Wednesday, August 22, 2012

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, August 2, 2012

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, August 1, 2012

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.