DCC Youth Gazette

1. July / August2011 Your source for up to the minute news! He gives power to the weak and strength to the powerless. Even youths will become weak and tired, and young men will fall in exhaustion. But those who trust in the Lord will find new strength. They will soar high on wings like eagles. They will run and not grow weary. They will walk and not faint. Isaiah 40:29-31 IT’S OFFICIAL: THE DCC YOUTH GROUP HAS LAUNCHED! On July 3rd, 2011 at the first annual DCC career day it was officially announced that the DCC Youth Group has begun. After several months of planning and organizing the group is now underway. There are an abundance of activities slated specifically tailored towards the youth of DCC. The activities vary from fun events to charitable events. During the course of each and every event the intent is to keep our youth at DCC heavily involved in activities that help them through some of the best years of there life. Our ultimate goal is to display there talents and skills for all the surrounding communities to see and in the process convey our theme at DCC. (LOVE GOD, LOVE PEOPLE, SHOW IT!) The youth at DCC have so much to offer and we as leaders intend on helping them tap into their individual talents so they may use them to help exalt God and his kingdom. Although each individual may have different hobbies and interests our intention with the DCC youth group is to have something to suit the interest of every member. Although individual interests vary we all share one common thing and that is our love and desire for Jesus and our willingness to reach out to those in need of the good news! We are thankful for all the youth members that have showed an interest in the group and are extremely proud of them for there desire to be a part of the group. We as leaders are excited and realize the potential and possibilities for outreach are endless. But in the meantime we want our existing members to know we are devoted to them and assisting in developing a strong team atmosphere in which we remain united in all we set out to accomplish. The youth are not only a big part of the church’s future but are instrumental in helping DCC at the present time. So spread the word about our new group and let’s make this trip a fun and productive one that will build memories that last forever. But wait….. as your car is being finely detailed, the DCC youth group will be scooping out Rita’s water ice to those that are awaiting the completion of their vehicles. So get ready to work kids and support our group and church as we have the opportunity to mingle with the members of our county and tell them the wonderful news of God and his great works. Trip to Clementon Park: The youth group will be funding 50% of the total cost of each member’s ticket for entrance into the park. (Total price is $30.00 so each youth member will only have to pay $15.00!) The date of our trip will be Friday August 19th! We will be providing lunch via a picnic style lunch. We will ride rides and be able to splash and have fun in the water park! So bring your bathing suits along with your dry clothes and a towel and enjoy! Please reply to us and confirm your attendance no later than August 14th. Parents don’t stress because this is on a Friday. We will be more than willing to provide transportation. Thanks to all those that filled out their questionnaire forms “How well do you know our youth” This is a huge step in seeing what makes each member tick and some of their interests. To generate meeting topics of our Youths interest, we had them fill out a meetings topic form. As mentioned, each month we meet we will be discussing a topic (drawn randomly from a hat) and that will consume much of our time. This is a great way for the youth to discuss topics among themselves and with us. These are fun conversations but also can get serious so once again please respect each other’s feelings and emotions and complete confidentiality is a must. The topic that was picked for next month (Thanks Steve!) is about relationships with family and friends and how to handle problems that arise in these relationships. This can cover a wide range of things so be prepared to discuss. Our goal is to make these meetings productive and let God guide us and lead us where he wants us to take the discussion. We plan on spending a lot of quality time with our youth and developing friendships and continuity that will make us a strong team unit. We are currently making arrangements for our Animal Rescue volunteer visit. We can’t wait to make a difference in some animal’s life even if just for a day. God created all creatures and has compassion for all animals. Let’s also show our love and compassion and make these animals feel special for the day. Who