Northwood Huddle Recap 1-18-11

Dearest FCA Parents,

We started our first Huddle of the year with a wake-up call to our students and FCA parents in attendance at Tuesday’s Huddle.  Please take just a minute to read Ernesto’s story in full as you may gain insight from his tragedy as it has been rumored that some NHS students in ALL grades are engaging is this very dangerous and deadly behavior.

Northwood High School students had the privilege of hearing from guest speaker Ernesto DePalma as he shared about the tragic loss of his 18 year old son, Devan, to an accidental drug overdose. Ernesto shared how his son Devan struggled with substance abuse throughout his teen years.  The gateway drug of choice for him was Marijuana.  As his addiction worsened Devan graduated to more dangerous drug activity to achieve the same rush, thinking he was young and invincible.  Unfortunately, Devan attended a current trendy party that kids refer to as a Skittle party or Trail mix party.  Essentially, teenagers bring random prescription drugs taken from their parents’ medicine cabinet or even donate their own ADD and ADHD medication to be randomly selected from a bowl to experience a surprise rush that can sometimes lead to an emergency room visit or death as in Devan’s case.  Ernesto proceeded to give some sobering drug statistics and gave a stern warning to our students to avoid this behavior at all cost.  You could have heard a pin drop as the students were hanging on to every word Ernesto spoke.  He ended his message with a beautiful song his mother wrote which received a loud applause as it was a song of the hope we have in Jesus.

Please be in prayer for Ernesto as he finds comfort and purpose in sharing his story to educate students of the dangers of drug use.  We have attached pictures from the day.

Lastly, NHS is hosting an FCA movie night tonight, Saturday, January 22^nd in the school theater.  We sent out the flyer for this event this morning, hopefully you got it. Please click on the website below to see the trailer for this movie.  We hope after reading Ernesto’s story you will encourage and support our efforts to show this movie.  It addresses so many relevant teenage issues that will give our students hope and constructive tools to handle peer pressure and addiction. 

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o56pazEh-Q 

A BIG thank you to the following families:

Pizza donations:

Baldwin

Pierce

Aicher

Holder

Locklear

Baked goods:

Skelly

MacDonald

Aviles

Bowers

May

Please forgive us if we’ve forgotten anyone!!    

Our next Huddle is Tuesday, February 1st.   If you would like to send a donation to help pay for this Huddle, please make your check out to FCA and send it to Monica Younger, 26 Rincon, Irvine, 92620.

Thank you again and again for supporting this incredible ministry at NHS!!!!   See you at the movie tonight!!

Blessings.....

Kate Gisch

Torre Murray

Rosalyn Reasor

Monica Younger

Irvine Huddle Recap- 1-20-11

Good afternoon FCA parents,

Here is a quick recap about our huddle on Thursday....

We had an awesome turn out, especially for our first Huddle after the long break.  We had over 150 kids show up.

Before listening to the speaker, there was a quick ‘peanut butter sandwich eating’ contest.  Check out the video on our Facebook page... “Fellowship of Christian Athletes”  
I had one of our FCA student leaders, Brittany Carter, write a short description of our speaker’s, Paul Roh, message:  (Paul is also a student leader in FCA)
This week, IHS senior Paul Roh spoke. He told everyone his testimony. In middle school and through the beginning of high school, he made some bad choices and got into partying. But, through the influence of his pastor and his girlfriend his life has changed completely and he can now not only call himself a Christian but a disciple of God. I really think that his story resonated with other kids because he is our age and his story is so similar to many that were there today. I was very impressed because I’m sure he must have been really nervous to get up in front of everyone but he did a really great job.
We also had Greg Seneca, who is the youth pastor from The River Church at our huddle.  Greg came to just hang with the kids.  It is so awesome to see the kids approach these youth pastors to ask questions or even just visit with them.  We would love to have your youth pastor come to our huddles, so please extend them an invitation.

Of course, our huddles could not happen with out your help....here is who stepped up to the plate this week:

• Pizza – Several families pitched in this week to sponsor our Huddle....Alayra family, Harker family, Hobbs family and the Deklotz family.   They helped provide over 25 pizzas to feed all the kids! 

• Baked Goods were lovingly prepared by the the Hobbs and Kenney families.

• Water bottles were provided by the Carter family.

• Our amazing sound system is provided by the Alayra family.

Your continued generosity will make it possible for us to be continue to provide the students with hot pizza, homemade treats and a drink... all while hearing an inspirational message.  If you are interested in sponsoring a Huddle, please contact me via email – jmnordy@cox.net  As you can see this club is growing and will only stay afloat with all of our help!   (Your financial donations are tax deductible!!) 
If you are able to donate waters or baked good on the day of the Huddle, please email me.  You can either drop them off at the school gym the day of the huddle or beforehand at my house.  If you are able to help serve these hungry students, please show up at the gym at 11:30 on the day of the Huddle.   And most of all, we ask that everyone please pray for this ministry as kids continue to come with a curiosity and a hunger for meaningful inspiration!

