January 2016 Newsletter - www.lbbc.com (320) 732-3218 Email: lbbc@lbbc.com Young Adult Retreat What do you get when you put a group of Young Adults together for a weekend at Lake Beauty? An amazing bunch who are looking to start off the New Year in the right way and desiring to go Deeper in their walk with Jesus. A fabulous weekend was had with chapel times, lots of coffee and lots of late night conversations about life and directions. There were also snowshoeing trips, broomball on the lake (actually was thick enough to clear a rink). They are now all on the road heading back to their places, but the memories have been made and they will not soon be forgotten. Summer 2016... "Heaven Bound" is the theme for Summer 2016 Theme Verse: John 14:6 "I am the way the truth and the life. No one comes to the Father except through me." (NIV) Many campers live their life following many different tracks hoping that they will eventually lead somewhere meaningful. Heaven, to them, is a far off distant destination that has very little to do with the day to day choices they make. The ticket of salvation can be used later, or possibly to not be used at all. Because what is heaven, really? Why is it worth living for? And how can they really know that is where anybody really ends up--or maybe everyone ends up there? But heaven isn't just the destination--it's also a journey. As Andy Stanley said, "Everyone ends up somewhere. Only a few end up somewhere on purpose." Our goal this summer is to help campers realize that the "somewhere" we pray they end up is Heaven, and to get there means living life everyday with a Heaven focus--for it changes everything. Brochures will be coming out soon and registration open for all camps January 11th. Hope to see you at LBBC. Solid Rock Update First semester of year #2 is completed and it was a great start to the new year. We are making a change for the 2016 School year with our Israel Trip. Instead of going in Oct/Nov we are going to use it more like a "J" Term trip for the class. This will make the registration process much easier and deposits are due early and there are always last minute registrations for the program so making last minute adjustments is hard. This gives us more time for registration, time to complete the class and the reading of the Bible (which happens in first semester) in all this is a great thing for the experience. If you are or have ever thought about going to the Holy Lands, you might want to consider joining us. You can click on the link below and see that is in store for our January 2017 trip. It is the identical trip to what the students experienced this past November. Dates for 2017 areJanuary 9-22, 2017. http://biblicalisraeltours.com/january-2017/ Solid Rock has a new web site too... Check it out here A Word from Covenant Trust The Next Generation What is a millennial? The definition varies a bit but generally speaking, a millennial is a person born between 1980 and 2000. It was believed that the generation of children born during this period would be drastically different than the generation before them - Generation X. Simply calling this new generation "Generation Y" seemed inadequate, and so the designation "millennial" was coined in 1991, partly inspired by the new millennium that was only a few years away. The term helps us identify a large group of people who are facing financial issues that other generations haven't had in the past - at least, not on the same scale. Lule Demmissie, Managing Director at TD Ameritrade, summarizes those financial issues succinctly: "Millennials are...earning less, their median net worth is down, and many face decades of student loan payments. Pair that with the uncertainty surrounding their retirement, and they appear to be facing a less-than-bright future. Not to mention that one in five millennials is also providing financial support to aging parents to the tune of $18,250 a year...It's no wonder they're pushing off having families, starting businesses, or buying houses." Considering all this, it's not too surprising that a recent survey by howmuch.net revealed that over 50% of millennials have less than $1,000 in savings, or that a Nerd Wallet survey showed 90% of millennials don't believe they'll have enough money for retirement. So what can we do to help millennials? In addition to offering no-minimum IRAs, Covenant Trust Company is invested in the financial education of millennials and future generations. We keep a personal finance blog and are now producing our own videos and podcasts to edify people of all ages. But studies show that young adults, teens, and children learn about money from their families. According to a survey by Mint, they want to learn how banks, credit cards, and investing work; how to manage money; and know more about their family's financial situation. So if you have a millennial or younger person in your life, we encourage you to talk to them about money: find out what they want to know, tell them your financial story, and share whatever wisdom you can pass along. If you would like some resources, contact Steve Allison, our local Financial Services Representative, at 1-877-768-1766 or email him at srallison@covenanttrust.com. We would be happy to be part of that conversation.