knows, maybe you’ll get so attached you may need a follow up visit for your new furry friend. We are also planning our Youth group end of summer picnic extravaganza! We will eat plenty of food and play games such as football, softball, frisbee, and whatever else we can squeeze in. We’ll jam to some tunes in Riverview Beach Park and who knows who may show up and ask to join! We’ll represent DCC youth group while we have fun! Stay tuned for more details in the upcoming weeks! Our next DCC youth meeting will be held on August 20th at 5-7 P.M. at the church social hall. We’ll have our monthly discussion and go over a few things that will be coming up. So invite your friends, family, classmates, co-worker’s. etc. The more the merrier! DCC Youth Gazette July 17th DCC Youth Group Meeting Follow up Report Thanks to everyone that attended the first DCC youth group meeting on July 17th. Many things were discussed in the meeting and several events and activities are currently in the planning stages. Overall there was great participation and many ideas were discussed. The meeting consisted of sharing the ideas we have come up with and receiving feedback from members and volunteers. We appreciate everyone’s enthusiasm and excitement and mostly support. The turnout was good as many of our DCC youth core members were in attendance. We look forward to much more participation in future meetings. As mentioned there are several other topics that will be up for discussion in the upcoming months but overall the meeting was very productive and the agenda was full and hopefully informative. We are happy and excited to announce that the following events are currently being scheduled. So stay tuned and be sure to keep a watchful eye on the youth group board and associated calendar. But here’s what’s on tap for now: Our first youth group fundraiser is slated to take place in July. This will take place on July 30th at the social hall and church parking lots. The final details are being hashed out at the moment. Basically we will charge a small fee to have your car washed and dried with another additional small fee to have your car vacuumed!

2. DCC Youth Gazette Page 2 July / August2011 BIG CONGRATS TO CALEB BALL FOR ANOTHER GREAT SERMON! The DCC Youth Gazette would like to thank and recognize Caleb Ball one of our youth members for an outstanding sermon on July 3rd, 2011. Caleb once again demonstrated that his devotion, prayers, and studying paid off as he delivered a great message immediately before the kick off to DCC career day. His message coincided with the theme for DCC career day and he touched on how each member of DCC has special talents and callings that are instrumental in helping the kingdom of God grow. We appreciate Caleb’s dedication to the word of God and his overall spiritual attitude and how he lives his life as a Christian. He is one of our many talented youth members that sets good examples and is a living proof on what a good relationship with Jesus can help achieve personally. Keep up the good work you perform for the kingdom of God Caleb and we are looking forward to your next sermon. We are thankful to have you as a member of the youth team and more importantly a member of God’s team. WANTED: PICTURES OF YOUTH MEMBERS FOR DIGITAL DISPLAY To all parents, we are looking for pictures of our youth group members so we can download them onto our digital photo frame display located on our youth group display board. Although we will be updating the photos as we perform activities and charitable events we would also like just everyday pictures of any kind that define our youth members. So please dig deep into your archives and send us what you can. Even those cute little baby pictures would be a nice way to show some of our members. This is a cool way to show how our youth group members have transitioned through the different stages of their lives to get to where they are. There’s nothing like pictures to bring back memories so please help us show off the youth in which we are so proud of!!!!!!! Thank you in advance for helping keep our board fun and active. THE DCC CHILDREN’S CARNIVAL WAS A SUCCESS! A special thanks goes to Michele & Bill Friant for their efforts put into making the DCC children’s carnival a success. Along with all the hard work Bill and Michele dedicated into making the carnival a success we would also like to thank the members of the DCC Youth Group that assisted on carnival day. As future youth group members, the current members of the children’s ministry are a very important part of DCC and the festivities at the carnival displayed just how great our children reallyare. The interaction between our children and youth was awesome and we as a youth group look forward to helping and assisting