Camp Compassion part 2

Each day at Camp Compassion is filled with good food and awards. Each evening a variety of “awards” are given for people who do something really special. Some of the awards are: Warrior, the Love Leopard, the Flirty Feather Boa, Brining up the Rear, Bounce Back, the Rev. Stacy Spiritual bobble-head award, Strong-man & the Building community award. Here are some pictures of the meals and the awards.

Camp Compassion

Well, here it is Wednesday. The hope of updating this blog during our Mission Trip on a daily basis just hasn’t happened. There is so much to do and so little time to do it, but God is definitely here!!!

The young people are just amazing! They have been divided into four workgroups: Canterbury on the Lake – working on beautifying the grounds; Community Gardening – weeding and cleaning a garden; Food Bank/ Carnival – Spent two days at the local food bank and the rest of the time creating and planning a neighborhood carnival that we will be putting on this Friday; All Saints – Staying at All Saints doing painting, concrete work and groundkeeping.

I am a firm believer that a picture is worth at least a 1000 words, so here are the pictures.

Trying to blog…again

Welcome once again to the YAYA Blog. Over the past year we have been working on our communication strategies and have focused most of our efforts to the Diocesan webpage (www.edomi.org , in case you forgot).

We have also launched our monthly YAYA Connections newsletter and are working on some other methods of getting information out to the congregations and the people.

One of the nice things about a blog though, is the immediacy of it. I can post something here and it can be updated and responded to in real time; even as the event is happening.

Next week is our Mission Trip to Pontiac, MI. We call it Camp Compassion. Over 30 young people and adults will be staying at All Saints Episcopal Church and each day will go out into the community and be the hands and feet of Jesus to the world. We will be gardening, doing construction, beautifying the grounds at Canterbury on the Lake retirement home, working at Gleaners food bank and preparing for a neighborhood carnival that we will be presenting on Friday.

I hope that there are people out there who are interested in what we are doing and will come and visit this blog. I am planning on posting pictures and stories each day and I hope you will be excited to see how these young people are trying to make a difference in the world.

Please come back each day next week and see what we are up to. And tell your friends to take a look too.

-Eric

New Site!!!

Our brand new Diocesan Website is up! And it sure is pretty. Please check it out at www.edomi.org . This site was created as a temporary place for Youth and Young Adult information, and so with the working nature of the Diocesan site, this site will no longer be updated. I encourage you to go to the Diocese of Michigan website and explore.

www.edomi.org

Upcoming Event – Happening

We have an event coming up in November called “Happening” that I hope you will consider going to (if you are a student in grades 9 through 12) or sending your students to (if you are a parent or youth leader).

The next Happening is November 13-15 at St. John’s, Midland.

Here are two ways we use to describe Happening:

“Happening is more than a Youth Event. It’s an experience. You’ll find yourself telling your friends, family and complete strangers of the things that happened at Happening! Happening is a retreat program for high school youth used throughout the Episcopal Church. We do everything from praying to playing, and from singing to sleeping. There are talks, small groups, free time and fun. We come together to praise God in an amazing environment, and hope you will join us this year too!”

“Happening is an Episcopal retreat for high school teens that goes on in over 70 dioceses in the Episcopal Church, and in various other provinces of the Anglican Communion. At Happening, teens experience the love of Christ as shown through the sacraments and ministry and friendship of teenagers, clergy, and lay adults. For many teens, at Happening our Christian faith becomes powerfully real. The Happening program is designed to train and lift up youth as leaders for Christ in the Church. Happening is part of diocesan youth ministry to and with youth, overseen by bishops of the diocese in which it occurs.” 

The registration form for Happening can be found HERE.

Scholarships are available! Please download a scholarship form from HERE. 

Ideally, the particpant’s church would contribute 1/3rd, the participant would contribute 1/3rd, with the Diocese paying the final 1/3rd. If this is not possible, please be in touch with us, we are willing to work out another arrangement.

**We hope that no one will miss any event because of money**

Back to School means…the kids are back to church too!

September means lots of things. One last trip to the beach or lake, end of summer picnics with family, and back to school. Most churches will be ramping up their Sunday School/ Youth Ministry plans sometime in September. My prayers are with you. When I was doing full time parish ministry, I always wanted a big kick-off for our first event. I always felt that the BIGGER the BETTER as long as it was within my budget. Now I am not saying that this is wrong, but I recently read an article that gave me some food for thought. I have linked it below this post. Take a look and feel free to comment.

