SuperStart 2011 -- "What Am I Made For?"

I love SuperStart! If you have a 4th, 5th or 6th grader at WCC and have not sent them to SuperStart they are truly missing out!

Every October SuperStart is held in St. Louis. However, every third year I have made a decision to take our kids to one of the other stops on the SuperStart tour and give them a road trip experience.  This gives every student who walks through the children's ministry here to have an opportunity to have this road trip once. 2011 was the year of this road trip, so we left for Louisville, KY and Northside Christian Church (actually in New Albany, IN).

This year's stage theme was one that included science demonstrations like a HUGE nitrogen cloud which all 1000+ preteens thought was awesome. The whole science demonstration theme revolved around the theme question of the weekend, "what am I made for?"

SuperStart based the whole weekend on Romans 11:36.

"For from him and through him and for him are all things.To him be the glory forever! Amen."

There isn't a better topic for our preteens to learn about as they are about to enter Jr. High. As our preteens sit in classrooms and in front of their mutiple screens (TV, computer, Ipods, DS, etc.) they are being contantly bombarded with the idea of being impotant and successful. Not only are they being bombarded by the media, they are also starting to become more aware of themselves as individuals.



As the speaker got on stage and started talking about the verse of the weekend, the 5th grade boy I was sitting next to me, looked up and me and amazingly said, "Last night, I was praying about what my purpose is." He was in awe the rest of the weekend as he discovered that God made him to be all about God, God saved him to be all about God and God gave him what he had to be all about God!  In one of our small group sessions, I had a chance to talk to him and I could really see him starting to figure out that no matter what the world is telling him to be, God wants him to live for God!

I also was able to have discussion with our group of boys about how they can use their athletic abilities for Christ, and keep him the focus of practices and games.  We discussed how easy it is to put our sports above God, but how God is the one who created us with those abilities and we need to honor him by the way we play the game. The things THEY brought up were they way we honor our teammates, how they treat the other team, and how they react to the officials.  It was a really good discussion about how to honor God in everything we do.

I also know that in our girl small groups, some of our girls really started asking TOUGH questions.  After session 2 (God Saved Me to be All About Him), my wife and I were brought to tears from a very sincere question from a 5th grade girl.

Her question was "why would God save me, I have never done anything special to deserve God's love?"

These are the types of questions our preteens have that they might be afraid to ask.  I am so glad my leaders were able to invest in this precious girl this weekend and instill God's saving truth into her live for 2 days!

Make sure your 4th, 5th, or 6th grader goes to SuperStart next year in October, because it could be life changing!