ETC. LEADERS AND YOUTH GRATEFUL!

Stephanie Sutton, Chuck Graf, and I would like to thank all the members of our congregation at BCC .

Our church courageously moved ahead with an idea and made it happen. How grateful we are for your generous support of donations and prayers that this trip was made and was such a success.

With God by our side, we were able to teach Bible lessons, sing songs in Spanish, and move very heavy concrete block and steel beams atop a soon to be protected home. Never take what we have here in the Beautiful USA for granted. A roof on a house is a very important thing. Every time the wind blows or it rains, we will think of those families and they will think of us.

After seeing the smiling faces of the people that were touched by the love, hard work, and teaching that our group brought to them, we know that this is indeed a life changing event.  Our group will forever feel closer to each other, be stronger in our faith, and feel humbled that you had such faith in us.   

Thank you so much, from the bottom of our hearts. We hope to see you all at the Thank You Stockholders Luncheon after church on Sunday, September 14^th at 11:30 a.m.  

ETC.

SENIOR HIGH YOUTH

Upcoming events for the ETC. Youth:

Friday, September 5^th - Saturday, September 6^th:  ETC. Kickoff Camp Out

Join ETC. for some camping fun!  In place of a regularly scheduled Sunday ETC. meeting, help us kick-off the academic ETC. year starting at 7:00p.m. on Friday night at the Rankin Family farm in Sussex -- where Stephanie lives.  Watch your email for specific details, including carpooling information and a packing list.

If you have any questions, contact Stephanie Sutton or Chuck Graf.

Sunday, September 14^th: "Stockholders" Luncheon

All BCC members who donated funds to the 2008 Mexico Mission Trip, aka "stockholders", are invited to a Thank You Luncheon on Sunday, September 14, 2008 from 11:30a.m.-12:30p.m.  During this time mission trip participants will present information about each day of the mission trip along with accompanying pictures and videos.  Please sign up on the bulletin board in the Narthex if you are able to join us.

THANK YOU!

    A very special thank you to all the ladies (and gentleman) that purchased jewelry after worship in July.  We raised a whopping $400 for the youth mission trip to Mexico!! 

The monies were held for safekeeping should the youth representatives need something while on their trip.  Any unused dollars were given to the leaders there, in Mexico, as a gift from our congregation. 

G.O.D. GROUP -- MIDDLE SCHOOL YOUTH

On Sunday August 3^rd  our G.O.D. group was invited to join the Trinity UCC youth group to help out with their Car Wash fund raiser. 

A great time was had by all and the cars left brighter and shinier than they came in. Our kids provided some much needed assistance to the busy operation, which made $520 towards the Trinity UCC camp scholarship fund.  Each year they help send Christian campers to the Pilgrim Center and Moon Beach UCC camps.  Trinity UCC graciously decided to share the profits with us and a donation of $100 was received by our youth group.  We were very happy to share in the work and the fun.

JULY 2008 YOUTH MISSION TRIP TO MEXICO

Thanks to those who brought their cars out to be washed and special thanks to the kids who came out to help wash cars - Tina, Tiffany, Ashley and Ed.

The members of the Etc. High School youth group would sincerely like to thank each and every member of our church family for their support of our 2008 mission trip to Mérida, Yucatán, Mexico. The support we received monetarily and through your prayers and thoughts is what made this trip of a lifetime possible. As part of our thank you, we’d like to share with you our experience in Mexico and what it meant for us to be there.

The construction aspect of our trip consisted of three different work sites. The first day we worked on a roof for ‘El Refugio de Jovenes’ – the Boy’s Shelter. This is where young men can stay while trying to attend school or working through Accion. We were responsible for building the second story roof over one of the rooms. This involved lifting each individual concrete beam up to the first roof and then up another level. After each beam was in place we brought up endless concrete blocks to put between the beams. Due to the heat that day, we postponed our cement work until very late that night. We started our work with the cement at 11:00pm and worked until 3:00am. The next two days of construction were done at different home sites across town.   The people who owned these houses belonged to the same church as Roger, one of our Accion leaders, belonged to.  These people worked hard to provide for their families but didn’t have enough left to put a roof over their home. Each day we worked hard to finish the roof and we could see how grateful the families were for our work. After each job, we truly felt as though we had accomplished something.

Each evening, after the construction work, we drove across town to a small church to teach Vacation Bible School (VBS) for the local children. Each night, more and more kids came and brought friends to hear the Bible passages, do the crafts we prepared for them and have fun. Before VBS began we played games with the children. Some played soccer while others played ‘pato pato ganso’, or duck duck goose. Each night was a new Bible story and we would act out each passage as Roger read it in Spanish for the children. At the end of each night, none of the children wanted us to leave and it got harder to leave them every time. It was incredible to see how much these children came to trust and care for us even though we’d only known them a few short days. During the final day of VBS we brought them small gifts that included a bouncy ball, a friendship bracelet and a cross necklace as well as an apple, as it went along with the story of Adam and Eve.

During our free time we had the opportunity to explore downtown Mérida with Jason and Jen, the volunteers from the United States dedicating their summers to helping groups like ours. It was fun to see and hear everything from this new culture. We also had a chance to visit Progresso Beach and have a day of fun in the ocean, on the beach, or under the tiki huts. Our last full day in Mexico we went to a place called Mayan Adventures where we saw and heard about the Mayan ruins. There we also zip-lined across and repelled down into a deep freshwater cenote. Each of these experiences was something new and exciting and taught us all so much about a completely different culture. Everything we saw in Mexico helped make our trip as incredible as it was. All of us were sad to leave, but we came home with appreciation for new things, a close-knit friendship with the entire group, and a feeling that we accomplished something for the greater good. It was the experience of a lifetime, and we cannot thank our congregation enough for the kind support shown through our entire journey. It was you who made this possible and you were all as much a part of this trip as we were. Without you, this would have been only a mere idea instead of a reality and we’re all truly grateful that we could make this happen.

          ETC. Senior High Youth,

YOUTH LIFE BOARD:

The Youth Life Board consists of six members – four adults and two youth. The purpose statement for the youth ministry at BCUCC is as follows: The youth ministry at BCUCC exists to celebrate God, invite our neighbors, serve the community, and support one another as we grow in faith and love.

In that spirit, the Youth Life Board plans and oversees fellowship, mission and faith building activities for our youth.

The G.O.D. group is for middle school aged youth. The G.O.D. group meets once a month and participates in fellowship and mission based activities.

The ETC. group is for high school aged youth. ETC. meets twice a month to discuss relevant social and religious issues and to engage in fellowship. The ETC. group also undertakes a mission trip every year. This year, on July 8-14 the ETC. youth and chaperones went on a week long mission trip to Denver, Colorado.

Both youth groups have bulletin boards on the doors in the hallway outside of the church library. These bulletin boards provide photos of past activities and information regarding upcoming meetings and activities.

If you have any questions or ideas for the Youth Life Board, please feel free to speak with any of the Youth Life Board members.