The Youth Team This Year!

Introducing our terrific team for 2014:

Katie Peken continues to head up the team... that would be me!  I am full-time in ministry at Warragul Anglican Church, and oversee our kids, youth, and young adult ministry.

Alison Buttle is back for more punishment, she's fantastic at coming up with great games, and gets us digging deep into the Bible!  Alison teaches at Chairo Christian School.

Tristan Wallace is back as fabulous acquirer of food and creator of games - he's also been practising for our next trip to Moe for roller-blading, he's going to leave us all standing in his dust!  Tristan  hopes to get into Christian youth camping in the near future.

Michael Gaylard joined us for a couple of sessions at the end of 2013, and (unsurprisingly - we're that terrific!) he's caved in to our pleading, and joined the team for 2014 - yay!  Michael teaches at Chairo Christian School.

Paul Peterson loves spending time investing in teens, he teamed up with us last year as driver/photographer/chip-in-wherever-help-is-needed-guy, and we're delighted that he's able to do the same this year - thanks Paul!  Paul volunteers at Warragul North Primary School helping kids one-on-one with their reading skills.

All our leaders have Department of Justice clearance to work with kids and youth, and buckets of experience too - which makes us greatly blessed to have them!

(Guys, we need some pictures here...!)

Jonah: Mr. Gonna-Be-A-Missionary-Whether-He-Wants-To-Or-Not!

Poor Jonah!  He'd rather be thrown into the sea in a raging storm than go tell the Ninevites about God!  Probably, most of us can relate!  Though we usually have less radical options for getting out of talking about what we believe...

God had other plans for Jonah, both kind, and also quite unyielding.  He's God, after all.

This week we find out when Jonah gets the call to the mission field, Take #2!

We meet at church, 5pm, pick up at 6.30pm, as usual.  See you on Sunday!

Opportunity Knocks!

Image from Dreamstime.com

Hi everyone!

THIS SUNDAY: Meet as usual 5pm @ WAC. We're on the home straight, finishing our gallop through an overview of the Bible - this week we look at Jesus' Resurrection - so what?  And Jesus' Gift to us - The Holy Spirit. And just because, we're going on a 'Treasure Hunt' - bring a camera or iPhone, we're 'collecting' treasure around Warragul town.  Permission slips are needed cos we're (walking) off-site: on the blog go to the right column and click on 'Treasure Hunt Permission' for a printable form.

NEXT WEEK:  We meet @ WAC for the grand finale!  The Return of Jesus, and the New Creation! New Creation... that's what we are when we're baptised into Jesus.   Hot summer evening... makes you think about water, doesn't it?!  Come in clothes you don't mind getting wet, bring a towel, and we'll have some watery outdoor fun (weather permitting)!

OPPORTUNITY:  Youth Bible Group has been invited to lead prayers for the Combined Carols, 8th December at 7pm!  We'll meet at the usual time, and plan our prayers over a bite to eat.  If you can't stay for the service, that's OK, we'd still love your input for the prayers. But we hope you can stay!

Term 4 Program is Finally Available!

Hi everyone, the Term 4 Youth Bible Group program is now available in hard copy (fluoro green) from Katie, and you can also look at it on the blog - go to the top menu and select 'Youth Bible Group Current Programme'.

I'm sorry it's taken so long to get this to you - thank you for your patience. Hopefully I'm nearly over this wretched bug and back to full speed!

There will be more information soon about the outing later this term (17th Nov), a movie and pizza night, we'll need permission if the movie is PG;  also we plan to go offsite for the Treasure Hunt the following week (24th Nov), just on foot, but will need permission for that.  Finally, I'm hoping we may be able to participate in the Combined Carols service on 8th Dec, but I'm waiting to have a meeting with Daniel about that.

Thank you all for your support over the past months - you've all been hugely helpful, in a whole lot of different ways! Cheers -
Katie.

'Bounce' Tomorrow! Consent forms available

Screen capture from Bounce Inc. website - looks pretty fun, eh?!

Only one more sleep till 'Bounce'!  Our itinerary, contact info., and consent forms are available NOW on our blog  http://wacyouthnews.blogspot.com.au/  - go to the right of the screen, find 'For Parents:  Printable Consent Forms' and click on 'Consent for trip to Bounce Inc. 20th Oct 2013.'

If you haven't filled out a form giving us your emergency contact details and medical consent, or if your details have changed since you last filled one out, please click on 'Parent Contact & Medical Consent Form'.  Katie needs these before we head off for Bounce.

If you want to get in the mood, they've got some great (short) video clips on their website!

Have You Seen This One?

© Pavel Siamionau Dreamstime.com

I was browsing a great youth ministry website today, and I found this:  http://fervr.net/bible/8-ways-to-stop-going-to-church-without-anyone-noticing

It's well written, and I can tell you, they aren't making it up!

S0me of the comments after is are pretty funny too - some people didn't realise that the article is tongue-in-cheek - they aren't telling us what they think we SHOULD do, they're telling us what, very sadly, lots of people DO do. 

Question for you:  what do YOU reckon are the main reasons people don't come to church?  I don't mean people who don't believe in Jesus, and don't already belong to a church;  I mean people who do believe in Jesus, and want to follow him, and belong to a church.  What do you reckon are the main reasons that people just don't show up?

Post your answers here - the first TWO people who post a comment on this blog will get a movie ticket!!  (for Warragul cinema, of course!)

Download and Print Consent forms for Youth Outings!

This one is for parents and other responsible adults!

We're all snowed under by paperwork, so I'm trying to streamline things a bit:

You can now download the Contact Info & Medical Advice Form by clicking the link at the right of this post.  I only need you to fill that out once per youth per year, unless details change during the year; I'll keep it in a file so that I know if there are any allergy issues etc for your youth/s, and have your contact info available in case of emergency during any outing.

Then there's a separate Consent form for each outing, in two parts:

The top half is for you to tear off and keep, it tells you what the outing is, and provides times, addresses, RSVP info, and how you can get in touch with the leaders during the event.

The bottom half is for me, it's where you consent to your youth/s attending the specific outing.  I need that back from you, signed, for each youth, before we head off for the outing. It will be filed for posterity at WAC - in case there should be an audit or question in the future.

The forms for our next outing are ready for you to download, print off, and fill in - all ready for 15th September!