Helping you to prepare for Christmas

Hey everyone, I encourage you to go to this site as much as you can during advent. Each day there is a reflection and music to help you really prepare for Christmas.  Check it out!

Following the Star

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 6^th  year of serving in this valuable ministry. Our youth group is scheduled to prepare and serve breakfast on Sunday, November 17 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 7:30.) We will still have Food For Thought that morning at 11:00. 

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

Top Ten Reasons to Join a Youth Group

It’s can be tough out there on our own. In our hearts, we know we are called to love others and be faithful to God’s word – but it’s not easy. Not everyone defines love the same way. Jesus said, “Love consists in this – laying down one’s life for a friend.” At church, there are caring adults and other teens who lay down their lives for us – by giving us their attention, time, prayers and friendship.

No group is perfect, but our God is – and God is always there. God calls us to love, to forgive, to be patient and to make a difference. He calls us to do this together as his church. Friendships made in youth ministry groups can grow into lifetime friendships as we continue in this faith-filled community.

Why should anyone join a youth group? Pat Rinker of Faithmag.com posted  the top 10 reasons a youth group is a great place to be and I thought I'd share them here:

10.  In any friendship, we make mistakes. Being part of a Christian youth group means we believe in forgiveness.


9.  The negativity of others can bring us down. A Christian youth group will encourage and uplift.


8.  We look around our world and wish we could make a difference. In a Christian group, we are called to work together to make this a better world to live in.


7.  It seems like there’s no right or wrong in the world we live in. Being in a Christian group can give us direction and help us to choose what is right and provides friends who will support us.


6.  By ourselves, we don’t always feel close to God. Jesus promised that where two or three gather in his name – he is with them.


5.  Some of the other teens around me seem so lethargic. They don’t seem too excited about their faith. In a Christian youth group, most people are there because they want to be there. The enthusiasm is contagious.


4.  In a Christian group, we have others with whom we can pray and share our concerns.


3.  In a Christian group, Jesus is our role model and we have other leaders who strive to live like him.


2.  In a Christian youth group, we can bring our friends who have the same needs we all have and who also need a supportive group of friends in their lives.


1.  In a Christian youth group, we are connected to the larger church that Jesus established. It is a place where we can know our God, grow in love and faith, and change the world we live in.

So much planned!

Being a disciple of Christ means a lot of things. For starters, it means learning about Jesus and growing closer to Him, practicing your faith and serving others. We've got opportunities coming up that will allow you to do all of those things!

Here's what we've got planned  for the next few months - (mark your calendars, set your sights on Christ!)

Learning - finding out more what it means to be a disciple!

Food for Thought! every Sunday at 11:00 in the Youth Room

Winter Retreat! Friday January 24-Sunday, January 26 at Michindoh. We will be a part of their teen retreat weekend. (Cost $105)

Practicing - doing stuff! Youth group on the 2nd and 4th Sunday evenings from 6:30-8:00. This is not just a time for fellowship, but also a time where we can be doing some service for others, and sharing our faith.  Sunday nights are perfect times to bring friends!

September 22 - making care packages for college students, games and possibly campfire (weather permitting)

October 13 - Corn Maze
October 27 - campfire/s'mores and stuff

November 10 - Operation Christmas Child (extended youth group time)
November 24 - possibly bell ringing for the Salvation Army

December 8 - Christmas Cards for seniors, treats and movie
December 22 - rehearsal for Christmas Eve service

Serving - serving others means serving Christ!

October 13 - Crop Walk (after church)
October 26 - Running games at Trunk or Treat 4:00-6:00

November 3 - Sandwich Ministry (after church)
November 10 - Operation Christmas Child (we will collect and pack shoe boxes to send overseas)
November 17 - Serving Breakfast to the Homeless Guests at FUMC in Plymouth - 5:30-7:30 AM
November 24 - Ringing bells for the Salvation Army during youth group time

December 8 - Making Christmas cards for seniors during youth group time
December 26 - Boxing Night! all night long!

January 5 - Sandwich Ministry (after church)
January 11 - Taking donations to Fort Street

It's almost time for fall!!

Here we go!

We're getting ready to kick off another great year of High School Ministry at Geneva. I'm looking forward to all the activities and events we're planning, but I'm also looking forward to being able to see everyone grow in their faith and grow closer to Jesus.

In a side column you can sign up to bring food for our weekly fellowship/education/small group time called Food for Thought. (Now you can click on the date on THIS site and it will take you to the Sign-up Genius site! How easy can you get??) We meet EVERY Sunday during the 11:00 service in the Youth Room.

