Mark Oestreicher - My Changes

INVERT YOUTH SPECIALTIES

MY CHANGES
Copyright 2008 by Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin

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ePub Edition June 2009 ISBN: 0-310-86312-0

Youth Specialties products, 300 S. Pierce St., El Cajon, CA 92020 are published by Zondervan, 5300 Patterson Ave. SE, Grand Rapids, MI 49530.

ISBN 978-0-310-27883-2

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Cover design by Gearbox

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DEDICATION

Scott wants to dedicate this book to the small group of junior highers that he and his wife, Lynette, leadthe self-designated Flying Squirrels: Matt, Davy, Cal, Zach, Scott, Kayla, Ashley, Erin, Tanner, and Connor. You really are influencers!

Marko has already dedicated his books to most everyone he knows, so he dedicates this one to the Flying Squirrels, too!

THE FLYING SQUIRRELS

CONTENTS

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Scott wants to thank Lynette, Tanner, Dawson, and Brockthanks for the jump hugs that keep me going. Thanks also to all the volunteers at Elevate who show up week after week to follow Jesus with middle schoolers! Thanks to my mom and dad, Howard and Carolyn, for not strangling me when my own junior high changes were making you crazy. And thanks to God, for loving me.

Marko thanks Jeannie, Liesl, and Maxsimply the coolest family in the entire universe. YS publishing teamthanks for humoring me with these books over and over again and for your always excellent work. Thanks to my friends in middle school ministry (like Scott!) whove helped me think through these issues about early adolescent development.

See this really dorky picture right here? Thats me, Marko, when I was in middle school. Nice shirt collar, huh? Can you tell I wasnt the most popular kid in school? Uh, yeah.

How about this groovy picture? Thats me, Scott, back during my middle school years. That haircut rocked, huh? Sure, whatever.

We wanted you to see those picturesas embarrassing as they arebecause we want you to know that we remember what its like to be a middle school student. Partly, we remember because weve been working with middle schoolers in churches for a long time. We dont work with high school kids or with any other age group. Thats because were both convinced of a few things:

First, middle schoolers are the coolest people in the world. Really! Wed rather hang out with a group of middle school students than any other age group.

Next, God really cares (we mean, REALLY CARES) about middle school studentsabout you. And we believe God is stoked about the possibility of having a close relationship with you.

Finally, the middle school years (from about 11 to 14 years old) are HUGELY important in building a FAITH that will last for your whole life.

This book is the fifth in a new series: The Middle School Survival Series. The first book is all about your faith (thats why its called My Faithduh!). The second book is about your family (its called, not so surprisingly, My Family). The third book is about you and your friends (its called My Friends). The fourth book is all about schoolits called My School. And the sixth and final book is also out now. Its all about your future. (We bet you can guess the titlethats right, My Future.) We hope youll read them all!

Oh, one more thing: You dont have to read these 75 chapters in any particular order. Its not that kind of book. You can read them in order if you want (if youre one of those people who likes order); or you can just flip through and read whatever catches your attention.

We believe in you, and well be praying for you (really, we will) that while you read this, youll grow in your understanding of God (just like the Bible says Jesus did when he was your age), of how much God loves you, and of how God would do anything to let you know him.

Marko and Scott

BODY FACT: MOST PEOPLE BLINK ABOUT 10 TO 15 TIMES A MINUTE.

There are five other books in the Middle School Survival Series (My Faith, My Family, My Friends, My School, and My Future). Once wed decided on the topics for those five books, their titles were really obvious. So we never talked much about any of them.

But the title of this bookMy Changeswas a real challenge. We knew we wanted to write a book about all the changes youre experiencing in life. (Did you know that other than the first two years of life, people experience more changes during their middle school years than at any other time in their lives?) So we were sure the book would be about changes; we were just concerned that the title My Changes sounded dorky.

So we considered a few dozen other ones. Here are some of them, just to give you an idea of what we talked about:

My Body: Nope, the changes youre going through arent just about your body. And we really didnt want this to sound like a sex book that your mom would buy and leave on your pillow as a special gift for you.

My Transformation: For a while we thought this title had potential because you really are going through a transformationa complete change. But then we thought the word was just too long.

My Growth: Sounds like something youd ask a doctor to remove.

My Development: Nah. That sounds more like a schoolbook to us.

My Transition: This wasnt a bad idea. We just werent sure anyone would know what it meant until after theyd read the book!

My Puberty: We never seriously considered this one, but people kept suggesting it. We just couldnt picture any middle school student wanting to read a book with that title.

So My Changesit islike it or not. In the end, this title really does describe what this book is about.