Micah 6:8

Check out this fun craft I found on Pinterest:


Act Justly, Love Mercy, Walk Humbly

Initial Camp 2012 Information!

Dear GEMS Counselors in Area 3,

Thank you for your continued service to the GEMS in your church! What a wonderful mentorship you are providing for them. You are a blessing!

We are writing to you to let you know about our upcoming Area-wide GEMS camp which will be held June 8-10, 2012! We are very excited to bring you the details and look forward to planning this camp and leading it WITH you.

Area 3 GEMS Camp 2012 will be held at the Lake Retreat & Conference Center in Ravensdale, WA. This camp is located on a lake about 35 miles southeast of Seattle, so it is centrally located for most of Area 3. You can read more about the camp and its facilities at the website: www.lakeretreat.org.

Camp will cost $100/camper or counselor. Please consider how your GEMS club may be able to help financially for your own girls. This is an opportunity you do not want your girls to miss out on simply because of finances! Soon there will be a link on this blog to print a promotional flyer you can use with your girls. It will also be emailed to you within a week.

Each club will be asked to provide at least 1 adult counselor per every 5 girls. Counselors-In-Training are also welcome and will be used as a 2^nd counselor in a cabin. GEMS Camp is open to all girls who have completed at least one year at GEMS and who have finished (or will be almost finished with) 1st grade through 8^th grade. (Please use your/parental discretion for the younger girls and send moms along with girls who may have a hard time being away from home, if possible). Registrations for both adults and girls will be emailed to all clubs so that you can print enough copies for each girl & counselor. Moms make GREAT camp cabin counselors! Please have all the girls in your club return their forms and payment to your Club Coordinator. Club Coordinators will receive a special form to record all girls in their clubs who are attending for their own records and for us to be able to place girls in cabins accordingly. Registrations and payments must be postmarked by May 5. Confirmation letters will be mailed out after May 15.

Registrations will be emailed and available on this blog.

Each club is asked to consider now how they can help. At the Fall Workshop in Olympia, those who attended were given the opportunity to sign up for how they wanted to help. If you did this, you will be contacted soon about your involvement. Here are the areas in which we still need donations of items, money, or time:

One morning/afternoon snack

S’more Fixings

Plan Craft

Donate craft materials and/or money towards the craft

AV person                   

Guitar player/song leader

Mixer games (plan & lead)

Write cabin devotions

Lead Praise & Worship          

Camp Nurse

If you are willing to help us in these areas, please email Julie or Tami as soon as possible. Thank you in advance.

We are praying daily for this GEMS camp and for God to bring all the pieces together and to provide a way for everyone HE wants at camp to be there. We are also praying already for safe travels, safety while at camp, and the weather! Please join with us in these prayers and then consider how you can serve and promote GEMS camp at your club. This opportunity provides girls with the chance to meet other GEMS from all over WA state and to be part of something bigger. It will create lifelong memories for them and for you!

Serving with you,

Julie Ball, Area Coordinator, Area 3

Tami Cleveringa, Leadership Trainer, Area 3

This week’s devotional

THE LONG VIEW

The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry ,but he thwarts the craving of the wicked.

Proverbs 10:3

How often have you heard the expression, “If it sounds too good to be true, it probably is”?

That is an applicable rule of thumb when discerning the gimmicks of sales personnel and telemarketers. We must be careful that we do not apply that same thinking to God’s Word. It’s different with God. It’s always different with God. When He tells us something in the Bible that sounds too good to be true, take Him at His word.

Within chapter 10 of Proverbs are two verses that sound too good to be true:

The LORD does not let the righteous go hungry

but he thwarts the craving of the wicked (v 3).

What the wicked dreads will overtake him (her);

What the righteous desire will be granted (v. 24).

What do God’s children do with these verses? We know from history and personal experience that the wicked can prosper and the righteous do indeed suffer. Paul E. Kopak wrote, “Christians must avoid mechanistic understandings of God’s moral order and remember that the long view calls them to affirm God’s care even when present circumstances do not appear to show it.”

We need the long view that David gives in Psalm 37: Do not fret because of evil men or be envious of those who do wrong; for like the grass they will soon wither, like green plants they will soon die away (v. 1-2). Do not fret when men succeed in their ways, when they carry out their wicked schemes. Refrain from anger and turn from wrath; do not fret – it leads only to evil (v. 7-8).

