How Dirty Are Your Windows? It's Your Move Work Zone and High Way Set Up: Before the meal set up the LCD projector and show the DV8 clips & slides to start the lesson. (15 min) Announcements: (Included in the DV8 slides) Chili Dinner March 7, Choir at 4:30 (Kay had a death in the family), Breakfast March 14, Spring Break March 14-19, Spring Break Lock-in, Mar. 19 - Battle of the Sexes   After the DV8 portion   How Dirty Are Your Windows? Say: Prayer is a conversation with God. At the very least, it's a time to get your thoughts straight and decide what really matters in your life. Some don't think they need to pray or don't feel like it. But both talking and listening to God are crucial for understanding God and growing closer to him. Let's look at prayer as spiritual maintenance we all must perform on our lives. Imagine looking through a window to see the world. As time goes by the window will get dirty and harder to see through. If you never maintained the window; cleaned it, repaired it, it would distort our view of the world. Likewise, if we don't keep up our spiritual maintenance others will find it hard to see Christ in us. Tonight's lesson offers you the opportunity to take a closer look at prayer and just what it can do to clear thing up.   Break into Journey Groups   Moving In  Work Zone & High Way  Come to the Quiet Needed: Pens, paper, hymnals, both origami instructions, clocks or watches Before youth arrive, set up four stations around the room. At the first station, have pens and paper. At the second station, place hymnals. At the third station, have pens and paper. At the fourth station, Origami directions for creating either an angel or cross                        Form four groups, one at each station. Say: Each group will spend some time at every station and perform specific tasks.    -At station one, you're each to draw a hollow Cross and fill the inside space with all the names of the United States.    -At station two, you're each to write down the first line of the hymns found on the following pages: 660, 96, 271, 431, 195, 445, 373, 498, 60, 520, 787, 577, 604, 152, 644, 773, 354    -At station three, you're each to write a one-page story about what spiritual life might be like in the year 2050.    -At station four, make origami.   Don't tell students how long they'll have to do each activity.    Say: When I say switch, each group is to move clockwise to the next station. Begin the activity. After no more than two minutes, call "switch." Do this three more times so each group has a chance to be at each station. Then call time. Ask teenagers gather and collect the beginnings of the Cross states, hymn lists, stories, and origami. ASK:    "How well do you know the first lines of the hymns you wrote?    "Which of these activities most remind you of God?    "Could you use any of these items in prayer?    "Why aren't these activities complete?    "How did you feel as you tried to complete the activities at each station? Explain.    "In order to complete tasks such as these, what kind of commitment do you have to make?    "How is this activity like trying to form relationships?   Getting Acquainted Say: Form groups of no more than four. Then have each group member each take one minute to share as much as they can about what he or she did last summer. After each group member has had a chance to share, distribute paper and pencils to each person. Say: Silently write down what you remember about the other youth in your group. Then give them all a few more minutes to ask questions or confirm the information on their paper. ASK:    "How much did you learn about each other in the first minute?    "Did you learn anything new in the second minute? Why or why not?    "What might you learn about each other if you had five minutes a day to spend talking together?   Moving Up Work Zone & High Way  Work Zone breaks into three groups; High Way breaks into "Pit" and "Cabana" groups. Have the seniors decide how to break into the groups with the only guideline being at least 10 youth need to go to the Cabana. Quiet time? In a teenager's life? Say: Contemplation has been part of spiritual discipline for years, but good luck convincing a teenager to shut down the incoming channels to stop, reflect, and find God's voice in the quiet of a contemplative moment. But consider: Quiet times come in all shapes and sizes. Teenagers who don't have two minutes for a prayer still find time to take a shower. Why not pray while showering. As you lie in bed waiting for sleep to come why not take a few moments to change your worries into prayer. As you drive or ride to school think about what the day holds for you and offer that as a prayer. These are all pockets of time that can be redeemed by praying and by listening. By praying at everyday moments we all can invite God into our daily lives. God speaks, to those who listen and if your "windows of life" are properly maintained and clear it will be much easier to see His response. ASK:    "What three words would you use to describe your prayer life?    "Why did you choose what you did?     "What do these words say about the importance of prayer in your life?    "How much time do you think Christians should spend in prayer each day?    "What are the positives and negatives of spending a long or short time in prayer?    "Why can some people pray longer than others?   Moving On Work Zone & High Way  God Get Me Out of This One and&ldots; Say: Sally knew she shouldn't have gone partying with Leon-he had always been trouble. She had lied and told her parents she would be spending the night with her friend Kally. The cops had come to break up the party and now she was panicked-"God, if you get me out of this one, I promise never to go to parties like this again." ASK:    "Is it fair of Halley to ask God for help?     "Why should God answer her prayer?     "How would you react, if you were God?  (Prayer isn't designed to be insurance and for God to get you out of a tough spot.)   Moving Out Work Zone & High Way Quiet-Time Answers Needed: a bag of wadded up tissues, a bag of treats, masking tape Stand in front of each person and have him or her say "Hear my prayer." Give youth each a wad or a treat depending on weather they wear glasses of not. After going around the circle ASK:    "How did you feel when you received a wad? A treat?     "Who knows how I decided to give you a wad or a treat?    "How is this experience like or unlike getting answers to your prayers to God? Say: Let's say we embrace the spiritual discipline of a quiet time, a regular time of prayer and meditation. We take something before God and ask for guidance or a solution. And then we end up wondering whether we'll get a wad or a treat. How important is it to have a clear spiritual window. Will you see God answer your prayers? Does your quiet time somehow connect you with God in a more significant fashion? Let's talk more about how God answers the prayers we offer during our quiet times. Form pairs. Give each pair a two-foot strip of masking tape. Tell pairs to use their masking tape to make a mask on one partner. The mask should express how they feel while waiting for an answer to their prayers. Have them carefully and kindly apply the tape directly to the partner's face. After two minutes, have partners who designed the masks describe the masks to the large group. ASK:    "How do you feel when you're waiting for answers to prayer?     "Do you think God always answers your prayers? Why or why not?    "What happens when we bring a request to God?   Moving Out (Time Filler) Work Zone & High Way  The Straight and Narrow  vs. the Crooked and Wide Needed Work Zone: items to create an obstacle course - such as tables, chairs, trashcans, 2 scooters Work Zone: (The three groups can combine as they finish.) Set up two identical obstacle courses, one with a straight path and one with a crooked or winding path. Instruct teams that when you say "go!" they are to go through their obstacle courses as quickly as possible. Then have the teams switch places so that each team gets to try both courses. Needed High Way: Hands High Way: One team of youth sits near each other and passes a slap to each teammate in succession. The other team numbers off in a random order and attempts to do the same thing when #1 is two or six seats away from # 2 and so on.    Return to the gym for the closing   Closing Work Zone & High Way Gather in a closing circle. Pass out key Scriptures cards  Print "How Dirty Are Your Windows?" Cards Matthew 6:9-19 1 Timothy 2:1-4 1 Thessalonians 5:16-18 Psalm 46:10 Matthew 6:31-33 Say: When people are busy, sometimes we say they have a lot on their plate. And most of us are plenty busy-our plates are full. But take a look at the plates you're holding. They're all the same size. We all get twenty-four hours in a day; how full our plates are is up to us. We decide what's important enough to earn a spot on the plate. For many of us, making time to get to know God better seldom gets onto the plate. We don't get around to it. It's simply not important enough to us. This week I'd like you to see your plate in a different way. Clean your windows and get a better look at it. Close in Prayer: Dear heavenly Father, help us to make time for You just as we make time for other parts of our lives. We know that sometimes we don't see clearly and fail to see Your word. Help us to let others see You clearly in us. In Jesus name we pray, Amen   Say the UMYF Benediction and turn out into the world.  Gather for this lesson: DV8 stuff, Scripture cards, 2 sets of pens, 2 sets of 25 sheets of paper, 8 hymnals, 4 sets of both origami instructions, two bags of wadded up tissues, two bags of treats, 2 roles of masking tape, 2 scooters