Also in a side column, you can see the events and activities planned for each month. These activities are subject to change, so check back often! FYI We'll have youth fellowship on the 2nd and 4th Sundays of each month from 6:30-8:00. I hope everyone can come, and BRING FRIENDS. The more people we have, the more fun we'll have!

Are you ready??

We're back... now what?

Hey everyone, we've been back from our mission trip for a week now. I hope you are thinking about how the trip impacted your faith, how you met and served God in Minnesota and how you can continue spending time with God and serving him here in Michigan.

Every year Youthworks, through their magazine Reverb (you ALL got one as you left ....) lets us know about their 1K challenge to kickstart some service/community minded ministry in our area. I'd like to challenge you all to think about this seriously. Would you like to start a once a month lunch/sandwich ministry in Detroit? (We made a big impact in the few we handed out in June, we could make it a once a month bigger project, maybe even get more youth involved!) Would you like to start and run a community garden in the back of our church? (thoughts are already forming on this with some adults from the church) Is there something else you can think of?

Give it some thought... let me know, and I'll help you fill out the paperwork to submit to Youthworks/Reverb.

For more information on the 1K challenge, click here

We are back from Red Lake!!

What a week! It was brutal at times and oh so beautiful at other times! I learned so much and saw God doing such wonderful work through the greatest group of young adults I have ever had the pleasure of spending time with. I am sure we are all glad to be home enjoying family and the comforts of home, but we will all remember this mission and pray for those we served and served with this past week!

Our last day at Red Lake...

From Beth:
Working in kids club today was amazing. Josh & Paul, another teen from our crew (Wisdom Rocks!),  were leading the Bible story time. Yesterday was a little difficult because many of the kids didn't want to sit and listen to us talk. Today, however, many of the kids responded when we asked them questions and all of them were excited to help us do the review puzzle we made that said "Jesus ate with people like us!" It was so much fun to see how much the kids were enjoying themselves and so many of them wanted to be the one to put a word together. The best part was probably how happy the kids sounded when we read the phrase out loud together.
   All in all the day went smoothly and I'm looking forward to being able to use this experience when I help out in VBS next week back home!

From Angie:
We spent our morning today doing work projects at two locations. Seak was at the woman's shelter and Wisdom was at the senior care center. We spent a few hours working and then took our lunch break. After lunch it was back to kids club. I was impressed by our youth. YW runs the kids club similar to a VBS. but for each center, OUR youth made up the entire lesson, with very little help, and then ran their lesson. When Beth mentioned the puzzle they made - they actually came up with the idea and MADE the puzzle. Awesome. Dinner was a community cookout at the Mission church. However after having the threat of rain every day and never seeing a drop, we got rain, lots and lots of rain. Kudos to Mike for getting totally soaked bringing all the food back to the school so we could still have our community picnic. It was good to meet some of the parents of kids club kids and hear that the kids have been telling their parents about Jesus! Our club time tonight included the YW tradition of foot washing. It is very emotional as each of us has our feet washed and are then individually prayed over. Our youth kept up the Geneva tradition of washing the feet of the YW staff.  Then we had a fun bed time song which included Aladdin (ask Josh about that one!) we had a good week but are really excited to start heading home. :-)

Immersed in Red Lake

Hi Geneva Family from Dan!  Today we all got to experience Red Lake in every sense of the word.  Though we are on separate work teams, we all ended up working together today.  After a morning orientation from Jenna, we set off to work at kids club.  When I was here in 2005, kids club was in the elementary school,and the Youth Works staff had the entire building at their disposal.  This year, the elementary school said "no" to their building request.  As usual, the YW staff had to adapt on the fly.  On the reservation, there is an organization called "Boys and girls club".  This is a non-religious organization that works with children from ages 4-13(ish).  When YW asked them the unthinkable...."hey,would you let us come into your club, bring dozens of teens and their adult leaders, and run an 8 week program teaching who Jesus Christ is to the kids on the reservation?" .....they said "yes!"  Praise God for his mysterious ways!  So the entire Geneva team spent the day teaching scripture "then Jesus replied, 'I am the bread do life, He who comes tome will not go hungry, and he who believes in me will never thirst".  And we played games, and we did art projects, what a day!  After the club ended, we had to drive some of the kids home, which in itself was a trip! These kids wanted to milk every minute of  time with our kids, and purposely told us the wrong turns in order to prolong the ride home! They are precious children,though many of them have seen and experienced things no child should.  I was shocked and near tears when I dropped off Carl and his little sister to a trailer that had a sinking foundation, broken and boarded windows, no grass, mud everywhere, and it was worse inside.  I was once again reminded of how blessed we are,and how far we have left to go to get our world back to the order in which God intended it.  After a physically and emotionally draining day, it felt awesome to go swimming in beautiful Red Lake!  We drove to the beach and had about an hour to relax and swim.  I decided to swim out and down the lakeshore , and as I swam, I looked up and saw an eagle flying out over the water.  I had to stop swimming and just watch it fly.  It was so beautiful.  When I returned, I told the group what I had seen, and asked them to guess what bible verse I thought of when I saw the eagle flying.  It didn't take long for Jessica to say "Isaiah 40!"  Our group never ceases to amaze and bless me!  Thanks for all your prayers, we feel the power of your love here every day.  One more day with these wonderful children, and we will be homeward bound!   Peace and love,  Dan.

