New Core Group Study

Core Group Bible Study for High School students (grades 9-12) returns on Sunday, January 11, 2009, at 6:00pm. We will be studying, God's Blueprint for Bible Prophecy by Kay Arthur. The cost for the book is $10.00. Look for sign up sheet at LIFE Groups on Sunday, AREA 51 on Wednesday or by calling the Student Ministry Office, 664-0122.

Project #53

The last project of 2008 consisted of assisting the Salvation Army with bell ringing at the Wal-Mart in Alabaster. This project was a lot of fun (once we got used to talking to people). The group consisted of Courtney W, Dianna T., Josh P., Sidney M., Andrew W., and recent youth members Liz H., and Jordan M., and former youth Kenneth S., We laughed, cut up, and rang the bells for over five hours and collected a total of $340.04 for the Salvation Army (which averages to about $65 per hour in donations). Several shoppers commented on the enthusiasm of the group and how special it was to hear "Merry Christmas" from someone. As we finished the day it was interesting to note that three of the four people who where left also worked on the very first project on January 1st. Congratulations on a job well done.

Kenneth

Big Honkin' Christmas Party-Project #52

Congratulations on Project #52! We had over 200 students show up for our end of the year Christmas Blowout and Project #52. The praise band was all deck out in white dress shirts and ties and played Christmas songs while the students enjoy pizza, cupcakes with red and green icing, chex mix and sodas. After the music Jason brought a fantastic Christmas message for all to think about over the Christmas break. Even though Project 51 is over we still have a couple of more service projects that will be done over the Christmas Break, from ringing the Salvation Army bells to raking leaves.

Don't forget that there will be NO LIFE Groups on Sunday, December 28. The student ministry would like to wish you a safe and blessed Christmas. The students collected $556.10 worth of gift cards and money that will be used to purchase Christmas gifts for the family we adopted.

PROJECT # 51

Wow, 51 Service Projects. When this idea was first discussed, I remember people saying, it's crazy, but I love it! What an awesome way for our students to experience God's blessings by serving others. One of the goals of this project was for our students to make an impact in the community and that has been accomplished in so many ways. From regular visits to the Kids First Awareness Center, helping out with the Hispanic Church, packing boxes for Operation Christmas Child, painting, yard work and cleaning house for some senior adults, cooking and feeding people and even face painting these all have helped the people of Alabaster and the surrounding communities. Some provided much needed work, others provided a night free from doing their own dishes and some just provided laughter and smiles for an afternoon of fun! Whatever the purpose of the project, they all had one thing in common, they all glorified God! Another goal was to create a service mindset among the students of Westwood. So let's continue to serve others and make an impact on the community of Alabaster!

For Project 51, all the students participated in the American Red Cross Holiday Mail for Heroes project. Each class signed Christmas cards that will be sent to soldiers and their families in the United States and around the world. This was a great way to share Christ this Christmas season and bring joy to those who have sacrificed so much for our freedom.

Christmas Party

Wednesday, December 17, at 6:30 PM

Fun, Food, Games and Music!

Don't forget to bring a gift card to Target, Wal-Mart, or Toys R Us for the family that we adopted for Christmas! This is will be project #52 for Project 51!

This will be our last Wednesday night until January 7!

Project #50

On Wednesday, Dec. 3, the 8th grade girls made another wonderful trip to Kids First Awareness Center in Alabaster. This time our goal was to provide homework assistance, a Bible story and share homemade Christmas cookies.

The afternoon started out great with some shared tumbling techniques and a few stunts by the Thompson cheerleaders. All of the students had a great time showing off their skills and cheering for each other!

Next, in keeping with Mrs. Hawkins rules, we spent time doing homework and reading books together. We shared a Christmas Bible story and distributed our Christmas cookies--everyone enjoyed the cookies decorated by the hands of our 8th grade girls--they were stunning!!

As always, the fellowship was sweet and we are already counting the days until we return. Project 51 maybe finished, but our relationship with Kids First will go on. Andrew Wash has joined us too. Thanks to Andrew's genuis, we hope to bring the Westwood student drama team with us in January, 2009!!

