Hello beautiful blog readers!
There is so much to share from the past few weeks I almost don’t know where to start! Well I guess I will start at the beginning (or at least where Phylicia left off last time).
LifeLine, our high school youth group, had its first sports night entitled “Go My Favourite Sports Team! Go!” The night started out with a warm-up from Hans and Helmitz Skitz-Velvitz (one of our volunteers and Amanda), and then continued with game after game. The teens were really having fun and getting into every game we threw at them. And I have to say that we played the most intense game of freeze tag ever!!! People were strategizing and everything! Super cool! 
The next weekend we put on a retreat for our leadership team. Being able to see our leaders form relationships with each other, and sharing their relationships with Christ with each other was so beautiful. Plus we had so much fun playing games, doing skits and sharing in a night snack of tea and crackers. We were also able to plan our next LifeLine with them. Actually we didn’t do too much as most of the ideas came from them. More on how the night turned out later. I am truly confident in our leaders and how they will work together in the future. We are still looking for a youth minister though, so please keep that in your prayers.
Following the leader retreat, we had our REACT night entitled “Man Your Stations”. The night 
was on the Stations of the Cross, what they are, why we pray them, and what we can get out of them. We had the teens break off into four groups (with three or four stations each) and come up with freeze frames and a meditation for each of the stations. Then we all went up into the church and prayed the Stations together with the groups presenting their freeze frames and meditations. I was so amazed with my group and the lessons they got from each of the stations. One parent told us afterwards that her son had come home told them that not only had he enjoyed the night, but that they too could learn a lot from REACT. How awesome is that!?!? And it doesn't stop there!
was on the Stations of the Cross, what they are, why we pray them, and what we can get out of them. We had the teens break off into four groups (with three or four stations each) and come up with freeze frames and a meditation for each of the stations. Then we all went up into the church and prayed the Stations together with the groups presenting their freeze frames and meditations. I was so amazed with my group and the lessons they got from each of the stations. One parent told us afterwards that her son had come home told them that not only had he enjoyed the night, but that they too could learn a lot from REACT. How awesome is that!?!? And it doesn't stop there! The next weekend was our monthly family fun day. We decided that since spring is in th
e air, it would be appropriate to make some paper spring flowers and take them to one of the local nursing homes and spend some time with the residents. The youth and families who came out to this event were so great with the residents and had a lot of fun making flowers together. Seeing them affirming each other in their flower-making abilities was wonderful! I probably could have spent another hour with them just making flowers! But the best part of the day was seeing the smiles of the residents as we gave flowers to them and played board games with them.
e air, it would be appropriate to make some paper spring flowers and take them to one of the local nursing homes and spend some time with the residents. The youth and families who came out to this event were so great with the residents and had a lot of fun making flowers together. Seeing them affirming each other in their flower-making abilities was wonderful! I probably could have spent another hour with them just making flowers! But the best part of the day was seeing the smiles of the residents as we gave flowers to them and played board games with them. And now for the LifeLine that our wonderful leaders planned together at the leader’s retreat. We had wanted to do a night on the saints and in talking with our leaders we realized that want we really wanted was a night on sainthood and how we are all called to live our lives under the example of the saints. The night was entitled “Called to it. Can do it.” We started the night off with some Mariokart. Each teen was given three balloons (just like in the Mario game), and the aim of the game is to pop other people’s balloons while at the same time trying to protect your own. You want to be the last person with balloons. The game was a riot!!! I have to give 
a shout out to Phylicia who spent over an hour blowing up balloons! After this we presented a skit (co-written by Andrew and Amanda) that highlighted some well-known patron saints and how they can help us in our daily lives. Next we took a journey to meet a few saints face-to-face. The teens got a chance to hear the stories of St. Peter, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Gianna Molla, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and one saint-in-the-making (one of our leaders). Each saint had their own room in our parish basement that they got to decorate to fit their stories. We ended the night off with some Saint Bingo, in which each teen was given the name and bio of a saint and a bingo sheet with clues. They then had to find the saints that matched their clues. It was a great night and the night with our biggest turn out! I keep hearing our teens comment on how much they got out of that night and how they had not thought of sainthood as something attainable.
a shout out to Phylicia who spent over an hour blowing up balloons! After this we presented a skit (co-written by Andrew and Amanda) that highlighted some well-known patron saints and how they can help us in our daily lives. Next we took a journey to meet a few saints face-to-face. The teens got a chance to hear the stories of St. Peter, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Gianna Molla, Blessed Pier Giorgio Frassati, and one saint-in-the-making (one of our leaders). Each saint had their own room in our parish basement that they got to decorate to fit their stories. We ended the night off with some Saint Bingo, in which each teen was given the name and bio of a saint and a bingo sheet with clues. They then had to find the saints that matched their clues. It was a great night and the night with our biggest turn out! I keep hearing our teens comment on how much they got out of that night and how they had not thought of sainthood as something attainable. Thank you for the prayers and continued support! Please keep them coming! As I mentioned before, Christ Our Saviour has decided to hire a youth minister for next year. We are still looking, so please keep that in your prayers.
God bless!
Elizabeth Fitzmaurice
“When we cry ‘Abba! Father!’ it is the Spirit himself bearing witness with our spirit that we are children of God.” – Romans 8:15-16
No comments:
Post a Comment