Just a reminder that our annual trunk or treat is this Saturday night! And we need everyone’s help. The festivities will open to the public at 7pm so We need everyone else there early to help get everything set up. This is going to be an amazing night to love on our neighbors! I hope you have put some thought into your trunk decorations as well as your own costume!!! I was thinking of something like this:

Ok, even for a scary night like Halloween, I don’t think I would ever wear something like that! See y’all Saturday!

It was just a rumor. But among the radical Muslims in Pakistan’s Gojra village, a rumor was enough of an excuse to kill.

When the rumor was broadcast from the loudspeakers on the minarets of local mosques, it became fact. As part of a wedding ceremony, the loudspeaker shouted, Christians tore pages from a Quran. Then they compounded the disrespect by walking on the shredded pages.

“Defend Islam!” The loudspeaker called. Muslims answered, rampaging through a Christian section of Gojra on Aug. 1.  The mob, which was estimated to be more than 20,000 people, burned over 100 Christian homes,  the church and murdered many Christians including women and children.

Emergency personnel did not reach Gojra for more than five hours. Christians were forced to use vegetable carts to move their dead and wounded to the hospital.

Responding to an international outcry, Pakistani government officials have now said no Quran was actually desecrated.  Please don’t forget to pray for our brother and sisters who are suffering for Christ in Pakistan and around the world!

A Christian home set on fire by Muslims

It has been a while since we gave you all an update on Gao Zhisheng at an Open Door meeting so here is the latest update from Voice of the Martyrs.  According to www.freegao.com, Gao has now been held captive with no contact for 202 days.  China Aid Association staff recently delivered more than 100,000 signatures to the Chinese Embassy, requesting the release of Gao Zhisheng. They were allowed inside the embassy, but when embassy officials saw the petition they told the China Aid staff to leave and the authorities refused to accept the petition.  Please continue to pray for Gao and his family as well as all of the persecuted church across the world.

China’s renowned human rights attorney Gao Zhisheng and his wife Geng He and son Gao Tianyu.

I hope that you are all as excited as I am about our trip to Santa Cruz!  As I said I would, here are the forms that we handed out Sunday in case you lost them or you weren’t there.  Please print these and give them to your parents for them to fill out and sign. Bring that back to any of the Open Door Leaders.   ONLY 8 MORE DAYS AND COUNTING!!!

** Removed Forms **

I have thought about this for a while and I finally decided to go ahead and do it. Open Door now has an official twitter account.  I debated on what kind of tweets could be sent that would encourage and strengthen your faith and actually be helpful to you as oppose to an annoyance… We promise that we will not flood your phone with large amounts of “tweets”… I would image no more then just a handful per week.  Imagine! Your day could become just a little brighter with some encouraging thoughts… possibly some announcements sent strait to your phone! Ok, we are flattering ourselves.

Note: If you have to pay extra for text messages, DONT DO THIS! That is my warning and disclaimer.

All you have to do is text “follow odnite” to the number 40404… (leave off the quotation marks) and voila! You will recieve a text back from 40404 that tells you  to reply with your name… (i.e.  MattSupermanDittemore! or something like that)  That’s it! Do it and you will recieve periodic updates regarding the best youth group in the world! “Why is it the best, you ask?”  BECAUSE YOU ARE IN IT! AND YOUR THE BEST!

YES! At least through the summer! This Sunday night will be out last Sunday night service at 6:30 pm for a while… Beginning on the 7th of June, we will begin meeting at 9:45am before the morning worship service! We are pumped and hope you are too!!! Sure, it’s a little earlier but we will have donuts, coffee, maybe some O.J…. mmmmm…. O.J. lol

SEE YOU THERE!!!

You asked, we delivered! Here is some information for you and your parents regarding the upcoming  EG Conference hosted by The Father’s House in Vacaville CA. Click here to download the information form.  Be sure you give it to your parents so they can be in the know! I hate getting phone calls from confused parents!  Just print out the form and give it to them!

Ok, so you need to have a parent sign a medical release and permission slip in order for you to go… Because we know it is possible for you to do the unthinkable and lose your paper, we have taken the liberty of putting the release here on odnite.com for your convenience! Yes we are thinking of you! If you will click here, or here, or here, or here or even here, you can download it, print it, fill it out, have your parent sign it and bring it to us on Saturday morning! Oh, I almost forgot… you can click here too!

February 26th-28th

Mark your calendars! I would like to see EVERY SINGLE ODNITE STUDENT attend this conference!
Encounter Generation Conference is designed to impact a generation with the Presence of God. EG Conference is about empowering you to go back to your city, campus and church and play a vital role in taking the power of Jesus Christ to your community.

Conference Begins on Thursday night, goes all day Friday and finishes on Saturday morning. To avoid the expense of hotels, and because Vacavile is so close, we will be carpooling to EG each day. Your parent can drop you off at the church and we will all ride together!

Talk to Myself, Shan, Jacy or Jordan about going as part of the group and this conference will only cost you $35. That is a bit of a discount from the regular price so let us know as soon as you can! TALK TO YOUR PARENTS NOW! haha, Seriously… go do it… right now…. for real…. The computer isn’t going anywhere… Go.

Don’t forget we will be going to the snow park on February 7th!! It is going to be a lot of fun with sledding and snow ball fights! Make sure you have the right snow apparel though as it WILL be cold and wet!!! Let us know whose coming! Don’t forget to invite your friends!!