Uphill idealist

First things first, we (local youth and adults who attended the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering) would like to  thank our home churches and community for the financial and prayer support that helped get us to and  carried us throughout our trip to New Orleans from July 18-23. For five fast-paced days we were at the Evangelical Lutheran Church of America's Youth Gathering in New  Orleans, LA. During our time there, we practiced peacemaking, justice and christian discipleship. We we  challenged by the human struggles still being dealt with by the people of New Orleans, were excited to hear  church and world leaders like Bishop Hanson ,  Pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber and Shane Claiborne speak and dance and sing with the many amazing musicians that performed at the Super Dome. In the Convention Center we we challenged to seek out ways to peace in our communities, schools, families and churches by learning more  ways to serve others. We shared wonderful...

From July 9-13 I'm working with an amazing team of 4 different Lutheran churches (Holy Trinity, Bethel Lutheran, Immanuel Lutheran and First Lutheran) to provide a free VBS program for children ages 3-12 called "SKY". The theme for the week is "All things are possible with God!" The preparation and planning for "Sky" started with a team of leaders from all four churches last fall and we've continued together on this huge effort all the way through to this weeks program. Two weeks ago a group of volunteers spent countless hours: painting, carrying, and climbing to build the main stage set up, and decorating each station the groups of children will rotate through daily.  Many people have made lists and purchased supplies for 125 youth and staff, as well as practiced skits, music, and Bible lessons to get ready for this week's event. At this point I don't have total staff/attendee numbers - but that will come s...

Earlier this week I posted some photos from the last weekend's women's retreat. I was introduced to Animoto , by my husband, which offers a simple format for making 30 second mini-movies. I use this kind of resource to help promote youth, church and art events. Here's the first try flick with Animoto - I hope it's a helpful and fun resource for you too! Create your own video slideshow at animoto.com.

Image found at Hayward Library website. This Thursday Middle and High school youth will be visiting Lutheran Social Services residents from 6:30-8:30pm and holding a costume parade followed with group time in the Chapel. (Please wear friendly costumes that would be fun for the residents as well as youth.) This activity is coordinated with SLYM: Shared Lutheran Youth Ministry. If you need more info on SLYM, click on the following link: SLYM. This Friday (October 28th) First Lutheran Church's Member support and outreach committee will be hosting a community Halloween Party from 3:30-5pm. This party is geared for kids 12 and under, but if you are older you are welcome to attend or help. We will be having games, snacks and a parade of costumes. Happy Halloween - it's going to be a beary fun time!For more information call 969-3950.

Two weeks ago, First Lutheran Church hosted a "Spaghetti and Meatball lunch" collaborative fundraiser for the 2012 ELCA Youth Gathering . The team of over twenty people helped to cook and serve five gallons of sauce, five-hundred meatballs, thirty pounds of pasta, and six cases of sliced Italian bread with the addition of raffling off 40 donated baskets to raise $1350.00 for the effort. The volunteers and donations came from people from St. Timothy's Lutheran, Bethel Lutheran, Holy Trinity Lutheran, Immanuel Lutheran and First Lutheran Churches. In July 2012, twelve youth and five adults will be traveling to New Orleans for worship and mission and fundraisers like this will be our main resource in achieving the goal of making this trip. Until November 10th, our team will also be selling coupon books for the Bon-Ton "Community Days" for $5.00 each. These coupon books are worth up to $200.00 in the Bon-Ton during their holiday kick off sale on November 11th a...

October marks the month for costumes and dress up for Halloween. Why should boxes be left out of the fun? Each October, Shared Lutheran Youth Ministry creates flashy boxes for a purpose: to draw attention to our food drive to help collect food for Joint Neighborhood Project. Here are ONE: TWO: THREE: examples of how boxes - and caring for others isn't' boring!

The first few days of school are rolling along and teacher's supply lists came home the other day that required a shopping trip for pencils, pens, gym combination locks, loose leaf college ruled paper, binders and more. In addition to my kids a youth member and volunteer (off camera) came to join in the fun. Just about the time I thought we all had been overcome by the office supply department, my crew took it upon themselves to lighten the mood and help the entire store full of shoppers know that school shopping can be fun. Here's to teenagers, dance breaks and spending time together!What back-to-school traditions do you have each year? Please feel free to tell me about them in the comments section. Happy back to school everyone!

