Is your birthday coming up? Let us know! [Send an email to birthdays@wordsoflife.com]

Family Picnic - 11:00 AM - 5:00 PMCome out and spend time with family and friends at our annual Family Picnic at CB Smith park in Pembroke Pines!

Bounce houses and pony rides for the kids, sports and athletics for the youth, and a host of home-cooked delicacies for everyone’s eating enjoyment! We’d love to see you there!

LIVE220 | Not Forgotten - 7:30 PMFeatured Speaker: Angel Clark

A LifeGroup series empowering us to show the world that they are NOT FORGOTTEN. (Highschool Srs & Jrs only.)

Softball Game | Youth Leaders vs. High School Students - 11:30 AM9 -12 graders (guys and girls) are challenged to a softball game!

You must register at the 411 Information Center by Sunday, April 24 if you want to play. Be sure to bring sunblock and a bottle of water, too!

SAVE THESE DATES!

HOTDATES

Montrel Sellers April 5 Brandon Butler April 6 Bridgette LeClair April 11

Alexander Tanis April 15 Benita Okeke April 17 Mitchy Clairizier April 21

Trevon Pinder April 27 Wilky Telisnor April 30

BIRTHDAYS Happy Birthday to you from the entire LIFEFORCE family!

Sometime back long, long ago-- longer than you or I could ever hope to imagine, before sin, calamity, distress or corruption; before the existence of this world; before there was anything called the universe, there was God, and He was Love. He decided that making you and me was a good idea. Jeremiah 1:7 says that God knew us before He even formed us.

God KNEW me.

I just want to say that if I knew me before I was born, I would have looked ahead to see all the stupid things I was going to do when I was 17 years old-- and made the decision right there to not make me.

But God did.

God saw me, the Bible says He knew me. He knew my future. He knew the ugly. But He didn’t decide to shoot me into the vacuum of space so that I wouldn’t exist. Ephesians 2:4 says that “Because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive with Christ even when we were dead in transgressions—it is by grace you have been saved.”

Because of God’s great love for me.

Because of God’s great love for you.

God’s love is such that it sees beyond our outward imperfections, sees past our bad decisions, and mis-takes. Sees past our purposefully hurtful actions and words. Sees past our rebellion, our maliciousness, our ignorance and disbelief. It sees beyond all of that and is still as strong as it was when it began.

It’s hard for us to see at first, because sometimes we only see the ugly. But when you look at your life from God’s perspective you’ll see that He doesn’t see the ugly. He see’s you. It took me a while to real-ize it, but finally I see that Jesus didn’t just die for my sin. He died for me. Because He loves me.

The greatest realization of love comes in knowing that Jesus had every right to refuse.

And yet He still chose to save us.

Samuel Gualtieri

DEVO

FIND THESE[ ]ActsAmosDanielEphesiansEstherExodusEzekielEzraGenesisHabakkukHaggaiHebrewsIII John

II KingsII PeterII SamuelII TimonthyIsaiahJamesJeremiahJobJoelJonahJoshuaJudgesLeviticus

MalachiMicahNahumNehemiahNumbersObadiahPhilemonProverbsPsalmsRomansTitusZechariahZephaniah

PUZZLED

Take The Challenge!See if you can be the first one to finish the puzzle below!

Think you can dominate in Wordsearch? Well we dare you to take the challenge. This month’s puzzle inspiration comes from those undeniably familiar New Testament friends and foes of our hero, Jesus.

Upload a picture of your finished puzzle to our

Facebook group and you could win from a selection

of music, cash, clothing and other giveaways!

www.facebook.com Search: LIFEFORCE Youth

 

ARTS& CULTURE

Thousands of hopefuls turned out to audition for Simon Cowell’s new singing competition

‘The X Factor,’ premiering this fall on FOX, at the University of Miami’s BankUnited Center

on April 7, 2011 in Miami, Florida.

(Photo by Ray Mickshaw/PictureGroup) via AP IMAGES

Opposite: LIFEFORCE’s own Akeem Smith believes he has what it takes to

make waves in the music world.

Aspiring Singer/Songwriter Akeem Smith is on a mission.

