I realize it’s a strange fear, but I’ve been scared of them as long as I can remember being scared of anything. It seems that birds can sense my fear as I am almost always the first to be defecated  upon, I’ve had many nests built inconveniently close to my front door, and many a bird has met an unfortunate demise upon making contact with my front bumper.

That being said, I recently had a very scary encounter with a red-winged blackbird. Every time I visit my parents’ home in Des Moines, I jog along a path near their home. I love this path. It winds through a wooded area, has bridges over a little stream that runs along the side of the path, and it always seems to be perfectly sunny and peaceful.

As I was running, I heard a bird squawk loudly behind me. I turned around, expecting to see a large goose, but instead saw a beautiful red-winged blackbird. Because I was off to a great start and enjoying the beautiful morning, I chose not to let the strange bird bother my perfect morning. I continued to jog along, over the bridge, under the highway, and past the elementary school before turning around.

I was enjoying the challenge of running up the slight hill near where I’d heard the bird before when, seemingly out of nowhere, I felt a swift wind blow past my head and felt something like talons whiz across my hair. Immediately, I started screaming and waving my hands over my head like a lunatic. I turned around to see where the bird was when I saw the crazed red-winged blackbird circling over my head like a vulture waiting for a lone gazelle to die in the desert. I shot off in a stride closely resembling Usain Bolt at the Beijing Olympics and sprinted the entire two miles back to my parents’ house, turning around every 10 yards to make sure the bird wasn’t still following me.

I finally made it home safely. Knowing how close I’d come to losing my life at the claws of an overly-aggressive red-winged blackbird, I felt like I should make everyone aware of my distress. I ran into my parents’ room, disrupting their sleep. As I recalled my near miss, my mom said “Oh, I probably should have warned you about that.” Seriously?

Apparently, red-winged blackbirds tend to get overly aggressive and tend to attack larger birds and humans when they feel their territory is being threatened. This bird has made his nest near the trail and has now attacked every member of my family.

The next day, understandably wary of the trail, my mom offered to go with me. In their experience with Crazy McBlackbird, they’d never known him to attack if more than one person was on the trail at once. I decided to overcome my fear and go, figuring that if the bird tried to peck out my eyes, I’d at least have a companion to call for an ambulance.

Sure enough, we managed to go the entire length of the trail without so much as a squawk from the infamous bird.

In the same way, ministry is so much less scary when done with someone at your side. Ecclesiastes 4:10-12 (NIV) says “If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands in not quickly broken.”

Sometimes in ministry, it can seem easier just to go it alone. Sometimes doing it yourself can seem simpler than delegating. Being in ministry by yourself can mean less conflict, less drama, and less trouble.

However, there is safety in numbers. If you’re feeling isolated, pray for someone to come along and help you. Make room for someone to come alongside you. Look for someone with a willing heart and good attitude.

There’s something about getting away (even for a day) that serves as a catalyst for developing relationships, making memories, or deepening your relationship with the Lord. Planning a retreat for your girls doesn’t have to be stressful and elaborate. Keeping plans simple will help keep costs low for your girls and provide a fun getaway for everyone! Here are a few ideas for planning a retreat with your girls:

Pick a topic. Hosting a retreat based around a single topic can make planning easy. Focus on purity and invite a local pregnancy care center representative to come talk to your girls. Plan an event around friendships and ask a mature woman from your church to talk about conflict resolution. Do a relationship retreat and bring in a male pastor or another trustworthy, mature men from your church to talk with the girls about what guys are really thinking and how to handle friendships with guys.

Pick a location. Even getting a few miles out of town can seem like a vacation. It can help the girls leave some of their problems at home and free them up to focus on what’s happening at your retreat. If you’ve got a smaller group or a leader with a large house, hosting an event in a home can create an intimate and safe environment. Renting a lake house or cabin can be a great, affordable option with lots of amenities for taking a break and having fun. Reserving a suite or block of rooms in a hotel can be another great option. Staying at a hotel can be a really special event for many of your girls.

Pick an event. If you don’t want to plan a topic for discussion or invite a guest speaker, choose an event to focus on. Take your girls to a bigger city to go shopping, go to a concert or music festival, or spend a day at an amusement park. Choose an event that your girls will enjoy, that you’re comfortable planning, and that fits the personality of your group.As you head out of town, you’ll be amazed at how quickly girls will leave their problems at home and start developing friendships with one another. Enjoy your time away and keep things simple!