We are excited that we will be starting our new year with our Disciple Now Weekend! Along with the Bible studies, our students will be involved in a mission project, a worship gathering, and just hanging out with their group. This year DNow weekend will be January 15-17, 2010 (Martin Luther King Weekend).

The goal of this weekend retreat is to recognize how we’ve received blessings from God and how we can use those blessings to bless others. Our first lesson we will watch an edited version of the movie Pay It Forward. Through the course of the other four lessons, we also will learn how the hardest times and biggest mistakes can be hidden blessings. By the end of this weekend, your students will have a new perspective on God’s love and blessing in their lives and a better understanding of how they are invited to share that love with other people in specific ways.

God called Abraham out of his homeland to be the start of something great: a nation that would one day be called Israel. Abraham followed God through deserts and famine, laughed at the impossibility of God’s promises, and found his faith on the line when God called him to sacrifice his miracle child. Abraham (who was first known as Abram) was a blessed man – but he was never blessed for his own sake. He was blessed so that God’s glory might be seen throughout the world. God blesses us because He loves us, and as a loving Father, He finds pleasure in blessing us. God’s plan for blessing others often includes us. Enter into Abraham’s story. Walk with him through the Negev. Learn as he gets caught up in lies. Laugh with his wife. Walk up the altar with a great trust in the Lord. And experience how God is using you to bless others!