Vacation Bible School at St. John

Information about VBS 2015 at St. John:

(pass it on!)

VBS goes from Monday, August 3rd to Friday, August 7th, from 9 a.m.- noon.

There are also early drop off and late pick up options (early drop off: 8 a.m., late pick up is 1 p.m. These times will not be filled with curriculum activities or lessons, but rather organized and supervised free-time.) 

The ages for vacation bible school are pre-school through fifth grade. Any youth in sixth grade through twelfth are invited to be VBS helpers/volunteers!

Classes are grouped according to age. Pre-school children have their own class and curriculum. The rest of the classes are kindergarten and 1st together, 2nd and 3rd together, and 4th and 5th together.

A day at VBS involves highly engaging music, crafts, science, service activities, and bible study. Snack is included in VBS, too. The daily routine is rotation based, giving kids an opportunity to enjoy all different kids of activities. 

Registration is found here, in June's Eagle issue, and the upcoming July Eagle. Registration forms will also be available on the bulletin board across from the nursery, and can be submitted to Mary's mailbox in the office, office upstairs, mailed to the church, or scanned and emailed. **There is no cost to register for VBS**

See you this summer!

Youth Sunday 2015

Thanks to everyone who came to worship on Youth Sunday!

Our service leaders and skit performers provided a lovely morning of worship and afternoon of fun and fellowship.

Stay tuned to social media for news and details of summer events!

Facebook

Instagram: sjlcfaith

Youth Sunday- Can you help?

Calling all parents of this Sunday's worship leaders:

As many of you know, we will have a bounce house and barbecue following our upcoming Youth Sunday service. We'll have hamburgers and hot dogs ready to go, but we are asking for volunteers to bring side dishes for this event. 

If you are able to contribute a dish or a dessert, please shoot me an email . 

The kids are so excited to lead St. John in worship this Sunday! 

Thank you for your participation and support of our Sunday School and youth events. It is extremely appreciated.

I hope to see all of you this Sunday!

**Youth Sunday Rehearsal Reminder**:

Saturday, June 6th, 9 AM: All youth are asked to arrive at church at this time to practice our service for Sunday.

Sunday, June 7th: Confirmation class and skit participants, please arrive at church at 8:30 AM

All of our readers, greeters, and helpers should arrive at 9 AM before our service begins at 9:30 AM.

 

Youth Trip to LCLC

Adopt-A-Project Work Day

April 25, 2015

"A special day devoted to groups and individuals for taking on a predetermined project."

 

 

Adam and I will be heading to LCLC on Saturday, April 25th to help with some projects on camp, and we'd like to bring any interested youth along, too!

 

We pitched the idea at one of our youth nights a couple of weeks ago, and several kids expressed interest in visiting LCLC and helping out. (We'll be trimming trails, filling pot holes, etc. Nothing too laborious and nothing dangerous!)

 

Any one interested, grades 7-12, please let me know. We will figure out rides and departing times from there!

 

Happy Spring. At last.

email

Sunday School and Haven House

Tomorrow I will be explaining to our Sunday School students what Haven House is all about.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with Haven House, it is a safe place that shelters women and children who have had to leave their homes due to dangerous domestic situations.

These women and children often leave their house with nothing, and Haven House relies on donations of brand new, unworn clothing to supply for them.

Sunday School students are asked to join us in collecting donations for Haven House; specifically, for children.

If you have a child in Sunday School and are able to join us in this effort, over the next couple Sundays, we will be collecting and contributing *Brand New* children's pajamas, underwear, and socks for Haven House.

The Social Committee at St. John will be collecting these same items for adults. We hope to generate a large contribution for these women and children in need!

Are you on Instagram? Find St. John @sjlcfaith for photos involving Youth Night, Sunday School, and our other events! Here are a couple recent photos from Spaghetti Dinner prep, Last Tuesday's Youth Night, and Sunday School (lesson: Jesus' Parade):

POSTPONED Winterfest and Youth Memo/Update

Hopefully you all received Pastor Scott's email regarding Winterfest and Chili Cook-Off being postponed.

