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. :-)