with future children’s events if needed. Our children’s ministry is in good hand’s with Bill and Michele at the helm. The children’s ministry is an instrumental building block for our children as they transition into their teenage years and we look forward to having them in our group in the year’s to come. Once again though thanks to Michele, Bill, and all the members of the youth group for showing support to our children and the children of the community. Special Thanks to Youth Group Volunteer Sign Up’s! During the first annual DCC career day there were several members of the church that expressed interest in volunteering with assisting for future youth group events and we as leaders of the youth group greatly appreciate their interest. We are extremely encouraged about our youth group and are looking forward to having each volunteer that expressed interest participating in future events. Thanks again for inquiring and stayed tuned as we will keep you posted on upcoming events. Here is the list of volunteers we would like to extend our thanks to: Deborah Wolfe Tamie Miller Steven Torres Shawn Layton Michele Godwin John Wharton Susan Wharton Ruth Williams Bill Friant UPCOMING EVENTS: July 30th Car Wash Saturday 11 – 2 - Church parking lot August 19th Clementon Park Friday Leave church at 9:30 am MUST have signups & money by Sun. 8/14 see Mike or Denise for details August 20thDCC Youth Group Meeting Saturday 5 – 7pm – Social Hall TBD Animal Shelter Visit We are currently working out the details  Make sure you keep an eye on our Bulletin Board in the downstairs hallway of the Church to see all the up to the minute plans coming up for our Youth! DEEPWATER COMMUNITY CHURCH 564 BROADWAY DEEPWATER, NJ 08089 856-678-1999 DCC Youth Group Leaders Mike & Denise Piemontese 443-466-9889 Nester1@comcast.net Love God, Love People, Show It!

3. DCC Youth Gazette Page 3 July / August 2011 A LITTLE BIT ABOUT US…. My name is Michael Piemontese and I am honored to be one half of our DCC youth group leaders. As a leader I am very excited and am looking forward to helping develop a strong youth group program in which we emphasize the importance of a great relationship with Jesus Christ. During our journey I will try my best to serve as an example for our youth and faithfully represent the DCC youth group and church in general. I had previously attended the existing church in the 1990’s when it was the United Pentecostal Church. I have some great memories as one of the congregation back then and can honestly say it was a life changing time for me personally. In November of 1994 I was baptized in the name of Jesus Christ for the remission of my sins and shortly thereafter I was filled with the Holy Spirit. These years were critical for me as they set the foundation in terms of Christianity for me. Prior to attending the church in the 90’s I had very little experience with churches and Christianity so everything was totally new to me. After leaving the church back in 2000 I briefly bounced around at a few churches before eventually not attending any church at all. Although God has always been a part of my life I will admit I sorely missed the privilege to be part of a sincere, loving, spirit filled congregation. I am thankful that God set a foundation in my heart years ago that always kept me enough in touch with him to realize I needed God as part of my life even during the time frame I was not a dedicated practicing Christian. I am proud and extremely thankful that recently God put in my heart to make contact with Pastor Nate and Kim. Many things have changed for me since my departure from this church back in 2000. Although my personal life has blossomed in terms of my marriage, professional career, and health I realized there was a big void that any personal accomplishments could not fill. Thankfully my wife Denise also shares a similar past and also through the years has desired to have a better relationship with God. At the time I made initial contact with Pastor Nate and Kim and they extended an invite for my family and myself to visit the new church they seemed so excited about, so we did. And as the story goes the rest is history. We absolutely fell in Love with the church in every aspect. The teachings are top notch. The music is so anointed and awesome. The people are friendly, courteous, and dedicated. We fell in love with the new DCC church and the overall beliefs. I look so forward to being an integral part of DCC and see it as a great privilege to be one half leader of the youth group. Outside of church and being a Christian I would like to share a little about me personally. I am an employee of DuPont located in Wilmington, Delaware and I am a mechanical / maintenance supervisor that has at the moment 25 