Scavenger Hunt

On Sunday Nov. 5th, we had 21 youth present for the Youth Group Scavenger hunt. The hunt was based on clues from bible verses related to prayers. The hunt required figuring out the clue and taking a picture of the clue. It was a lot of fun unless of course you work for Kmart ;-).

Chocolate Prayer Pictionary

Sunday Oct. 22nd's Youth Group meeting was a program continuing this year's prayer theme. As a warmup the youth participated in a game of Chocolate Prayer Pictionary (ask them about it). The program included information about different kinds of prayer around the world and two stories about people and how their prayers were answered.

Connect With Dr. Kyle

Sunday Oct. 15th's meeting continued this year's prayer theme and a "connect with Dr. Kyle". First, each of us introduced ourselves and told a little bit about ourselves to Kyle via a limerick. It was a hoot and some limericks were very creative. Then we played communication games with blocks. Kyle used that as an introduction into his informal prayer talk with the youth. It was amazing to watch as he had all of their attention all the time (wish I could do that). We closed with POWS and WOWS.

NC Big Sweep Service Project

On a rainy Saturday Oct. 7th, the youth event was our service project. Unfortunately, only two youth were able to participate. Advisors will create more opportunities for youth to do service in the near future. Our group participated in "NC Big Sweep" to remove trash and debris from Black Creek Greenway and its tributaries. Between the 5 of us we collected 7 bags of trash not including a tire, 2 basketballs, and a soccer ball. Amazing what ends up in the water around here. Anyway, one of our youth even put on waders and went in ponds after a tire. As usual we were very proud of our youth's effort in the project. We just wished more would have participated.

Ropes Course

Last Saturday's youth event was the rope course at Bond Park which included the low ropes course and one high element. This was a great team building event with all 9 youth and 3 advisors participating in every challenge. According to the instructions at Bond Park we were the first group that they have seen where all members particpated and achieved the high element (in addition to all other challenges). It was amazing to watch as some youth and advisors overcame their fear and learned to trust in the group (and in themselves) to enable them to climb 45 feet in the air and jump off a plaform. We are blessed to have such a wonderful and amazing group of youth!

Communication: A Two-Way Street

The theme for Sunday, 9/24/06, was Communication. Before program, had picnic supper in outdoor chapel with MS youth, Christian Adventurers (and ~a billion mosquitos, if my count was anywhere near correct). Also heard pep talk from Barb Munch about CROP Walk (next Sunday). Once assembled in SH room, new advisors Laura Jones and Gair McCullough introduced themselves, and everyone else shared name, school, class, and one thing about themselves. Then discussed what goes into communication (talking, listening, topic, body language, tone, choice of words, relationship, etc.). Volunteers role-played 4 scenes where communication was not effective, and group pointed out problems and suggested fixes. Amazing THESPIANS among us! Also discussed how communication with God is also two-way street, but different from talking with other humans. Thanks to those who shared from the heart. Looking forward to more practice talking and listening with SH's in future!

Corn Maze!

Today we had a group of 13 kids and 4 advisors go to our local
corn maze. The fastest group made it through the maze in an
unbelievable 34 minutes! They really had some good intuition and
found the mailboxes quickly. As always, it was a fun activity and
good exercise. We got back to the church a little early, so some of
us played games and we all just had some nice "hang out and chill"
time. In this week's Pow's and Wow's, several of the kids said they
were having a rough time adjusting to their school schedules and
classes. We also lifted up in prayer a schoolmate who has been
diagnosed with bone cancer.

September 10th Theme Intro

We had another great turnout last night of 24 kids! We introduced our theme for the year, which is "IM God, (through prayer) because I'm not God (and can't make it without him). The "IM" stands for Instant Messaging...for those who might not be up on the internet terminology. Our focus, will be on building a stronger relationship with God through emphasis on spending more time in prayer and specifically in praying from the heart, not just at meal times and bed time. We first played a communications game called "Buddylist/Caveman", in which we had to figure out without talking to each other which of 3 different stickers the advisors had placed on our backs. We introduced the acronym F-A-C-T-S, which stands for Feelings-Adoration-Confession-Thanksgiving-Supplication, and defines the different kinds of prayers that we commonly use. We followed up our theme discussion with another game, called "Circle of Prayer/Human Ring Toss" in which the teams (determined from the first game) held a relay race in tossing hula-hoops over a praying/kneeling team member. We had a little extra free time at the end, so we went outside for another silly relay race, called "Banana Olympics". We closed the meeting outside with Pow's and Wow's in which several youth expressed sadness about the tragic death on Saturday of one of their classmates, and some also have family members who have cancer or are now in hospice care. We will all be keeping these families in our prayers this week.

2006-07 Youth Group Kickoff Meeting

Our first meeting of the year was tonight. We had 25 youth attend this meeting and I think it went well. We kicked off the meeting with a get to know the advisors game in the style of "Family Feud". After that, we had some get to know each other games, including the "Find your shoe" game, and another one using playing cards where you make a pair, then a straight, then a flush by finding folks with those cards in the room. We discussed some of the upcoming events that we are planning and had each of the kids tell their name and their favorite thing they did this summer. We then had ice cream and wrapped up the meeting with Pows & Wows.