Isaiah 28: 23-25 23 Listen and hear my voice; pay attention and hear what I say. 24 When a farmer plows for planting, does he plow continually? Does he keep on breaking up and working the soil? 25 When he has leveled the surface, does he not sow caraway and scatter cumin? Does he not plant wheat in its place,[a] barley in its plot,[b] and spelt in its field? There is an important lesson I've learned this summer about the importance of agriculture. Summer is the growing season that keeps our community and world fed throughout the entire calendar year. For the third summer I've taken part of a farm share program with Roots and Wings Family Farm in Cherry Creek NY. Each summer, a friend and I split the cost and the reward of a farm share and have fresh, local, organic veggies to enjoy from June through October. If you have been a part of this program this year, you'll know that First Lutheran Church of Jamestown has been the local ...

Triple AAA is the place you call when you are stuck in a ditch, your battery is dead or you have a flat tire. Either way, without Triple AAA or a car jack - you can't get anywhere very fast. Sometimes, you have to call for help and obtain the right tools to fit the challenge of becoming unstuck. Last Fall I attended training with Charlie Roberts from the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Gettysburg. He spent some time teaching ways of fostering foundations for Youth Ministry, and ultimately the whole churches ministries, that last. One of this things he said was necessary for success, was recruiting and helping to develop "Triple AAA Adults" to help serve in ministry. Just like the folks you call when you have a flat tire, triple AAA volunteers help to build a strong foundation in ministry with their unique gifts. These volunteers build people up, help to develop meaningful cross-generational relationships in the church community and function in the capacity of a mentor/g...

Over the past few weeks, a number of youth and adults from FLC, folks from the Gateway Center and members of our greater community have volunteered their time and creative energy to design and paint the new Laser Tag Game Center. The addition of the Laser Tag to the Gateway Center came when the supplies from a local business were purchased and donated to the community center. Over the past few weeks, over twenty people worked together to make the feat of decorating thirteen game room wall panels, the suiting-up room, and two sides-floor-to-ceiling-mural- of a 40 foot hallway. The right hallway design consists of a city sky line that includes bridges, buildings and street lights. The left hallway design consists of subway cars with windows full of passengers. The paints used in the hallway and suit up room was a mix of spray paint and acrylics. The paint in the game room, needed to be sensitive to black light, so only fluorescent spray paint was used. If you look carefully at each paint...

A local community center in the Jamestown Area was the recipient of a donation of complete laser tag equipment over the holiday season. The director of the Gateway Center , Amy Rohler, asked if I and my church ( First Lutheran Church of Jamestown ) would be interested in helping with the project of painting the area.Our theme for the project is "LIGHT". Each panel inside of the game area is 6 ft. by 12 ft., and we are primarily using fluorescent spray paint (as it is a black light lit space) on a black surface. There are 13 panels in the game room and we also are working on a hallway mural that leads to the game play area. The three panels above are a sample of the style that we are working in. The team that will complete this project are youth, young adults, local artists and me - thank GOD for having a team for such a big project. I will post more as this project moves along. Please keep us in your prayers as this project will need to be complete by Saturday Feb. 5th, 2011.

Where did the sharing start? Over the past several months, our church has been taking brave steps in the area of sharing life with the greater Lutheran community. In January of 2009, First Lutheran joined in on partnering with SLYM - Shared Lutheran Youth Ministry. This partnership in youth ministry is the large umbrella in which First, Immanuel , Holy Trinity and Bethel Lutheran Churches participate by gathering on a weekly basis (Thursdays 6:30-8:30 grades 5-12) for faith building, fellowship and of course fun! The SLYM program started it's second program year in September of 2010. There are group gatherings each Thursday evening, that are sometimes split into two age groups - middle and high school, but often the older students are invited along to assist in leadership and learning right along their Adult leaders. Another benefit of this partnership were two training events for volunteers in the SLYM program nights: Princeton Theological Seminary one day training in Clevelan...

If you need more reasons to pray for your church, I have some more for you. How about 25, 7th-9th grade students on an adventure of sharing space, life and confirmation class? Sunday evening was our third night of shared confirmation classes using the new re:form curriculum . It's amazing to see the youth from four local Lutheran churches coming together and gelling as a group. The lesson this week was an overview of the ten commandments and a compare/contrast on the Old Testament vs. the New Testament. Each student was counted off into a smaller group where they would decide what Bible story was the most historically important one, but they were not permitted to use any Jesus stories. Three groups out of five choose the 'Creation' story because without God getting things started - why have the rest of the story, another choose 'Revelation' because it ends with good winning over evil and the other choose 'Noah's Ark' because it expresses God keeping pro...