Look at the long view! Look past today’s circumstances by looking back: I was young and now I am old, yet I have never seen the righteous forsaken or their children begging bread (Psalm 37:25). Look beyond the here and now by looking forward: Those who hope in the LORD will inherit the land. The meek will inherit the land and enjoy great peace (Psalm 37:9, 11). The long view trusts that God is who He says He is and will do what He says He will do. He’s Jehovah Jireh – God our Provider, El Roi – God Who Sees, Jehovah Ezer ­– The Lord our Helper, Jehovah Shammah – The Lord is There, El Shaddai – God Almighty. By faith, the long view is sure of what it hopes for and is certain of what it does not see (Hebrews 11:1).

Wisdom Step: In what circumstances do you struggle to take God at His Word? Ask Him for power to overcome your unbelief so you can see the long view.

True, the immediate reward of the righteous often appears to be only pain and toil, but, in the end, God Himself guarantees that the things they have most longed for they will have: the conscious enjoyment of His full presence. [See Matthew 5:6].

John A. Kitchen

grace and peace,

Lenae

Fall Workshop Coming Up!

Our Fall Workshop is coming up this Saturday, September 10 at Olympic CRC in Olympia, WA. The Quincy workshop has been cancelled due to a low number of registrants, but Tami Cleveringa is going to be doing a mini-workshop with some of the Spokane counselors at some point. If you are on the East Side and this interests you, please contact Tami! Otherwise, we're looking forward to seeing you on September 10 and are praying for a God-blessed time of praise, worship, encouragement, knowledge, and excitement!

Wisdom's Call!

Dear Sisters,

Good morning! What’s calling out to you today? A child? The telephone? Email? A to-do list? An employer? A neighbor? A parent or friend?

Do you hear her? There’s someone else calling. Her name is Wisdom! Let’s page to Proverbs 8 and do more than hear. Let’s listen; let’s listen well.

WISDOM’S CALL

Does not wisdom call out? Does not understanding raise her voice?

Proverbs 8:1

When my daughters played sports, and I was in the stands amidst the other parents, if any of the children called out, “Mom!” on cue, every mother’s head turned in that direction. We heard the call “Mom!” and responded – whether it was our child or not!

In chapter 8 of Proverbs, Wisdom calls out with raised voice: You who are simple, gain prudence; you who are foolish, gain understanding. Listen, for I have worthy things to say; I open my lips to speak what is right (Proverbs 8:5-6). Wisdom loudly calls out, but do we hear and respond to her call?

In the New Testament Jesus repeatedly said to His listeners, “Whoever has ears, let them hear” (Matthew 11:15, 13:43, Mark 4:9 . . .)

Hearing and listening can be two different things. I can hear my husband and nod at timely intervals, without listening to a word that he has to say. We can do the same with wisdom. We can read Proverbs and even teach Proverbs, without listening to a word that the Lord has for us.

Ears that really hear and listen, respond with obedience. Their hearts are not calloused to wisdom’s call; they are doing what He decrees! James asked, Who is wise and understanding among you? Let them show it by their good life, by deeds done in the humility that comes from wisdom (James 3:13).

Those who listen will be happy and blessed. Now then, my children, listen to me; blessed are those who keep my ways. Blessed are those who listen to me, watching daily at my doors, waiting at my doorway (Proverbs 8:32, 34).

Those who listen will find true life. For those who find me find life and receive favor from the LORD. But those who fail to find me harm themselves; all who hate me love death (Proverbs 8:35-36). Jesus repeats that life-giving truth in all four gospels. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me and for the gospel will save it. What good is it for someone to gain the whole world, yet forfeit their soul (Mark 8:35-36)?

Sometimes we can be guilty of “selective hearing” – hearing what we want to hear, and tuning out what we don’t want to apply to our lives. There’s a deadly price tag to tuning out wisdom’s call. May we hear, listen, obey, and find true life.

Wisdom Step: Today measure your wisdom by what you do, instead of what you know. On a scale of 1 to 10, how wise are you?

Wisdom is hearing and doing the Word of God.

John Piper

Grace & Peace,

Lenae Bulthuis, Training Manager

August Devotional from the Service Center

Why Proverbs?

The proverbs of Solomon son of David, king of Israel: for attaining wisdom and discipline; for understanding words of insight; for acquiring a disciplined and prudent life, doing what is right and just and fair. Proverbs 1:1-3

Math is my most challenging subject. More often than not when a new concept was introduced in geometry or algebra and I was stumped, I’d groan to my parents, “Why do I need to learn this? I’ll never use it again in my life!”

