A Message from our Coordinator of Youth Ministries
"Hey, I’m so glad you’re looking at our youth page. If you’re looking here, you must be interested in seeing what we have going on or you’ve just arrived here by mistake. Even if you got here by mistake, check it out. You just may be interested in some of the stuff we do. Or, better yet, come visit in person. We would love to meet you. You and/or your parents can call or email me if you have questions about what we do inside and outside of the walls at Second Pres."
God Bless you,
Micki Paxton
Come to Hoss's for a meal and some fellowship and help Second Pres. Youth.
Click here for Hoss's Community Day coupon
Second Pres youth group has lots of cool ways for youth (6th through 12th grade) to
have fun, grow spiritually and socially, and serve our church and community. Middle School (reffered to as the Jesus Freaks) and Senior High (reffered to as The J Crew) youth meet separately for Sunday school and weekly youth group. In 2010 each group will have a retreat at Camp Krislund. There are other “kickin” activities each month too. And, your voice means something here! Most of what we do stems from ideas of participating youth. We would love to have you join us.
Jesus Freaks (Middle School) Sunday school – We are learning about the love of God, building faith, and growing up through some pretty wild activities! Breakfast (yup, breakfast) is served from 8:30 am to 9 am. This is your reward for getting up and getting to church on time. Sunday school is led by Lois Glennon and Shelley Raker. Lois and Shelley are seasoned teachers and use many different teaching methods. It’s a really fun time. We offer Bible verses that "fit into your life" to memorize each week and tuck away for future use. After you've memorized 10 verses, you can get a gift certificate to Target for your efforts!! Usually, we get together with the high schoolers at the end of Sunday School to talk and pray.
Jesus Freaks (Middle School) youth group meets every Wednesday from 6 - 7:30 p.m. Wednesdays are about letting off some steam, hearing a good message, catchin’ up, and planning. There’s some free time to play games, talk, dance, draw, or whatever. Right now, the message comes from a three-part series: “Why Jesus, Conflict, and Am I Happy?” Each series is supposed to last four weeks, but we’re taking our time so we have time to work out our doubts, fears, rejoicing, and confusion. We also spend some time talking about stuff. You know, "stuff" is my favorite word (random). We talk about life, stuff we’ve done, stuff we want to do, and how it fits into our church life.
The J Crew (Senior High) Sunday school - I (Micki) teach Senior High. We are learning about God's love, growing in our faith, and how to make good choices through some pretty crazy activities! Come break the fast of the night with us at 8:30am. This is your reward for getting up and getting here on time. Share time with us learning, questioning, and discerning God's will for us! We really have fun doing this!. Learn some scriptures and be prepared when temptation strikes. The scripture you learn will guide you through those temptations. And, there are rewards for your hard work - ya, we talkin a gift card for Target!!! Most Sundays, we get together with the middle schoolers at the end of class to talk and pray.
The J Crew (High School) youth group meets every Tuesday from 6-7:30 pm. Tuesdays begin with free time! At 7pm we work through a message together that comes from a three-part series: “Why Jesus, Conflict, and Am I Happy?” Debates have been the trend lately. We enjoy voicing our opinion and respecting others on hot topics! The last half hour we enjoy some time catchin’ up, and planning. High School years are a time of change and growth for youth. Trying to develop who you are and who you want to be is no small task!!!!. With this in mind, our schedule is flexible in case we need more time to just talk.
Fellowship (good Christian fun) is so needed for youth!! There is so much pressure: do this, do that. So we just take some time to do some FUN things.
We go to Hersheypark every year, play laser tag, go ice skating, have lock-in’s (one crazy and one while we we’re starving to raise money for Third-World families). We also travel to Creation Festival (a huge, very cool, Christian rock festival where you camp out) every year. Second Pres is part of a Presbytery (that means 52 churches grouped together), and we do things with them too. We all do the Souper Bowl of Caring to raise money for Americans in need. After holding pots to collect money, we have a fun celebration the afternoon of the Super Bowl. We get together for Express Yourself, that’s kind of a church-year kick-off fun thing. Second Pres. youth go to an annual youth conference which is tons of fun with great bands, spiritual messages, and lots of "hang out" time. In May we will go to Acquire the Fire in Baltimre, PA. We get to stay in a hotel (with a pool) and eat out!!
Oh, but there’s more……………
We like to serve and believe that we are God’s hands and feet through our service. So, yup, we serve big time. We feel good about our work, and it means so much to those whom we serve. Did I mention that it’s fun?
We serve our church in worship services, helping in Children’s Church and nursery, helping with VBS, cleaning, and singing. We serve our community in a relationship with Project SHARE. We help with distribution (giving out food to those in need) every month, gleaning (harvesting crops donated by local farmers), and other needs that they may have throughout the year. The people who work and come to Project SHARE have become very important to us! Did I mention that sometimes it’s really important for us to have ice cream after some hard work. A tradition at Second Pres is for youth do do community service on Good Friday. We have worked locally and gone to Camp Krislund to offer our help. Youth run the local soup kitchen on a Saturday in March. We serve nationally too. Last year we went to our first Group Workcamps, where we spent a week in York, PA, helping in a nursing home. Those teens will never look at the elderly the same again! We plan to go to North Carolina for a mission trip August 1st -6th through CROSS missions. Stay tuned for more information! Oh, yea, we do international stuff too!!!!. We are part of Second Presbyterian Church's five-year commitment to Honduras. We sponsor a three-year-old adorable child (Fernando), collect money to offer supplies to traveling missionaries, and are planning our first youth mission trip to Honduras for 2012!!!!!!!!! Other missions we support are Safe Harbour through "One Night Without a Home,” the Crop Walk, and 30-Hour Famine through World Vision.
In the summer, we have SOFT (Summer of Fellowship Time). SOFT begins each day with Bible study. We complete the morning with service work. the afternoon is all about fun in the sun! More about that in the spring.
Camp Krislund – Each year we send a group of great kids and adults to Camp Krislund, near State College, Pa. This Presbyterian camping experience is a high-point of many people’s summers (and their spiritual journeys!). Kids from Kindergarten through Senior High participate in the high-energy, high-adventure, Christ-centered programming while adults volunteer in various parts of the camp. Kids can come without their parents; parents can come without kids; in short, Krislund week is for the whole church family. Our week this year is July 11 to 17, 2010. For more information contact any staff member or see Krislund’s website at www.krislund.org.
So, are we busy or what? Come, check it out.
The mission of Second Presbyterian Youth Ministry is to worship God, care for each other, reach out in service, invite others to join us, and grow in our faith journey.