Tuesday at Red Lake......

From Josh:
     Today the Wisdom group went to the only church on the reservation for its work site. When we got there we split into two groups. The first headed upstairs and began painting a room. The second headed outside to begin moving things around to prepare for a garage sale. This involved moving lots of heavy objects, including furniture, from building to building. I spent my morning painting. It was hot and stuffy, but we pushed through. We had the entire room covered in one coat of paint by lunchtime! After lunch I switched over to to help move things around to get stuff for the garage sale ready. We had to move a room of heavy items into the gym and make it presentable for sale. It was very inspiring to see the incredible work ethic each and every person showed. Near the end we had to move a large couch. As we were trying to relocate this couch to the gym, we had a lot of difficulty getting it through two doorways. We were even forced to take a door off! However we persevered and got the couch where it needed to be. I cannot express how thrilling it is to see God all around us in so many ways!

From Angie:
    Breakfast today was waffles and sausage. It was prepared by the Seek group. That means some of us had to get up earlier than usual to make it. The rest of us appreciated it!
     After breakfast Wisdom group had to do building clean up - yep, we cleaned the bathrooms. I hope everyone appreciated that!
     After clean up time we have Devo time, aka devotional time. This is done alone, just each of us and God. Today's lesson included the "un" story. We talked with God  about how we see ourselves, and others, using "un" words - unworthy, unloved, un accepted, unhelpful, etc. but God doesn't see us that way at all. I like that, in addition to work, these mission trips include time to pray and time to praise God. Then we went to work.
   As Josh said we spent the day painting and moving heavy items. The Seak group joined us after lunch. None of the areas had air conditioning and like Michigan, it was in the 90s today. HOT! We really needed showers today.
     Dinner was pizza at a park in Bemidji (look it up on a map!) It was fun to play and be near Bemidji lake. Then we got Dairy Queen - yummy!
Well, time for lights out. Like Josh said, I have been amazed by the work ethic of all the teens here. God is amazing in how he is working in the lives of so many teens from different places in our country. Praise God!

Monday's activities with a note from Madelyn...

What a blessing Monday has been! We had our time with the spirit this morning. Everyone wanders off to a spot where they can have some alone time with Jesus. We were all given devotional guides to help us through the time but mostly it is your time to find your self and seek God's guidance. We then got our orientation on what our day would bring. It was painting for all. The Wisdom group (Angie, Beth, Bill, Josh, Tim, and I) were assigned to paint a poll barn storage building for the school we are staying in. The other half of Wisdom is made up of an adult leader and four high schoolers (3 girls and 1 boy) We will work with this great group of people tomorrow when we paint a few rooms at the only church on the reservation. The Seek group (Dan, Madelyn, Drew, Jessica, and Caitlin) were assigned to paint at the Kids Club building. The other half of their team is made up of an adult leader and five high schoolers. Both jobs were a challenge and had a few other odd jobs thrown in, but the connection our crew made with the others in the group was a true wonder for me to see!

From Madelyn Degener....
Group: Seek
Today we painted one of the walls in the boys and girls club. We finished way early and then had lunch while we waited for it to dry. After we painted the second coat, we went to help unload a truck at the church for a garage sale that they were having. Then we came back to the school we are staying  at and talked to the kids who were skating. Most of the kids here crave attention, because they come from broken or poor families. Some of the kids we talked to were only like 6 or 7 and they were swearing and throwing rocks at our van. It's really sad to see the situations that these little kids are being put into.
Then for showers, we all came into the school, and only about half the kids could get showers in before all of the water was in that section was shut off. We waited for like a half hour before we could go to the high school locker rooms - which are much nicer anyways and had individual stalls with water that had adjustable temperatures - and which was great after three days without a shower for a lot of us.

We closed tonight with the usual Club Time and then our own Church Group Time. Tonight Tim and Drew lead us in that discussion of our evening yesterday and our day today. So much great input from our kids. It is truly an honor to be with this group of young adults!!

