Live Your Faith

At Thrive, we work with a large range of students and families. One type is “the-kid-who-grew-up-in-church”. Being a kid who grew up mostly in the church myself, I found it was harder for me to really take on my faith as my own and live it out. When you’ve known something your whole life, it’s easy to just fall into the motions. Our goal at Thrive is to challenge students out of that mindset; to live out their faith as their own, and to serve God and each other. For the last two years, we have implemented something at Thrive called our “Bringers”. These students, who are in any grade, are our students who want to go beyond the motions. Who not only want to come to Thrive, but want to own Thrive as their own ministry to lead their friends to Christ. Within the last two years, we have seen countless Thrive students invite non-believing friends, lead games, dress up as characters, lead worship etc… but none as much as our senior classes.

This year, I have been particularly impressed with our seniors. A lot of them have grown up in the church and, until now, have coasted along; coming to Thrive, but not really feeling the urgency of the Gospel. This year though, God is moving. I can see their growth, and our underclassmen notice it too. At our fall retreat, Ignite, one student has really stuck out to me. Ashley has gone to Salem First her whole life, and has been a part of Thrive for almost 4 years. Over the summer, she connected with some freshman girls, to get to know them and make them feel truly welcome at Thrive. This year she has been constantly welcoming students at Thrive, getting to know their names and where they go to school so they feel at home. She really has a heart for the underclassman girls, wanting to be a good role model for them. Last week on our retreat, she pulled aside some students, mostly freshman girls, to get to know them on a deeper level and to specifically pray for them. Usually, the leaders are the ones having 1 on 1’s with students, but Ashley devoted her whole free time to meeting with students! She’s been in church her whole life, and she is getting it. She blesses me and I see Christ moving through her so evidently. It’s so exciting to see students live out their faith! She has been a part of this ministry, but now she has made this ministry her own.

-Jessica Ivanitsky

H2O Work Crew

This summer marked my fourth year being a THRIVE leader at camp H2O, SFB’s high school summer camp. As I reflect over the years, each summer gets better and better. From the unity of our staff, to the amazing boat drivers, to our fantastic cooks, every year seems to emulate a well oiled machine.

This year we added a new element to camp for our graduated seniors, which we called “work crew”. Three of our graduates came to serve at camp, in return receiving half off the cost of camp, with the understanding that the work they did would pay off the remaining half. In my opinion, the work they did went above and beyond just half their camp payment. All three of them worked incredibly hard, and not just when asked to.

Throughout the week they each took on a sense of higher responsibility around camp, looking for things to be done and doing them without any leaders having to ask, whether it was taking out the trash, re-filling water jugs, or replacing paper towels in the bathroom. It was definitely the cleanest camp we have ever had!

 One day in particular, we had a bit of a problem with the restrooms. Our only work crew guy graduate spent a couple hours in the bathrooms, mucking out water that had flooded. He volunteered to help and gave up his entire free time, including time on the boats, to do this. That evening, the other two girls on our work crew asked if they could do the kitchen duties by themselves, to give the guy a break since he worked so hard that day. To me, they represented such sacrifice and a willingness to serve not only the camp, but each other as well! I am extremely proud of them and the work they did there. It excites me that these are the young men and women that are coming out of Thrive – they set such an example for the ones that come after them. I am also very excited to see this element of our camp grow and flourish.

On behalf of all the leaders and students of THIRVE I want to thank each of you who support and pray for student ministry here at Salem First. Your prayers were evident as we experienced God revealing His character and love to us through another great summer at Camp H2O.

Jessica Ivanitsky

First Baptist website: www.fbcsalem.org

to respond to this email: fbc@fbcsalem.org