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…)