AY Honors/Adventurer for Christ/Answer Key
To get the full benefit of this honor it is essential that you spend at least six months to a year working on it. You must choose a date to start this honor, and only projects started after this date will apply toward the honor.
1. Choose any two of the following and do them consistently for at least six months.
a. Read the Junior Morning Devotional book each day.
The Review and Herald Publishing Association puts out at least one Junior Devotional each year. You can see their offerings here.
b. Faithfully study your Sabbath School lesson each week.
Guide Magazine publishes a weekly Sabbath School lesson. If your church does not subscribe to it, talk to the Junior Sabbath School teacher or your Sabbath School Secretary. You can also download the lessons online from http://www.juniorpowerpoints.org/article.php?id=3
c. Faithfully follow the Jr. Bible Year reading plan.
You can read the entire Bible in one year by reading three chapters each day and five chapters on Sabbath. You can make this a part of your morning devotional.
d. Develop a personal prayer diary, listing people and requests you are praying for and answers to prayer.
A prayer journal is nothing more than a notebook that you use to document the things you pray about. You can also use a computer to keep your notes. It is best to keep your prayer journal private.
Make entries as often as you like, leaving room to record the answers to the prayers. Review prayer requests weekly and add any updates.
e. Plan and conduct at least one devotion a week.
The devotion can be with your family, friends, or Pathfinder club. One approach is to get a devotional book, read an entry to the participants, and then open it up for discussion. It's even better if you can think up a few questions to get things started.
2. Choose three from the following:
a. Send five homemade cards with personal messages, poems, or Bible verses to people who are in need of encouragement.
Handmade greeting cards is a hobby that is gaining in popularity. You can start without spending very much money, as most of the things you will need you probably already have around the house: paper, scissors, glue, and colored pencils. Many people enjoy using rubber stamps to make greeting cards. Check your local craft store for additional supplies.
b. Visit ten or more people and invite them to a special church or Pathfinder event.
These ten people could be people you know from school, your neighborhood, or from anywhere really. The types of church events you might wish to invite them to include concerts, holiday programs, or even picnics. Good Pathfinder events to invite people to include Induction, Investiture, Pathfinder Sabbath, can collecting, a hike, a museum trip - basically anything that Pathfinders do.
c. Choose a friend and visit someone who was absent from Sabbath School or church. Take them a card and homemade treat. Have a sharing time about this experience with your family and pray for this person.
Your church probably has someone assigned to keep track of who is absent from your church. If you do not know who this is, ask your pastor or the church clerk. If no one in your church tracks this, you could volunteer to set up a welcoming committee.
But it is also possible for you to be on the lookout yourself for an absent member. Once you choose someone to visit, spend some time making the card and treat. Sabbath afternoons are perfect opportunities for visitation.
d. For one month keep your bedroom clean, your bed made, and do at least three kindness projects for each parent that show that you love them.
Your parents will be thrilled, and if you are not in the habit of keeping your room clean, you will see how little effort it requires if you address it every day.
Kindness project could include any of the following (so long as they have not asked you to do these things already):
- Prepare a meal
- Wash the dishes
- Vacuum the living room
- Wash the car
- Weed the flower bed
- Cut the grass
- Rake the leaves
- Foot massage
- Bring a glass of lemonade or water
- Anything else you can think of
e. Collect fifteen left-over Guides and pass them out to absent Sabbath School members, children in hospitals, laundromats, etc.
If you cannot get 15 leftover Guide's in one week, get as many as you can each week until you have passed out 15. Talk to your Junior or Earliteen Sabbath School teacher ahead of time. Some teachers already mail out the leftovers. If this is the case in your church, offer to take over that responsibility long enough to mail out the required number.
f. Take a cassette recording of your pastor's sermon and special music to a shut-in for three weeks.
Talk to your pastor or a local church elder to get a list of shut-ins who would appreciate the recording. If your church does not record the services, ask who ever is in charge of the audio system what it would take to get that started. If your church decides to acquire recording equipment for this purpose, recommend that they use a computer instead of a cassette deck. A computer capable of doing this costs about the same as a cassette duplicator, and blank CD's are now cheaper than blank cassettes (and blank cassettes are getting more and more difficult to find). CD's have other advantages as well:
- They allow you to split the various portions of the worship service into separate tracks
- You can use free audio editing software to cut out the dead times
- You can upload the sermons to a website for podcasting (get permission from the speaker first).
