C.I.A. & R.A.K.E.

This year we are dividing our Tuesday evenings up into ETM and C.I.A. nights. Every other week we will meet with only our CIA (grade 9 & 10) group. On opposite weeks we will meet with our grade 7 - 10's together. During our C.I.A. meetings, we will be going out of our youth room in church and engaging our world in different ways of service. Last night we began by doing a simple R.A.K.E. or Random Act of Kindness Everywhere. We gave away Hot Chocolate and Tea. I always like doing R.A.K.E.'s because they show our young people many different things. 1. That people need kindness in their lives. Often times people are lonely and a simply act of kindness goes a long way in instilling new hope in people's lives. 2. That not all people like the church, or any reference to it. Often times people reject the offer of a free gift. 3. That often times people think that the church wants something from them. Many times (and again on Tuesday) people hand out money to the kids, even though they specifically wanted nothing, but wanted to give them a free gift. 4. That this little exercises has a lot to do with how people think of the gospel message as well. The gift of eternal life is a free gift; no strings attached. Something to be accepted only. God offers it to us freely, and we need to decide if we want what he's offering without thinking we need to give him something in return. Too many people don't understand the gospel message and are confused about it's terms. It is my hope that as we go out into the world this year as C.I.A. we will begin to see the world in a different ways. Jesus is everywhere, even in the faces of the people we met last night.

We began our time in the rain. Ready to go!

Nice umbrella David. Hey, that's my daughter's......

The group debriefing afterwards.