Happy New Year!

Happy New Year everyone! 2009 brings a lot of hope for all of us. There are great things in store for everyone. Isn't it cool that God has already ordained 2009 for you and I? For Jillian and I, we will become parents in 2009 which is really exciting. What are you looking forward to about 2009?

One great thing that makes the new year great is the coming of the Edge Games...it comes every year around this time. I hope you are pumped about the games and have started spreading the word to your friends.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

The Edge Games V

The Edge Games V

Fridays, January 9, 16, and 23

7-9 PM

General Information For Parents

• No pre-sign up is needed for this event. Medical and release forms are not necessary because students at no time will be permitted to leave the property.

• Students can be dropped off at the front of the church (Rte. 303 side) at 7:00 p.m. Pickup is at 9:00 PM at the same location.

• Students will be supervised by adults at all times without exception. (We expect 500 students, and as a result we will have plenty of adult supervision throughout the night) Furthermore, all voluntary supervision will be required to check in to receive a special nametag to ensure that they are a part of the supervision team.

• There is no charge for this event.

• Students should come dressed to be active that night as we will be playing team games. Students do not have to be athletic to participate.

• Students will be put into different teams, and each team will be supervised by a team of adult coaches.

• All students are expected to comply with the rules set forth by our Edge staff and adult leaders. The adult leaders have the right to send students home if they do not comply.

For any questions about anything concerning The Edge Games event, please contact us.

Jillian Stouffer

330-650-9533, ext. 320

Jillian.stouffer@hudsonchapel.org

Merry Christmas Caption Contest

Give me those captions! All of you are on break...so you should have some time to come up with some great ones. Enjoy.

Elfed ourselves

In case you missed it, or just wanted to see it again....

Send your own ElfYourself eCards

Christmas Party Tonight

Oh the weather outside is frightful, but the edge Christmas party is tonight! Fun, cookies, elf contest, games, and the grand total of money we receive toward the home in India will be announced tonight. Don't miss it as we celebrate the joy of Christmas!

And don't forget your $25 tonight! Don't know what I am talking about? Find out HERE.

I will see everyone tonight!

Leader of the Month

As many of you know, we have some incredible adult leaders in our edge ministry. Each month, we are going to continue to highlight one leader on the blog for their awesome work in this ministry. Leaders are here to invest the lives of edge students. It's a great thing!

This month's LEADER OF THE MONTH is Jesse Prentiss! Jesse just started as a leader this year leading a group of 6th grade girls, but she will be moving away next month because her husband is being transferred with is job. It is going to be sad to lose Jesse, but she has been a very devoted leader for the last several months. I know that the girls in her group will miss her greatly! She is the prime example of a great edge leader. She loves Jesus and loves middle school students.

Would you join me in congratulating Jesse?!

THE REST OF OUR GREAT EDGE LEADERS!

Edge Recap

Last night was good times including some egg nog (a holiday treat), a loaf of bread, oats, and some deodorant. You had to be there.

We talked about how many people go through Christmas without noticing Jesus. If Christmas is truly about Jesus, we can't miss it, and we must celebrate by making our lives about others.

Don't forget about our campaign to raise money to build a house for a family in India! It's gonna be great. Be sure to let you parents know so that they can bring the money in next week.

Next week is our Christmas Party and it's gonna be a blast...game, food, cookies, fun, and more fun! We will also announce the grand total of money brought in to build the house. I can't wait. The picture above is the picture of a typical house in India. Just a small sacrifice of forfeiting one gift this year will help give a family the gift of a home. I hope you can join us in this.

MORE INFO ON THIS CAMPAIGN

Caption Contest

Since President Bush is just finishing out his 8 year term as President, I thought today's caption contest would be about him. I like this picture, and I can only imagine what is going through his mind in this picture....let's hear your captions!

Edge Recap

I had a great time with all of you last night. I hope you are as pumped as I am about helping build a house for a family in India. This is going to be great. Don't forget to tell your parents about if you haven't already. We really need everyone involved in order to make this happen. If you missed last night and still want to be a part of the joy of helping someone, please read this email I sent the parents this morning. I copied it below...

"Last night at Edge, I set a challenge for students (you may or may not have heard about yet). I talked about how celebrating Christmas is celebrating the one who was born in humility, lived in humility, and died in humility for all of us. I talked about how his life was all about us. So in celebrating his life, we should make our lives all about others during Christmas. So we came up with a tangible way of doing just that.

I found out that through the Indian Gospel League, it costs $3,500 to build a house for a family in India. I challenged students to forfeit one Christmas gift worth $25 from you (their parent or grandparent) and ask you to give that money towards building a house for a family in India. If 140 of them decided this is what they wanted to do, then we would have our money for the house. This could be such a great thing, but there are a couple of things you should know to help us out."

New Edge Series

As you can see up at the top of the blog, we have a new series starting tomorrow...it's called...

HOME FOR CHRISTMAS

Everyone wants to be home for Christmas, right? It's kind of a staple of Christmas...being home. It's interesting that Jesus wasn't born in a nice home. He wasn't even born in a hospital or a hotel room for that matter...he was born in a stable with nasty smells, horses, pigs, and who knows what else. After he was born, he was laid in a animal feeding trough. What an entrance into this world? Talk about a humble beginning. Humility marked the entire life of Jesus because he didn't come for himself, he came for us. Tomorrow night is the start of this news series where we are going to have the chance to do something great for someone this Christmas....come tomorrow night and find out!

Also, for those of you on Fall Fusion...you will have another chance to purchase an Aevory Nash cd for $5.

Don't miss EDGE tomorrow night!

Pray for Jillian Stouffer

Hey everyone, as many of you know Jillian Stouffer has been on a mission trip to Thailand for the past 2 weeks. She was scheduled to come home this past weekend, but anti-government protesters took over the airport and no one has been able to fly out in almost a week. She is VERY SAFE there staying with some missionaries, but right now, she has to wait until the airport is back up and running to leave the country. It would be great if everyone who reads this would pray that she would find a way to get home. Also, pray that if she has to stay a little longer, that God might have a reason for that. While you are at it, pray for the country of Thailand because they are having some major political problems right now. READ MORE ABOUT IT HERE if you are interested.

At Edge, we are a family, and when one of our family members needs something, we need to gather around and pray. So let's pray together for Jillian (and the friend that is with her). Thanks!