Great Job!

Hurray!  A big thank you to everyone who helped with baking cookies and manning the bake sale table last weekend. We've kicked off our fundraising efforts for our summer mission trip to Duluth, Minnesota.

We sold out of all our goodies quickly after the 11:00 service and made $285!! Great job everyone! We're on our way!

Nativity Play

I've assigned roles for our Nativity Play that will be performed on December 24th at the 4:00 service. 

Rehearsals are as follows:

Sunday, December 16 between services 10:30-11:00

Sunday, December 23 between services 10:30 - 11:00 and dress rehearsal/staging after the 11:00 service until about 1:30. 

Monday, December 24 final rehearsal at 3:00 ("performance" at 4:00)

I hope I got everyone who said they wanted to perform this year. If you are not on this list but wish to help out and take a part, please let me know ASAP. If you can't come to a rehearsal, let me know now. 

Cast

Narrator: 

Beth Stark

Mary: 

Jessica Krone

Joseph: 

Nathan Pohl

Gabriel: 

Drew Degener

Innkeeper: 

Alex Marchand

Shepherds: 

Amanda Glass

Madelyn Degener

Angels: Caitlin Marchand

Brenna Degener

King Herod:  William Stark

Wise Men: Luke Pohl

Joshua Doering

Louie Stark

Why Ring Bells for the Salvation Army?

The Red Kettle Christmas Campaign enables The Salvation Army to provide food, toys and clothing to over 6 million people during the Christmas season and helps more than 34 million Americans recovering from all kinds of personal disasters nationwide. 

Seems like a good reason to me!!

Feed the Homeless

It’s that time of year again when we get up really early on a Sunday and spread God’s love and compassion to the guests at the First United Methodist Church in Plymouth. FUMC hosts a rotating homeless shelter through the Cass Community Social Services.  This will be our 5^th  year of serving in this valuable ministry. Our middle school youth group is scheduled to prepare and serve breakfast on Sunday, November 11 to about 50 homeless people who stay at this rotating shelter. This would mean getting up pretty darn early in the morning, but it is a great opportunity for service. Let me know ASAP if you’d be willing to do this. Please let me know in person, text or email me.

We meet at the church in Plymouth at 5:30 AM and prepare and serve breakfast at 6:00. We also eat with them and fellowship with them, showing them Christ’s love over breakfast and conversation. Sometimes we play games like chess, or cards before they leave about 7:00 AM. Once breakfast is over, we clean up and head back to our homes (usually by 8:00.) We will still have Breakfast Club that morning at 9:15. 

We will be preparing eggs, fruit, pastries or muffins, juice and sausage to go with our meal that morning. 

If you have volunteered for this ministry in the past you know how much joy you can bring to others less fortunate and you know how much joy you also receive from serving. I encourage you to sign up, you won’t regret it! Adults are more than welcome to stay, help prepare, and fellowship with the guests.

Looking forward to serving alongside of you,

Nancy

Share your Faith, Learn about Other's!

Wednesday, October 17

7:00 - 9:00 PM (We'll meet at Geneva at 6:45, or meet us at the church around 7:00)

 @ St. Thomas a'Beckett church

Area teens from all faiths to meet!

Each visiting teen (or teens) will give a 5 minute (or so) synopsis of the beliefs and practices of their religion.  There will be a total of 7 or 8 different religions represented and all teens will have the chance to listen to each group speak on behalf of their faith.  

After all have spoken, we will open up the floor to questions - in which ALL teens (a'Becket and visitors) will be able to ask and answer.  When we have finished, we will end the evening with some fellowship - cookies, punch, conversation and laughs! 

Adults are invited as well!  I am sure parents would love to hear their teens speak. 

from Stephanie Tierney, Youth Pastor at St. Thomas a'Beckett:

I really think that this meeting holds so many opportunities for some great understanding in regards to the teens.  It is my hope that some great connections and friendships will result from this.  Thank you so much for your interest in be a part of this - I cannot wait to meet everyone!  