Stay tuned for more updates about Kids First...next time we would be glad to take anyone along who might be interested. It's full of good times!!!

Ms. Martha

Project #49

On Sunday, November 23rd, the 11th grade guys collected books, dvds, shaving cream, deodorant, snack food along with other items and are sending them to Sergeant First Class Jemar L. Ford so he can distribute the items to his fellow troops. The class found Jemar on the website anysoldier.com and chose him because his army unit is from Ft. Rucker, Alabama! Jemar’s unit are air traffic controllers stationed in Iraq until July of 2009 and he was asking for snack food, toiletries, and entertainment stuff during their slow off-duty hours. Also, everyone in the class wrote a small letter of encouragement for Jemar to also distribute to the troops.

Chris

Project #46

We had many students help out in the Operation Christmas Child Alabaster Relay Center from November 17-23. Students helped to greet guest dropping off shoe boxes and made them feel welcome by offering them refreshments.

They also took information from guests for Operation Christmas Child's records. Once the shoe boxes were unloaded and counted students helped pack them in cartons so they could be shipped to Atlanta.

There was also a lot of waiting for people to bring shoeboxes (did you know that balloons make your hair stick up?) to the relay center. While they waited some volunteers folded up the decorated Operation Christmas Child boxes, taped cartons to prepare them for the shoeboxes and other brought their toys and gifts and packed their own shoeboxes while waiting.

Thanks to all of the students that volunteered, the relay center was able to collect 2,145 shoeboxes. Each shoebox represents one life that will be changed and one family that will learn the truth of God's love for them.

Project # 48

On November 15th, the 10th grade girl’s life group cooked dinner for the families at the Ronald McDonald house. The Ronald McDonald house provides families with a place to stay while their child is receiving medical care at Children’s Hospital. The girls cooked enough soup, cornbread, and dessert to feed forty people, and set up the meal for the families.

The girls who participated in this project were Katie, Courtney, Ellen Anne, Mallory, Jennifer and Mille.

Project #47

On Saturday, November 22, the 10th Grade Guys LIFE Group partnered with the United Way and Hands on Birmingham to serve at the Glenwood Autism Center in Birmingham. The Glenwood Autism Center treats and supports children, adolescents, and adults who are emotionally disturbed, mentally ill, and those diagnosed with autism. The guys were put in charge of painting "chalkboards" with animal characters for the families who reside in the Glenwood facility. A magical blue paint was applied by our "Blue Man Group" consisting of Alan, Collin, and Cameron; when the blue paint dries it becomes a surface that can be used as a chalkboard. We were encouraged to "be creative" with the animal color schemes-perhaps that was taken too far with a red and green zebra, powder blue bull, a red bear, and the retro "grape ape" (kids, check out youtube for this classic cartoon). There was of course an Auburn Tiger and an Alabama Elephant too--hopefully those end up in the correct homes.

The artists formerly know as the 10th Grade LIFE Group were Alan, Cameron, Drake, Jordan, Collin, and Gregg.

Gobble, Gobble, Gobble.....

Don't forget that there will be NO Worship at AREA 51 on Wednesday, November 26 due to the Thanksgiving Holidays!

Also we will not meet on December 3rd due to the Family Advent Service. Make plans to attend this awesome and special way to begin the Christmas season. The Family Advent service will be at the Main Campus and begins at 6:30 PM.

We will see you again at AREA 51 on Wednesday, December 10, at 6:30 PM. Were you will find out details on our "Big Honkin' AREA 51 Christmas Blowout!

Project #45 - Project Thai Christmas

The 11:00 Middle School Girls Class sponsored "Project Thai Christmas" The group was collected 107 Hot Wheels cars, 11 small baby dolls, 10 Barbie dolls, 75 pairs of girls' panties and 40 pairs of boys' briefs to be sent over to Global Children's Awareness, the ministry of missionaries Sarah and Jason Ricketts (former WWBC members) in Chiang Rai Thailand. The Ricketts sponsor Christmas parties for Thai and Burmese children and offer shoebox-type gift to each child including toys, clothing, toiletries and candy. Our role was to collect dolls and cars along with underwear to help out. Way to go girls! Thanks for doing your part for the Kingdom.

