Jan. 27-29^th

Meet at church at 5pm on Friday, Jan. 27^th.  We are staying at the Murfreesboro Embassy Suites 1200 Conference Center Boulevard Phone: 1-615-890-4464.  There will be 3 adults going:  Stephanie Dodge, Andy Cate, and Erick Hawkins.

There will be one boys room and 2 girls rooms. Each of the rooms is a suite and will have a bedroom with 2 queen beds and a living room area with a sofa bed.  They also have mini-fridges.

All of your meals are covered (dinner on Friday and Saturday night, breakfast Saturday and Sunday, and lunch on Saturday.)

We plan to return to church by noon on Sunday.  (Please note that we are having a quick choir practice at church at this time for anyone who is planning on singing at the Valentine’s Dinner.)

Packing list:

• Filled out Conference Event Registration Form
• Comfortable clothes for all weekend (we will be in the hotel the entire time so no need to dress up.)
• Appropriate sleepwear
• Bible
• Toothbrush/toothpaste, other personal items

Optional:

• Snacks
• Money for t-shirts ($10 – $15), Youth Service Fund, Warm Fuzzies, bookstore, snacks
• Modest swimsuit
• Cards/games

Come ready to have a great time and grow closer to Christ and each other!

Participate in thinkingBIG for Project Transformation
We will be collecting children’s books and new art supplies for a new ministry that will be starting in the Summer of 2012.  Project Transformation Tennessee is a summer day camp ministry that will be hosted at United Methodist Churches in Nashville.  Children and youth from the neighborhoods surrounding the host churches will come for a 4 day 8 week camp experience that will provide recreation, arts and crafts, spiritual formation, and most importantly reading literacy development.  These day camps will be directed by college-age young adults who will lead the activities and learning at each site.  Please help PT Tennessee thinkBIG as it reaches out to children and youth through United Methodist Churches in Nashville’s most underserved areas.  For more information about PT Tennessee check out www.pttennessee.org.  We will hear more about PT at WnW2012!

We have a number of exciting events coming up:

Warmth in Winter – Jan. 27-29
There is still time to sign up if you not yet turned in your money.  The cost is $70 and it promises to be a great event.

Superbowl Subs
We are going to be selling subs on superbowl Sunday again this year.  There is no set price, but we are asking for donations to raise money for our mission trips.  Order sheets will be available in the bulletin and in the narthex.  The youth will be assembling the subs during Sunday School on Superbowl Sunday, Feb. 5th.

Valentine’s Dinner
Our annual Valentine’s Dinner is one our biggest mission trip fundraisers during the year. In order to pull it off we need the help of all of the youth and parents.  The Dinner will start at 6:30pm on Saturday, Feb. 11th.  We will need people to help out in the area of decorating/setting up, the kitchen, the nursery and clean-up.  Let me know if there is an area you would like to work in.  We will also be having a meeting to go over the details for the Valentine’s Dinner tentatively scheduled for Jan. 29th after the Chili potluck.
Finally, we are toying with the idea of having a wedding dress fashion show and were wondering how many mom’s still have wedding dresses that could be worn by their daughter in the show.

Remember that this Wednesday night is the start of Trivia night at Crievewood UMC.  Come out and join us for a night of fun.
Youth Choir starts back on Sunday, please make every effort to be there.  We will begin working on some songs for the Valentine’s Dinner.

Dear Youth and Parents,
Looking back over 2011 it is clear that we have much to celebrate when we reflect on the ways God has blessed our youth fellowship.  Embracing missions as a priority, we have sought ways to be instruments of God’s love from hosting the Capernaum Young Life group to cleaning gardens for church members.  Moreover, besides continuing our longstanding relationship with Mt TOP, we realized the goal of an international mission experience by working with the Bahamas Methodist Habitat ministry.

Aware that we receive as much grace, if not more, than we offer in service, our mission life will continue to be a normative and formative part of the youth ministry in 2012.  Several families have expressed interest in returning to the Bahamas, so a meeting was held in October to discuss the possibility.  Indeed, those present made the decision that we should plan now for that to happen.

Because international trips take quite a bit of planning and because the Bahamas Methodist Habitat ministry fills up quickly with teams, it was necessary for us to secure dates by putting down a deposit.  The week available to us is July 22-28, 2012 (yes it is right before Metro Schools go back), and after conversation with our Youth Council Chairs, we sent in deposits for 20 spots.

We are excited about this opportunity; we hope to continue our work on the Burrows home!  The cost of the trip will be $400 and a commitment to participate in the fundraising efforts that will offset the balance.  Please know that further financial assistance is available as needed.  The mission experience is open to anyone (this will be an intergenerational team), though youth who have not completed the 9th grade will need an adult family member with them.  The 20 spots will be first come, first serve and are reserved once you have made a $100 deposit; a waiting list will be created if needed.

Please call, e-mail, or come by and see us with any questions.  You can check out the Bahamas Methodist Habitat webpage for more information too: www.methodisthabitat.org

We have an amazing group of youth!

-Stephanie Dodge and Pastor Peter

We beat the rain this Sunday and got all of the mailboxes decorated!  The youth worked hard and did an excellent job.  We made $280 on the mailboxes and didn’t have to spend anything on materials thanks to the donations of Lori Shipe, Carolyn Pemberton, Sharon Ferrell, Kathryn Buffler, Sue Bean and the Warren family.  Make sure that you thank them when you see them around.

I will be leaving for Bahamas Methodist Habitat early Sunday morning and will be gone for one week.  Brad will be in charge of youth on Sunday night.

In two weeks, on Dec. 18th we will be having our youth Christmas Party at 4pm.  Everyone is invited to bring a gift to exchange (something reused or a $5 limit).  I will be emailing out a food sign-up so everyone can sign-up with what they will be bringing.

The Christmas party is starting at 4pm on the 18th because Cool Yule is at 6pm.  If anyone would like to perform something for Cool Yule, please contact Tom Cassel to sign-up.

The youth choir will be performing on the 18th for Lessons and Carols during the 10:45 service and for Cool Yule, so make sure you are at practice on Sunday!

Please check your email for the food sign-up and a letter about the Bahamas trip.

Have a great week!