- CD players are now more common than cassette players, especially in automobiles, where many people will choose to listen to them when they miss the church service.
g. Call your pastor, church elder, or deacon and volunteer to help him with any task he wants you to do for a period of two hours each week for three weeks.
There are many tasks around a church that need regular attention. If your pastor, elder, or deacon cannot think of anything for you to do, suggest one of the following:
- Photocopying and/or folding bulletins
- Weeding the flower beds
- Washing windows
- Painting
- Help out in one of the Sabbath School departments
- Serve food and/or clean up after potluck
3. Choose one of the following and do it with a group.
a. Look for yards that need raking, and rake and bag their leaves. In the winter, shovel snow or split firewood. Leave a note and Steps to Christ. Accept no money.
Section c of this requirement has information on getting inexpensive copies of Steps to Christ. Be sure to bring the needed tools with you. You should also get permission before starting your work.
b. Plan a birthday party with games, presents, and treats at a nursing home for a patient who has a birthday close to yours.
Since the passage of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA), this option has become more difficult to exercise in the United States. Nursing homes are now unable to give you even the most general information (such as a birth date) about their patients. However, if your club visits a nursing home regularly, you will have the opportunity to build a relationship with someone who lives there. Once you have established a good rapport, you may ask that person when his or her birthday is.
Be sensitive about the types of treats you bring. Many of the elderly are on a special diet to control chronic conditions such as diabetes or high blood pressure. Submit a list of the treats to the nursing staff ahead of time so there are no surprises. If they will not allow you to bring treats, respect their authority.
c. Get the whole family involved in a witnessing project, such as giving Bible studies, passing out Steps to Christ to motels, adopting a needy family, doing a work project for an elderly person.
Adventist Youth Honors Answer Book/Bible study
You can get copies of Steps to Christ at the Adventist Book Center. They generally have a few paperback editions that are priced to be bought in quantity. For example, as of this writing, you could get 100 copies for $40 (or for 59 cents per copy if bought one at a time).
d. Read Matthew 25:35-40, then take a walk through your neighborhood and make a list of the needs of your neighbors. (Lonely, grass needs cutting, weeds need pulling, etc.) Go about taking care of as many needs as you can.
For I was hungry, and you gave me food to eat. I was thirsty, and you gave me drink. I was a stranger, and you took me in. I was naked, and you clothed me. I was sick, and you visited me. I was in prison, and you came to me.’
"Then the righteous will answer him, saying, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry, and feed you; or thirsty, and give you a drink? When did we see you as a stranger, and take you in; or naked, and clothe you? 25:39 When did we see you sick, or in prison, and come to you?’
"The King will answer them, ‘Most certainly I tell you, inasmuch as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.’
e. Respond to a tragedy in your community by personally getting involved in reaching out to help the people.
At first glance, this option seem to not be one that lends itself to planning ahead. However, there are many types of tragedies that can be anticipated. You may not know upon whom the tragedy will befall, but you can be nearly certain that one will. One such type of tragedy is a home fire. Another would be an unexpected death of a child or a parent. Think of how you might respond if such a tragedy were to occur to someone you know, then make preparations and stay tuned to your community. When a tragedy strikes, you will be prepared to minister.
4. Make up your own adventure, which must involve three different times of two hours each.
This requirement allows you to use your own imagination. Try to think of an adventure that allows you to use the skills you have or that you are passionate about. If you're drawing a blank, look at some of the other AY honors that interest you, and see if there's a way to turn that into an outreach adventure.
For example, if cake decorating looks interesting to you, you can make and decorate some cakes (the Cake Decorating honor requires that you decorate three cakes). Once you have decorated one, deliver it to a shelter or to a shut-in.
If woodworking interests you, look at the Woodworking honor. It has ideas for turning that vocation into a ministry.
