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Weekly E-news
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Dear youth and parents,
I returned this week from a great mission trip with our middle school youth, and I'm thankful for both our young people and the dedicated adults who went on the trip as sponsors. If you haven't done so already, please take a moment to take a look at the trip blog and photo galleries at www.chirhomissiontrip.org. Our youth "guest bloggers" did an especially good job of recapping our days in Oklahoma City. I will be leaving on Sunday afternoon for CYF Conference at Disciples Crossing, then flying to Iowa for Tiff Austin's ordination immediately after the camp. Anna, Nikolee, and Whitney will all be in the office while Carol and I are at CYF Conference, and I will be able to check e-mails and voicemail periodically at camp if you need to reach me. Grace and Peace, Russ |
Special guest in youth Sunday school this week
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 All of our youth Sunday school classes will meet together in Room 303 (the CYF room) this week, where we will welcome
Kristen
Walling, an intern from the Disciples Peace Fellowship (DPF). As a DPF intern, Kristen has gone through intensive training on peace and social justice issues and will spend the summer traveling to a different Disciple church camp each week to serve as a counselor and lead workshops and simulations for campers. Sarah and I will be picking Kristen up at the airport and hosting her on Saturday night, so I invited her to come lead a special session for our Sunday school classes before she travels to CYF Conference with me later in the day. DPF interns always do an amazing job of helping youth understand complex issues and empowering them to make a difference in the world. I hope that you'll plan to attend and give Kristen a warm welcome as she begins her week in Texas.
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14 youth depart for CYF Conference on Monday
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 14 of our youth who have completed grades 10-12 depart for CYF Conference at Disciples Crossing on Monday. Please keep the following youth in your prayers as they grow closer to God and others on holy ground: Jennifer and Patrick Alland, Sarah Becker, Ashley Ingram, Lance James, Levi Johnson, Ben Lobaugh, Heather McGinnis, Emma Moseley, Roy Parker, Katie Puckett, Stephanie Smith, Chris Twedell, and Ryan Wilkerson. Also, please keep our adults serving on staff in your prayers: Russ Boyd, Carol Elliott, and Alec Ylitalo. Pre-addressed postcards will be available on the table in the Gallery this Sunday morning if you would like to take one and write to any of these youth during the week.
Reminder to all campers: Meet in the front lot here at UCC at 8 a.m. on Monday morning to carpool to camp.
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A note about transportation to church camps
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 There seems to be a lot of confusion about transportation to church camps this summer, so I want to clear up several things so that no one is surprised or caught off guard by our travel arrangements.
The youth ministry staff will be working with parents of campers to arrange drivers to carpool to and from each camp. For CYF, Chi Rho, and Niner's camps, youth and drivers will meet in UCC's front lot at 8 a.m. on the Monday that camp begins. For Eighter's, the group will meet on the Sunday that camp begins at 1:00 p.m. Drivers who will be picking up youth from any camp will meet at UCC at 8 a.m. on the Saturday that camp ends to carpool to Disciples Crossing for the 10 a.m. pickup time. Maps and written directions are available at the front desk, and as often as possible we will have a staff member present to meet the drivers and campers when they prepare to depart.
We typically use a charter bus to transport youth to and from retreats during the school year, primarily because we can fill the bus with youth from other churches who pay for their seats and make it a very economical option for us. Unfortunately, the two churches who fill most of those seats for retreats are not interested in bus transportation for summer camps. If we chartered busses this summer, most seats would be empty and our budget would take a big hit. We appreciate your willingness to drive one leg of the journey if your child is attending a summer camp, and we hope you know that volunteer drivers make an important contribution to our camp and conference ministry.
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Summer youth event mailing
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We will have a variety of special youth events over the summer,
and an oversized postcard that lists dates and times will mail on
Monday (and can be downloaded here if you'd like to put things on your calendar now). Youth can look forward to opportunities to attend a Rangers
game, swim at Burger's Lake, play whirlyball in Dallas, spend a day
bowling and playing laser tag at Main Event, participate in a Harry
Potter midnight release party, and see a drive-in movie in Granbury.
Be sure to stick the postcard on your refrigerator, and keep checking
out the weekly e-news for details on events each week.
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Summer camp and mission trip registration continues
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 The deadline for "early bird" discounts has passed, but it's not too late to register for most summer camps at Disciples Crossing and UCC's CYF mission trip to Memphis and Nashville. Just drop off your forms in the Youth Office, mail them to the church, or leave them at the main reception desk with a note that says "Sharyn".
Visit our website where you'll find registration forms and tally sheets to help you total everything up and request scholarships to reduce the cost -- www.uccyouth.org
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Youth events on the horizon...
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ June 15-20 - CYF Conference for grades 10-12 - meet at 8 a.m.
June 22-27 - Chi Rho Camp for grades 6-7
June 23-26 - Vacation Bible School (youth volunteer with younger children)
June 29 - July 4 - Niner's Youth Conference for 9th graders
July 12-18 - Eighter's Camp for 8th graders
July 19-26 - CYF Mission Trip to Memphis and Nashville
August 15-16 (date may shift slightly) - UCC Back-to-School Retreat
December 29 - January 2 (tentative) - Youth Ski Retreat to Crested Butte, CO
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Staff Links
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Russ Boyd, Associate Minister - E-mail Russ
Carol Elliott, Assistant Youth Minister (grades 9-12) - E-mail Carol
Anna Ross, Youth Ministry Intern (grades 6-8) - E-mail Anna
Nikolee Byers, Summer Youth Ministry Intern - E-mail Nikolee
Whitney Peters, Summer Youth Ministry Intern - E-mail Whitney
Sharyn Peterson, Ministry Assistant for Congregation Life - E-mail Sharyn
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