Things are a little different during Lent

Wed. Night Youth Schedule during Lent
(Feb. 24-March 24)

4:30-5:30pm Confirmation Service Projects

5:45-6:25pm Higher Praise Choir

6:30-7:05pm Lenten Vespers Worship

7:15-8:30pm High School EPIC- Interfaith Series

Youth Group Spring Start Up!

We head back into our regular schedule tonight for both Confirmation and Youth Group.
Confirmation- 4:30-5:30pm (Talking about Baptism)
Higher Praise- 5:45-6:45pm
High School Youth Group- 7-8:30pm (Beginning our Interfaith Series)

See you then!

Saint John's Movie Night this Sunday!

Join the youth this Sunday, for our 2nd annual Saint John's Movie Night! A barbecue of hamburgers and hot dogs will be served at 5pm, followed by the movie on the big screen at 6pm! Bring your lawns chairs, blankets, and appetites! All ages are welcome and please bring friends!

High School Christmas Party

THIS SUNDAY- 2pm at the Church if you need a ride- otherwise meet at the bowling alley at 2:30pm. Bring $10 for bowling and dinner and another $10 if you plan on staying for the movie. Merry Christmas!

Home!

So obviously I did not have internet access over the weekend to try and update the blog, which was a bummer. BUT, we did have an amazing time in Inglewood, Compton, Watts, and Los Angeles. We visited congregations, played through all of the red apples to apples cards, saw a historical landmark, made new friends, danced in church, ate lots and lots and lots of great food and gave thanks to God for being able to do all of it. More stories will be shared soon...

On the road again!

We are getting ready to embark on the largest youth trip yet at Saint John's. The youth chose unanimously to return to Inglewood for our fall service learning trip.

Generally when I tell people that I am taking 12 high school students and 4 adults with me to Inglewood, Watts, and South Central LA, they usually respond by saying, "WHY???" or sometimes, "Whoa..." Well, as we discussed last night in our getting ready meeting, there are plenty of reasons why I am taking them there. First, of course, is that we had an amazing experience last year. The youth really shined. They approached our trip with open minds and hearts, which paid off in the end. Yes, the inner city feels like a totally different world then our quaint Central Coast. And in many ways it is a different world. And yet, there is a part of us that is connected to the people there through our Christian faith. The trick is that we have to filter through a lot of stuff to get to that connectedness.

I have often asked myself, if Jesus were alive and walking the earth today, where would be choose to spend his time? Who would be his companions? Where would I have to go to meet him? The gospels demonstrate time and time again that Jesus chose to spend his time with people that the rest of society would rather ignore- tax collectors, prostitutes, Samaritans, people with leprosy, fishermen, women with less than stellar reputations.

Is there a chance that Jesus might choose to spend his time with the poor and struggling of Watts? Is there a chance that he might choose to talk with the kids who take to hard life in the streets? Is there a chance that Jesus might want us to notice these people too? Is there a chance that we might meet Jesus when we go to meet our brothers and sisters in Inglewood?

Well, I feel it is worth it to take the trip to find out. And I pray for God's blessing as we journey.

Oh the Memories... (Inglewood 2008)

ROCKSTARS!

We had a great time at the Rockstar Middle School Youth Gathering last weekend. On Friday afternoon the 10 of us loaded up into 2 cars and headed south. We got there right in time to catch the first Mass Gathering with Agape (Lutheran Christian Hip-Hop artist David Scherer). The theme encouraged us to look to God as our rock and salvation. On Saturday we had workshops, another session with Agape, time for swimming and then 7 hours at Universal Studios! Saturday night Agape gave a great concert- everyone was singing and dancing, while at the same time learning more about God's amazing grace. Sunday morning we worshiped together with holy communion and heard the story of how Jesus comes to us in the poor, hungry, homeless, sick, and imprisoned. Agape challenged us to find an issue that we care about and to try to make a difference in that area of the world's need. All in all God was really good to us this weekend!

Rockstar: Middle School Youth Gathering!

We are having a great time this weekend in Woodland Hills. Unfortunately I can't hook up the camera to show any pictures yet, but they are on their way. We had a blast at Universal Studios, Agape is amazing, and now we are getting ready to close the weekend with worship together.

Welcome 7th Graders and Congrats Confirmands!

We want to especially give a shout out to all our 7th graders who we kidnapped for breakfast a few weeks back!

And congrats to all of our confirmands for doing a great job on their speeches! We made them get up for breakfast too the day before confirmation- but we did not make them skip down the pier! More pictures to come!

Dustin showing off his prize he won at the rockband tournement.






Ally and Conner lifting the tire they won.

Everyone had a great time showing their rockband skills. More pictures to come!

Guitar Hero/Rock Band Night Rocked!

Conner has some amazing vocal stylings!