New Winterfest Date: (pushed back one week) Sunday, February 22nd

Volleyball Marathon Registrations are due Monday, Feb 16th.

Open to kids grades 6-12.

Registration cost is $25 (Proceeds go to Lutheran Charities of WNY)

Myself, and youth from St. John will all be on a team, and compete with other teams of youth groups/congregations in the area! 

Let your child be assured, volleyball skills are not at all required for this event. I don't know that I can successfully throw a volleyball in the air and then catch it. This event is less competitive and much more social. Though, I'll admit, after you've been broken in the first few rounds, you get much better. (Not confident how that rule pertains to the fifth or sixth hour.)

The event goes from 8 pm Friday (Feb 19th) to 7 am Saturday (Feb 20th).

Buffalo Niagara Court Center, 425 Meyer Rd. in West Seneca

Yes- it's an all-nighter. 

Still, there is no way your kid won't extremely enjoy this experience. I've gone a couple years, (some years ago) as a volunteer, and it's always been a blast.

Visit this website for more details and photos. Learn about the service portion of this event!

After the success of last Tuesday's Youth Night, I have a feeling we'll have quite the fun and energetic team.

Youth Night had it's first run last Tuesday from 7-9 

This is for kids grades 7-12

We had pizza, played some serious hide and seek, and we had great discussion. 

This will be an every-other-week gathering led by myself, and Pastor Scott's intern, Adam Weber.

Contact me about your child joining us! They've got to be apart of the awesomeness unfolding; they won't regret it.

Winterfest, Chili Cook-Off, Facebook Debut

Friends and members of St. John,

I hope you'll join us after 10:30 service this Sunday, February 15th, for a good-time afternoon. 

While we hoped to get layered up and play in the snow, Sunday's forecast says it'll be a whopping TWO DEGREE day. Should this be the case, we'll be having an 

indoor-field-day-olympics upstairs in the youth room/ Sunday School area. 

And should you be so brave, enter the chili cook-off contest! Contestants are awfully confident this year, but I think we can all agree, so long as Pastor Scott doesn't take the gold, we've all won. 

Let us celebrate the winter traditions that don't involve shoveling!

We're also trying to grow our Facebook page!

Check it out, and give us a 'like'!

Spaghetti Dinner

Sunday, March 8th

Spaghetti Dinner Fundraiser at St. John Lutheran

ELCA Rise Up Together National Gathering, Detroit, MI

Dinner 5-6:30 pm

Theme basket Auction

50/50 Raffle

Adults $10.00    

Children $5.00

Save the date, folks! 

We will begin selling tickets for this event on Sunday, February 15th (between services).

Plenty of volunteer positions to be filled in order to make this event a success.

We need youth volunteers to help prepare and serve dinner. 

Please email me if you would like to get involved!

Last Weekend

The confirmation retreat at LCLC this past weekend was a huge success!  We coupled our bible study with the snowy adventure course, and it was a great experience. We enjoyed the winter weather with a fireside worship, lots of sledding and games in the great outdoors. Here are some photos I took from this weekend. I'm hoping we can get some even better photos onto the TV to share with all of you this Sunday!

Confirmation Weekend Retreat 1/15-1/17

I hope you all had a lovely Christmas and New Year!

This has been my first time working at a church during the holidays. It was certainly busy, sometimes hectic; but I have never felt so apart of such a special community than I have at St. John. It was awesome being part of the worship team that held the Advent services on Saturday evenings. I was blown away watching our youth's outstanding performance in the Christmas Play. It was incredible to witness the ways each one of those kids brought their individual strengths and energies to make that come together so beautifully.

It has truly been a blessing to worship with fellow members in such intimate and unique ways throughout December. I feel so fortunate to have gotten to know people better through the experience.

