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Are you in 7th – 12th grade?
Are you looking for a Christian Group to have a fun and meaningful time with?
Why not give the FPC Youth Group a try?
Youth Group News
Youth group has reorganized this year and is operating under a team system. Each member serves on a team that is responsible for one of the functions of Youth Group. The plan is to rotate membership of each team so that everyone gets experience on each team. The teams focus on mission, fund raising, fun activities and everyday business. We are meeting twice a month,
usually the first and third Sundays but please watch the Courier, this
website and the Church Life section of the bulletin for information on the meeting place
and time until the Youth Group room is finished.
March 15 was a busy day for our Youth Group. We hosted the annual Easter Egg Hunt for children at 11. We hid eggs around the Sunday School rooms and then set up games for the children to play. About 25 children came to partake in the fun. Pictures were taken with the Easter Bunny as well. It is hard to say who had more fun, the big kids or the little ones!
Later that evening, the Youth Group Relay for Life team, helped out the Delhi Masonic Relay for Life team put on a Spaghetti dinner. We made over $200 to put towards out team contributions. Look for our kids to be selling luminaries during coffee hour in the the up coming weeks.
We have sent out flip flops to Dennis and the Zimkids but we have not heard yet that he has received them. We are stilling waiting with
baited breath.
The Youth Group is planning a fun event for April 4. A return trip to AIR in Albany is on the
agenda. We will leave in the morning and spend the day rock wall climbing and indoor caving and then go out to lunch.
We are in the process of planning our next fund raiser which will be a Rock-a-thon. Look for more information next month.
Once again, we thank you for all your support.
Leader: Susie Little
DON’T FORGET!!
Bottle Collection –
Please drop bottles off in the new Narthex --- THANKS!
Summer Mission Trip 2007
MISSION TRIP REPORT
By Bethany Althaus
This summer the youth group traveled north to Mission at the Eastward in New Portland, Maine. We left at about 7:30 on Saturday morning (August 4) and drove all day through the beautiful Northeast. When we got to New Portland we met Pastor Scott and then drove a few more miles to Seven Falls Cabins where we stayed for the week. The cabins were wonderful and some of us even got to sleep in beds, while others slept in sleeping bags on the floor. The owners, Tim and Lisa, were very nice and made us feel welcome. We had access to the Carrabassat River, shower houses, an ice cream shop, and a common meeting cabin where there were games, books, and movies for everyone to use. The common cabin was a great place to have for the week. We used it for devotions every night as well as a place to just hang out after a hard day of work.
On Sunday morning we worshipped with a small congregation in New Portland. Pastor Scott led the church service and the sermon had a special message for us, as he talked about mission trips. We had a little trouble finding the church that morning : ) but, the congregation was very understanding and waited for us to begin. After church we had a picnic back at the cabins with Pastor Scott. The rest of the day we were free to explore around the cabins and the river until Lisa decided to show us a place the locals call “the ledges”. It took a little courage to get there as the road to it was steep and worse than even our Delaware County roads. Some of us are still wondering how Pastor Allen made it up with his little car. The ledges were incredible. There were waterfalls on one side and a ledge with a rope swing very high up on the other. It was a once in a lifetime experience to swing out over the waterfalls and drop into the cold river water below. We went to sleep that night very late after playing a highly competitive game of monopoly that lasted well into the night.
The next morning we were assigned teams and learned about our worksites from Tory (who works at MATE). My group included Ben Sandman, Katie Anderson, Angel Lockerbie, and Joan Pawlikowski. Every group was paired up with a person from MATE for the week. Our leader for the week was Matt Dunlap. We got to know him throughout the week as he worked with us every day. He was getting ready to begin his senior year at Bates College in the fall. Matt was a lot of fun to work with and we were having a great time with him within the first hour that we were at the site. I don’t think that we could have asked for anyone better suited to our group.
The homeowner’s name was Lisa and she had two children and a dog named Ivory. The kids were Tiffany, age 14, and Garrett who was 13. Our job was to finish an addition that was being put onto their house. All week we spackled, sanded, and painted. It was tiring work but hearing all of the family’s different problems made us realize how important what we were doing really was. Maybe we couldn’t fix all their problems just by adding a little spackle and paint to their walls but, we could let Tiffany and Garrett see us reaching out to them and trying to help and try to be an example to them. At the beginning of the week all the kids wanted to do was stay in their comfort zone but towards the middle of the week we convinced them to come out and help us with the work we were doing. One day I painted the trim outside with Tiffany and Angel and we had a chance to talk to her and her mom for awhile. Lisa thought that buying a house would be much better than renting from a landlord. When they bought this house however they encountered many problems. There was a major problem with the septic tank that forced them to get a whole new system. MATE helped them with this. When we finished on Thursday the room looked beautiful and the family thanked us for our time. We gave Tiffany a Bible right before we left. On Friday our group joined the vinyl siding group and helped out there for the day. I learned a lot that day about hammers, nails, and cutting/putting up vinyl siding. Be one with the angle was the number one lesson.
Wednesday we worked a half day and then went down to Bailey Island for awhile. The seafood was great at the restaurant. After we left Bailey Island we drove to Freeport and walked around the outlets and the L.L Bean factory store. Late that night we arrived back at Seven Falls Cabins.
Another activity that some of us did nightly was moose hunting. Now, this might seem a little boring to some of you but, in reality it was one of my favorite memories from the trip. It was always a lot of fun just to talk and hang out in the car with each other. I think Jackie enjoyed the frequent screams of “stop the car! “ and moose calls out the window. I’m still wondering why she agreed to drive us every day. : ) Every night we went out looking for moose and every night we would come back for devotions without seeing any. One morning a bunch of us got up and went out at 5:00 am. to try and see them but failed yet again. On our last night in Maine we piled into the cars one last time in a desperate attempt to see a moose. We ended up seeing three that night on our drive and it was incredible. I believe a small town in the middle of Maine was glad to see us go home though. They had heard enough moose calls I think.
Saturday morning a couple of us got in one last early morning run before we packed up and stuffed our bags back into the vehicles. We said our goodbyes to Lisa, Tim, and Pastor Scott and headed back towards New York. Our last stop before leaving was a stop at the wire bridge which is a must see if your ever find yourself in that part of Maine. We made one stop in New Hampshire to have lunch with John and Judy Bauer at their campsite in Vermont. They had lunch ready for us when we got there and it was so good to see them again. We arrived back in Delhi that night at about 6:00 after a great ride home.
I learned a lot on this trip and will never forget the experience…Moose Tracks Ice cream, early morning runs, my second mother, and learning the true meaning of a mission trip. This was one of the best mission trips that I’ve ever been on and on behalf of the whole youth group I’d like to thank our chaperones without who the trip just wouldn’t have been the same, Jackie Howard, Joan Pawlikowski, and Pastor Allen. Also a big thank you to Susie Little for driving up to get us at the end of the week. And finally a huge thank you to all of you who are reading this. We couldn’t have gone on this trip if it weren’t for all of your generous support.
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