New Season! New Leaders! New Theme!

Hey everyone! As summer draws to a close and the leaves start changing colour, our thoughts start turning towards all the regular activities that we had put on hold for the summer. After a 2 or 3 month hiatus, we are preparing for a new season of Bible study and fellowship with Youth Group! And there are a lot of exciting things to look forward to!

First of all, we unfortunately had to say "farewell" to a few of our leaders from last season. Thank you Mike, Carissa, and Janelle for all of your hard work and dedication. It was greatly appreciated and we will miss you! May God bless your further involvement in Bible studies and Home Mission and may He make you a blessing to others wherever He has called you to use your leadership talents!

This season, we welcome Karin, Justin, Nadine, and Rachel to our leadership team. They all have lots of ideas and lots of enthusiasm and we pray that God will use them and bless them as they serve Him in this way!

Speaking of service, that is what we have chosen as our theme for this year. Our theme text will be: "Each one of you should use whatever gift he has received to serve others, faithfully administering God's grace in its various forms." (1 Peter 4:10) At the time of writing this, we have yet to firmly decide upon a study guide, but we are working hard on that and will have one ready to go for our first study meeting on Sunday October 3rd!

Below is the "welcome letter" being handed out to all prospective members of YG for this season. It further explains the theme that has been chosen and gives other important updates:

“Be Renewed” Burlington-Waterdown Youth Group invites YOU to join us this season as we take a closer look at our role as servants in God’s kingdom. Jesus is our ultimate example of what it means to be a true servant and it is from Him that we receive the call to serve one another:

“When he had finished washing their feet, he put on his clothes and returned to his place. ‘Do you understand what I have done for you?’ he asked them. ‘You call me ‘Teacher’ and ‘Lord’, and rightly so, for that is what I am. Now that I, your Lord and Teacher, have washed your feet, you should also wash one another’s feet. I have set you an example that you should do as I have done for you.’” – John 13:12-15

This season, we will explore how we can be servants within three different spheres: our own church, the communities that we live in, and in our global community. Through Bible study, hang-out time with fellow Youth Group members, and various service activities, we hope to grow together in faith and fellowship and be actively involved in the spread of the Gospel.
So, how exactly are we going to do all of this? Here are some more details!

WHO:
•Your Youth Group Leaders are: Karin Helder, Rosalyn Kieft, Liana Hordyk, Justin Krikke, Danielle Ludwig, Nadine Krikke, James Reinink, Sara Vanderhorst, Rachel Kieft

•Teens and young adults from Grade 9 up are welcome to attend Youth Group and participate in all the awesome activities! Boyfriends/girlfriends, cousins, friends etc. are more than welcome to visit as guests at any time as well. If you are going to be bringing a more ‘permanent’ guest, let us know so we can make sure we will have enough study guides etc.

WHAT:
•In September, we have several events that you can be a part of!
oSaturday, September 11th: Church picnic, the Youth Group leads games for kids and adults (Don’t forget to wear a funky/ugly t-shirt! Best shirt wins a prize!)
oSaturday, September 25th: Youth Group garage sale to raise funds for this season (more details on attached sign-up sheet)
oSunday, September 26th: Youth Group Kick-off evening – a hike after the second service and a potluck dinner at the church, followed by a speech by Rev. Vandeburgt and some great social time!

•Starting in October, we will have bi-weekly study meetings on Sunday nights starting at 7:00
oFirst study meeting: Sunday, October 3rd, location TBA
oNEW THIS YEAR: We are going to have the same small study groups each time we meet for the duration of our study (more on this on September 26th)

•We will host several speakers throughout our study season connected to our theme

•We will have various ‘service’ days where we will get together to serve people within our congregation, at different mission/outreach centres and we will raise funds to help in foreign missions as well

•There will be several fun fellowship events throughout the year: eg. laser-tag, snow-tubing, baseball games etc.

WHERE:
•We have a large Youth Group, but we really enjoy meeting in the homes of the members of our congregation because it provides a comfortable atmosphere and promotes fellowship with church members of all ages – if you and your family are willing to host us on a Sunday evening, send us an email and we will try to ask you well in advance which date works for you!

•Information about Youth Group can be found online at bwyouthgroup.blogspot.com or by emailing us at bwyouthgroup@gmail.com or by joining our Facebook group (Burlington-Waterdown Youth Group), on the bulletin board in the church basement, and through weekly or bi-weekly updates in the church bulletin…also, feel free to Facebook or speak directly to any of the Leaders at any time!

WHEN:
•As mentioned earlier, we meet on Sunday evenings for Bible study at 7:00 (meeting time will change to 7:30 when we return to 11:00 and 4:00 for Sunday service times)

•Social outings, service days and other events will mostly take place on Fridays and Saturdays…we will do our best to give lots of notice so you have the opportunity to book it off of work!

WHY:
•As Christians, it is important to remember that we are part of a body. We need to get to know each other, study God’s Word together, and act as a support to one another. It is a really great and special thing to be able to meet together as the youth of this church and get to know each other in the best way possible – as brothers and sisters in Christ, brought together in this church family. As Leaders, we take this very seriously and will work hard to make sure everyone feels safe and free to learn and grow and is valued and included as a member of this family, but we need everyone to be on board with this. God has given us the blessing of fellowship; let’s show we are thankful by loving and serving one another!

