Monday, Jan. 26th, 2009

This week, instead of the regular meeting, was the parent teen dinner. Spaghetti was served along with delicious side dishes and desserts. A few videos were watched from events like Christmas Caroling and Fall Retreat and the audience learned about World Youth Day Madrid! Dressed as boys, the leadership team appeared for a comical introduction. When dinner was over, Mary Jo went to the youth center with the adults for another meeting and the teens conducted the business meeting. It was a lot of fun!

January 19th, 2009

This past Monday, Pastoral Care decided to do a meeting on the topic of Self Defense and Safety. To begin, we split the group in half- one half broke up into teams and competed in a game that asked questions dealing with car theft, house burglaries, and other harmful situations. The other half was given scenarios dealing with problems that occur and were asked to read each and decide how to solve them and how the situation could have been prevented. When both halves of the group were done with their activities, they switched.

Next, the teens watched a clip from the movie "Miss Congeniality", and also 2 clips of "Essentials of Krav Maga Self Defense Techniques". These videos helped the large group learn how to escape from a hostage situation and front gun threat.

If any teens would like to watch those videos again and practice the techniques at home, they can go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=07jnqD8wvyE for hostage situation, or http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3HaY2gV5seg for front gun attack. To end the meeting, Pastoral Care chose to have the group meditate and relax for closing prayer. Overall, the teens explored many helpful techniques to avoid being a victim of theft or violence.
~Kara Campbell

January 12th, 2009

This Monday's meeting was about eating healthy and choosing healthier alternatives. The activities the group participated in included a scavenger hunt for not so good snacks, which, once found, had a better snack option inside. Also, everyone wrote what they ate that day and then they could see what was unhealthy and what could change. Finally, three groups looked at the nutrition guides for popular fast food restaurants and found the least healthy meals and then looked for what smarter choices would be. After working in groups, we watched some clips from the movies "Over the Hedge" and "Supersize Me", and had focus questions about over eating. Everyone came away with some useful information about making more informed choices.
~Bailey Hryczyk

Monday, Jan. 5th, 2009

This past Monday Justice, Peace & Service had the meeting. We did our meeting on needs, wants and blessings. First we watched a short movie clip, then we split up into 6 groups. Each group had to decide how to spend money for a family with a different economic level. The groups got a list of items the families could buy and how much they cost, and each family had a different budget. The teens had to decide how to use the budget to meet the family's needs. The next activity divided the group into 4's, and each person played a role in a family: mom, dad, teen, tween. Each "family" was told they had an extra thousand dollars to spend, and a list of things they could buy, and each family had to decide what would be best for the family. They also had to make a decision about spending more than the $1000 and going into debt. After another movie clip and a wrap up, we ended the meeting with a closing prayer & song.
~Tessa Parratto

Monday, November 17th, 2008

Monday, November 17th's meeting was dealing with how media and TV has a big influence on our lives. During the meeting we discussed the TV shows that were most popular and what influence the show had on its viewers. Also, small groups watched clips of different shows and acted them out without using names. The other people had to guess what show it was. This demonstrated that the shows are popular, most people know of them and they influence everyone even if they are not watched regularly.

~Bailey Hryczyk

Monday, November 10th, 2008

On Monday, November 10, 2008 the component of community life had the meeting. Their meeting topic was building a firm foundation with God. Before the meat of the meeting started we made Christmas cards for the Calling Birds, which they send to the sick elderly. Also anyone who didn’t go to fall retreat also got a chance to paint their mugs. When the meeting actually started we split into groups and each group had to build a tower made with a deck of cards. Only one of the groups actually succeeded in building a tower that didn’t blow over, when we blew on it. Our next activity that we did was we split into small groups and we had to either make a skit about a good relationship with God or a bad relationship with God. After the groups presented their skits we had a wrap up that included questions that told people some ways that they could get closer to God.
~Heather Sobeck

Monday, November 3rd, 2008

Monday, November 3rd, 2008
Monday night's meeting was on Juvenile Justice and whether people under the age of 18 can be tried as adults. First, we watched a clip of a case about two minors who tortured an 18 year old girl which was followed by a short discussion. We then split the teens up into smaller groups where they read two news articles about crimes committed by teens and decided whether the sentencing was fair or not. Lastly, we gave an example of a court case and the large group got to decide whether the accused should be tried as an adult or kept in juvenile court.
~Kara Campbell

Signups & handouts:

* Evergreen Sales - Preliminary Evergreen orders are due on Monday, Nov. 10th, but please keep selling up until Monday, Nov. 24th. Please participate by selling wreaths & roping to your family and friends - this benefits you and the youth group, and helps to keep your costs down.

* Fall Retreat – THIS Friday, November 7th – Sunday, November 9th at the Almont Retreat Center. Permission slips were due on Monday. If you still want to go, we can probably fit you - just give the office a call at 734-464-1677. You MUST have a permission slip to attend.

* Entertainment Books – you can still sign out books to sell to raise money for your personal account. If you have books you know you aren't going to sell, please bring them back so we can try selling them in other ways.

* Rainbow - Your parent may have picked up a Rainbow packet for you. If you haven't gotten one yet, you can pick one up in the Youth Ministry office anytime. These forms will NOT be available online. This event isn't until February, but we have to register early - people who register by Nov. 3rd get a discounted price. As of now, all registrations will be charged the $105 price.

If you haven't filled out a medical consent form, please do so ASAP! This is really important for us to have on hand. In the next few weeks we'll start requiring this form to attend any event, even those that happen here instead of off site.