Youth News

Contact: Lisa Mensinger, Director of Youth Ministries at (801-582-2321, Ext. 11) or email: youth@zelc.org

Saturday, May 5th 9 am - 1 pm
The youth will be holding a car wash at the church. We hope you will spread
the news to family and friends and have them bring their cars, campers,
or trailers to be washed. Donations will go towards the YG in New Orleans
& other youth camping trips.

ELCA Youth Gathering - July 17 to July 22, 2012
In less than 80 days, the youth from Zion, St Matthews, Elim, Our Saviour & Prince of Peace in Logan will be heading to New Orleans for the National ELCA Youth Gathering. Please keep them in your prayers.

May 20th, Planning Meeting 2 - 5 pm
All youth attending the YG in July please plan to meet at the church at 12:30 pm. We are going on a field trip to Elim in Ogden!! We will join Elim, St Matthews & Our Saviour in preparing for the trip in July. We will explore the meaning behind Ephesians 2:14-20 as well as what it means to be citizens with the saints. We will also be brainstorming our t-shirt design & our small gifts that we will be giving out to all the friends we will make in New Orleans. Parents, we will be back at the church by 5:00 pm.

Summer Camps for Middle School & High School
* Deadline to let Lisa know which one you want to attend is May 5th. *

Youth Leadership Retreat (June 22-24) Grades 8th-12th Cost $55
Youth who want to explore the gifts of God has given them and learn how to use those gifts to serve the church and the world. The weekend is full of team building, leadership training, spiritual gift exploration and peer ministry moments.

Confirmation Intensive (June 24-29) Completed 6th-8th grades Cost $175
This camp was designed specifically for and by the congregations of the Rocky Mountain Synod. Campers will experience their faith in a unique, experiential way - they will meet the characters and live the stories. We received a special invitation; most congregations have to inform the camp a year in advance!

Rendezvous (June 24-29) Completed 9th-12th grades Cost $175
Jam-packed week with once-in-a-lifetime experiences. During the week, you will experience our low and high rope courses, hike the high altitude trails around Sky Ranch, spend a day serving others, and finish the week with an exhilarating rafting trip on the Poudre River. Campers sleep in tents and prepare meals over the fire.

New Orleans Youth Gathering July 18-22, 2012
The National Youth Gathering is approaching fast and we are so excited to attend the gathering with Megan White & Alex Hilse from St. Matthews. You may have seen Megan at the St Patty’s dinner singing with ZY Jam. Youth from Our Saviour & Elim Lutheran Churches will join us as well. In all, there will be 16 youth and 4 adults who head to this amazing event, being surrounded by thousands of fellow Lutherans.
We will be participating in activities that focus on discipleship, peacemaking & justice. The day of justice for our synod will be on Saturday when we head out into the community to work on a service project. We are getting more excited because we have just purchased our airline tickets and sent our deposit for the hotel rooms. We leave on Tuesday, July 17 at 5:15 pm and arrive in New Orleans at 9:30 pm. We return on Sunday at 10:05 am.
Please keep the attending youth and adults from Zion in your prayers: Alex Mensinger, Cody Reuschel, Claire Nelson, Emma & George Metos, Matt Parker, as well as Stephanie Metos & Lisa Mensinger.

April 15th Training for YG in New Orleans
Youth and their parents need to attend a three-hour training on Sunday, April 15th from 2:00 to 5:00 pm at Zion. You will NOT be bored with the crew presenting! These guys are a BLAST! Kristen Baltrum & Linda Staats will be leading the discussions, with activities planned by Ben Larson (Rainbow Trail) and Andy Sprain (Sky Ranch). The training will give you an idea of what to expect in New Orleans. Send Lisa Mensinger a quick email for your attendance youth@zelc.org. Let’s show Colorado how FUN Utah is!!

St. Patty’s Dinner Thank You
Thank you to everyone who attended the St Patty’s Dinner. We raised over $1,700 for the trip to the Youth Gathering in New Orleans and for other youth trips this summer. Thanks to the parents for their help, as well as all the contestants who participated in the Truth or Blarney game. Check out the pictures below!

