Children & Youth News

Parents of children nursery age to 5th grade, please see the current Kidtimes newsletter by Mattie Howard, the Director of Children's Ministry.

Hello Fellow Chi-Rho Parents!

Another year coming to an end and our children are another year older. Rita and I have been so blessed to have your children participate in the program and we have learned and grown from them, as they have learned from us.

The end of the year pool party will be Sunday, June 5th after our service. Please stay tuned for details.

Watching God at Work,

Mary S. Braun
512-757-0387

Summer Youth Mission Trip:

This announcement is the first about the summer mission trip. This year is going to be different. Instead of having one mission trip for both Chi Rho and CYF, we will do two separate mission trips. The Chi Rho (middle school) trip will be 4 or 5 days long and will most likely take place somewhere local. The CYF (high school) group will be around 7 days long, and involve more travel time. We will be doing it this way to allow the groups to have more time together and be able to bond with youth in their own group. It will also give the younger youth something to look forward to in high school, and not be as stressful to them since they will not have as far to go. We will still do fundraisers together and use the money jointly on the trips. Here is the information for both trips:

Chi Rho:

I am still working on the details for this trip, so I need some input from parents and youth. I am thinking about dates in early June, or early July (3-16). I am scheduling the trip around camps, and I would appreciate any information you may have about scheduled vacations or other times youth will not be available. I am hoping for a mission site around Austin or San Antonio, and I already have some contacts I am working on. As things progress, I will send out more information on dates and cost.

Registration forms will be due by January 16th.

CYF:

The cost for the mission trip will be at least $100. I will have a better idea of the final cost depending on how many people are going and how much we raise. The dates I am looking at are July 17-23 and July 24-30. I need to know which dates are available for the most people. My preference is July 17-23. The reason for this is that there is a site at the Navajo Reservation in Chinle, Arizona that has 20 spaces left for that week. The only other week they have space left is the week we are at Conference. There are other sites available July 24-30, but they would require more travel and would be more expensive. One thing that is changing about this year's trip is a participation requirement. Because of the cost involved and the need to reserve spaces in advance, all participants will have to be active in fundraising and in coming to youth group. We will be preparing for the trip throughout the Spring semester, learning about the people we will be helping and the environment they live in, as well as building group cohesion. There is also a safety aspect involved. Since we will be gone for so long, it is imperative that there is a relationship between youth and the adult sponsors. It is very difficult as an adult to meet a youth five minutes before we leave on a trip and not have any knowledge of the youth and what to expect. It is also unfair to youth who have been working together as a group building bonds to bring in a new member at the last minute. This is not meant to keep anyone from going on the mission trip. It is instead an earnest invitation to participate in the youth group. If you would like to discuss this change, please feel free to contact me at the church.

There will be a $50 deposit for the CYF trip. Registration forms and deposits will be due by January 9th.

Everyone:

There will be registration forms at the church and for download here.

I look forward to working with all of you on the mission trips, and please contact me if you have any questions or concerns about anything.

For additional youth news, please see the Latest Church Newsletter (.pdf).