HOW:
•Just show up! Bring yourself, your Bible, the talents God has blessed you with, and a willingness to serve

•Pray for the Leaders and the Youth Group members that we will be able to serve to the best of our ability and strive to follow Jesus’ example

We look forward to serving with you!

Karin, Rosalyn, Liana, Justin, Danielle, Nadine, James, Sara, Rachel

Dessert Social!

Hello everyone!

Sorry that we have been slacking in the blog department. I can think of a million excuses, but I won't bore you with that.

I just wanted to put on here a fun little link to the DESSERT SOCIAL sign-up form.
It is easy to do and will only take a moment or two.

Please copy and paste this link, fill it out and click submit.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/viewform?hl=en&formkey=dExBTzFIMUtkUmJDbllfNXBzc1BBelE6MQ


We hope to see lots of people there.

1st Annual Church Skate

Hi Everyone!

Just a little while back, December 29th 2009, we had a free Church-wide skate. This event turned to be quite the success, with hundreds of different faces showing up between 6-9PM at North-Wentworth Arena. We hope to make this an annual event, and want to thank the following people and organizations for helping make the night as great as it was, whether by donations or by running the snack-stand:

• Artistic Landscapes
• Kitching, Steepe & Ludwig Funeral Home
• Eastway Bake Shoppe
• Marcon Construction
• Flamborough Construction
• Rehoboth Hospitality Committee

If you'd like to donate to next year's skate please contact the Burlington-Waterdown Youth Group at bwyouthgroup@gmail.com.

Check out some pictures from the event below:

Last meeting of 2009

This past Sunday (December 13th) we concluded our 2009 Youth Group season. The Ludwigs, gladly, allowed us into their house for this meeting which began with some socializing and then some popular Christmas songs. After that, we exchanged our $5 gift certificates. To do this we played a small game, take a look at the link to see the rules: Gift Card Game. It was a lot of fun, and people got a wide variety of gift cards from, Tim Horton's, McDonald's, Chapters, Starbucks, Blockbuster, Harvey's, Booster Juice and The Bulk Barn.



Then, for the second year in a row we made cards for the entire congregation. Everyone put their creative skills to work, making over 100 cards, which we in turn put in mailboxes this upcoming Sunday.



Overall, I think that everyone had a great night and it was a great to end the 2009 season. But don't forget about the free skating that YG is hosting for the congregation on Dec. 28, 6-9 at North Wentworth arena.

On behalf of the YG leaders, we wish you and your family the Lord's blessing during this Christmas season. See you all back in the new year.

Carissa

Meeting -- November 29, 2009

This past Sunday, our pastor and his wife invited the entire Youth Group to have our bible study at their home. Thank you!

As always, we started our meeting with announcements. Here they are in case you forgot:

1. VBS will be starting up again the first week of the summer, keep that in the back of your mind as you start holidays, it's great for volunteer hours!
2. December 10 there is a Christmas sing-a-long at some local old age homes. We'd like to see a number of youth show up (with their instruments). Check the bulletin for details.
3. December 29 there is our first Burlington Waterdown Public Skate. It is at North-Wentworth Arena from 6-9 p.m.
4. Our next meeting will be at the Ludwigs on December 13. Do not forget your $5 gift card for our gift card exchange. We will also be making cards, so bring your craft supplies and creativity.



Now to our study session.
We studied Colossians 1: 15-27. We spent some time looking at how the Bible describes Jesus and how he is the head of the church. We discussed how we have Christ keeping our lives together ( a cosmic adhesive). We are all followers of Christ and are therefore "holy", "without blemish" and "free from accusation". How blessed we are! How comforted we feel!

We must continue to pray for our relationships with others, especially those who we hope and pray will turn their life to Christ.



Finally, we finished our evening off with a game of taboo!

On behalf of the Youth Group,

Janelle

Kid's Night

Hello everyone!

This past Saturday, we hosted our annual Kid's Night.

The event always starts out with a craft. The younger crowd made wreaths, while the older ones used their imaginations and painted on canvases.

Next, we all played a variety of games. You'll have to ask your child how some of them are played. We played musical chairs, clothespin tag, taboo,balloon-pop tag, duck duck goose, shoveling snow, the dress-up game, and huckle buckle.

A Youth Group event is never complete without singing some songs! We had a great group of little singers who loved 'Repeat after me songs!' The actions were quite funny, I'm sure they'll tell you about it, and if you're lucky sing them to you!

Kid's Night also included a hot dog dinner and a story ( see picture at the top of the post). We had about 35 kids show up this year, from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 6.

This year was a great success, and we're looking forward to hosting it again in 2010! Check out a few more pictures below,

The BW Youth Group Leaders.

November 1st Meeting

Last night we (finally) finished off the first lesson in our study guide. We finished off the lesson about "A New Look at Church," we broke into 3 different groups and each group had their own fruitful discussions. In the group I was in, we talked about witnessing to people that we come into contact with during the day and how we can grow in our faith life.

This Saturday is the annual kid's night, and it looks like it will be a full house again with close to 30 kids coming. We have some fun crafts and games planned for the afternoon and we will finish the night off with the hot dog dinner.

Next week's YG meeting will be at the church with Flamborough and we hope to have Cornelius Broersema say a few words.

Until next time,
Carissa