THANK YOU PARENTS for your support!!!    Attached are some fun pictures from the day!
Our next Huddle is Thursday, November 18th!!!   Here are the dates of all of our huddles for the rest of the year.....
2/3/11,      2/17/11,      3/3/11,      3/17/11,      3/31/11,      4/14/11,      5/5/11,        5/26/11,      6/2/11
 Have a wonderful weekend.  

Jodi Nordstrom
Michelle Carter 

January-events (2011)

Dear FCA Parents,

We hope the New Year finds you and your family doing well!!  We have much to be excited about as FCA is starting the New Year off with a BANG!!  

First, A BIG thank you to Tim Lukei as he was our guest Huddle speaker for December.  Tim is a High School Pastor at Mariners Church in Irvine and has a great reputation with a lot of our students.  Tim spoke of some of the struggles he faced in high school and encouraged our students to not make the same mistakes.  His message was very engaging as 3 students stayed after to speak with Tim about their similar struggles.  Thank you, Tim, for being so committed and available to our students at all hours of the day and night. 

Secondly, this coming Tuesday, Jan. 18^th, we have our first Huddle of the year. Our guest speaker is going to share about the tragic loss of his 18 year old son to an accidental drug overdose.  Please be in prayer for our students and speaker as this is sure to be an emotional Huddle.  Ernesto’s message will follow with the movie trailer “To Save a Life”. 

Northwood‘s FCA Leadership is hosting another movie night on Saturday, January 22^nd at 6:00 p.m. in the NHS Theater.  NHS is partnering with neighboring FCA Huddles from the following high schools to show this very provocative movie: Beckman, Irvine, University, Woodbridge and Mater Dei (Please see movie trailer). We are working on getting a local eatery to sponsor food for the evening. If we are successful at getting a sponsor we will start at 5:00 p.m. to ensure the movie starts on time.

"To Save A Life" trailer:   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1o56pazEh-Q

Lastly, we need your help, parents, to encourage your students and their friends to attend this “FCA movie night” as it is a “FREE” event.  Our NHS Theater has the capacity to hold 650 students and our goal is to meet that capacity with a lot of prayer from you and word of mouth from our students.  FCA plans to make this a safe alternative and memorable evening for all of those in attendance.  If you are interested in helping in some small way to help fund this event see the following:

n      Donate any amount to pay for our tech guy $100

n      Raffle items for our movie night in $5.00 -10.00 increments (McDonald’s, Chipotle, In-n-out, Costco, movie tickets, ITunes, gift cards your kids don’t want from Christmas, etc.)             

With the Huddle coming up next week, we are asking for donations of desserts, waters and money.  Please make all future check donations out to: FCA, as we now have non-profit status which allows your donation to be a tax write off!!  Thank you to Jeff Younger for making this possible!!  Please continue to send all donations to: Monica Younger at 26 Rincon, 92620.  

Thank you as always for continuing to pray for this incredible ministry at NHS!!!

In Him,

Kate Gisch

Torre Murray

Rosalyn Reasor

Monica Younger

TO SAVE A LIFE- Event January 22nd (Northwood High School)

This is a community wide event for the 7 schools that are covered by me for FCA! We will be eating free In-N-Out Burgers before the movie, then a little after 6 we will be showing the movie "To Save a life." A few of my leaders have already seen this movie and we keep talking about how important we feel it is for everyone to see it. 


Anyone is invited! My prayer is for students, coaches, parents, youth pastors, etc to all be in attendance.

We will be watching the movie inside Northwoods theater. It holds around 600.

Praying for Big Miracles!!

I am second-Rookie Quarterback Sam Bradford

Huddle Recap 12/16/10 Beckman High School

The last huddle of the year at Beckman High is one to be remembered. We had our famous breakdancer come in and steal the show, not only with his moves, but with his heart! Over 150 students showed up for the huddle in the cafeteria and 7 students raised their hands to accept Christ into their hearts. Josh spoke on the importance of knowing Jesus as our true savior and gave kids the opportunity to accept Christ....I was moved by all the students that stood up, and more impacted by the conversations I had after lunch was over. All the students accepted their very first FCA Bible!

Thank you for all your prayers! God continues to move through our lunch time huddles...I can't wait to see what he has in-store for us in 2011!

