Youth Ministry Meeting

We met again on Saturday, January 12 at Hilltop. Jeff, Ouk-Yean, and Becca gathered for fellowship and planning.

We discussed the blog and re-invited people to join as posters to the blog.

We also discussed the 30 Hour Famine for the Rockford District Youth. We debated a date to have the event at Hilltop. We plan for te participants to participate in this as a "juice fast" and we'd also do a service project. We will do our 30 Hour Famine, March 14-15 at Hilltop Ministry Center. Details will be forthcoming, but the students will begin their fast at 8:00 am on March 14. We will gather at 7:00 pm at the Hilltop Ministry Center and we will break our fast at 2:00 pm, with the event ending fully by 2:30pm. We will be serving soup to break the fast, donations of soup would be needed. Please contact Jeff or Becca if you will be participating or if you need information. We will ask youth to bring their basic "lock-in" items and no food other than an individual supply of juice. No soft drinks or energy drinks wll be allowed.

The next District Youth Ministry meeting will be Saturday, February 9th from 8:30-12:00. Breakfast will be provided, and those who wish to go out to lunch after the meeting will be able to gather together. We will be doing the first Module from the "Foundations for Youth Ministry" as well as discussing the District 30 Hour Famine event. All youth ministry staff, clergy, youth volunteers and people seeking to start or augment a youth ministry program. Please contact Jeff at Hilltop for more information or registrations.

Rockford Area Youth Ski Trip

The Rockford Ski Area Youth Ski Trip is a "GO". I'm working on getting the paperwork out, but here's the details at a glance...

Date: February 18, 2008 (Presidents Day)... 7:30am-7:30pm
(Meeting and departing from the Christ United Methodist Church Youth Room)
Destination: Sundown Mountain in Dubuque, IA
Who's Invited: All Jr. and Sr. High Youth (+ one adult for every six youth)
There are several package options:
Spectator only (Transportation):$22
Transportation & Lift (Has own equipment): $42
Transportation, Lift, Ski Rental, and lesson: $54
Transportation, Life, Board Rental, and lesson: $54
Youth groups need to make a "reservation" and offer a rough number by January 9th.
Initial paperwork and a final count by February 6th.

Please contact me if you're interested and you do not receive the paperwork. We'd love to have you on board!

Rockford Area Youth Ski Trip

I'm beginning my homework for a Rockford Area Youth Ski Trip and am looking for some feedback. I'd like to schedule the trip for February 18th, this is President's Day and most districts have this day off. The best group rate is offered by Sundown Mountain in Dubque. For lift, lesson, and rental, the cost is $37, and they handle groups fairly well. The big question is transportation- coach or schoolbus? If we have a lot of equipment, coaches are nice, but it will impact the cost. My sense is that if we go with schoolbuses, the cost per kid would be about $50, and if we go with coach, the cost per kid would be about $70. How significant of a factor is cost for your kids to participate?

Laura
Christ United Methodist, Rockford

Court Street December Happenings

Here's what is going on at Court Street in December:

• December 1: Ski Trip to Chestnut Mountain (AY)
• December 5: Gift Wrapping Class with International Giftwrapping Champion Gene Fideli. (All ages)
• December 16: Bethlehem Journey 5:30-7:30pm. Interactive walk-though/drive-through celebration of the Nativity. (All ages)

Contact becca for more information.

Admin Notes

Just a few things to make the blog work a little more smoothly for all of us.

• Use Labels for your posts so that things will show up on the "label list" and can be easily located. Be sure to use your Church's name as a label if the event is being sponsored by your congregation.
• Make sure that you specify age groups for each event: AY (all youth, 6th grade-12th grade), MS (Middle School, 6th-8th grades), HS (High School, 9th-12th grades), CONF (Confirmation classes), YA (young adults), YA21(young adults over the age of 21). KIDS (Children 5th grade and younger).
• Include contact information and cost information whenever possible.
• Add links! Add links to your church site, event information, resources, etc whenever possible.

Contact becca with any problems/questions with the blog.

Youth Ministry Meeting 11/17

Today we met at Hilltop Ministry Center in Roscoe. Those present were: Ouk-Yean our DS, Jeff from Roscoe, Thad from Dakota, Brian from Davis/Rock City, Amy from Pecatonica, Melwin from Chadwick, Laura from ChristUMC Rockford, and Me (Becca) from Court Street UMC Rockford.

This blog was one of the many things to grow out of this meeting, and we hope more and more people from the Rockford District and surrounding areas will use the blog to keep us all informed and up to date on various happenings. Here are a few things that we shared:

• Hilltop Ministry Center's Ignition: Friday Nights at Hilltop Ministry Center. Middle School 7-9 PM and High School 7-10:30pm. This ministry has a variety of activities including Board Games, Wii, Karaoke, Open Gym, Basketball, and other things! Jeff will post more information soon!
• Christ UMC Mission Camp for youth who have completed 8th grade through those who have completed 12th Grade. This year's location is Minneapolis, MN. Laura will be providing more information.

Upcoming District/Conference wide activities:

• December 1: Anyone interested can join Court Street UMC for a Ski Day at Chestnut Mtn. RSVP required by November 28. Lift tickets are only $1 this day. Equipment rental is $25. Contact Becca for more information.
• January 12: District Youth Worker Meeting @ Hilltop. 8:30am.
• TBA Jan/Feb: Youth Worker Training event
• TBA Feb/Mar: District Wide 30 Hour Famine Retreat @ Hilltop.
• TBA April: Retreat for District Youth (topic: Sex, will include fun, hopefully a band, and age appropriate sex education/discussion for Middle School and High School Youth.
• TBA May: Youth Worker FUN retreat.

More information coming soon!

Here it is!

Welcome to the YoYa blog...YoYa...Youth and Young Adults. This is a place for all the UMC churches in the Rockford District and surrounding areas to post Youth and Young Adult activities, opportunities, questions, discussions and just about everything else. This way, we have all of our "stuff" in one place. If you'd like to be added to the list of people who can post to the blog, please contact becca andyou will be added. Or, you can leave a comment here if you want! Welcome, and happy posting!