January offered some exciting opportunities for the youth at Christ Lutheran. 

First, the move into the new building allowed room for some recreational equipment that has been lacking in the past, and then the Martin Luther King, Jr. weekend gave the youth extra time away from school to take part in our annual Discipleship Camp.

The Youth Committee decided to make use of some of the money in the Youth Fund, saved from past fundraisers, to buy the equipment.  The first weekend in January, Youth and Family Minister Scot Redman, along with youth member Ben Haschke, bought most of the items, including pool and air hockey tables, a stereo, and video game equipment.  A big thank you to Scot, who also contributed a foosball table.  The tables were a challenge to move in, but Scot and Ben had the help of Scot’s father Sam and brother Bret.  After Scot and Ben did much of the installation, the rest of the youth helped finish it on Sunday.  The new youth room is really “state-of-the-art” – if you haven’t seen it already, come soon!

A lock-in for youth from grades 6 through 12 is being planned for sometime in February, to celebrate the new facilities, so watch for details.  Other purchases with Youth Fund money included a digital projector and surround sound for the room to be used for high school Sunday School and Bible study.  This room is also available for meetings of other church groups, so if you have a video or Power Point presentation, keep it in mind.

Sixteen of our youth, from grades 6 through 12, planned on attending the Discipleship Camp at Camp Lone Star in LaGrange, leaving the evening of Friday, January 18, and returning Monday afternoon, January 21.  We’ll give details about what they did there in the next newsletter.

This summer’s high school mission trip will be here before we know it, and the youth will have at least two fundraisers to help with expenses.  The first will be a Parents’ Night Out on Valentine’s Day.  High school youth will provide babysitting for kindergartners and up from 6:00 to 11:00 in the evening, so please take advantage of this, and help with the mission trip at the same time!  The second fundraiser will be on Easter Sunday, when the youth will cook and serve breakfast to the congregation between services.  They will also talk about some of their experiences during last summer’s mission trip in Dallas and Houston.  This year’s mission work will take place in Dallas and Chicago, from June 3-16, so families with high school youth, be sure to put it on your calendars, if it’s not already.

Also remember that Families INC has activities for families with young children.

Becky Haschke

Youth Committee Chair