First Congregational Church Youth Ministry

For all those selling See’s Candy for the Winter Retreat (Ski Trip or Jr. High Winter Camp), the order forms and all the funds are due this Sunday Night on December 4th. Come to The Advent Workshop at 4pm and then stick around for Youth Group where you can turn in your order form. The winter retreats are going to be awesome this year! If you’ve gotten a late start on selling See’s, get on it!

There is good news and bad news. The good news is, we have successfully filled all of our spots for the Operaton Christmas Child Sorting Trip on Wednesday, November 23. The bad news is, some students are probably going to miss out due to lack of space. If you have not yet RSVPed, it’s safe to stay that it’s too late now. We took RSVPs on a first-come-first-served basis, without any special accommodation. We have been announcing the necessity of RSVPs since October and it has also been posted on the monthly calendar for just as long.

For future events, please take advantage of the option to RSVP via the Monthly Calendar page. Even if an event is not space limited, this will help us to better plan for events.

We are sorry to those of you who may have to sit this event out. Thanks for understanding the difficulty of anticipating the popularity of a given outing or event.

On November 11, 2011 we’re going down to Presidio Park in San Diego to play an epic game of Capture the Flag. We’ll be joining a couple other churches because bigger is always better with CTF. Jr. High, High School, and Young Adults are invited. Meet at Calvary Chapel Ramona at 10am. Bring a signed permission slip, $5 for transportation, some money for frozen yogurt, a sack-lunch, grubby clothes, a friend, and a good attitude. We’ll return to Calvary Chapel at 4pm. This is an awesome event for connecting and having fun. Great event to invite people! Please let us know you’re coming by RSVPing on the Monthly Calendar page.

The 2012 Senior High Ski Trip will be an amazing weekend of skiing, snowboarding and building relationships! RSVP or Request More Information for the event here:

On Saturday, the 15th, we held our annual car wash fund-raiser to raise funds for our winter programming. We arrived at 7:30am, set up for the car wash, and started washing at 8:30am. Breaks? We had very few. Lulls? We had none. We were busy washing cars the entirety of the day. We received tons of compliments for our work and raised approximately $600!

Good job everyone! We’re gonna have an awesome winter!

This Saturday, October 15th is the annual Car Wash. This Fund-raiser is mandatory for anyone who wants to go on the Senior High Ski Retreat and recommended for any Middle Schoolers who are planning on going to.Winter Camp at Forest Home. We’ll gather at 7:30am at the FCC parking lot and wash cars until 1pm. Please be there on time and please stay there the whole time.

Breakfast and lunch will be provided. Please wear appropriate attire… something in which you can get wet. See you there!

Hey High Schoolers (Ignore this if you’re in Junior High), This Sunday night, October 2, we won’t be having High School Youth Group.
Unfortunately, I have to be somewhere else.
Take advantage of this week to rest a little… don’t just do homework through the night. Instead, take some time to pray and read and listen to what God might have to say to you. Please help spread the word. Perhaps that’s a night that you guys might want to get together on your own and pray together… just an idea

If you’re in Junior High, Youth Group is scheduled as normal (Thursday Nights at 6:30pm).

See You At The Pole was a success. This morning more than 50 students from OPMS, RHS, and MVA gathered at their school flag pole for worship, prayer, and devotion. They prayed for their families, their schools, their churches, their country, and their world! It was pretty cool at OPMS and I heard things went well at the other schools too. It was completely and utterly student led. Thanks to all who went and all who woke early to get their kids to school for the event. For those who didn’t make it, there’s always next year.

Some of our students had a hand in leading the event at their school. Some prayed, some read scripture, some helped set up. Way to go FCC Youth! Don’t let prayer stay at the pole. Take it with you, pray without ceasing! Pray for those around you and those around the world.

See You At The Pole is an annual national event where students all over the country will gather around their school’s flagpole to pray for their families, their school year, their teachers, their churches, their communities, their government, and even their world. It’s an incredible symbol of unity, placing commitment to Christ as the highest priority and offering the school year to Christ in a real way. The event always has an impact on those involved (and sometimes on those who simply pass by). This year’s event will take place on September 28th.

See You At The Pole had a huge impact on my life when I was in Jr High. It was the first time I’d ever taken on any kind of responsibility to share my faith with anyone. My Youth Pastor loved me just enough to challenge me to read a passage from Scripture at the event. About a week prior to the event he told me to pick something that had meaning to me… the problem was that I’d never really read the Bible. Well, in the process of choosing a passage, I ended up reading just about every chapter in the four gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John). As I began reading, I just wanted more! I wanted to know more about this Jesus who loves us and saves us. I eventually chose Matthew 11:28-30 (pull out your Bible and read it, underline it, memorize it). If it weren’t for See You At The Pole, I may not have received that challenge and thus I may not have fallen so in love with Scripture and with Christ as I did that day. God used See You At The Pole to change my life.

We’re encouraging and challenging students to step up and to get involved–to be a part of this symbolic event and to have the courage to gather with other Christians from all different churches. On September 21st, we’re hosting a See You At The Pole Pre-rally at the FCC Youth Building at 6:00pm. This is a chance for students to gather before the actual event in order to pray and plan. We’ll take some time to worship together and then we’ll plan out what will actually happen on September 28th for See You At The Pole. This is an awesome opportunity for students to step out as leaders on their campus. Don’t miss it!

So the Summer is officially over and the school year has begun. After taking the summer to reflect on some other topics, we’re going to get back to our study of the book of Revelation. It’s such a mysterious and difficult book to read and understand but together we’ll explore this amazing story about God’s reign and Christ’s work of healing the world. Join us at Jr. High (Thursday nights at 6:30pm) or High School (Sunday nights at 7pm) for fun, fellowship, worship, and exploration. God’s going to do amazing things!