The High School Youth get to have a game night every once in awhile when we finish up a more serious set of youth nights. Tonight we played Rock Band and Guitar Hero BEATLES Edition. Thanks to Eric and David for bringing their games. Randy was also our Awards Master and he found some pretty creative stuff. Here is the breakdown of who won:

Blue plastic bowling pin: Dustin
Custom painted rock for rocking hard: Kasi
You Rolled Over the Competition Spare Tire: Allie and Conner
"Did Well" Orange Traffic Cone: Tyler
You Obviously didn't see the TV Glasses and Case: Anthony
Pink Rusty Electric Scooter names Opal: Dan

The competition was fierce, but the winners came out victorious. Until next time!

Congrats on the Harvest Festival!

Several of you spent some time at our Harvest Festival Booth last weekend. With your help we raised $150 for Habitat For Humanity through selling quilt tickets and $100 through running the basketball game. Here is how you voted to distribute the $100 we raised for us:

$25 to Habitat for Humanity
$25 to Pennies for Peace (check out the link to learn more!)
$25 for Middle School
$25 for High School

Congrats on this great way to give something back and support some great organizations!

And if you are over 16 years old you can come and work at the Habitat for Humanity site in Grover Beach in a few weeks (Oct. 16-17)!

Youth Group Officially begins this week!

This Wednesday Night- EPIC begins again!

Ryan and Terilee are excited!

Are you excited!

The schedule for youth night is more or less the same, with the addition of our new Fine Arts Ministry: The Movement!


4:30-5:30pm Confirmation/Junior High Youth Group

7-8:30pm High School Youth Group

Junior High, we will be studying together our confirmation stuff! High School we are trying out some new material- come and check it out!!!

Introducing our High School Theme for '09-'10!

"Breathe"

The inspiration for the theme this year came from the song "Learning to Breathe" by Switchfoot. I was listening to it after we got back from our trip New Orleans for the National Youth Gathering. And as I was listening I realized that sometimes life just gets to busy that I forget to breathe. And I found myself wondering, where is it that I go when I need a break so I can catch my breath and get focused on what is important? I had to think about it for a little bit.

This year I pray that our Wednesday Night youth groups will be able to be one of those places for you. We all face a lot of pressures in our lives- from school, family, friends, etc. Those pressures can be good or bad, it kind of depends. Sometimes we need to relearn what it means to breathe in God's grace every day and be released from the pressure and remember that no matter what God is with us.

We will be changing up the way the room looks, changing up the routine for what we do together, and offering some new cool theme nights- Art Therapy Night, Doubt Night, and a lot more. I hope that you take the opportunity to come every week to be present and breathe in God's love for you, just as you are.

The leadership desires that youth group will be a time and place for you to feel welcome, cared for, and empowered to go out and make a difference in the world!

Newspaper Coverage

On July 22, the local New Orleans Paper did a great story about the youth gathering. Click the link below to take a look:

The Times-Picayune

Gentilly Terrace Elementary School

Here are a few shots from our day of service. We didn't even know what we were doing until we got on the bus this morning! It turns out that we got to do the finishing touches on the hallways of Gentilly Terrace Elementary School, just in time to surprise the parents and students at the start of the school year. The principal of the school has been trying to get it painted for two years, but did not have the budget. The school was flooded during the storm and had water up to the windows for several days. We met the principal and she shared that having the groups come has inspired the faculty to include the junior high kids to continue the project by having them paint the upstairs hallway. The principal's goal is to empower every single child to graduate from high school.

Our group worked incredibly hard to make sure our area was spotless when we left and they did a wonderful job! Here are some of the pics, and take a special look at the video below- there's messages for you!

Day of Service!!!

Mmmmm Crawfish!

It's a little bit warm!

So it was definitely hot outside today, really, really hot! But we spent the morning in the air-conditioned Interaction Center in the Convention Center. It was basically a big playground/information center/store/fun activity/a thousand other things that was the length of 6, count 'em 6, football fields. Unforately I (Pastor Sarah) forgot my memory card for my camera and my phone so I had to go back to the hotel to get them. I did however run into a ton of wonderful people I know and get some good Old Lutheran gear the store! I hope Kevin likes his present!

It is a beautiful thing to see so many people committed to "living lives worthy of the gospel." The Holy Spirit is the part of the Trinity that we say is the creator of community. Well, the Holy Spirit is working fast and well at the National Youth Gathering this year. Everywhere we go we make new friends! God is also working in the midst of the 16 of us as a group, strengthening relationships or building new ones. However, this kind of overstimulation did get a bit overwhelming a few times and I think we are still learning how to move and function as one organism and not just 16 individuals. We are getting the hang of it though...slowly but surely. It is an adjustment for all of us who are used to looking after mainly ourselves to remember that every decision we make affects the rest of the group. But these are life lessons that we will take away from New Orleans and back into our day-to-day lives.

We are also getting ready for our service day tomorrow! I pray that we will all get rested and ready to go so we can be fully present in that experience! Today we walked along the river and I was able to share with some of the group just why the Hurricanes were so devastating. I think it makes a difference when you can look at the river and imagine it overflowing into the streets.

Please pray for us as we prepare our hearts to be one small part of God's justice for all in the world.

God's Peace to you!
Pastor Sarah