Welcome to St. Michael’s Youth Group 2010-2011!

We are excited about this year and are so glad to have you as a part of our group. We are looking forward to growing in faith and friendship this year in order to form a supportive and caring community for our youth. The youth leaders for this year will be Ali Schaefer and Amy Cowell for the Rite 13 program; Sharon and Craig Meyer will be the youth leaders for the J2A program. Please feel free to contact your youth leaders, or the church office at 317-773-6157, if you have any questions or suggestions for/about youth group at St. Michael’s.

The Rite 13 group will meet in the old library—now known as the Rite 13 room. This program is designed for youth in sixth through eighth grades. Throughout the year we will work on lessons that help prepare the youth for adulthood and for confirmation if they desire. The J2a group will meet in the youth room. This group is for youth in ninth through twelfth grades, and the focus is on gracefully becoming a spiritual adult. We will begin our meetings at 10:15 AM each Sunday and will conclude at 11:10 AM. We will let you know if we do not plan to meet on specific Sundays—usually due to holidays. This information will always be posted in the parish newsletter and on the website. Our schedule allows us to participate in the 9:30 service, grab a quick breakfast, go to youth group and then, if desired, participate in communion with the 10:30 service. We will meet at other times and days for service projects and activities—you will be notified via telephone/e-mail/postcards. In addition, you can always reference the youth page on our website at: www.stmichaelsepiscopalchurch.org

The youth will be participating in selecting service projects for the year. We will do this at our first formal meeting on September 19^th. Youth and parents should feel free to make suggestions to the youth leaders.

We need parent’s/guardian’s help to make our year a great one for all. Please encourage the youth to attend youth group on a regular basis---the more they attend, the more they will get out of our program and the better prepared they will be for confirmation should that be their desire. We ask that parents are supportive of youth group by volunteer to assist with transportation from time to time. We ask that all youth be fully present for our time together, this means that we ask the youth to turn off and ignore their cell phones during our meetings. We know that this can be difficult for some, but we find that the use of cell phones detract from our discussions. All youth are expected to be supportive and respective of all other members in the group at all times. Friends are always welcome at any of our activities provided they follow our youth guidelines.

This year we anticipate attending both the fall and spring diocesan youth retreats. These retreats are wonderful opportunities for our youth to meet new friends from throughout our diocese while enriching their personal spirituality. We have found that attending these retreats is very meaningful for our youth. In order to assure that all youth can attend, we will have fundraisers throughout the year to raise scholarship money for these and other activities. If at any time we are participating in an event costing more than a family can afford, the parents may request scholarship aid from Craig Meyer—please note that this information will be kept confidential.

Upcoming Activities

• WE NEED ALL YOUTH AND THEIR ADULT FAMILY MEMBERS!!! On Saturday, September 11^th we will be canvassing the South Harbour neighborhood delivering flyers inviting people in the neighborhood to St. Michael’s. We need as many youth and adult family members as possible. We plan to meet at St. Michael’s at 11:00 AM and will deliver flyers until 1:00 pm when we will return to church for pizza.
• We will begin our official youth group program year with a super kick-off on September 12^th. We will join the Sunday school children immediately following the conclusion of the 9:30 AM service/breakfast for crafts and games in the front of the church. Each youth participating will receive a special youth ministries tee-shirt. We will meet until 11:00 when we will have a super cookout thanks to Al Geisler and Bill Linden. Adults are asked to bring sides/dessert to share with others. St. Michael’s will provide hamburgers, brats, buns, ketchup. Mayonnaise, mustard, lettuce, onions, tomatoes and pickles. All youth and Sunday school families are invited to join the cookout.
• On Saturday, September 18^th we will be having a car wash. The funds raised from the car wash will be used to defray the costs of some of the activities we plan for the youth this year. The car wash will take place at St. Michael’s from 11 am to 3 pm…all youth are asked to be at church by 10:50.
•     On Sunday, October 3^rd, the youth will join our St. Michael’s Crop Walk team.  All youth are asked to plan to attend. More details to follow.

Friends are ALWAYS welcome at Youth Group!

We are working together to bring the light of Christ into the world.