30 Hour Famine POSTPONED

October 5 and 6th are super busy for everyone I guess! We'll try to do this in January when we've got more time...

Our 30 Hour Famine has been postponed!! It seems that the majority of our youth have soccer, swimming, running, marching band, family trips, and other very important activities that weekend. We will attempt to do this again in January. If you have already collected funds, please let your donors know we will be doing the Famine in January instead. 

We’re off to a running start!

I’m really excited about how our fall programming has taken off.  We’ve had a really good turnout on Sunday mornings for Breakfast Club. I’ve enjoyed watching the videos and listening to the reader’s theater versions of The Story, but I’ve mostly been energized by the discussions! Our middle schoolers can come up with some very good questions and have great insight as well.

I’m really enjoying Sunday night youth fellowship as well. We’ve had some pretty good laughs during some of our games. And yes, I will admit it was pretty exhilarating when I actually won a game of Ga Ga Ball. I’ve got some fun activities planned for our weekly youth group time, but I also hope to take suggestions from you (this means youth AND parents!) There will be a box in the youth room marked “Sunday Night Suggestions” and I hope you use it! Please put game suggestions, service/mission project suggestions or anything you have in mind for our Sunday Night get-togethers; remember this is YOUR youth group!

I also hope you think about bringing friends to both Breakfast Club and Youth Group on Sunday nights. The more the merrier!

Here's the Scoop!

2012-2013 

Youth Group Information

Sunday Mornings (in the Youth Room)

Breakfast Club (Middle School) 9:15 (right when the service starts)

** This year, from September through April we will be using The Story curriculum along with the entire congregation!

Fun and Fellowship Sunday Evenings 6:15 – 7:30

(in the Youth Room/Young Children’s Worship area) 

Typical Sunday Evening Breakdown: (subject to change)

5:30 Family dinner in the sanctuary (if you can't come to this come at 6:00 or so!)
6:00 Hanging out, free time
6:15 Both groups together for music and message
6:30 (or so) Groups split for fellowship and other activities (Middle school/high school)
7:30 Dismiss

Typical Sunday evening activities include games, art, drama, service projects, movies and more

Other Activities/Fellowship

Each month there will be a service activity that all youth are encouraged to attend. Many of these activities will be in conjunction with the Local Missions Team

Each month there will be an additional fellowship outing offsite or at a different meeting time. These outings/events may include retreats, lock-ins, late-nights, bowling, mini golf, wally ball, or movies.

Each group will participate in several fundraisers over the course of the year to fund our annual summer mission trips.

Thursday

Last day! Wow, wasn't it just Sunday? This week has just flown by.  We were all excited but also sad that it was our last day today. We felt like we were just getting started and now it's time to go. We've made new friends, seen God working through lots of people and shared our love with others.

As it's after midnight when I'm writing this, and I need to get up at 6:00 to pack, this blog post will be short.  Please know you will hear more of our stories of the week on Sunday.

The Salts (Jeff, Caitlin and Drew) enjoyed their last day of working with the kids at the Boys and Girls Club. It was difficult to say good bye to them after spend the past 4 days getting to know them. They even stayed longer at their site today trying to say good bye.

The Ones got to serve meals at Our Daily Bread; once again so amazed at the gratitude of those being served. We are all very appreciative for what we have. We even got some hugs from some kids as we were leaving. And we only served them 2 days!

A Youthworks tradition is a community cookout. In all my experiences I've never seen a community cookout like this. I'd say we served at least 100 people outside of the Youthworks group from the neighborhoods. Our youth and kids from the area ate and played together. It was such a blessing to continue to serve, even at our meal time.

You should be very proud of the wonderful disciples our youth are. I was honored to be serving alongside of them this week.

Thank you for your continued prayers, and we'll be home tomorrow!

Wednesday

Day 3! We’re just about halfway through our week now. It sure is going by fast. We’re having a great time, meeting lots of people, and doing lots of work (although it doesn’t always seem like work.)  You can be assured that these youth are flowing with God’s spirit this week.