But the fun isn't over! I am SO excited to go with four of our confirmands to Lake Chautauqua Lutheran Center for the confirmation retreat this weekend. I volunteered for the same retreat last year, and we all had a blast. I'm ecstatic to see a lot of the kids from last year returning for the retreat this year. LCLC is a remarkable place, the way it creates immediate community and holds an atmosphere where everyone in it can enjoy and be themselves. 

The theme for this weekend is "Promises"; what a promise means, what God's promises are, broken promises, and making promises. We've got a creative and enthusiastic team who are sure to deliver the theme in an impacting, powerful way!

To parents of confirmation students who were unsure last Sunday if their schedules permitted the retreat, it's not too late for your child to attend! Always, the more kids the merrier. There will be plenty of fun this weekend for both those highly active and those who prefer to check out nature, play cards, etc.

Please email me if you'd like to get your child aboard the retreat. We're departing from St. John on Friday (about 4 pm), and we're departing from LCLC about noon. Or shoot me a call (515-5964). I'm happy to answer any questions and do whatever I can to get your child there with us.

This Weekend

Youth Outing 7-10 pm

Friday evening, Adam and I are coordinating an event for youth (Grades 7-12)! If your child is interested in attending, please let me know ahead of time! The more the merrier; however, we are meeting at church at 7 pm before going out for an activity.


Advent Worship

This Saturday at 5:00 is our final Advent Worship. Myself and the worship planning team are really excited about what we have planned. I hope most of you who have really enjoyed the last two worships can make it for this one! If you haven't been able to attend one yet, this Saturday is sure to be a special experience. 


Any questions regrading Christmas Play rehearsal this week, please send me an email.

I hope all are enjoying this holiday season with their family and loved ones.

Christmas Play, Christmas Party, Youth Gathering

I would just like to post some friendly reminders:

this Saturday! ~ Christmas Party for kids (Grades 1-5) at St. John, from 1-4 pm. See post below for details!

Christmas Play ~ While holiday schedules are crowded and crazy, parents, please try to run lines with your children before our second last rehearsal, this Sunday, at 9:30. We will be rehearsing in the Sanctuary.

It's ideal that, for this rehearsal, we only minimally refer to scripts. We'll be practicing our songs for the play, "Silent Night" and "O Come All Ye Faithful", which will take some rehearsal time from reading lines. Costumes will be ready for our Saturday Dec. 20 rehearsal.

Parents, please see your child attends remaining rehearsals with their copy of the script.

Youth Gathering ~ We need to register our youth for the gathering by the end of this year! Please see me or contact me about the required registration form.

Any questions or comments, please submit to this post, or please email me!

Elementary Youth Christmas Party at St. John

Saturday, December 13th 1-4 pm

Christmas Party at St. John for grades 1-5!

Parents, please check out the event details on the Organic Youth website.

I will be attending the party and helping the Senior High leaders with the fun activities they have planned!

Organic Youth is a team of fun, energetic, well-experienced youth leaders. 

Consider this Christmas party as an opportunity for kids to participate in a service project, along with games and good old cookie decorating! Why not also take the opportunity to get some holiday errands and shopping done :)

Please don't hesitate to contact me with any questions; you can always post to this blog or send me an email.

Rescheduled Rehearsal and Overnight

I hope everyone enjoyed their Thanksgiving!

It's almost hard to believe it's already time for Christmas parties and gatherings. 

While we hoped to have a 7th-12th grade Christmas overnight at St. John on Friday, December 12, due to too many schedule conflicts, I decided we would try to postpone. Hopefully December 19th could work better. Christmas cookies, movies, pizza, capture the flag and games alike would make for an awesome evening! Kids are invited to bring a friend or two, too!

