What’s New . . .

The Junior and Senior Highs, along with their Youth Advisor, led the worship program at the Lenten Lay Breakfast series on March 28 at the Strom Center, 6:30 a.m. – 7:45 a.m.

The youth are sponsoring the Eastertide Breakfast. They will prepare and serve breakfast casseroles and juice, milk, or coffee, and various members of the congregation will donate coffee cakes, donuts, and fruit to round out the meal. We are all looking forward to fellowship together on Easter morning at 9:30 a.m. in the Social Hall. Free will donations will be accepted and all proceeds will go towards Youth Missions.

The Jr and Sr Highs are meeting weekly on Sunday at 9:15 a.m. to plan their annual Youth Sunday worship service at Faith Church. This year Youth Sunday will be May 11, where they will conduct the entire service including music, prayers, sermon, and closing. Youth will serve as ushers and greeters as well.

On Sunday, May 11, Faith Church will recognize its graduating high school seniors. The women of the Faith Sewing Circle have been busy making quilts for the graduates, designing quilts with themes and colors representing the students’ choices of the individual colleges where they will continue their educations.

On June 7 – 14, the youth from our church, together with youth from other churches, will travel to New York City, where they will do mission work in Queens.

Youth are currently working with Pastor Cunningham in their Confirmation Class. Those who choose to be confirmed will be received into active membership on Sunday, June 22. Members of the confirmation class have been participating as worship leaders under Pastor Charles’ tutelage.

2013 Report

We have had another fabulous year and there are lots of great things happening with the Youth! The Jr and Sr Highs are meeting together twice a month for lunch, chit-chat, and devotions. This stayed pretty consistent September through the end of December.

Our activities this past year are as follows:

January – We started off the 2013 New Year with regular lunch meetings with both Jr. and Sr. High youth groups. We also had our annual Potato Bake, which was a gerat success as usual. We also had our kick-off for the 30 Hour Famine.

February – We planned our annual 30 Hour Famine. We went without food for 30 hours while raising money for World Vision. During the famine we participated in several service projects, including serving a free Valentine dinner for Mother to Mother Ministries.

March – We were back to meeting every week on Sunday mornings and we also hosted the Lenten Lay Breakfast at Strom Center and led the worship service from 7:15 – 7:45 a.m.

April – The Youth hosted the Eastertide Breakfast. They served breakfast to the congregation before the Easter service.

May – The youth put on a wonderful Youth Sunday Worship Service at our church.

June – This year we joined First Presbyterian Church in Macomb and went to Broadway Presbyterian Church in Davenport, IA for our mission trip. Heather Fisher, along with 7 youth and myself, served for an entire week in the Quad City area. We did most of our service project right at Broadway Presbyterian Church, cleaning and remodeling a kitchen and small room. We also spent several days planting a community garden. We had a really great experience.

September – The Jr. and Sr. Highs started their year off with lunch at the New China Buffet here in Monmouth.

October – This month brought the 3rd Annual Crockpot cook-off. This once again was a great fund-raiser and all who attended received the event very well. I encouraged all the youth to participate as well with a crockpot recipe of their own. The winner this year was Martha Whiteman with her fabulous Chicken and Noodles. In October the youth also participated in a Crop Walk with Monmouth College. We raised money for Church World Service. This was a great event.

December was a busy time for our youth to get together, so we ended the year by meeting once at the church for pizza.

The last year went by so fast, but I am very excited in anticipation of what 2014 has in store for our Youth!

Respectfully Submitted,

Stephanie Reading, Youth Director