Bright Lights is starting up again!

Wow, this summer flew by!  Bright Lights will resume meetings on Tuesday, August 27th at 6:30 p.m.  We'll be doing things a little differently this year... below is an email explaining our vision for the next year. 

Dear Bright Light parents,

This email will be rather long, but we'd like to share our vision for the group this year.
After talking about praying over what to do for Bright Lights this year, we have decided to do something a little different. Last year, each of our lessons centered around a particular topic: Standing Strong for The Lord in Your Youth, Joy, etc. However, as we were thinking about it, we weren't really teaching the girls how to study the Word for themselves, and we want to do that. We'd rather the girls get to know Jesus than listen to lessons about how to be like Jesus. Like Romans 13 says: "The commandment, 'Do not commit adultery,' 'Do not murder,' 'Do not steal,' 'Do not covet,' and whatever other commandment there may be, are summed up in this one rule: 'Love your neighbor as yourself.' Love does not harm to its neighbor. Therefore love is the fulfillment of the law." (Romans 13:9-10) We want the girls to love Jesus more than anything. "The attributes, 'Joy,' 'Patience,' 'Obedience to parents,' 'Sibling relationships,' and all the others are summed up in this one person, 'Jesus.' Jesus is perfectly holy. Therefore Jesus is everything good." If the girls know Jesus, everything else will flow from that.

Therefore, our goals this year are as follows:
1) We want to teach the girls how to get to know Jesus
2) We want to teach the girls how to STUDY the Bible
3) We want to teach the value of singing as a form of praise and worship
4) We want to teach the battle tactic of intercessory prayer
(Obviously, we can't make anyone love Jesus, but we want to produce an atmosphere conducive to growing in the love of Jesus.)

Our lesson plan this year will be slightly different than that of last year. Instead of having one of us stand up and talk to the girls, we will be doing Bible studies, where we will lead a discussion, encouraging the girls to discover Biblical truths for themselves. We'll spend our time reading and studying the Bible, singing, praying (out loud and privately), and memorizing.
Furthermore, something we really want to encourage in Bright Lights this year is an appreciation of quality worship music. We will be focusing on both contemporary and traditional hymns and worship songs, evaluating each song for musical quality and profound lyrics.

We're asking that each girl bring a notebook or paper, pens and pencils, and her Bible. We will provide a BL notebook to every girl who hasn't participated in BL before.
During the time in between lessons, we would like each girl to read the passage for next lesson, and write down any thoughts or questions about it. We will also expect them to memorize Bible verses, and do any other homework we assign. Parental guidance will be most valuable, since we desire to come alongside you and help encourage your daughters toward godliness.
Each "lesson," we will provide concordances, Bible Dictionaries, Bible maps, and additional background research to aid in the Scripture study, as well as snacks.

Right now, the books that we are planning on looking at are Hebrews, 1 John, Ruth, Esther, and James. We may or may not get to all of them, but we are hoping to cover as much territory as possible. You parents (especially the moms, but dads too) are more than welcome to sit in on our discussion and contribute. That way, you can further help your daughter study the scriptures at home.

To help us in facilitate the group, we would like the know the following about your daughter(s):
1) Name
2) Age
3) Allergies
4) May we post her picture on our Bright Lights blog
5) Reading level
6) Birthday
7) Contact information (phone and email)

The group will be meeting every other Tuesday starting August 27 from 6:30 to 8:30. We'll break for the year on December 3 (we may have a combined Christmas party with His Lighthouse on December 17) , and resume January 14. We are asking a $15 fee to cover snacks, Bright Light notebooks, and whatever other materials we may need.

We know that we're doing something rather different from most Bright Light groups. Therefore, if what we are offering this year isn't what you would like for your daughter this year, there are several other Bright Light groups in the area, led by wonderful Christian girls. Their contact information is attached.

In Jesus,
Jael and Sylvia