It was also brought to my attention that in years past, the Saturday Christmas play rehearsal has been held earlier in the morning. Especially since our play is the last Saturday before Christmas this year, I can absolutely understand why this rehearsal is more convenient if held earlier. While more reminders will be cast, please take note we will now be meeting on December 20th at 9am for our last Christmas play rehearsal. (9-1030). I hope this agrees better with most schedules!

Our next meeting to practice the Christmas play will be December 7, 930-1030.
This will be our first rehearsal running through lines together! Also, for those unable to be in the play, please feel welcome to help us with making props and eventually helping with costumes!

Lots of baking and fun were had last Friday! 

Thank you for your pie purchases and donations! You've given us a solid start to our fundraising for the Youth Gathering! Happy Thanksgiving to all. 

This Sunday, November 23

Along with our apple pie sale (see previous posts), this Sunday is the first meeting for all Sunday School classes to receive parts and scripts for the annual Christmas play!

The Christmas play is open to all those who can lend their talents and time and participate! Roles in the play are not only for Sunday School students grades Pre-K-6th. For those who would like to be involved but don't care for any lines, or are only able to attend one or two rehearsals, come to our meeting to see how you can help!

Christmas play rehearsals: 

Sunday, November 23rd 9:30-10:30
** No Meeting Sunday, November 30th ** Happy Thanksgiving!
Sunday, December 7th 9:30-10:30
Sunday, December 14th 9:30-10:30
Saturday, December 20th 9:00-10:30
Sunday, December 21st (FINAL practice, with instruments, props, etc.) 9:30

The Christmas play will be Sunday, December 21st, 10:30 am, followed by a pizza party!

If you have not yet done so, please email me (or just submit a comment to this post!) if your child would like a bigger role in the play. Actors with several lines should be able to attend almost all, if not all, rehearsals. 

More December event details coming up! While I love this blog, I have to resist going on about too many things in one post. Stay tuned! Subscribe to our blog so you're always in the loop. Please don't hesitate to send any comments, questions, or suggestions my way! I'm here to help establish a place for kids to learn and grow in Christ and community. Ideas are always appreciated!

Let us pray that the snow lets up for our South towns and those stranded will be returned to safety!

Apple Pie Sale & ELCA Youth Gathering

This Sunday, pick up your apple pies between 8:30 and 10:30 services. If you didn't get your hands on a pre-order form, don't you worry! We are making plenty. They go for $10, and all the money raised will fund getting our youth to the annual Youth Gathering, which is in Detroit. 

I am very excited to go to the Youth Gathering next July- it will be my first time! Until I started becoming involved with youth gatherings, retreats, and events of that nature, I had no idea what this annual Youth Gathering looked like or was even about. I remember when I was in high school, spending summers at LCLC, and noticing other kids wearing "ELCA Youth Gathering" t-shirts. When I would ask what their shirts stood for, I always got something to the effect of "you had to be there" or "you wouldn't understand". After viewing this video, I'm realizing maybe those kids weren't just trying to sound cool and exclusive. This is an amazing example of the power and beauty in faith and action.

ELCA Youth Gathering 2015

Here we go!

Hello members and friends of St. John!

You are now reading the very first post of St. John's brand new blog! Visit this blog when looking for Sunday School updates or details about upcoming youth events. This blog allows communication between parents, members and myself, (your youth director) to be better received, accessed and interactive! 

I want to thank all of you who have been so patient with my (sadly, several) failed attempts at establishing a method of communication that works best for all members of the church. Your kindness and encouragement are what make my job rewarding... and possible!

A special thank you goes out to Rob and Amanda Zdrojewski, who have been beyond helpful getting me set up with this blog, and other areas of communication. Your generous assistance and advice will benefit all of us at St. John!

Subscribe to this blog via the little box in the top right corner of this page. By subscribing, you'll receive no more than one email a day, which simply notifies you of any new blog postings that have been published in the last 24 hours. 

I hope I get the chance to know more of you, especially with the eventful holiday season upon us!

Mary Braisted

Christian Ed. & Youth Director