Youth Ministry report Feb 2010

The Kenya Trip:

The Kenya trip was a growing & inspiring time for all those who went. The diversity of the experience for each person was significant. World views have changed & with that brings ongoing challenges. Stories have started being shared at Services, Elders & we’re lined up to share at Youth group & the Adult group. I’ve asked some people to write for new view & the website. The on going relationship with MIA is still being explored, with the group starting to vocalise the ways in which they see this forming. A group is being booked in for the coming December, as for GWUC’s part in this group it has yet to be explored. Overall faith was challenged & grown with an ongoing question about faith & culture & poverty amidst our own affluence.

Youth Group planning:

Youth group has resumed with our first night back on Friday. The leadership team has been wonderful in committing for another year & the ongoing support of some of our newer leaders has continued to inject a fresh approach & ideas to the group. And Friday nights are a pleasure to plan with each leader taking on the leadership & planning of a Friday night, sharing the planning throughout the group. Small group leaders have again agreed to give of their time to build relationships & disciple the young people. The young people have missed youth group, by the number of texts, in person asking & face book messages I have received!

Uthies:

Has perhaps fallen under the radar & needs to be mentioned, started by the children’s & families group it’s leadership support needs to be encouraged & supported. This year Ame has taken on the role to plan & start term one, but is fairly over committed, so some discussion on ongoing support would be great.

Confirmation:

Again this year we will promote & encourage confirmation, we have one young person keen to be confirmed & one young person with a Mum who’s keen for them to be confirmed. We hope to have a confirmation group begin in term two.

Young Adult groups:

Young adult groups have started back, with 21+ studying acts & 18+ exploring the open table, & study about the invitation to know God. These groups continue to dismiss church statistics with a strong young adult ongoing commitment.

7pm Service:

Has resumed & planning has begun with lots of themes & guest speakers planned for 2010. We have invited a number of Synod workers to come & share their expertise with us. The synod run Sunday service is again on the fifth Sunday of the month & we look forward to the combined services & encouraging participation.

CAMP:

We again this year plan to go to State youth Games on the June long weekend & have a Youth & young Adults Teaching Camp in early August.

NCYC:

This time around NCYC is to be held on the 27th of Dec – 3rd of Jan at the Gold Coast. This has presented us with some problems & concerns. To travel up we will have to leave on boxing day, thus far no young person or young adult has shown interest in going ( We’re trying). The concerns are the duty of care issues in taking young people to the Gold coast at New Years Eve. We need to discuss this more with the youth & young adults, but as of now none of our leaders are thinking of going to NCYC.

Exploring a Leadership weekend:

We are exploring with our presbytery Youth & Young adult workers & with Synod running a leadership-training weekend. This would most likely be in term two & would be an interactive intensive training weekend, using all that technology has to offer, speakers by skype , tweeting as we learn etc. We would love to use GWUC as the venue if dates coincide.

Schools Ministry & Kombi Breakfast:

This year has brought us a lot of missional opportunities within Both Glen Waverley Secondary College & Brentwood Secondary College. We have already been asked if the breakfast could become weekly again as they valued that two hundred students partook & with our interns have been asked to run groups within the school. Nick will be starting a lunchtime dodgeball comp & Ame is exploring an arts council and vision group. Mark Philpot continues to be a great ally & has given us the opportunity for Josh, Ame & myself to work with some hard year nines. Nick is also running an after school dodgeball comp at Brentwood & Rod Dungan continues to provide us ways to serve within the school. (Nick & I presented at Careers day late last year)

Interns:

The Interns have chosen their main projects to be in the schools, after about a two month pause they have come back refresh & ready to serve. Ame Nick

Kombi Soup Kitchen:

Our soup kitchen with Southport Uniting hopes to be up & running in March, we look forward to providing food to the community there as well as helping Southport in building ongoing relationships with the people.

Communication:

We have been working on our ongoing communication with young people, with our weekly email, Enews, texts & facebook messaging. We are keen to explore better ways of communicating within the wider congregation, ENews was created to do that, but this year we'd like to improve our communication of what is happening amongst the youth young adults to the wider congregation. ( Thanks Church Council for sharing what you hear in reports etc) It continues to be a wonderful place to serve & do ministry together, I am prayerful in expectation of the things that are stirring in our hearts & the leading that we have from Christ,
Luv & prayers
Alanee

AlaneeReport201002 (last edited 2011-11-30 23:01:26 by JohnHurst)