OCTOBER, 2007

SUNSHINE IN THE RAIN

God, you’ve taught me so much

Through the past four days:

How to trust you with the future,

And give you the praise.

You taught how to reach out

To the people around me,

How to prove the Bible and

My faith soundly.

Because anyone you see

Whether friend or foe,

Is going through trials and struggles

Of that you did not know.

I’ve learned to strip away pride,

And go out of the way

To worship and share your word,

Each and every day.

Because I’m on fire for Christ

Not a lukewarm teen.

I’m gonna keep on running

Though the end is unseen.

I know how to defend, understand

And share my passion for you,

Because you are the reason

Why I live like I do.

Thank you God for the Bible,

Thank you for the Spirit in me,

Thank you for redemption

and that I’ve been set free.

I’ll worship though they stare,

I’ll praise you through the pain,

I’ll let your love shine through me

Because you’re my sunshine in the rain.

Grace Beth Schmoyer 10-1-2007

Written after World View Reunion 2007

The First WorldView+ Reunion Weekend!

Victoria Yuskaitis

This year marks the first WorldView+ Reunion Weekend – and it was a blast! 50 or so of us WorldViewers arrived on Friday afternoon, at 1 PM. Throughout the week, we had a total of seven sessions about varying topics. The reunion was run in basically the same way as the WorldView+ camps are: you are expected to arrive at the Church at 8:45 and when sessions are over, you return to your host’s home. We left (sadly) at 3:00 PM on Sunday afternoon.

Friday was an interesting day, because we caught up once more with all the friends we made at camp this June and settled into the WorldView mentality. We also met some new teens who hadn’t attended the camp before. (All of us will be looking for you next year!) We had two sessions: “Samson and Jesus” and “Sexual Purity”. After breaking up into our last small group, we had free time to get reacquainted, figure out where we were staying, and to prepare for Saturday.

Saturday was jam-packed! We started out the day with Ben’s band giving us amazing worship music (especially Get Down!). Afterwards, we had our first session about Pastor Schmoyer’s mission’s trip to India. The next session was about his trip, too. He showed us the pictures he took while in India and explained them to us. He also talked about listening to wherever God leads you and that God had convicted him of the fact that He will use the slides in some of our lives. It was very fascinating!

After having lunch in the town, we came back and had a session on Native American beliefs, which are very similar to New Age beliefs (it was worth coming to see Pastor Schmoyer dressed up as an Indian brave!)

Brad made an appearance once more and talked about how to share your faith. We split up and began to evangelize (or pray upstairs). Afterwards, we came back and explained how we had done. Some pretty amazing things happened while we witnessed.

Before this, however, a couple of teens came to the front of the room and explained what God had been doing in their lives throughout the summer. Before each session during the weekend, Pastor Schmoyer had been picking people to come up to the front and talk about this subject! We went back to our hosts’ houses after watching a comedian and eating supper at the church.

Sunday was just as full as Saturday, if not more. We were to have an actual church service with Pastor Schmoyer’s congregation! (However, considering we outnumbered the parishioners, there was nothing much to be worried about.) After having an awesome Sunday School lessons about Tolerance (by Pat Penacole and Larry LoRusso), we began the service. Pastor Schmoyer had asked for volunteers (or volunteered people himself) to basically run the service. Each person had a different duty – like being an usher or taking the offering, or singing on stage, etc. The only thing Pastor Schmoyer did was preach the sermon on Perseverance. It scared many of us stiff!

The music that day was nothing short of stupendous. The Holy Spirit had beyond doubt filled the room. Ben and his band members and the singers truly outdid themselves. We were clapping, dancing, shouting, singing, and praising the Lord! (I think some of the older people may have had heart attacks!) We sung our self-picked theme song, “Get Down”, in front of the congregation, on stage, complete with dancing! After the service, most of us stuck around and literally jumped up and down with joy and happiness as Ben played Your Love Is Amazing. I will never forget that worship!

After the worship, four of us WorldViewers were picked to share our testimony in front of the congregation. Stephanie Geraci and Alex Dennis went first. After a short skit called The Snail was acted out beautifully by Ryan Dennis and Leonard Geraci, Amber Dennis went up to the mike and told the congregation all about what Jesus had been doing in her. I was next. We teens than took a break as Pastor Schmoyer began his sermon in Hebrews 12:1-3.

We trooped downstairs and had a Church potluck with the congregation. Many of the people in the congregation enjoyed our service; some wanted us to come next Sunday! They all said that they were lifted up by our testimony and obvious love for God. Once the entire congregation had departed, Pastor Schmoyer gave us our last session: Consistency in your Spiritual Life. He told us that we need to keep being on fire for God, even after we leave WorldView.

The sad good-byes began soon afterwards. First, however, we formed a huge circle (come on, homeschoolers!) and prayed for each other. As the parents arrived, we teens said good-bye to friends new and old and prepared to go back to our towns being on FIRE for God! See all of you next year at WorldView+ camp! (That means you, newbie’s!)

THANK YOU Grace and Victoria! I need others of you to send in something for our November newsletter. PLEASE make this YOUR newsletter by writing about how you are doing or what you are learning. Also send me any email addresses of those who would like to receive this newsletter.