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Dear youth and parents, 

Many of you are familiar with "Eighter's Camp," the summer camp for our youth following their 8th grade year that offers a comprehensive, week-long focus on sexuality and spirituality.  It's one of the best things that we offer, and youth and parents alike rave about the things that campers take away from the experience.  However, I often get the question, "What can our church do to teach our kids about human sexuality before Eighter's Camp?"  Great question!  The camp is designed to help kids think through and understand important issues right before they get to high school, but there's plenty they need to learn long before that point.  And, I believe the church has a responsibility to help educate kids (and parents) on human sexuality at all stages of life - so there should be several things related to sexuality included in our long-range curriculum plan.

Starting next year there will be.  Our church will host a workshop April 19-20 led by the creators of Eighter's Camp to train adults to teach congregation-based classes designed for different stages of life.  After the workshop, participants will be certified to teach a 4th-5th grade class, a 6th-8th grade class, a 9th-12th grade class, and even an adult class that helps individuals to better understand their own sexuality and related issues from a Christian perspective that is in line with our theology as Disciples of Christ.  Since not every church provides comprehensive education on human sexuality, these classes will also be an excellent opportunity to invite friends to participate in an important program offered by UCC.

We are starting the process of recruiting adults to attend the training, creating a pool of instructors who will be available to teach these classes when we start offering them next year.  If you are interested in attending the training and joining our group of certified teachers, please e-mail me and let me know.  An info flyer about the training event is available here.  (Note: The registration link is not yet live.)

Read on for details about Sunday's Bible Bowl competition, a meeting about the El Paso mission pilgrimage, a new high school Bible study, and more!

Grace and Peace,
Russ 

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