direct reports. My responsibilities vary but basically I am in charge of equipment of all sorts that produce pigment that is used worldwide in all types of products including paper, paint, food, and much more. I love spending time with my family. I love sports. My favorite teams are any teams from Philadelphia. I love my pets and enjoy anything related to animals. I also am a big fan of combat sports primarily speaking of MMA. One of my new hobbies for sure is working on DCC youth group related items. Other than that I am a pretty simple person that enjoys some peaceful downtime. I am committed to keeping the youth group active and helping the youth group and DCC church achieve the goals we have set out to achieve. I would like to thank everyone for their support of my wife and myself and we look forward to creating a strong team to exalt Jesus Christ and reach out to those in need. Sincerely, Michael Piemontese Hi my name is Denise Piemontese, and you guessed it…… I am the other half of the DCC Youth Group leadership team! Mike and I are thrilled about getting started and can’t wait to see our teen and young adult group grow! As far as my background, well I was in church from the time I was 2 weeks old! My mother was one of the most magnificent people I have ever met and she was a wonderful Christian lady. About the time I was 6 years old my dad became saved too and eventually came to Pastor the Bohemia Manor Evangelical Christian Church in Chesapeake City, MD. At the age of 10, at summer camp in PA I asked Jesus to come into my heart, and even though I was very young, it was the most monumental thing that I have ever done. As the years passed by and I entered my teenage years I became rebellious and hard headed and resentful of all the “rules” that my parents had established for me. I walked around feeling like I was missing out. At 20 years of age I moved out for the first time and totally walked away from God. Those were by far the loneliest years of my life. Lets just say that everything in the world that you can get yourself into to mess up your life, I did. I was trying to catch up for all of the years of rules and restrictions. When I was 22 my mom passed away and rather than turn back to God I used it as an excuse to continue down a very dark path. I was so bad off I even convinced myself that God didn’t really exist and that everything that I had been shown, taught and experienced growing up was just a mere myth. Almost one year after my mom had died, I had a dream. A very vivid dream where my mom came and spent the day with me. It was wonderful and I remember now, like it was yesterday, everything we did and exactly how I felt. At the end of the dream she went to leave and I became sad and upset and begged her not to leave me but take me with her, but as she turned around and looked at me she said she had to go and I couldn’t go with her because I didn’t believe in where she was going - Heaven. Then she left. In the dream I cried and said but Mom I do believe, I do! I immediately woke up and was completely broken hearted. I cried out to God and told him how sorry I was for turning from him and that I did believe and asked for his forgiveness. Now was it my moms spirit that spoke to me in the dream or was it just Gods way of getting my attention? I don’t know and it doesn’t matter, point is, he got my attention. God is very real and he sent his very real son Jesus Christ over 2000 years ago to die on a cross so that we can have a relationship with him now and forever, just the way he wanted it to be from the beginning! My life has had many ups and downs and I have certainly made my share of bad choices and mistakes. Looking back I realize that what I went thru, good and bad, has made me who I am today. It was only the grace of God that got me here. It was my teenage & young adult years where I struggled the most, so when I was asked to help out with a DCC Youth Group I saw it as an opportunity for God to use me to show our Youth some of the things that I didn’t understand when I was their age. God loves you! He doesn’t expect you to be perfect. He wants you to accept him into your heart so that he can help you. You ARE worthy, no matter what you have ever done, and having a relationship with him is the only real thing out there! “Re-paint Jesus to the World!!” That is what Pastor Nate always says and that is what I hope to do with our Youth Ministry! I have been trying to find a church for several years now and the fact that Mike stumbled upon Kim & Nate on facebook and we ended up here, was no mistake. I look forward to working with our Youth and continuing to grow my own relationship with Jesus, every single day! I love the church and the people and am absolutely thrilled to be here!

