Members of the Tween Team shared their second outdoor adventure of the fall. This time to the Corn Maze. The Tween Team continues to have great learning and fellowship opportunities together! Open to all 5th and 6th graders!
We had a great turnout of youth and families for our kickoff potluck last week! Among the highlights were viewing pictures from Massanetta, a video from Montreat and a preview of Pathways for youth Sunday morning experiences with re:form! A lot of wonderful things are in store for our youth (grades 7-12) and our newly created tweens group (grades 5-6) in the year ahead!
The week is flying by here at Purdue. Today featured two small group sessions, a college and seminary fair, and a powerful worship service. The worship service featured a talk from Bill Nathan (a friend of Neil’s) who is the Director of the St. Joseph’s Home for Boys in Port au Prince, Haiti. Bill, a former child slave, leads an amazing ministry for orphan boys. The home was destroyed in the earthquake earlier this year and Bill happened to be on the top floor of the building. He fell along with the rubble and had some broken ribs and other injuries. He is physically improved and with his words and drumming inspired the Triennium congregation with his story of hope for Haiti and the world! God is not done with Bill and God is not done with any of us yet! The service concluded with a time of anointing after the drama team challenged us to explore the brokeness of our lives and the world. We were anointed with the words “You have been called for such a time as this”. The interactions of young people from Hong Kong to Maine, and Alaska to Florida, New Mexico to Minnesota, and all parts in between is a powerful reminder that the church is alive and well! The interaction of the various members of our presbytery delegation has been wonderful to be a part of as well. We know that this Triennium will open the doors for some wonderful youth ministry opportunities and connections for the Presbyterian youth of NE Ohio! Thanks for your prayers and support!
The Presbytery of the Western Reserve delegation arrived safely at Purdue on Tuesday afternoon, after a smooth and uneventful bus ride (we did it in seven hours including stops). The delegation is made up of 43 youth from 14 churches and six adult leaders. The scene is incredible when the doors of the Elliot Hall of Music open and 5000 teenagers rush to get a good seat for the worship experience. We are diving deep into the book of Esther this week, being led by a drama team from Western North Carolina. A beautiful weaving of stories from today’s teenagers and the story of Esther flow seamlessly back and forth to bring God’s word alive. Tuesday evening the preacher, Rev. Bruce Reyes-Chow, former moderator of the PC(USA) told the community that “we are to discern the mind of Christ and the will of God together”. Even if that means disagreeing on things, we still do it faithfully in community. We met our small groups for the first time this morning-something like 150 small groups that meet all over this large campus. Youth have come from all over the globe to be here. We met a Korean delegation yesterday that had traveled 17 hours by plane to Syracuse and then joined the delegation from that presbytery on their bus ride. Today’s worship service took place at 2pm in the afternoon. Less than 24 hours here, and already been in worship for four hours! A little break here now before dinner and then small groups again this evening where we will explore the scripture even more! Will post when we can, but it is a very active schedule and a ton of walking to get from place to place! Thanks be to God for the growing faith of young people and the ways that they are already faithfully serving in the church and the world!
Pioneer church will have four delegates Ben I., Brittney S., Taylor G., and Neil M. and two friends of the church Lizzy and Sarah, joining the presbytery delgation of 44 youth and 6 adults to travel to the Presbyterian Youth Treinnium at Purdue University in the morning. Prayers for the 5000 plus participants for this special event held once every three years. It will be a time filled with worship, study, education and connecting with the larger church of which we are proud to be a part! We will update the blog as time allows!
The Montreat group arrived safely home Saturday evening around 8:30 pm, after being delayed in a traffic backup just past the NC/VA state lines heaidng north. We look forward to seeing the congregation in worship!
We’re home!! The group arrived back at Pioneer at 7:15pm after an adventurous ride home. A ride full of torrential rain, road construction and PA Turn-pike gas station that wouldn’t take a debit card! However, we are safe and all have returned home!
Massanetta Middle School Conference was an amazing week for all of us! This morning’s closing worship and communion was a sending out into the world, with the reminder that even though we have left Massanetta, our journeys still continue and our processes of turning our lives toward God and the path God chooses for us is not supposed to be easy, and if anything, it will only get harder upon returning home. Where we return to our little worlds where no one really understands the jokes, or really what it was like at “Netta”. However, I encourage you, our Pioneer family, to ask these 4 amazing Middlers what their experience was like. Don’t be afraid! These 4 youth are amazing, bright, wonderful middlers, who are excited about their “Netta” experience!
I enjoyed this trip as much as they did, it was an honor and a complete joy to share it with Jenna, Brandon H., Sean and Brandon G. and it has been a privilege to share some of their experiences with all of you. I hope we can each take a little of Massanetta with us every day and start our own processes of turning 180 degrees toward God, and towards living a God-filled life.
In Peace, Heather M.
The Pioneer youth made up half of the worship processional last night as we gathered together for communion. It was a powerful experience for them walking through and around almost 1200 others and preparing to receive the elements of the table. In our back home group time last evening, each person in the group prayed allowed for their prayer partner of the week. THe ability of these young people to life each other up and affirm their peers and the adult leaders as children of God is very moving.
The morning keynote today began with a dramatic interpretation of Revelation 21 and 22 from the Jeremiah Project small group in which Taylor participated this week. Youth can apply to be a part of this group who gets to particpate in lots of behind the scenes ways and particpate in keynote and worship leadership. Young people is this group have also spent some time exploring Christian vocation. The keynoters this morning challenged all of us to think about being our true selves, the people that God created us to be. We heard the message reinforced that God believes in us, even when we don’t believe in ourselves. The question was posed to us Is the life we are living, the life that wants to be living in us? How can we grow as followers of the way in the footsteps of Jesus Christ? Waters that were poured into the baptsmal font on Monday morning from all regions represented here this week, had been mixed together in the font and we now have a bottle full, waiting to be unbottled in the world. The living water of Jesus Christ! The final two small group sessions take place today, and the conference will conclude with worship and a service of candlelight around Lake Susan. It has been a sacred week in many authentic ways for our youth, and we will have many pictures and video reactions from our young people to share with the congregation in the near future! Thank you for all of your love and support as we have spent the week “In These Waters”!!! We continue to pray for all of you and look forward to seeing you in worship Sunday morning!
Today was the best day! It was unanimous. Brandon G loved the “free recreation” period in the sun. Brandon H and Sean said the dance was “intense”. Jenna played soccer with new friends during free time. They also had fun watching the “enablers”, the talented high school seniors who lead much of this program, perform a play depicting school life with cliques that force conformity to feel accepted.
The theme of turning 180 degrees was advanced in the small group discussions and workshops. The “middlers” experienced ways to consider what their gifts might be and how they might use them for God.
The day ended with a vesper service “A Turn to Bless”. We were moved by the experience of being anointed with oil in candle light … “do not conform to the world but transform it for God“.
The service made us realize our time at Massanetta is coming to an end. The middlers would like the camp to continue (with a little more time to sleep). One important act they want to accomplish Friday is to say good-bye to their new encounter group friends and enablers. There could be tears…
don s.
Our youth are preparing to lead worship as part of the processional as I type this. Please pray that God may open our hearts, minds and ears to be fully present in this service. Receiving communion with 1200 plus is a gift indeed! Note to parents: Phone time has been adjusted to 10:30ish tonight because of worship preparation!!!!
