Survey

Parents! If you have at least one child in 6th-12th grade right now, so please take five minutes to fill out the FUMC Youth Ministry Survey for Parents at: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/FUMCYouth

You have the chance to win a $100 Amazon gift card. Your feedback is extremely valuable whether or not your child is involved in the youth ministry program. This is link is only open until May 15. Thank you!!

Amy

Upcoming Events!

Senior Citizens Prom

Our third annual Senior Citizens Prom, sponsored by the Youth Group, will be held Friday, May 13 from 7-9pm at J.I.M.S Place. All Youth are invited to help with decorations, serving, pictures, tear-down, and maybe a little dancing! Plans will be discussed at Youth Group.

Confirmation Breakfast

Confirmation will be held at the 10:45am service on Sunday, May 8. This year’s confirmands are: Megan Riker, Johnny Riker, Lexi Ford, Will Hinkle, and Scotty Krieger. There will be a Breakfast held in the Fellowship Hall at 9:30am for confirmands, their families, and their mentors.

Celebration Banquet

The second annual Celebration Banquet will be held Wednesday, June 1 at 6:00pm in the Life Center. This dinner honors our graduating seniors and incoming ninth-graders. Families will receive invitations in the mail and tickets are available to the rest of our church family for $5 per person.

Reach Workcamp Update

Workcamp is coming quickly! We are just eighty days away from our departure to St. Albans, WV. Our next meeting is Sunday, March 13 at 12:00pm. ALL FORMS and the FIRST PAYMENT of $165 are due at that time. Students are required to attend these meetings.

There will be a SPAGHETTI DINNER fundraiser on Saturday, March 26 from 5:00-7:00pm at the church. Campers and volunteers should arrive by 3:30pm to help.

It's aliiiive!

We took a temporary hiatus from blogging for the past few months, but now we're back at it! Several things have happened since the summer months:

• Our new intern, Jonathan Naylor, is hard at work and loving his time with the FUMC Youth Group
• Small Groups have been created and meet every Sunday morning
• Confirmation Class has five new students and is meeting weekly with Jim Rice
• Several sports ministries are being developed

And...

This weekend, we are taking twenty-four students (including nine first-timers) and six adults to Kalahari Indoor Water Park!

Cedar Point Trip

Wednesday, June 23^rd
$25 per student
(plus spending money for food)
Leaving from J.I.M.S Place parking lot at 8:00am. Returning by 10:00pm.

Please sign up by emailing Amy at youthministry@npfirstumc.org or
RSVPing to the Facebook event page.
You must sign up by Sunday, June 20.
All students (and friends!) MUST have a FUMC medical release form on file. Forms can be downloaded from www.npfirstumc.org.

CAR WASH CANCELLED

FUMC YOUTH: THE CAR WASH HAS BEEN CANCELLED DUE TO THE STORMS. You can get credit for either of these options: 1.) Come to the church to bake cookies to give out with Reach stock sales OR 2.) Help sell stock & distribute cookies after both services tomorrow.

Events on the Horizon...

Our first-ever Celebration Banquet will be held on Tuesday, May 25 at 6pm in our Life Center. This is a dinner to honor our graduating seniors and our incoming ninth-graders (current eighth graders). Families of the honored students eat free; tickets are available to our church community, friends, and extended family for $10. The dinner will be catered by Dantes. Be sure to contact Amy at the church to RSVP!

Our Junior Highers are headed on a road trip! Mark your calendars for a new event! Junior High Mission Weekend will be Friday, June 11 through Sunday, June 13. Our students (current middle schoolers) will travel to Canton to work with Hammers and Nails, as well as the Humane Society and Copeland Oaks Retirement Community. Cost is only $50 but the first half is due Sunday, May 23. Forms were mailed out last month but more are available by contacting Amy.

Brainy Stuff

As many of you may know, I love to read. My coffee table is usually littered with books that I’m in the middle of perusing. (Lately they seem to be grad school text books!) One of my biggest problems with reading is this—I can never seem to finish a book! No matter how interesting and exciting the book is, I never finish it. I’ll even recommend books to other people that I’ve never finished.

Well, I’m proud to say, I’ve finished reading (oh, within about 20 pages) a really great book. I’ve been reading The Primal Teen: What the New Discoveries about the Teenage Brain Tell Us about Our Kids, by Barbara Strauch. This is not a Christian book, or even a parenting book, but it’s one that any parent of a teenager should own! Strauch addresses topics such as the introduction and length of adolescence (now extended to the late twenties!), the role of risk-taking, failure, consistency, and enthusiasm, all from a brain perspective! For example, did you know that the prefrontal cortex of a teenager’s brain is not completely formed until his or her mid-twenties? This is the area that makes decisions, empathy, and controlling impulses. This is also where the personality of a person exists (ever wonder why your kid seems to change friends or personas within a month?).