Please continue to pray for us and keep us in your thoughts,
Yours in faith with Dan and Angie,
Mike.

Mike and Angies's crew....

We made it to Red Lake and all are well!! Our trip was awesome (I have a feeling I'm going to use that word a lot this week). We stopped yesterday and had a chance to put our toes into Lake Superior. Later, when we arrived and got settled at First Presbyterian Church in Marquette, we walked down to a park with a beach and almost everyone took a swim. Now you should know that the water temperature in Lake Superior is about 40 deg. We had pizza in the park and had lights out at 10:30. We left the church on time this morning and made our way to Red Lake.

First Day of Travel!

Saturday morning we picked up our 2 vans. I was worried that I wouldn’t be able to reach the pedals, but I could!  After deciding tat we had to remove the back seats to fit our luggage, we packed up and were on the road around 10:00 AM.

The middle schoolers and high schoolers are traveling in separate cans. Jeff and I are with the middle schoolers. Almost right away, this group started playing games together. They played car games,(the alphabet game, pictionary telephone and mafia) the entire way!! Jeff and I thought we were going to have to be the instigators in getting the kids to talk with each other and interact, but we didn’t have to.

The high school van was a little quieter we hear, with reading, sleeping and small conversations…

Thanks to someone having to stop for a bathroom break, we stopped at a rest area that was right along Lake Michigan. Dan and I couldn’t resist getting our feet wet, so we all stopped for about ½ hour, walking through the water and getting refreshed. The water felt really good.

We made it to Marquette just before 7 P< and were welcomed by a member of the First Presbyterian Church with plates of homemade cookies! After being shown to our sleeping rooms, we went to a park on Lake Superior to swim. We were told the water was 41degrees, but that didn’t stop 16 people from going swimming! (3 of us were out getting pizza for the rest of the group.) We have a very brave and courageous group!

After staying in Marquette for the night, we left bright and early to head towards Duluth. We plan on eating lunch together, then the high schoolers will head towards Red Lake and the middle schoolers will stay in Duluth to start our week of mission!

Whew! What a day!

We might have chosen one of the hottest days of the year so far to walk around downtown Detroit, but I think it was quite worth it! After a few minor glitches (Family Fun Days on the River Front and an afternoon Detroit Tigers game we didn't account for, which made parking a little more of a problem) we made it!

6 youth and 3 adults (including me) made 22 lunches that included a sandwich, fruit cup, water bottle, chips and cookies  to hand out to some hungry people we met. Since this was our first attempt at this mission activity, we started on a small scale. In less than an hour, our supplies were gone! We all came back to the car saying we should have had more!

I think the best part of this ministry is that we don't just give hungry people food, we also pray with them and for them. I don't think many indigent people feel that they are worthy enough to be prayed for. I think (hope) we're able to show them that they matter in the eyes of God.

I hope more people can join us when we do this ministry again. I'd like to make it a regular thing!

What do you think?

Service and Study in the Summer

One more Food for Thought until fall... That doesn't mean we won't have lots of opportunities to grow in our faith though....

We've got service/mission opportunities!

June 23 - Following Jesus' teachings and 'feeding His sheep.' We'll make sack lunches after church and deliver them to hungry people in Detroit. I guarantee you'll think this opportunity is a wonderful experience. Hands-on faith!

July - mission trip of course! Serving in a community not like your own is going to be really something!

August - local service! We can't get more local than working around the church! We'll be sprucing up the gardens (weeding fun!) and the youth room. As usual, there will be ice cream after!

We've got study opportunities!

Beginning June 19 we'll be doing some in-depth Bible study together for whoever wants to come! We'll meet on Wednesday mornings most weeks throughout the summer to dig in to God's word.

We've got fellowship opportunities!

What? fellowship helps you grow in your faith? YES! Hanging out with other people gives you the opportunity to be yourself and show love to others while having fun!

June 2- lunch and mini-golf
July 28 - lunch and ? (got a suggestion?)
August 11 - lunch and games
August 23- LOCK IN!!

Another fundraising success!

Hey everyone! Great job on another A Night Out success! We worked hard gathering donations, setting stuff up, serving and cleaning up after. We've even got all our thank you letters written and sent out! Amazing work everyone. Together, we raised $7,000 towards the cost of our mission trips this summer.

I heard lots of compliments about the evening, ranging form the great service, to the good food to the wonderful entertainment. I agree! I was super impressed at how well everyone came through remembering their lines, being where they were supposed to be and performing wonderfully- whether it was skit or music or joke!

