First Congregational Church Youth Ministry

On Saturday, February 27, 2010, all youth including Jr. high and Senior High are invited to come with us to El Cajon to play Lazer Tag and to go Bowling. We’ll leave from the church at 4pm, get dinner on the way at the mall, and then go to Parkway. We’ll be back no later than 10:45pm. Students will need $15 per person plus money for dinner. If 10:45pm is too late for a pick-up and would hinder somone from being allowed to participate, please contact us ASAP and we’ll try to arrange a ride home. The schedule, which is subject to change, for the event is as follows:

4pm-leave from church
5pm- eat at the mall in El Cajon
6:30pm- play Lazer Tag
8:30pm- bowling
10pm- leave El Cajon
10:45pm- arrive home at the church.

$15 includes lazer tag and bowling but does not include food or arcade games.
This will be a great event of fellowship and fun and that makes it a great event to which to invite your friends. Please RSVP with Wes Ellis. Call 760-789-3348 to RSVP or to ask questions.

YES YES! Dodgeball has returned early this year. What was once only a summer-time occurrence is starting now, IN FEBRUARY!!! 

Each Tuesday afternoon, from 3pm-5:30pm at Grace Community Church in Ramona, we will have dodgeball for any and all who want to come. It’s a great weekly event with a plurality of church youth ministries from our community. It’s a good place to bring your friends and to have a good time. Bring $2 for pizza. We play from about 3-4:30, take a pizza break with a devotional, and then we keep on playing until it’s over.

Students are welcome to come late if necessary! We switch up the teams regularly and we try to keep ‘em even. It’ a blast for everyone, no matter how bad they may think they are at dodging or throwing.

Yup, it’s already time to start thinking about summer camp. Here are the trailers for this years Jr. High and Senior High Summer Camps at Forest Home:

Jr. Highers will be going to Forest Home from July 4-9 and High Schoolers will be going August 8-13.

Today, in all the hype of Superbowl XLIV, the Jr. High Youth remembered what’s really important in life (although there’s always room for football), even on Superbowl Sunday. The Jr. Highers participated in the national mission called the Souperbowl of Caring. The students met at 9:30am grabbed pots and bowls from the kitchen in which to collect cash donations and non-perishable food items, and headed out to the church patio. As people exited the First Service (worship service) the youth gladly accepted the generous donations of the congregation. Then, after attending Sunday School, students collected again from the congregation leaving Second Service. The students collected $522.17 as well as 59 items of non-perishable food which reflects, once again, the great generosity of First Congregational Church. The Students organized the donations and have given all of those donations to the Ramona Food and Clothes Closet for the benefit of those in need throughout our community.

This years’ Ski Trip was a blast and everyone came home safe and sound. We were  bit nervous, in the preceding weeks as the storms rolled in and roads to Big Bear were opening and closing, that we might have some weather trouble. But, nevertheless, we gathered our things with our tire chains ready and headed up to Big Bear on Thursday as scheduled. It turned out to be one of the best weekends of the year in terms of weather. On Friday the sun peeked out by the afternoon, on Saturday it was mostly sunny all day, and there was a ton of snow from the storms that came through the previous weekend. Naturally, the crowds rolled in on Saturday and made the mountain quite crowded but fun nonetheless.

We arrived in Big Bear on Thursday evening with enough time to check in to the rental Condos (located right near the slopes on Summit Blvd.), pick up ski and snowboard rentals from Leroy’s (who treated us VERY well!) at the corner of Big Bear Blvd. and Summit Blvd., eat dinner, and also go bowling. We bowled at the Bowling Barn until about 10pm and then went straight to bed (that’s an exaggeration) to rest up for a day filled with fun. Friday we started skiing at about 8:30am and finished at about 5pm.

Our devotional on Friday night was about the meaning of the resurrection. We talked and traded questions about 1 Corinthians chapter 15 where Paul refers to Jesus as the “first fruits” of the resurrection, implying that there is more to come and that we will somehow participate in this resurrection, which at least means that we don’t have to fear the power of sin and death and that sin and death don’t have to stop us from living the kind of lives God calls us to live. The resurrection is our empowerment toward responsibility, not an escape from it. The students engaged very well in the discussion, bringing up new topics and big questions. It is fun to watch how our students are growing and maturing in their faith.

Saturday was also filled with skiing until around 3:30 when we, all quite tired from all the fun, finally took off to return home from our amazing weekend. We stopped at Farmer Boys for dinner and ended up back at the church at around 8:45pm.

To sum up the weekend, everyone had a great and a safe time. It was a wonderful weekend of fun, fellowship and learning. We want to thank everyone who helped us raise funds for this event and everyone who helped or supported us in any way, especially those who prayed for us while we were gone. Thank You!

See pictures from our trip at http://youthfcc.com/pictures/