The Salts are continuing to hang out at the US Bank Boys’ and Girls’ Club. Jeff learned to surf today! (see picture) The girls (Caitlin and Drew) are blessing the young boys and girls at the club with their love and kindness. The kids at the Club are really starting to get to know our youth. While playing with kids all day sounds like fun, Caitlin and Drew are learning that it’s not as easy as it sounds. It can be very challenging.

The Ones went to  a new site this morning. They went to a soup kitchen called Our Daily Bread. This ministry serves about 400 meals each day between 9:45 and 11:45! While some of the youth helped to serve the meals, some of us bussed tables, clearing trays, taking plates and cups and silverware, getting more water or coffee for the guests. We certainly stayed busy, kept smiling, worked hard and appreciated our abundance.  After stopping to eat our own lunch at a park, we spent the afternoon at Price Hill Community Center again. We spent an hour or so this afternoon weeding again and watering in the garden. We could really see a difference when we were done.

Tonight our evening activity was attending a church service called Tabernacle Bible church. This service was not like most of us were used to. Many of our students had never been to an African-American worship service before. We all enjoyed it very much.  Our hands hurt from all the clapping. We thought this was a really appropriate time to visit another church because our theme today is You Are Here to Unite. We are understanding that it doesn’t matter what denomination you are; if you are a Christian you are a brother or sister in Christ. We are meant to "be one with each other and one with God." That's why we serve and love each other... because when we unite together, the world will see Christ's love through us. 

We can’t believe we only have one more day of service here! This week has just flown by! We hope you will be able to join us on Sunday when we talk further about how we are seeing God here in Cincinnati and seeing God working in our lives.

Thank you again for your thoughts and prayers for us here.  

Tuesday

Day 2! It’s still warm here, but we’re all making sure we are drinking lots of water.

Today our schedules were a bit different than usual. We usually work at our sites till about 3:00 when we stop for showers, then back to the church for free time before dinner. In the evenings after dinner we usually have an offsite evening activity before club time (worship/announcements/message.) Today, our ‘evening activity’ was really an afternoon activity so we only worked till 1:00 today.

The Ones spent the morning at a ministry next door to the church where we are staying. It’s called CAIN , which stands for Churches Active In Northside. (The area where we are staying is called Northside.) This ministry is a huge food pantry that was started by one woman in the late 1970s and now serves about 400 people each month. What’s really great about this food pantry is that instead of just handing bags of food to people in need, those people come in and actually pick out their own food. They are given choices to be able to feed themselves and their families in an empowering way. It was our pleasure to be able to help these people make healthy choices. Along with assisting in picking out and bagging food, we also helped unload the food, worked in their garden and helped in the storage rooms.

The Salts were back at Us Bank Boys and Girls Club. Their day was very similar to yesterday. The kids they worked with were the same as yesterday. They were excited to be back. The girls love Drew and Caitlin’s hair still; braiding Drew’s hair into lots and lots of braids. Jeff even got in the jump rope line and was pretty successful at it! The Salts are really pouring their love out to these boys and girls at the club.  They are practicing patience and understanding.

We went to the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center for a few hours before dinner. This was an amazing place. We had a great docent who showed us around, explaining many of the exhibits. To me, knowing that all this happened at all, let alone only 150 years ago is very moving. I think our youth also enjoyed this activity. Many of the kids enjoyed that they’d learned about it in school and then got to learn more about it. They said it was a really great experience.

We talked tonight about how we invested our time and talents today. These kids are really jumping out of their normal behavior this week, talking with adults, working with people that are challenging, and finding God in any of the mundane things they were doing.  I know I say this a lot, but I LOVE working with these kids. They are really wonderful disciples. I can’t wait to serve with them again tomorrow.

Thank you for your prayers.

(Sorry, no time to upload pictures today…)

Monday

Our First work day!