Huddle Recap 12/15/10 Foothill High School

Dear FCA Families;
This has been a wonderful and exciting year for FCA at Foothill!
Because of your prayers and support, our kids have a place where they can both be encouraged in Christ and bring their unsaved friends to hear the Gospel. The shear numbers of students coming to these Huddles testify to the need for this ministry at FHS!

Egypt McKee, our December Huddle guest, spoke to a packed house right before Christmas break. The kids enjoyed his great sense of humor and creative visual aids (i.e. sky diving outfits) as he shared the importance of God's decree that we "be still and know that [He] is GOD." Enjoy the pictures at this link:http://picasaweb.google.com/mduffy/LastFCAHuddle2010?authkey=Gv1sRgCODc1PiTl-mHfw&feat=email#

How much longer Christian groups will be able to have a presence on public school campuses is unknown to us, but we thank you for being determined to take advantage of the opportunity given to share that Jesus alone is the Way, the Truth, and the Life!

May your New Year be blessed by the One Who Gives us Hope,
Linda and Cherie

Huddle Recap 12/9/10 Irvine High School

Good Evening FCA parents,

Here is a quick recap about our last huddle....

We had an awesome turn out, in fact, there were more kids than we actually anticipated.  We were competing with the “Food Fair” fundraiser that was going on in the main quad area during lunch.  But that didn’t keep the kids from showing up for the huddle, it was great!!

Once pizza was finished, a large match of “Ninja” was played.  I would try to explain it, but I am sure I would just confuse you more....probably best to have your kids explain  =  )

I had Sara Nordstrom write a short description of our speaker’s, Joey Fiktarz, message;

“The turn out on Thursday was awesome. We were expecting less people because of the food fair, but we had a lot of students still come to FCA .  Joey Fiktarz was our speaker.  He is the High School pastor at Voyagers church.  Joey started his talk sharing about his first year of marriage and how hard it was.  He told us it was okay that he was saying that, since he brought his wife, Sheena, to our Huddle.  He said he had her permission   : -)    Joey told us how the Bible is our instruction manual for all of our relationships.  He told us that instead of just reacting to the people in our lives, and doing what feels right to us, we can turn to our bible and learn how God wants us to respond.  God made us to be in relationships, with each other and with Him and the bible helps us to make those relationships the best they can be.  Joey encouraged us and also told us that when he trusted God’s word, it made his marriage great.  After Joey spoke, Jared made an announcement that we had free bibles to pass out to anyone that wanted one.  We ended up giving out all of the bibles and the students seemed to be very enthusiastic. ”  
In addition to having a great speaker,  Steven Johnson from Good Shepherd Church and Josh Saenz from Pacific Church came to just ‘hang’ with the kids. Also, Sheena (Joey’s wife who works in the High School group) was there to visit with the kids.  It is so awesome to see the kids approach these youth pastors to ask questions or even just visit with them.  We would love to have your youth pastor come to our huddles, so please extend them an invitation.

Jared Hall also has a FCA Blog with pictures and recaps for all of his Orange County FCA groups.  If you would like to check it out, click on this link.... http://fcairvine.blogspot.com/ 
Of course, our huddles could not happen with out your help....here is who stepped up to the plate this week:

• Pizza – John and Heather Searl sponsored our huddle and graciously paid for all of the pizza.  (24 XL Pizzas!!!) 

• Baked Goods were lovingly prepared by the the Alayra and Kenney families.

• Water bottles were provided by the Lee family.

• Our amazing sound system is provided by the Alayra family.

Thank you, also to the dads and moms who rolled up their sleeves during their lunch break to help serve water and pizza. We are so grateful for your help every time .

Your continued generosity will make it possible for us to be continue to provide the students with hot pizza, homemade treats and a drink... all while hearing an inspirational message.  If you are interested in sponsoring a Huddle, please contact me via email – jmnordy@cox.net  As you can see this club is growing and will only stay afloat with all of our help!   (Your financial donations are tax deductible!!) 
If you are able to donate waters or baked good on the day of the Huddle, please email me.  You can either drop them off at the school gym the day of the huddle or beforehand at my house.  If you are able to help serve these hungry students, please show up at the gym at 11:30 on the day of the Huddle.   And most of all, we ask that everyone please pray for this ministry as kids continue to come with a curiosity and a hunger for meaningful inspiration!

THANK YOU PARENTS for your support!!!    Attached are some fun pictures from the day!
Our next Huddle is Thursday, November 18th!!!   Here are the dates of all of our huddles for the rest of the year.....
1/20/11,      2/3/11,      2/17/11,      3/3/11,      3/17/11,      3/31/11,      4/14/11,      5/5/11,        5/26/11,      6/2/11
 Have a wonderful Christmas and a very Happy New Year!!!!

Jodi Nordstrom
Michelle Carter