@lifeforcewireWhat is your side of the story? Tweet us your thoughts, insights, or share pics of your experience!

twitter.com/lifeforcewire

Since childhood, LIFEFORCE’s own Akeem Smith has been humming tunes and bouncing to beats in his head. This April he decided to take his musical aspirations public by auditioning for the hotly anticipat-ed new talent-seeking TV series, X-Factor. It is no surprise that Akeem would audition for X-Factor. The tal-ented singer, dancer, and com-petitive athlete was one among thousands in Miami who flocked to the Bank United Center to stand in line with hopes of audi-tioning for the TV-series hosted by American Idol’s Simon Cow-ell. According to Akeem, The X-Factor audition is one way that God is taking his talents on a joy ride-- giving him an oppor-tunity to inspire and be a witness to others. Whether he wins or not, Akeem’s motivation remains high. He says no matter what hap-pens, he will continue to “Keep trying, and take every situation as a confidence booster.” As with any artist starting out, it

can be hard to find a platform for your mu-sic—which, if you ask any musician, can be a disheartening experience. The important thing to remember is that true success is not measured by man, and that includes any of the various platforms built by man, whether that be fame or fortune, or exposure, or chart

rankings. True success in God’s eyes is never measured by just one thing, but in completing the assignment He has called us to. Which in simple terms means first saying “God, here I am, use me,” followed by obedience to the instruction of His Word. As for Akeem, he con-tinues his pursuit towards mas-tering his craft, while also look-ing forward to starting college

life where he will face different challenges—including finding the nearest Chipotle restau-rant, practicing his stage dive, and stocking up enough of his favorite cereal, Kelloggs’ discontinued French Toast Cereal which he buys on Ebay for only $4.00 a box.

LOOKBOOKFashion GIRLS STYLE PICK

GUYS STYLE PICK

1

1

1

3

2

4

3Belt from H&M, $17.95

Sure, a belt is a belt-- but if you’re going to go out stylin’ you might as well be wearing a belt with a little snaz.

This one from H&M says that you care just enough without going overboard.

AFFINA Wedge, Nine West, $90

Not all wedges are created equal. These AFFINA wedges from Nine West make the cut in both looks and price.

Eye Eye Aie,Swatch, $60

This watch is sweet. Sometimes that’s all the convincing we need.

Supima Cotton V-neck Argyle Vest by Lacoste, $135

You might need to save for this one, but the Supima® cotton used to make this V-neck from Lacoste is absolutely luxurious to touch.

H&M, $17.95

Forever 21, $15.80

Macy’s $19.99

For high school students nearing graduation, the college prep-aration process can seem daunting and extensive. Schools bombard pro-spective students with information about admission requirements, while dangling threatening statistics about under-achieving peers over head. For students valuing Christianity, an-other question is introduced into the already-noisy space between our ears: how are we sup-posed to know what God has in store for us? How do we ac-tually know that we are walking in faith and not just taking thoughtless risks? As a way to help answer the questions students have about college and help calm the chaos, LIFEFORCE launched Path-ways, a college/career counselling group. On Sunday, March 13, students shuffled into a separate meeting room where vision, identity, and purpose be-came major talking points of the after-noon. Pathways’ leaders led the group in contagiously fun team building ac-

tivities including arm-wrestling and thumb-wars challenges to help build confidence in students and to break down personal social boundaries. The influence of this sim-ple yet effective approach was made apparent in the awareness of the stu-dents as the day’s lessons continued. Students were asked to answer ques-

tions that provoked critical thinking about their dreams, desires, pursuit of faith, and expecta-tions for college-life. “As my first day, I learned how to stay [afar] from the bad things and fol-low God’s will” said Latesha Rivers, 12th Grade. Pathways’

founder LaShay Stokes states: “Now that the [students] are exposed [to these ideas] they are expectant. Our hope is to keep their interest and intro-duce them to other interests and start getting them prepared for the future.” Pathways’ counselling sessions are open for appointment to students of any age that are considering pursuing a college career.

REWIND

Staff writer Nyeshia Garland takes us in-side Pathways College & Career class for High School Juniors and Seniors entitled “My Life, My Purpose”

by Nyeshia Garland

Students deep in thought at the first of several Pathway’s “My Life, My Purpose” college/career classes.

The art-inclined were excited over the interactive art project designed

to help students visualize their goals.

For more information or to schedule an appointment

email pathways@wordsoflife.com or call 305.653.8155 x119

1st & 3rd Mondays 6:00 - 8:30 pm.

Come out and eat some Macho Nachos, talk about guy-stuff and have a great time with the guys!

2nd & 4th Mondays 6:00 - 8:30 pm.

Come out and meet girls just like you. Talk about things that matter and learn about God’s love together!

2nd & 4th Wednesdays 6:30 - 7:20 pm.

If you are a poet, a writer, or like to rap, you will learn about writing, and success from God’s perspective.

Service Times:

Sunday @10:30amWednesday @7:30pm

Words of Life Church20139 NE 15 Ct

North Miami Beach, FL 33179305.653.8155 x112

wordsoflife.com

LIFEFORCE is the student ministry of Words of Life Churchdesigned for grades 9 - 12. For more information, or to contactone of our team, please call 305.653.8155 x112 or send us anemail to lifeforceyouth@wordsoflife.com

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