The Salts (Jeff, Caitlin and Drew and some people from Maryland) spent the day at US Bank Boys’ and Girls’ Club.

When the group first got there they played games with the kids like pool and Ping Pong.  After a while they went with the cadet group (6-8 year old kids) and watched some TV shows – after all, the weekly theme at the Boy’s and Girls’ club was TV!! Caitlin said there were about 25 cadets.  So far, this doesn’t sound like too much work!!

After the TV the group played a spelling game with the cadet kids until lunch. During lunch, they ate lunch with the kids at the club. After lunch was gym time, where they participated in relay races and basketball. Caitlin and Drew’s long hair was very popular with the girls at the club. They had as many as five girls at once braiding and playing with their hair! When they weren’t playing with their hair they were giving the kids piggyback rides. Both Caitlin and Drew said that some of the kids were heavy! The Salts will be going back every day this week.

While the Salts were at the Boys’ and Girls’ Club, the Ones (Nancy, Josh, Nathan, TJ, Jessica, Alex and Louie) went to the Price Hill Community Center. We split up at first, Nancy, Louie, TJ, and Josh spent the morning weeding part of their vegetable garden. It was very hot! The kids did a really great and thorough job of pulling up weeds (by their roots!) While they were weeding, Jessica, Alex and Nathan organized a big walk-in supply closet for the day camp program. They organized games and art supplies and a lot of things. They finished a little bit before lunch so they went outside and helped the other group finish up an area of weeding for about 20 minutes. After lunch we all got to help out with the day camp program. These kids were 5-12 years old. We did some art projects with them and went outside and played with them until it was time for their lunch at 2:00. We had a little time left before showers so we cleaned up the kitchen area in the community center before we took showers at 3:00.  Tomorrow the Ones will be going to a new place…. Stay tuned!

I think we all had a pretty good day of service. Right now, the kids are enjoying some free time: some playing cards with kids from another church, and some learning a new game (though the Salts have dinner prep tonight….) After dinner tonight we will be travelling to the Purple People Bridge to hang out. It should be fun. Our kids are already making friends with kids from other churches!

Your support is so much appreciated. These youth are already growing in Christ, making new friends and serving  the community of Cincinnati. We appreciate your continued prayers. 

We're Here!

We made it to warm and sunny Cincinnati! W had a 'boys' car' and 'girls' car' on the way down, and we stopped for lunch at pizza hut about half way. The church we are staying at is full of hallways and little rooms, and while we got a tour when we first arrived, we're still trying to figure it all out. There are 63 (I think) people here. The sleeping rooms are full and warm!

We've already been challenged here. While we were hoping to be split up evenly, 2 groups of 4, each with an adult. God had other plans (or Youthworks did anyway.) We were challenged to split our group into 2 groups- one with 2 youth and one adult (along with another church) and one with 6 youth and one adult, and no other church. We also had the challenge that the group with 2 people had to have youth 13 or over (in order to work with kids at a boys and girls center. We've met our first challenge and created these groups: The Ones consists of Joshua, Nathan, Alex, Louie, TJ, Jessica and Nancy;  The Salts consists of Caitlin and Drew with Jeff.

The staff here is terrific! Our site director is Kati, who seems like she's got it all together and is very understanding. The service staff are Megan and Sean (by the way, any Washington DC mission trip alumni reading this-- they both know Shawn!) and the program staffer is Lestan. He gave an awesome message about Love tonight. I don't know how he's going to top it tomorrow!!

Another challenge is that our leader meetings aren't right before dinner, they are at 6:45 AM! Ideally this will give us more free time after our work day before dinner, but it means our youth have to be able to get up and get ready and make it to breakfast on their own!

We know that although this isn't the situation we'd hoped for, we will still be rewarded this week. We are all excited and anxious to start serving tomorrow and waiting to see what God has in store for us.

We appreciate all your prayers  as we work here in Cincinnati, we are blessed to have such a wonderfully supportive congregation that allows us to have these awesome opportunities of mission.