Fascinating stuff. From a youth ministry perspective, my mind has been blown in regards to how to treat our teenagers and what to expect from them in the area of faith. My friend Adam Lehman read this book as well and created a great description of a 15 year old disciple. He or she will:

• Be inconsistent (but have a growing desire for consistency)
• Be apparently hypocritical (as they learn to match behavior with thought)
• Be moving away from compartmentalized thinking
• Be moving outside their comfort zone
• Have a unique journey of discipleship
• Be teachable
• Be a “rebellious” disciple (challenge and question ideas as they begin to think abstractly)

Sound at all like your child? Relax—it’s normal. Wild, but normal. While we are only beginning to understand how the brain works, research is confirming that this is a WILD RIDE for families. As a parent, you could have said that without reading this book, but it’s helpful to understand the science behind what’s happening in your child’s head.

While not always understanding things like synapses and neurons, I do know the God that created these things. And with every page I read of this book, I became more in awe of That Big Guy that created us. Seriously—who thinks this stuff up?! For me, learning became an act of worship. Maybe it will for you too?

P.S. We will be offering a parent seminar this fall on adolescence and teenage brain development this fall…but in the meantime, put Primal Teen on your summer reading list!

Reach Workcamp Updates

Forms and $215 (deposit + first payment) were due last Sunday. Please turn those in asap :)

Next meeting: Sunday, April 18 9:30am for campers only

Upcoming fundraisers:

ELECTION DAY BAKE SALE Tuesday, May 4 (donations of baked goods needed)

CAR WASH Saturday, May 15 10am-1pm at J.I.M.S Place

CAR WASH Saturday, June 5 10am-1pm at J.I.M.S Place

Change in payment plan: Your final payment will not be due until mid-June after the fundraisers are over. So...breathe easy!

Reach-In? Lock-Camp?

For those of you that missed the Time Change on Sunday...we did have a Reach Workcamp Meeting at 9:30am. Your forms and first payment of $165 are due NOW. Your final payment will not be for another couple of months and remember, that final payment will be decreased by the number of meetings and fundraisers you participate in. Our next meeting is April 18.

The Annual Lock-In is in just two weeks! Kick off Spring Break right with an all-nighter at the church! Friday, March 26 10pm--8am Saturday, March 27. See more details on the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=365749771777&ref=mf

Exciting Weekend

I think I'll write this update in facebook status update style:

Sitting in my office getting excited to take our senior highers to Winter Jam tonight! First on the agenda...dinner at Chipotle :)

Winter Jam is Coming!

Are you signed up for our high school retreat?! This is the start of a new tradition--so get in on it now!

SENIOR HIGH WINTER JAM RETREAT: MARCH 5-7, 2010

YOUR $40 WINTER JAM ADMISSION INCLUDES:
SWIMMING, BASKETBALL, VOLLEYBALL, SHOWERS, ETC @ A LOCAL RECREATION CENTER, 5 HOT MEALS PLUS SNACKS EACH NIGHT, MULTI-SENSORY PRAISE & WORSHIP, RETREAT SPEAKER FOR THE WEEKEND, A GAME ROOM, SATURDAY NIGHT ENTERTAINMENT AS WELL AS THINGS MONEY CAN’T BUY, SUCH AS OPPORTUNITIES TO MEET NEW FRIENDS AND A TIME TO GROW CLOSER TO GOD!


Registration and money is due to Amy by Sun, Feb. 21! Be sure to sign up by the Youth Room Door! This would be a great event to invite friends to. We will have pizza at the church Friday night before we leave.

Thought for Today

Talking with your son or daughter about faith is the same as talking to them about sex. We cannot assume that "they'll learn what they need to do know at school" (or at church), nor can we simply say "Well, I hope you'll make the right choice."

Start the conversation.

Church at the Mall!

Youth Group will look a little different this week! We're on the move--meet us at the Food Court in the mall at 5pm. Please bring money for dinner (your choice of fast food)! Check out more info at the facebook event page. **This is a change from the January calendar**

What are you gonna do next??

There's a line that the quarterback of the winning Superbowl team delivers at the end of every game. The reporter says, "...You just won the Superbowl...what are you gonna do next??"

"I'm going to Disney World!!" he announces.

Well guess what, folks. We can go to Disney World. Reach Workcamp has partnered with Disney's "Give a Day, Get a Disney Day" volunteerism program. If you participate (as a youth or adult) at Reach WC this year, you will have earned a free day at Disney. Check our more details here: http://reachwc.org/pages/disney.shtml.

Still planning your family vacations? Build Reach AND Disney into your plans!