The only thing left to do is make sure you follow through with your auction services. Don't let it get too late before you complete your services! If the person who won your service hasn't contacted you in a month or so, PLEASE contact them, and at least remind them.

Auction Auction Auction!

How important is this event?

In the past, each student would have had to pay almost their entire mission trip expense. There were some small fundraisers (Super Bowl Subs, Pancake Breakfast, Car Wash) but they didn’t make a significant impact on expenses. There were also Youth Serve opportunities, but these were sporadic. The big fundraiser was our “A Night Out” dinner. The entire profit from this dinner was typically $1500. (split between all mission trip participants.) In 2010 we implemented a silent auction portion to our fundraising dinner. The  average profit from the auction alone has added between $3,000 and $4,000 to our expenses. Since we implemented the auction, no student has had to pay more than their $50 deposit. All expenses have been covered.

This year, we have the added expenses of extra travel days, which creates more meals needed and more gas to purchase. We’ve also added the cost of 2 passenger van rentals. This year, more than ever, we want a very successful fundraising dinner and auction.

How can you help?

Parents and Youth: Encourage bidding! Mingle with your guests or others at the auction tables, encouraging them to bid and even overbid on the items.  (It’s for a good cause!)

Parents: bid yourselves! Yes, you’re still spending money, but you’ll be getting some wonderful items for it! Or, maybe you’ll just be increasing the amount that other people will pay for that item!

Remember the mantra.... Bid high and bid often!

A Night Out is coming up fast!

The date for our annual fundraising dinner and silent auction is coming up quickly! We’ll be setting up, serving and providing entertainment to the many people who are supporting our summer mission trips.

Youth and Parents --  here’s what you need to know:

Donations:

~ Parents and Youth - Bring in some auction donations! With the additional expense of rental vans, we’ve got a larger amount we need to raise.  Ask businesses to donate, or relatives or friends who own businesses. Letters to businesses are available on the bulletin board at church.

~ Youth - think about what service YOU can auction off. What are you good at that people will want to pay for?

Here are some suggestions:

Are you good in the garden? Planting or pulling weeds would be a good service to offer. Can you babysit? A Night of babysitting would be excellent to offer. Do you like to cook? A dessert of the month or a special complete dinner would be very much appreciated! Are you known for your love of animals? Maybe a weekend of pet-sitting is the thing for you. Can you clean a car inside and out? Auto detailing is always a big hit with bidders! Do you like kids? Maybe you could offer your services at a child’s birthday party. Do you like to paint nails? Offer some manicures! Maybe you don’t think you’ve got much to offer… how about taking in mail and watering plants while people are on vacation? Talk it over with your parents if you aren’t sure what you can offer.

All donations and forms need to be returned by Thursday, April 4!

Time commitment:

~We put out auction items for bidding the week before the auction, Sunday April 14. I will need some help on Saturday, April 13 and Sunday morning, April 14 in setting up the auction.

~Between Sunday, April 14 and Saturday, April 20 we need ironers! Plan on spending an hour or two up at the church in the afternoon or evening ironing tablecloths and napkins.

~Saturday, April 20- We’ll start setting up at 9:00 AM for several hours, then give you a break, then expect you back later in the afternoon to start serving.  Once the evening is over, we’ll expect EVERYONE to help clean up.

Entertainment:

Youth must participate in at least ONE piece of our entertainment. Youth (AND Adults) can participate in as many of the entertainment pieces as they want to. (The only requirement is that for part three (testimonies) people must have been on a mission trip.)

~Skits will be performed in several parts. (see below)

~Musical pieces will be performed in between each act.

~We’ll perform a reader’s theater.

~We’ll also present something about Minnesota and the need for us to mission there (not sure how we’ll do this yet.)

Skit information:

Part One- Game Show  (Performed Live)

Cast:

Game Show Host                   Nathan                      

Contestant 1                          Jessica

Contestant 2                          Josh                            

Contestant 3                          Drew

Prize Girl                                Caitlin                        

TV Announcer                       Steven

Commercial Man                   Luke                           

Commercial Woman             Beth

Whammy                               Louie                          

Parent                                    Angie

Part Two - A Van Ride (Performed Live)

Each participant will work with Jake Zinke to create a sketch revolving around a van ride to a mission trip. We’ll start writing this skit on March 24 @7:00 PM. 5-7 youth plus one adult are needed for this sketch.

Part Three - Testimonies (Video-Taped)

Individuals or pairs will share true stories about events from past mission trips that they’ve been on. There is no limit to the number of participants. Youth AND Adults can take part in this.

Possible Part Four- Another Van Ride

Depending on how part two works out, we may add a sketch revolving around a ride home from a mission trip.