What I Did This Summer was to hang out with some amazing middle and high schoolers! The greatest perk of my position as Director of Youth Ministries is to observe the EH Youth members in action—watching them adapt to different environments and interact in loving ways to those around them with great energy and joy. The summer theme was Focusing on Faith & Fun and that is exactly what we did, in between the camps, jobs and vacations of our members. Below are short descriptions of the extra ways we spent time together and gave our time to others:

• Wednesday REEL Time Movie & Bible Studies was a great time for some small group discussions and activities that related to The Princess Bride (best movie EVER), Contact and Remember the Titans.
• Youth Week is an annual tradition of weeklong activities that are a combination of outreach and fellowship. Our outreach for 2010 was to provide volunteers for Camp Hollywood, sponsored by FOCUS (Families of Children Under Stress). It was amazing to watch our participants interact with and love these “children with disabilities and/or medical needs and their siblings.” There was great feedback from Youth and Youth parents. Even better, we have already been invited back to participate in 2011! The fellowship activities for the week included Six Flags, a pool party, dinner and an outdoor movie at Atlantic Station, and a lock-in. Many thanks to volunteers and parents for help with chaperoning and driving. The best part about this week is the inclusion of the rising 7th graders as members of Youth Fellowship and Sunday School.
• Another long-standing tradition is volunteering for EHUMC Vacation Bible School. There were about 23 of us each day and, as expected, everyone did a great job with their assigned area and extra Friday clean-up. Youth really help to make this week-long ministry a success each year (and the kids LOVE all the attention, too!)
• Our summer mission trip took us to Savannah, GA (July 26-30). Special thanks to Brian Jones, Al Coltrane and Leigh Anna Lang for their leadership on this trip. With 16 Youth and 4 adults, Embry Hills UMC was the largest of the 5 participating churches through the YouthWorks!-organized mission trip. Clearly, your Youth were the leaders, which was bound to happen as we had the oldest group. However, it was some of our youngest who initiated reaching out to other church youth and began interacting and mingling on the first evening. Besides the great gifts of service they gave to individual home repairs, nursing homes, a children’s church day camp, an area Boys & Girls club, homeless shelters and a food bank, making a huge difference in the lives of many in Savannah, they learned a lot about themselves and their youth group, which I hope gave them a sense of pride in who they are and what they believe. Our final August Youth Fellowship program is a potluck dinner with our families and sharing a slide show and some stories about the trip.

In addition to all the planned activities, many EH Youth have begun adding their touch to the Embry Hills worship services on a more regular basis. Already in place is an amazing acolyte program with amazing adult volunteer leadership. That leadership now includes many senior high youth and youth alumni who are guiding the Sunday participants on a rotating schedule. Also, several Youth members have been trained on our sanctuary sound system and are regularly overseeing this important aspect of the Sunday worship services. Is there anything these 6th-12th graders can’t do?!? Umm, I’ll let you know if I figure that one out…

~Victoria