New Year...New Opportunities, New Chances, New Experiences!

First, let me apologize. Due to a pretty crazy final month of grad school, I've been rather neglectful towards this poor blog. Hopefully I'll regain the balance now!

Happy New Year to each and every one of you! It's been a great year for our church and for our youth ministry. Here's a brief list of highlights from the 2009 FUMC Youth Ministry:

• Five of our youth led a VBS and worked on a construction site in La Ceibita, Honduras
• Held our first ever Senior Citizen Prom for the elderly of our community
• Sent a record number of youth and adults on our 12th (?) Reach Work Camp in Annville, PA
• Graduated ten seniors and sent them off to college with our prayers
• Confirmed twelve sixth- and seventh-grade students as members of the church
• Packed a dozen Operation Christmas Child boxes to be sent to children in Panama, Madagascar, and Southern Darfur
• Senior high students cooked dinner for the New Philadelphia Homeless Shelter
• More of our students joined small groups and began inviting friends to do so
• Several students made decisions to make Christ a more integral part of their lives, beginning to process what it really means to be a follower of Jesus

...and these are just a few highlights! Our students continued to represent Christ to their friends at school and on the field. We're looking forward to another fantastic year in 2010...filled with new opportunities, new chances, and new experiences. Here's a few to spark your interest:

• Senior High will be attending a high-school only retreat in March put on by the UMC
• Junior High will have their first ever "Junior High Mission Experience" weekend of service in June
• Small groups for every age bracket
• Our 13th year at Reach Work Camp this July, serving in Hurricane, WV
• Sending four youth to serve in Honduras in January
• Holding our second annual Senior Citizens Prom
• Beginning a new Confirmation class in October

and much, much more! This is a new year, a new chance for you or your child to take advantage of the many opportunities in our youth ministry! See you there.

This Week's RealParents Newsletter...and a little more

Here's the link to this week's RealParents Newsletter as presented by Youth Specialties! I apologize that it's been awhile since it has been posted...my email apppears to be eating this email before I can read it.

Just a reminder...there is regular Youth Group this Sunday! We will be talking about small groups, being in community, and what that means! Come check it out.

Sign-ups are still open for the ULTIMATE SNOW DAY. Are you in??

Return of the Blog!

I'm back! Sorry about the lack of updates the past couple of weeks. We had a great time at Fall Retreat, then took the weekend off to spend time with families for Thanksgiving. But now...it's December, it's Advent, and we're right back in the swing of it!

This Sunday:

• "First Sunday" traditional Sunday School--meet in the Youth Rm at 9:30am
• "World-Changers" small group is meeting at 5pm with Jordan
• Junior High is 5-6:30pm (Please bring $2 for dinner)
• Senior High is 6-7:30pm (Please bring $2 for dinner)

Upcoming Events:

• Christmas Party, Sunday, Dec. 20 6-7:30pm
• Senior High Service Project--Dinner @ Homeless Shelter...be sure to get your ingredient from Amy!
• ULTIMATE SNOW DAY--Weds, Dec. 30 9am-9pm at Brandywine...cost approx. $50 or $60...more details soon!

Fall Retreat Details

It’s time! Fall Retreat is THIS WEEKEND! Here is a quick look at the details you need to know:

Location: Skyview Ranch, Millersburg

Emergency Contact: Amy 330-904-1573 (cell)

Departure: FRIDAY 6PM **Meet in the Youth Room**

Return: SUNDAY 12PM **Please pick up your son/daughter at the main church building along 2nd street**

Packing:
Sleeping Bag/Bedding Materials
Appropriate outerwear for the weather
Old clothes (for outdoor activities)
Sneakers/Hiking Boots
Towel
Shower accessories/toiletries
Flip-flops (for showering)
Bible/Notebook
**Cell phones or ipods are permitted but at your own risk. The camp and the church are not liable if you lose them. Also, they are not to be taken into worship…just like at Workcamp, you can use them in your room**

Miscellaneous: Paintball ($15) and Horseback riding ($8) are available on Saturday afternoon, weather permitting. Please send your student with the appropriate clothes and payment for this activity. This is run by the camp, not our ministry. **For Paintball…you may bring your own gun. However, if the temperature drops too low, they will not allow us to play.**

Junior Highers to take over Dollar Tree!

This fall's Junior High Service Project is THIS SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 15! We will be making Operation Christmas Child shoeboxes for children in third world countries. (Confirmation Class did this last year.) Each student needs to bring $5 to Youth Group Sunday (normal times), and we will carpool to the Dollar Tree to pick out small gifts for a girl or boy to be placed in a shoebox to be shipped overseas. You can read more about this awesome ministry on their website!

Drinking my weight in orange juice as we speak...

H1N1 paranoia...tensions rise.