All kids ages 5-11 are invited to be a part of the Fuzion Club House on Wednesday nights at Spirit Life Church.

After praise and worship in the sanctuary, the kids are led by the Fuzion mascot, Sparky, to the Clubhouse, where they are taught a lesson about a Bible character. Recently the children learned about Jonah and Joseph and how God worked in their lives in spite of the difficulties they experienced. Fun activities such as games, puzzles, skits, or crafts are used to reinforce what the kids have just learned. There are friendly competitions with prizes of candy or small toys awarded to the winners.

About once a month, the kids have “movie night” where they watch a popular children’s film on the state-of-the-art theatre system. And no movie night is complete without fresh popcorn!

The kids love seeing their friends, and the creative atmosphere in the Club House makes learning the Bible fun.

Fuzion Club House – the place to be on Wednesday nights!

This fall at Spirit Life Church, REVOLUTION (our student ministry) is the place to be on Wednesday nights! We meet in The Hub every Wednesday after praise and worship until 8:30 pm.

You may have heard about our new Spirit Life Church fan page on Facebook. Be sure to check it out and become a fan! And while you’re there, take a look at our new REVOLUTION fan page. Yes, that’s right, REVOLUTION is now on Facebook! Or if you prefer tweeting, follow us on Twitter. These are great tools for us to communicate and be relevant to our students and their friends. Technology is a very effective way to spread the word about the latest happenings, post photos or even just connect to the people around us.

Now you know why REVOLUTION is the place to be on Wednesday nights for middle and high school students!!

Averaging over 100 in weekly attendance, Gator football chapel services, hosted by our own Senior Associate Pastor Lindsey Seals, have continued to add a welcome spiritual dimension to the entire football program at the University of Florida.

Lead Pastor, Chris Hays, accompanied PL to one of the weekly services recently and witnessed first hand the respect and appreciation players, coaches and their families have for PL. “You can tell they all love PL,” said Pastor Chris. “He has definitely earned their respect because he has proven that he genuinely cares for them. He has no other agenda than to help them experience the reality of God in their daily lives.”

Weekly services are about 30 minutes in length and feature video clips, music, and a relevant message from PL. It’s a powerful time as players and coaches have the opportunity to worship and experience God’s presence, some of them for the first time in their lives.

But more than just a once a week experience, PL offers encouragement, support, honesty and perspective to the team. He is available by phone, travels with the team to all of their games, and has had opportunity to pray with several players facing difficult situations. As PL has stated time and again, these players are just kids. On the field, they seem larger than life but in reality, they’re just young men - 18, 19, and 20 year olds facing real life challenges and choices.

The chapel program has also become a powerful selling point used in recruiting. As PL recently shared, several families of the new recruits have expressed their gratitude for the quality chaplaincy program offered by the Gator football program, which has been part of Coach Urban Meyer’s vision for the team.

Keep PL, the team, and their families in your prayers and stay tuned to spiritlife.com for more team pastor updates!

To read more stories about PL and the Florida Gators, check out the News Archives.

A group of fourteen kids and five chaperons spent a day Christmas shopping recently thanks to gifts from The Heart Smile Foundation. The Heart Smile Foundation, formed by Spirit Life’s own Pastor Gail Perinchief, is a network of women looking for opportunities to be generous with their lives and resources.

Over the years, Heart Smile has helped support a variety of people in our community including those battling cancer, victims of house fires, underprivileged kids and more.

This season, Pastor Gail’s desire was to bring assistance to single parent families by taking the kids out for a special day of shopping. The kids were able to purchase shoes and a shirt or outfit for themselves plus a Christmas gift for their parent. The group also had lunch at local favorite “Five Guys,” making it a memorable and fulfilling day.

For more information about Heart Smile, check out www.heartsmilefoundation.com. Donations to the Heart Smile Foundation can be made on Spirit Life’s “Give” page (choose "Heart Smile Foundation" in "Type of Giving" on the "Give" page).

For more than ten years, Spirit Life’s student outreach program - STRENGTH OF THE YOUNG - has impacted the youth of our community with three primary tools: community rallies; the very popular summer basketball league; and a public school mentoring program.

This year, Strength of the Young (SOTY) has taken its partnership with our public schools to another level. The mentoring program has expanded its focus on middle and high school students and now includes local elementary schools as well. Tristan Kennedy who is SOTY’s program director (and head of Spirit Life’s student ministry), recently shared that young kids are being exposed to much more than those in previous generations. And so far, the elementary school students the team has connected with are really benefiting from the program.

Students are identified by school officials as being “at-risk” for failure or other problems and are recommended for the SOTY program. A team of mentors holds weekly classes that include games, multimedia, and other creative tools to communicate a powerful message. Every week builds on the previous lesson, teaching concepts like integrity, character, and goal setting.

Stephanie Hays is an SOTY mentor at Emerald Shores and Belleview-Santos elementary schools in Marion County. She says, “I love the fact that we are really able to have an impact on the students. They not only improve their grades, but they also have better attitudes and behavior.”

It’s a great opportunity to connect with young people in our community and help change their future - one step at a time. For more information about Strength of the Young, check out their website at www.strengthoftheyoung.com.

Financial Series
with Dave Ramsey on DVD

Wednesday Nights at Spirit Life
Starting August 25th at 7:15pm

Join us as we have a 12 week financial series for our midweek services that includes DVD teaching from Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University. Topics include "Cash Flow Planning", "Dumping Debt","Relating with Money" and "The Great Misunderstanding". Make plans now to take part in this wealth of financial knowledge from these teachings.

Many families struggle each year with the cost of school supplies and clothes. But this year some Ocala folks will breathe a little easier after receiving outfits, school supplies, haircuts and much more—at no cost to them. Parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles and students of all ages gathered at the Ed Croskey Recreation Center on Saturday, July 24th for Spirit Life Church’s 2nd Annual Summer Splash.
 
The gym was turned into a makeshift clothing store with even more clothes than last year’s event. One room in the Rec Center was set up like a barber shop with real barber chairs and real barbers! Next to the barbershop/hair salon, kids (and some adults) had their faces painted with a recurring theme of orange & blue and Gator footballs. Stations were set up outside where volunteers repaired bikes and served grilled hotdogs, chips and ice cold soda & water.
 
The day would not be complete without a few Spirit Life competitions, starting with a Gatorade chugging contest and ending with an “adults versus kids” dance off competition. Many great prizes were given away throughout the day, like brand new bikes, iPods, and digital cameras, but the winner of the dance competition received the grand prize, a Nintendo Wii!!
 
In addition to the church pastors and volunteers, other special guests joined the event from the University of Florida football team. The players greeted kids and parents, participated in many competitions and even signed a few autographs.
 
If you missed out on attending this year, as a volunteer or recipient, don’t worry, there are many more Summer Splash events in our future. Please plan on joining us next year for an even greater time of outreach to our community.
 
New outfit for school: $50
Pack of pencils $2.99
Touching lives in our community: Priceless!

by Angie McLemore

September 17 & 18th 2010
Friday 3pm to Saturday 3pm

Held at Hilton Garden Inn
11400 Marbella Palm Court
Orlando, FL 32836

Host: Pastor Gail Perinchief
Guest Speaker: Kathi Pitts

Cost is $98 per person
(includes hotel, full breakfast buffet, fun, and surprises)
Ladies Ages 16+

Registration for this event is closed