4. DCC Youth Gazette Page 4 July / August 2011 Model Mentoring “Even when I am old and gray, do not forsake me, O God, till I declare your power to the next generation, your might to all who are to come.” Psalm 71:18 Your life is a stewardship. Owned by God, He expects us to invest in others. This is who we are as followers of Christ. Part of our life management is giving back to younger men and women in the form of mentoring. We mentor others because someone took the time to mentor us. Or, we may mentor others because we did not have a mentor and, as a consequence, we stumbled and bumbled around until we found our way. The opportunity for mentoring compels us to protect others from our own mistakes. God can use our life experiences to help young men and women not to repeat bad history and to create good history. This is an important process of wisdom transference from one generation to the next. More important than the transfer of wealth is the transfer of wisdom. Wealth without wisdom can lead to wickedness or, at the very least, weirdness. And we do not need to set up others for either. In fact, in some ways it is easier to pass on wealth than it is to pass on wisdom. The transfer of wisdom takes time and understanding. It takes getting involved in someone’s life to the point that it costs you something. More than likely it will cost you time, money and relational equity—your most valued assets. However, by investing in someone through a mentoring relationship, think of the savings. You may save them from the heartache of a messed-up marriage. You may save them from the gut-wrenching experience of not getting to know their children. You may save them from a stupid business decision that leads to insolvency. You may save them from chronic indecision and insecurity because their identity resides somewhere else other than in Christ. Your mentoring is a cost-saving proposition. Everyone wins in the mentoring process, especially the m e n t o r ! Furthermore, gray hair does not automatically qualify you as a mentor. Your first qualification as a mentor is an unyielding submission to your heavenly Father. Because of your love and fear of God, He is your model for mentoring. You are patient when you need to be patient. You confront when you need to confront. And, you ask tons of caring questions. Mentoring is not revealing all of the answers. Rather it is helping another through the process of discovery. Yes, there are times to give ardent direction and warnings, but many times it is sharing what you have learned and are learning. It is asking the one being mentored to take your life experiences and God-given wisdom and, prayerfully, apply it to their own life. Your goal is not a clone of yourself (God help us). Your goal is a passionate follower of Jesus Christ. A wise mentor will transfer humility, gratitude, teachableness, contentment, selflessness, forgiveness, discipline and grace. It is a character-driven model. Mentoring without character is like driving a car without gas. It is not possible. Hold high a standard of living life on purpose with a bent toward God, and then invite others to join you. The masses will not flock to be mentored, but a few will. Go with a few and watch God do a work of wisdom that eventually influences the masses. Model mentoring, for it makes men and women! Article taken from: www.wisdomhunters.com This is a great web site that offers daily devotionals sent right to your inbox. RECOGNITION Lets face it, everybody likes a little pat on the back now and again. Well, that is exactly what we want to do for our Youth Members! If you would like to recognize one of our members for something, let us know so we can post it on our board or in the DCC Youth Gazette!! Congratulations Morgan And Logan For Volunteer Work Congratulations to Morgan and Logan Warfield for the volunteer work they have been participating in at the Perry Point VA hospital. Although they were both pursuing summer jobs, they were unable to work at local companies due to their age. So instead Morgan and Logan decided to stay busy and provide volunteer assistance at the VA hospital. Their current duties vary and include the following things. They help patients with rehab assignments , help with preparing meals and serving meals, spend quality time with patients and bringing a smile to their faces. They are currently performing these charitable duties mostly due to them wanting to help and make a difference to the veteran’s that served our country. Besides the charitable aspect of this accomplishment they are also earning service hours for high school. This is a big accomplishment and achievement and truly shows the compassion that our youth have for other people. Just like the DCCmoto………………………Love God, Love People, and show it! One of the greatest ways of showing a Christ like love is by displaying compassion and caring for our fellow human beings and this endeavor has been an example of how giving in this magnitude brings satisfaction and happiness to all involved. Keep up the good work with the volunteering and outreaching to those in need! New Addition To The DCC Church Family!!!!!!!! As you may have heard there is a new member of the DCC family. Mike Friant and Robin Hall are the new proud parents of Preston Lee! Please help us welcome their new addition! Wow what a beautiful baby! We are thankful to announce Preston is a healthy baby. The DCC youth group is here to support you guys! Our prayers are with you guys and your wonderful new addition! If there is anything you guys need from the DCC youth group we are there for you! (Well………………..maybe not changing diapers. We’ll leave that to you guys and the new proud grandparents!)