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FPCA Youth E-Newsletter February 10, 2009
Hi there! Hope this little note finds you all well! We had a fun weekend here with the FPCA Youth. On Friday night, the High School guys played Rock band dress up, watched movies and ran around in the snow in their bathing suits! Then on Saturday night, some of the High School girls headed to Philly for ice skating and a trip to the Naked Chocolate café, where we indulged in pure chocolate yummyness! Then on Sunday, the Tecate team built a house blindfolded, and we finished off the weekend by having a great time at BASIC playing hardcore games such as Shuffle Your Buns, Cardboard Box Fingerblaster Dodgeball, and Kubb! It was a fun weekend! High School AP Bible Study This Wednesday, February 11 from 6:30pm – 8:00pm at Sarah and Andrew’s place (206A N Bethlehem Pike, Fort Washington)! We’ll be eating dinner together from 6:30-7:00pm, then digging into another parable as we try to make sense of what it means to live as a Christian in our every day lives! Come join us for homemade sloppy joes and caramel brownies… and great discussion too! Confirmation and Sunday School The Confirmands and High School students will go to worship together this Sunday. Meet in the Sr High Room by 9:30! Junior High will have class as usual! BASIC Youth Group! Sunday, February 8 from 6-8pm for Middle Schoolers and 7-9pm for High Schoolers at Church! Come join us as we talk about the Trinity, have some time to reflect on our week, and of course, play some crazy games! Aid for Africa Concert Friday, February 27th from 7:30-9:30pm at Upper Dublin High School! Admission $5. Aid for Africa is a club at Upper Dublin High School led by Molli Ferrarello (one of our youth group members!). They are sponsoring a concert to raise awareness and money for two organizations that are helping those in desperate need in Africa. The funds raised by this event will go to an organization in Uganda called Invisible Children, and another in Kenya and Swaziland called Sound of Hope which works to feed orphans in those countries. This is a great cause, so mark it on your calendar and plan to go for a great night of music! Laser Tag All-Nighter Friday, March 6th from 11:00pm to Saturday, March 7th at 7:00am! Plan on coming to this crazy all-night laser tag extravaganza! We are going to be taking over the Ultrazone Laser Tag facility in Neshaminy for the night. A bunch of other youth groups are going to join us for the fun! Definitely invite friends to this super-great event! Sign up by replying to this e-mail or signing up in the youth room!
That’s it for this week! Hope to see you soon!
Peace and a dozen red roses,
Sarah Dickinson Director of Youth Ministries First Presbyterian Church of Ambler
YS STUDENT NEWSLETTER #380February 9, 2009 Contents
================================= 1. SOMETHING FOR YOUR HEARTWHAT ARE THE TEENAGE YEARS ABOUT? Okay, make sure your seatbelt is fastened tight because we're going to teach you three big words in this little chapter. (You can use them to impress your parents and teachers.) People who study teenagers (like, college professors who specialize in understanding teenagers) talk about the teenage years as being a period of time between childhood and adulthood. And they say there are three "tasks" of the teenage years--not tasks like taking out the trash or finishing your homework, but three things teenagers must try to figure out related to who they are before they become adults. The first one is Identity. Your identity is who you are or who you think you are. We know that's kind of hard to think about. It's especially difficult to think about when you're a young teenager because your brain is barely able to handle thoughts like that. In a few more years, this will be a bit easier for you. Just know that your identity is how you think about yourself. It's the sum total of all the conclusions you make about yourself, who you are, and why you exist. The second task is called Autonomy. That's a big word that just means "being unique" or "being different." As a teenager your task is to figure out how you're different from other people. It's about discovering if you and your choices really matter. It's wrestling with the question: Why should I be responsible? And the final task is Affinity. (These aren't in any order, by the way--you'll work on all of them at the same time for lots of years.) Affinity is a fancy word for things that are alike. So this task is about figuring out where you belong, where you fit. Little kids fit into their family. Adults fit into a certain community or group of people. Where do you fit? Where do you belong? We're not suggesting you sit down with a pad of paper and write answers to these questions. It doesn't work that way. You have to live with the questions for a number of years. You have to try things on (almost like trying on clothes before you buy them). You have to make some bad decisions and learn from them. You have to experience success and failure. OTHERS' EXPECTATIONS One of the major differences of being a teenager (from what things were like when you were a little kid) is what people expect from you. You've probably already noticed this. When you were a little kid, people had pretty simple expectations, like: - Listen when you're being spoken to. - Eat your vegetables. - Be respectful to your parents and other adults. - Don't lie. - Cover your mouth and nose when you sneeze. And other things that don't take too much work to figure out. But now that you're a teenager, this really begins to change. Adults will start (they've probably already started) treating you like a "junior adult." This can be frustrating at times because you won't always like being treated like a "junior." But it can also be pretty cool because it's fun to realize you're on the road to adulthood: - Adults will expect you to have conversations with them. - Adults will expect you to follow through on whatever you say you'll do. - Adults will expect you to do your part to help. - Adults will expect you to make decisions and deal with the consequences. - Adults will expect that you don't want to be treated like a little kid (and they'll be frustrated if you act like a little kid). Do you see what a major change this is? It's HUGE! Really, it all boils down to two things: responsibility and freedom. You want them both. Adults (parents, teachers, relatives) will start to give them to you, although probably not as quickly, or as much, as you'd like. We encourage you to enjoy this shift. Show the adults in your life that you can be trusted with responsibility and freedom, and they'll eventually give you more. **
Taken from
"My Changes" by Mark Oestreicher and
Scott Rubin, copyright 2008 Youth
Specialties/Zondervan. Used by
permission. Order the book here:
2. SURF REPORT
~ Do The
Right Thing
~ Youth
Service America
3. FORGETTABLE FACTPierce Brosnan once worked with the circus as a fire eater!
4. POTENT QUOTABLES
"Courage
is the most important of all the
virtues, because without courage you
can't practice any other virtue
consistently. You can practice any
virtue erratically, but nothing
consistently without courage."
"The most
common way people give up their power is
by thinking they don't have any."
5. UH, THAT'S FUNNY?Q: Why was the Energizer Bunny arrested? A: He was charged with battery.
If you want to be added to the mailing list, shoot Sarah an e-mail at Sarah@fpcambler.org!
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