Plan on being in worship this Sunday...

...and sitting together as we introduce the congregation to our upcoming Week of Hope.

One Additional Note

There will be some additional costs for us to participate in the Week of Hope. We'll need to pay for the trips to and back from our site, of course. We also will need money for meals during our trips, in addition to the money needed for our one meal while there and for any souvenirs you'll want to get. That's all I can think of for right now, but watch for updates as I'm sure that the picture will get clearer the closer we get to June, 2007.

Here's the Calendar for the Next Three Months

Here's the schedule for upcoming Friendship Church Youth activities...

October 3, Tuesday, 6:00 PM
Meet at the church building to go for the 7:00 soccer game of Sam Miller. Bring money for fast food.

October 12, Thursday, 6:00 PM
Meet at the church building to go to the 7:00 soccer game of Kyle Barrett. Bring money for fast food.

October 15, Sunday, 6:00-7:30 PM
CASA Duffel Bag Packing
Need: Parents to provide snacks 15-20 young people

October 20-21, Friday-Saturday, 8:00 PM-8:00 AM
Lock-in, movies, youth worship service planning
Need: Parents to provide dinner and breakfast
One male adult; two female adults to join with Mark for these festivities.

November 3, 5:00 PM
[For 9th.-graders and older:] Road Trip to the Underground Fall Brawl ROUND 1. Above The Average Citizen, Arlington, Lined In Chalk, Point Blank, and Sheffield. $7. 9th grade and up w/valid ID.

Need: Five parents to help with transport.

[To see more about The Underground, click here.]

November 5, 6:00-7:30 PM
Pizza Meeting, devotional skit
Need: Parents to provide pizzas, drinks

November 11, Saturday, Times TBA
Cooking and Serving Hot Dogs, Sam’s Club
Need: Parents to help with serving and also transporting of grill from the church and back

November 16, 2006, Thursday, 5:00-9:00 PM
Need: 20 adults, aged 19 and older, to take orders and serve drinks at TGIFriday’s, all young people to be present to go from table-to-table talking with patrons about why we’re there. ALL TIPS GO TO DEFRAY EXPENSES FOR OUR MISSION TRIP IN JUNE. All participants will share equally in what is raised through these fundraisers.

Special activity for middle schoolers only: TBA

November 18, early afternoon
We’ll help serve Thanksgiving dinner to Boys and Girls Club members and their families. Details TBA

November 25, 2:00-4:00 PM
Decorate the Christmas Tree

December 2, 6:30 to 7:30 PM
Practice Youth-Led Worship Celebration

December 3, 10:00 AM
Youth-Led Worship Celebration

December 10, afternoon
Christmas Caroling, Eastgate Nursing Home
Youth Christmas Party (back at building)
(This date is tentative. Still awaiting word from the Activities Director at the nursing home.)

What Happened at Tonight's Meeting?

We had another good turnout tonight and a good get-together.

For devotions, we watched as five of our youth moved my van, something it would have been impossible for any of them to have done on their own. We talked about how we can sometimes get discouraged, because there are things we simply can't do alone. We then looked at Exodus 4:10-13, which tells about how God called Moses to lead the people of Israel out of Egypt, how Moses didn't want to do it for fear that he wasn't able enough, and how God promised to be with him to help him.

Later, we read Nehemiah 4:10-23, which talks about how the ancient Jewish people who had moved back to Jerusalem after a long period of exile, rebuilt the walls of the city. Despite people who harassed them, they were able to do it by first, relying on God, and second, by working together.

As we look at the goals for our youth ministry this year, especially our Week of Hope mission trip, it may seem like a mountain. (Or maybe like a Kia Sedona van!) But depending on God and working together, God will help us do it!

So, what else did we do? We selected youth group officers. They are:
President: Courtney DeVore
Vice President: Justin Feine
Secretary: Laura Kuebel
Treasurer: Sean Daniher
We thank these young people for their willingness to serve!

We chose June 17-22, 2007 and Canandaigua, New York as the date and setting for our Week of Hope mission trip. Below are some details on the trip.

1. The cost is $239.00 per person.

2. After we've registered for the trip, we'll learn what we may be doing. It could be:

* Tutoring little kids
* Serving elderly people
* Working at a food bank
* Assisting at a day camp
* Sprucing up a social service agency office
* Helping needy people with their house or yard work
* Doing VBS outreaches

3. Built into the experience will be some time for us to get to know people from other youth groups, to explore the community in which we're spending the week, and to grow in our faith.

4. Registration cost includes:
Lodging
All meals but one
Materials
Camp T-shirt
Professional coordinating staff

5. You can defray your expenses by participating in our fundraising. Every household that participates in a fundraising event, will split the take for that event. (Example: If ten households participate in the Sam’s Club event and we raise $300, each household will be credited with $30, reducing their registration by that amount. If people who don’t have youth in the group participate in the TGIFriday’s fundraiser, what they raise will be split among those youth households that participated.) We're trying to schedule as many of these fundraisers as possible so that everybody’s costs can be reduced.

5. When do you pay?

• The first payment of $50, a nonrefundable deposit, should be ready to send in by October 8. (Make checks payable to Friendship Lutheran Church. Give them to our treasurer, Mike Cheney. Be sure to put Canandaigua Youth Trip on the memo line.
• Payment 2: 50% of the balance due must be paid by March 15, 2007
• Payment 3: The balance due must be paid by May 15, 2007

6. We will have a blast!

We also looked at the schedule of youth ministry events for the rest of 2007.

Later, we played HORSE, football, Cornhole, and talked. Thanks for your help in cleaning up the building!

Thanks also to the Kuebel family for providing refreshments!

