It's been a great Summer, this is a great time to tell you a little about what's happened and what is coming up:
We took kids to both our middle school and high school weeks of camp at North East Iowa Christian Service Camp. We also had kids go to 4&5th grade and 5&6th grade camp. Please visit our church's Facebook page to take a look at pictures of some of the fun! On the 17th of July in our weekly worship service, we'll be baptizing two of our students that made decisions to follow Jesus at Camp. Pretty sweet!!
Just 2 weeks from now, we are leaving for Loveland Colorado for our senior high service trip for the Summer. We're going to get some rafting in, and lots of opportunities to serve people. It will be a great trip, I know that those going are really looking forward to it.
On August 10-14, we will be having a Vacation Bible School at Eastview. This is for students e-klub age through middle school. We'll have a HUGE carnival on Sunday, August 14 after Sunday service, food, inflatables, it will be a great time. Come and see what the fun's all about!
We are asking that parents help as they are able, and if your high school student would like to help, please have them contact me ASAP. We'll be handing out flyers on August 3rd, and having registration at Eastview and possibly one other location on Saturday, August 6th. I'll have more details out shortly.
Fall 2011
We will be starting our regular programming for e-klub and middle school on Wednesday, September 7 at 6pm. Our high school youth group starts on Sunday, September 11, 2011 at 5:30pm.
We're bringing D-Group back. What is D-Group? D-Group was and is an intentional, straight-up discipleship/bible study/deeper-learning time. In the past, we've read books together, gone through workbooks, etc, and the expectation for this group is that if a student joins, they will participate in the study. This is NOT youth group, while we have fun, we don't play games or anything like that. We have, and will talk about challenging stuff, and I hope that many of our students will join. D-Group will be on Sunday afternoons, from 4-5:15pm. While this is open to ALL middle school and high school students, in the past, some of our students were overwhelmed by the expectations. I'd encourage all of our students to at least come to our first D-Group session on September 11, at 4pm.
Our annual All-Church Retreat is scheduled for September 16-18 at North East Iowa Christian Service Camp. We hope that you will join us for this event.
A Little Later:
Our yearly visit to a Bible College is scheduled for November 3-6. This year, we'll be visiting Ozark Christian College in Joplin Missouri. We'll have more details out in early September. High school students only.
Our annual Spaghetti Dinner/Dessert Auction/Talent Show will be scheduled in mid-February. This is our huge fundraiser for the year. The money raised helps keep our event costs low, and provides money for our scholarship fund.
CIY:Believe for our middle school students will be sometime at the end of February, 2012. Dates have yet to be announced, but we'll let you know ASAP.
Summer 2012
Summer camps for all age groups, specifics out late-2011, early 2012.
Mexico Mission Trip for high school students. Each year we alternate between either a Summer conference/service project and our Mexico Mission Trip. 2012 is the Mexico year. I've already been in contact with the mission that we support there to get some feedback about a trip next Summer. While we will schedule a meeting in November that will have more details on this trip, it's important that you and your students be thinking and praying about this trip NOW.
The two biggest concerns for this trip have traditionally been money and safety.
First, money. Our 2010 trip cost was approximately $1000, but many students took advantage of our scholarship, sent support letters, etc and received money from our Spaghetti Dinner fundraiser.
Second, safety. There are obvious safety concerns in going oversees, and Mexico can indeed be dangerous. There are a number of steps that we take to ensure the safety of the group, and that's one of the reasons we begin planning this trip a year in advance, so that you, the parent, can make the most informed decision that you can.
The abilities, maturity and willingness of our students to listen is important; while
any high school student is welcome to apply for this trip, it's not for those that lack maturity or a willingness to serve. Because of this, we meet with each person being considered for this trip and we will have a very specific pre-trip process and a post-trip debrief for those going.
Please contact John Mulholland with any questions!!
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