For those who may question why it’s important to dedicate a year to studying the book of Proverbs, Solomon, the writer of the book, tells us. Within the first sentence of the first chapter, he lays out the purpose of the book (Proverbs 1:1-3).

Here’s Solomon’s purpose and God’s plan for you and me in the book of Proverbs.

1. To teach us to attain wisdom and discipline for understanding words of insight. We’re not born wise and we don’t automatically or magically become wise when we accept Christ as our Savior. True wisdom only comes from God (Proverbs 9:10). In order to live rightly we need to listen to God’s wisdom, discipline, instruction, and correction.Listen to advice and accept instruction, and in the end you will be wise(Proverbs 19:20). It’s a continuous education program as we sit under the teaching of His Word and Spirit.

2. To teach us to acquire a disciplined and prudent life. Our culture calls the prudent killjoys, spoilsports, and wet blankets. It’s God who gives the true definition of being a prude. The wisdom of the prudent is to give thought to their ways (Proverbs 14:8a). The prudent make choices based on the knowledge of God and have a God-given understanding of where they are going.

3. To teach us to do what is right and just and fair. Righteousness, justice, and equity are attributes of God that He desires to see in our relationships with one another. Through His wisdom we will understand what is right and just and fair – every good path (Proverbs 2:9). These virtues are evidence of His wisdom at work in our lives.The book of Proverbs is God’s handbook on how to live rightly. Studying and then habitually choosing to live by the wisdom found in the book of Proverbs will provide life-changing discipleship that will inspire us to walk wisely and live a life that goes beyond the gold.

Wisdom Step

How well have you been listening and obeying God’s advice and instruction in His Word? If a course correction is needed be wise and begin today.

The goal of Proverbs is to grow ever closer to the God who is Wisdom. Knowing God is the proper definition of the good life, and the highest goal of the Proverbs-driven life. 
Anthony Selvaggio

Proverbs 7

A devotional from Training Manager, Lenae Bulthuis:

Let’s page to Proverbs chapter 7 (a chapter that I admittedly was tempted to skip in our devotional study) as we continue to focus on this season’s GEMS theme, Get Wisdom: Go beyond the Gold!

PROVERBS 7 WARNINGS

Say to wisdom, “You are my sister,” and call understanding your kinsman; they will keep you from the adulteress, from the wayward wife with her seductive words.

Proverbs 7:4-5

With the Bible heading, Warning Against the Adulteress, Proverbs 7 seems like a chapter exclusively for men. The reality is that each page of God’s book is for each one of His children – male and female. The warnings given to the young men in Proverbs 7 are needed by women of all ages, too.

In an online article posted on April 7, 2011, Guardian reported that more and more women are using pornography. “At Quit Porn Addiction, the UK’s main porn counseling service, almost one in three clients are women struggling with their own porn use, says founder and counselor Jason Dean. Two years ago, there were none. While more than six out of 10 women say they view web porn, one study in 2006 by the Internet Filter View found that 17% of women describe themselves as ‘addicted’”.

Sexual temptations for men and women are not limited to the Internet. There are TV shows like “Sex and the City”, larger than life posters of scantily dressed models in the mall’s display windows where families are flocking to purchase school clothes this time of year, and morning talk shows openly discuss sex toy parties.

Be warned! To follow after these temptations will be like an ox going to the slaughter, like a deer stepping into a noose till an arrow pierces his liver, like a bird darting into a snare, little knowing it will cost him his (her) life” (Proverbs 7:22-23).

Now then, my sons (daughters) listen to me; pay attention to what I say. Do not let your heart turn to her (the ways of the adulteress) or stray into her paths. Many are the victims she has brought down; her slain are a mighty throng. Her house is a highway to the grave, leading down to the chambers of death (Proverbs 7:24-27).

Sex is God’s idea. Sadly, the images, persuasive words, and smooth talk of our culture are desensitizing an entire generation from God’s good and beautiful plan.

We must store up His commands within us, guard His teachings as the apple of our eye, bind them on our fingers, and write them on the tablet of our heart (Proverbs 7:2-4) – and teach the girls in our clubs to do the same! His wisdom will give us a discerning heart and keep our feet on His good and pure paths.

Wisdom Step: Measure everything you read, see, hear, do, and wear today to the plumb line of God’s commands.

When young women understand the cosmic consequences of sexual sin, the worldviews that shape our consumption of sexual messages today, and how God’s glory is under spiritual attack . . . they will be sobered by how Satan still “prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour” (1 Peter 5:8) – and that men and women alike are fair game.

Carolyn McCulley