You'll Choose Which of 5 'Week of Hope' Camps You Want to Do in June, 2007

If you haven't taken a look at the Week of Hope video, click here now and check it out. It would be fantastic if we could take a group of at least twenty for this week of fun, service, and faith-growing. (We need one adult for every five youth.)

When we get together this coming Sunday night at 6:00, you'll be asked to choose from one of the following Week of Hope experiences:

June 17-22 Canandaigua, New York
June 10-15 Albion, Michigan
June 17-22 Albion, Michigan
June 24-29 Albion, Michigan
June 17-22 Grand Rapids, Michigan

Any of these weeks would be great. But I can tell you from personal experience that Canandaigua is in a beautiful setting, by the Finger Lakes in upstate New York.

So, what will happen on our Week of Hope, wherever you choose to go? You might:

• Tutor little kids
• Serve elderly people
• Work at a food bank
• Assist at a day camp
• Spruce up a social service agency office
• Help needy people with their house or yard work
• Do VBS outreaches

Built into the experience will be some time for us to get to know people from other youth groups, to explore the community in which we're spending the week, and to grow in our faith.

Start praying now for which of the Week of Hope locations and times you prefer. Then, we'll work and pray together to make this great experience a reality!

I Need Your Feedback

In putting together our three-month schedule, I've run into a snag and I need your feedback on what to do.

As you know, I want to take you all to The Underground periodically. The Underground is a place that has concerts by local and national bands, places for ping pong, shuffleboard, and other games, an Internet cafe, and a lounge, all geared to youth.

But I've just learned that on nights when only local bands are performing, only youth in the ninth grade or above can enter. (When national bands play, for which the admission is higher, all ages can enter.) All ages can also go to tapings of The Zone TV show, which are done at The Underground.

Because I wanted both our middle and senior high youth to be involved, I need your feedback on my possible solution:

During those weeks when the senior high youth go to the Underground, we'll arrange for the middle school youth to do something else. I'll need parental help for this to happen.

When a national band comes to play at the Underground, the entire group can go.

What do you think? I need to hear from middle school students, high school students, and parents. Contact me at MarkLuth@aol.com.

[To learn more about the Underground, go here.]

Give Me Your Important Dates

I need a list of your important dates--academic recognitions, game schedules, Scouting honors and such--for the next three months. We want to to include these important dates on our calendar so that we can be supportive to each other by trying to attend a few of each other's important events. Send them to me at MarkLuth@aol.com.

To Find Out More About 'The Week of Hope'...

click here. (Be patient, this may take a little while to load. But it's well-worth watching.)

First Get Together for Year Productive, Fun

Thanks to all seventeen of the Friendship youth who were at the first of our get-togethers for the year.

To review...
We ate pizza that I had thrown into a garbage can. (It was clean, but you didn't know that at first.) To see that piping hot pizza go into the can may have been disappointing at first, just like our lives can disappoint us sometimes. We then briefly looked at all of the disappointments that the Old Testament figure of Job went through, yet saw that Job kept relying on God. We handed out strips of paper printed with Psalm 33:20-22:

Our soul waits for the Lord; he is our help and shield.
Our heart is glad in him, because we trust in his holy name.
Let your steadfast love, O Lord, be upon us, even as we hope in you.

Then, we talked about the coming year. Some of what we discussed:
1. Focus: Helping young people to grow as disciples of Christ in an atmosphere that includes opportunities for leadership, service, learning, and fun.

2. Some elements:

a. A printed schedule for three months at a time.

b. About once a month, go to Underground, teen Christian “night club” in Tricounty area, including going to taping of The Zone.

c. At least two Sunday night meetings a month, incorporating learning, fun, activities.

d. Youth leadership of...
1. Two worship celebrations (one in November, another in spring)

2. Duffel bag project for CASA foster children

3. Other projects

e. Election of youth officers

g. At least once a month, attending an activity important to one of the kids (ie, their football team, their academic competition)

h. Periodically, get together with youth from other congregations. (Hoping to get in on a Bible Bowl competition either in southern Ohio or northwestern Ohio)

i. Spring camping trip

j. Group Work Camp in early summer (Two bake sales at Sam’s on Saturdays in November. Sam’s will match what we make there. One person already volunteered to bake some items for us.)

k. Integration of kids in ministries of the congregation

l. Regular parental involvement

3. Eventual goal: Splitting into Middle and High School groups. But we can't do that right now.

4. I asked you to give me six months to work with you in our youth ministry. If at the end of that time, you've decided it isn't working for you, I'll understand. But I believe that, as we pray together, work together, learn together, and have fun together, you can have a great experience! I ask you to willingly pour your heart into our youth ministry and I promise to do the same thing.

We'll meet again next Sunday night at 6:00, when I'll present the 3-month schedule to you. Here's what we'll be doing:

• Elect youth officers
• Get five different dates, locations to choose from for our Group Workcamp Week of Hope in June, 2007
• Set date for youth lock-in during October
• Set date for youth leadership of a Sunday worship celebration in November

Make sure that you send me your calendar of important upcoming dates. Whether you're on an academic or athletic team--whatever it may be--let me know. We'll be encouraging and supporting each other by attending some of each other's big events.

Make sure you bring your friends.

And pray that we have a good year.

Pizza Meeting is This Sunday Evening

There will be a meeting for all of our middle and high school youth this coming Sunday evening at 6:00 PM at the church building.

On the agenda:

• A brief devotion
• Pizza
• Your Thoughts
• Mark's Thoughts
• Prayer

We should be done before 7:30. I'm looking forward to a fun year, capped by mission trip where we can put the love of Christ to practical use, helping people less fortunate than we are.

[If any of your friends are interested in having a great year with us at Friendship...and would be interested in going on a mission trip to another part of the United States in June, invite them to be with us, too!]