-Kathy Sulver

Project #44

Yeah! We are almost done! Project #44 happened Friday, October 31, working at Westwood's Fall Festival. The student's worked at the Tic Tac Toe booth. It was pretty obvious from the get go that we were going to have trouble getting 2 people at the same time to play a game of tic tac toe...but not to be discouraged Karima, Cameron, Savannah, Jonathan and Mrs. Janice made a quick plan to make it a 3 in a row game to win the neon green bracelets that said "not of this world".




We had students that worked in other areas of the fall festival too! Andrew and Stephen were setting up for some slimy experiments.





One of our students even got in to the spirit of things and dressed up as Captain Jack Sparrow (aka: Ryan). Cheers to you Ryan!







There was even some of our LIFE Group leaders that dressed up; can you tell who the clown is? Fun was had by everyone! Thanks guys for participating!

Ecuador Mission Trip in Still On, Just Different!

A number of students have indicated interest so we thought we'd let you know that the mission trip to Ecuador in July is still on but has been changed slightly in light of student ministry changes. It is now a church-wide trip rather than being primarily a student trip. The trip will include soccer challenge evangelism, children’s ministry, community service, evangelism and discipleship.

For more information, please join us for an interest meeting on Sunday Nov. 16 at 12:30 in room 214. The important question is this: "Is God calling you to go?" If so, He will provide the finances. God has a way of providing the resources for what He calls us to do. At the meeting you will have some of the "how" questions answered.

Project 43

The Eighth grade girls life group was invited to the Kid's First Awareness Center on Oct. 29th for a very special occasion. Video Visions of Alabaster was filming a promotional video for the center. Mrs. Cindy Hawkins, Center Director, invited us to be a part of the video. We staged games, homework and teaching time with the kids and had a great time! As always the fellowship was sweet. Thanks to Whitney, Emily, Elizabeth, Tori, Morgan, Abbey, Gene', Andrew, Matthew, Hardy and Grace for supporting this project. Mrs. Hawkins intends to use the video for promotional purposes and grant applications in the near future. Expect to see the video on U-Tube very soon!

Martha

Schedule Change This Wednesday

1-2-1 and Inside out will meet together this Wednesday, Oct. 29. Join us 7:00 - 8:15 pm!

Middle School D-Now was a great event. Over 90 middleschoolers participated and seven decided to become Christ-followers!

Project 42

Guess what!?! We are in single digits for the number of projects we have left in Project 51! I don't know about you, but I'm pretty stoked about that.

When we started Project 51 back in January we said, "What would happen if Westwood Student Ministries just disappeared all of a sudden?" Would our community miss anything about us? Are we serving in such a way that it is making a difference in the lives of those around us? And it became one of our goals to find a place where we could serve and share the love of Christ in Alabaster. Over the past few months we have been going to Kids First Awareness Center and it has been great! The best part is that this may be one of those opportunities for us to continue to serve even after project 51 is over. Pretty exciting! Anyways...Thursday was a lot of fun as always. Here are a few pictures:

Project 41

Project 41 'aka' Project "Piney Woods"

The weekend of October the 11th was a busy time for many people, however some students took time out of their hectic schedules to show some local children the love of Jesus in a simple way; Facepainting! Students also shared information on the upcoming "Operation Christmas Child."
Students tirelessly worked through the day painting children’s faces at the Piney Woods festival, held at Veteran’s park. The festival is an annual event benefiting the Alabaster Library. Many children stopped by during the day, wanting many different things painted on their faces and arms. Some of the more popular designs included, Hearts, butterflys, footballs, soccer balls, baseballs, Alabama and Auburn Logos and of course Ninja-Turtles. The team included, Drake and Dean Fowler, Jonathan Prince, Mr. Bobby and Mrs. Lillian Culpepper and Myself. Experiencing all of the awesome art and culture on the 51 blog has inspired me to compose a limerick based on this weekend’s events:

The Students of Westwood don’t faint
When they are asked to facepaint
When children come by
They’ll get a heart or butterfly
And they get it with joy, not complaint.

Tom (you can’t touch my rhymes) Bird.