Youth Fall Calendar:

We will be having Youth Club for grades 5-8 on Sunday mornings during the message, with the exception of Communion Sundays (normally the first Sunday of each month).

Wyldlife events are for grades 5-8

Young Life events are for grades 9-12

· September 7 - Kick off of Sunday Youth Event

· September  14 - No Youth Club (Communion Sunday)

·September 27 - Wyldlife Extreme Olympics (6:30-8pm)

· October 7 - First highschool Young Life Club 7:37-9pm

 · October 12 - Faith In Action (No Youth Club)

 · October 18 - Wyldlife Fall Bash (pumkins & capture the Flag) 5:30p

 · November 8 - Wyldlife Club - 6:30pm - 8pm

 · November 22 - Wyldlife Event - TBA

 · December 6 - Wyldlife Mystery Christmas Event - TBA 

· December 12-14 - Young Life winter weekend

 · January 3 - Wyldlife Ice Skating  - TBA

Plan Ahead:

- February 6-8 Young Life Campaigners weekend

- March 13-15 Wyldlife Weekend at Lake Champion

As I look back at the last six months it seems as though July was just yesterday, and yet so much has happened since then.  Reflecting on all that has happened, my heart is filled with gratefulness at the Lord’s grace and protection during this time of transition.  I know that when I came on board this past July, we prayed that the Lord would be in the center of this change and I can attest that He truly has!  I want to thank Jenny Whitlatch and Pastors Allen and Debbie for the support and encouragement they have been for me and the youth during this time.  Ultimately, I would like to praise God for the foundation that has been laid and for the work that He has done here!

It has been quite a busy six months!  We have been everywhere from Rockbridge, VA to the Bronx.  This past summer, my focus was to build relationships with the teens.  We spent a few Wednesday nights in July and August getting to know each other and digging into God’s word at our Swim & Study meetings.  I think all the youth would agree that the summer's highlight was our summer camp trip.  In August, Pastor Allen and I led twelve middle school students to Young Life’s camp in Rockbridge, Virginia.  It was an action-packed five days with plenty of outdoor sports and water activities and high energy fun each night at club.  All of the kids had a great time and left with a full understanding of who Jesus Christ is and how to start a relationship with Him. 

As the school year approached, the youth did a fantastic job helping out with Rally Sunday.  They all showed great leadership and service.  Many of the girls also added a nice touch to that outdoor service with an upbeat worship dance to a song called Shackles by Mary Mary.  In October, the youth and some of their families enjoyed a night out at Stony Hill Garden’s gigantic outdoor corn maze.  It was a crazy adventure getting there and wandering around in the dark trying to make sense of the maze, but it made for quite a memorable evening.  In November, a few of the youth attended a worship concert at Nyack College and were able to experience different forms of worship.  Putting our October Bill Hybels evangelism study into action, we also hosted our first youth group “Bring-a-Friend Game Night”.  Most recently, SPC youth joined about 400 other youth from Rockland County at an All-Night Youth Event hosted by New City Gospel Fellowship.  It was a fun-filled night of indoor sports, a concert and Gospel message, all-you-can-eat pizza and unlimited arcade games!  All in all, throughout these past several months, we have grown together as a group and in our understanding of who Christ is.

This past fall we focused our time on developing a closer walk with our Savior.  We got started by learning how to share our faith and the importance of Christian fellowship and friends.  Some of our Sunday School meetings focused on learning how to use our talents for God's glory.  With the start of the New Year, we have begun a new devotional-based curriculum from YouthWalk.org (part of Walk Thru the Bible Ministries).  This curriculum provides daily devotions in monthly magazines with follow-up lessons for the leaders to use for Sunday School and/or a midweek meeting.  Each month has a different theme … January’s theme is Worship.  It is my hope that throughout this year the teens will develop a closer relationship with Christ through developing a habit of doing personal devotions on their own every day.  Having daily personal quiet time is so important.  A youth ministry won’t always be there for them, but a good habit of spending time with Jesus Christ each day will!

With 2007 now upon us, we step forward into this new year with great excitement and anticipation of what the Lord is going to do!  We have a Middle School WinterCamp Weekend coming up March 2-4 at Lake Champion.  (I would encourage all middle school students who are able, to attend.  It is sure to be a great weekend of faith and relationship-building.)  We will begin fund raising and preparations for this summer's mission trip to Africa.  The youth have adopted a project to send backpacks filled with school supplies to at least one school in Uganda.  We have called this project, “Backpacks for Africa”.  Thanks to the generosity of the congregation in the Sunday pocket change offering, we have nearly met our goal.  In the coming weeks and months, we’re looking forward to a fun night with another local youth group, the Rockland All-Night Youth Party, Christian concerts, and game nights at my apartment!

Finally, I would like to say a special thanks to all of you for the overwhelming support and encouragement you have been to me personally and to the youth ministry during this transition period.  Thank you for your dedication and excitement in seeing God's work in the hearts of our young people.  I would like to extend a special thank you to Tracy Heller and everyone else who has been so generous with their time and has worked so hard getting the manse basement ready so that I could feel a little more at home here!  Even though I feel like I have only been here a short time, I truly feel welcomed into a new family here at SPC.  Please continue to keep SPC's youth in your prayers! 

In His name,

Bekah Siau, Youth Minister

As I look to the fall I am realizing, as many of you are as well, that a good number of our kids are taking that big step into high school this year! This creates a different face for the youth group, as the majority will no longer be in middle school. To accommodate this need we will be trying different program options to concentrate on both the middle school students, as well as our growing group of high school students. For now we will keep Wednesday night youth group for everyone together at 7:30pm. We are also looking into partnering with Young Life, as many of the youth group kids have also had some involvement with Young Life. As we continue to work on reconstructing some of the youth group programming, I would like to continue to concentrate on three basic principles.

1.        Fellowship:

Acts 2:42-47

We will be planning activities to encourage the kids in their faith by interacting with Christians their age, such as Autumn Blaze, a Christian youth conference and concert (September 30th) and other low-key events such as game and movie nights and the Corn Maze.

2. Discipleship:

Philippians 3:12-17

My prayer is to continue to dig deeper into what it means to be conformed to the image of Christ and how this changes the way we live our life. I also have been looking into teen devotionals to help them develop their own personal quiet times. We will also be doing a study on Bill Hybels curriculum entitled “Just Walk Across the Room” and look into having the attitude of Christ in reaching out to those around us and sharing our faith with them.

3. Outreach and Service:

Philippians 2:5-11

This year the youth will be heading up a project to raise money to supply a school in Africa with basic school supplies. In addition I’m very excited to announce that we will be beginning to prepare to take a group of teens on a mission trip to Africa next summer! Also, we will be working on involving teens in the Sunday morning services in worship and in drama ministry.

  Bekah Siau

Looking Ahead….. In Sept.

10th Child Protection Course 9:15am at SPC

13th Parents Meeting 8-9pm at SPC

17th Rally Sunday  10:30am at SPC

20th Wednesday Night Youth Club Kick-off

24th Breakfast Club begins 9:15am

30th Autumn Blaze, East Rutherford, NJ

October  TBA, Corn Maze/apple picking