Youth Ministry Today – YMToday.com – 8 Back to School Ideas Not Spelled P-A-R-T-Y

Youth Specialties | Free Resources | Tips and Ideas

I found this list recently at the Youth Specialties site.

Tips and Ideas

Here are 100 things you can try in your youth group. Get programming and curriculum ideas, and much more!

Youth Specialties | Free Resources | Tips and Ideas

You can click the link above to get the whole list, but here are some of my favorites:

Tip #1 – Always take pictures of your youth group activities. Hang them up on the church or youth group bulletin board. Have kids create crazy captions for them.

Tip #7 – Avoid making promises to parents you can’t keep.

Tip #14 – Always deal with problems as they come up. Don’t expect them to go away on their own. They won’t.

Tip #21 – Always arrive at the church or meeting place early enough to greet youth and their parents as they arrive. Stay late for the same reason.

Tip #38 – Never cancel an event or meeting simply because not enough youth show up. You may need to adapt your plans, but don’t send everyone home. Let those who show up know they’re just as important as those who don’t.

Tip #46 – When students help you with a game in front of the group, don’t make fun of them. Use activities to build them up—make heroes out of them, not idiots.

Tip #55 – Keep parents informed. Publish a parents’ newsletter or schedule periodic meetings for questions and feedback. Lack of communication with parents can seriously handicap your ministry.

Tip #63 – Never use curriculum without first adapting it to the needs of your group. Curriculum writers don’t know your kids; you do.

Tip #67 – Be able to say “I don’t know.” Then young people will listen to you better when you do know.

Tip #82 – Surround yourself with adults to whom you can go for advice or counsel. You need the accountability and support.

Tip #96 – Get your group involved in at least one service project each year. Service projects not only give kids a chance to make a positive contribution to someone else’s life, but they are great for building community.

Tip #100 – Don’t attempt to be “one of the kids.” If you’re an adult, be an adult. Just be an adult who loves kids.

What are some of your tips?

Back!

We are back from the Mission Trip. What an amazing experience. I saw young people not just step, but jump out of their comfort zones this past week. Some of the amazing work we did included painting, drywalling, roofing, putting shingles on, staining, cleaning a cemetary, tiling, building a floor, watching children, removing window casings and pulling weeds.

These young people were wonderful! I thank each and everyone of them for participating and sharing this experience with us. I also want to thank the adults who gave of their time, energy, sweat and love for these kids. They include: Michele Alexander & the Rev. Stacy Salles from St. Paul’s, Romeo; Pastor Manisha Dostert, Nancy Irey-Sams, Alan Giles, Rick Spina, Bob Bagnall & Nikki Braidwood from St. Stephen’s, Troy; Peter Gregory from Trinity, Belleville; Jason Rutherford;  and Ryan Wilke from Advent, West Bloomfield. Without these amazing adults, this trip would never have been possible. Special thanks goes to Pastor Manisha as our Director and to Nancy Irey-Sams and Rev. Stacy as members of the design team.

Please check out our pictures and our mini-blog. If you see someone you know in the pictures, ask them how their trip went.

-Eric

Mission Trip

In just under 8 hours, the Mission Team from the Diocese of Michigan will be gathering to begin our journey/adventure. We are meeting at Trinity, Belleville for a few hours of group building and sleep before setting off at 5am to the Detroit airport to make our 7:30am flight to New Orleans. From New Orleans we will travel to our base of operations Mission on the Bay in Bay St. Louis, Mississippi.

The week promises to be filled with joy, miracles, hard work, humidity and God’s blessings. A total of 43 youth and adults from 9 different congrations will be participating in Camp Compassion 2009.

Please check back here during this week and watch our blog (link is at the top of this page) for our hopefully daily updates and pictures.

Pray for us and for those whom we will be working with.

-Eric Travis

Adults Who Work With Youth Training and Retreat

I hope that those of you who do youth work in the Diocese of Michigan will join me for an overnight retreat and training at Emrich Retreat Center on August 28-29. We will start at 6pm on Friday and go until 3pm on Saturday. We will be offering ideas and training on starting, building ans sustaining Youth Ministries at your parish. We will also be offering at 3:30pm on Saturday, the Safeguarding God’s Children course for those who work with youth. This training will be from 3:30pm to 7:00pm.

The cost of the retreat is $25 and the cost of the Safeguarding Training is $20.

A registration form can be found here.