Compassion Program
At Creation Fest, the Youth learned about Compassion International (www.compassion.com) and wanted to share the amazing stories that they heard from speakers who were children of the program. This year the Sunday School Program will be sponsoring 2 children from Haiti that the Youth have chosen. The monthly contribution from our Sunday School offerings will provide food & clean water, medical care, educational opportunities, and important life-skills training. Most important of all these children will hear about Jesus Christ and be encouraged to develop a lifelong relationship with God. We will be able to write to the children and read their responses. Thank you for your support in making a difference in another child’s life.

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Confirmation Happenings
Confirmation ministry is a pastoral and educational ministry of the church that helps the baptized through Word and Sacrament to identify more deeply with the Christian community and participate more fully in its mission.

We believe to help our Confirmands “identify more deeply with the Christian community” requires participation from the community.  Please pray for our Confirmands - Claire, Glenn and Preston.  Please consider providing lunch or participating in a calendar session on a Sunday to support pastoral education with the students following worship.  For more information, contact the church office or Marci Hall (raskhal96@gmail.com).

FROM THE CONFIRMATION RETREAT-APRIL 20-21, 2012:
What did the confirmands think about their faith journey?
Glenn Livengood: “I was surprised how much doubt is a part of confirmation, not just me, but
for everyone….I had never thought of outdoor water fountains as a remembrance of our
Baptism before, and it was interesting to see Pastor Steve’s view about it.”

Claire Nelson: “I was struck by doubt. I never before felt that my doubts about God could be Okay.
It always seemed shameful for me to doubt. I like knowing things for certain, but God isn’t like that. He leaves a gap that must be crossed in our minds-a leap of faith.”

Preston Sant: “My weekend was great because I got to hang out with my church friends. The other reason was that I got to see Hugo, the movie…I got to stay in a nice church for one night.”

Alexa’s Rude, Elim: “Over the weekend, I’ve realized that it’s just not about confirmation; it’s about our love for Jesus. I had so much fun learning about Jesus. I learned about 3 new people from Zion-Claire is really cool! All together, we each represent a different piece of His puzzle. I hope that I can come back next year with more confirmation students from my congregation.”

I am a long time member of Zion and have been thrilled with what is going on with the youth in our congregation. I am so excited to see their growth and devotion to helping others and their involvement with service projects. But what excites me most is the participation of all members of the congregation and their support for the youth activities. Lisa’s leadership has coalesced them into a caring, spiritual, service-oriented but none-the-less fun group.

One of my choicest memories is the spaghetti dinner last March. It was a thoroughly delightful evening. We were met at the door by a young man dressed in white shirt, black trousers and a red bow tie. He greeted us, asked the number in our party and escorted us to our table; pointed out the menu and took our beverage orders to report to the adult in charge of wine, since they were too young to serve liquor. We were served a delicious meal by servers in white and black outfits and treated like special guests. I was happy to learn that we are to be treated to another wonderful evening in March. I look forward to being in attendance and dining well.

The worship for the Souper Bowl of Caring was very meaningful. A serious subject was treated with both humor and realism. I particularly enjoyed the performance of the Gospel. The fund raising for the malaria project was awesome, over $1788, much of it in coin. I should know because Diane Teece and I were counters for the offering Monday February 6th. Without the help of Lisa Mensinger, Tim Vincent and Tracy Hackworth, Diane and I would still be counting and wrapping coins!!! The teller at the University Credit Union was understanding and even the Branch Manager helped organize the many rolls of coins.

It is exciting to me to see all the generations in the congregation working so well together and enjoying each other’s company. It is good for the youth to see what they have to look forward to in becoming part of an older generation and the older members to watch the youth grow and develop into giving and spiritual young adults.

Well done, Lisa! Well done, youth! I look forward to watching you grow and develop!!!

Maryan Egan-Baker

Looking for something fun to do on St. Patty’s Day?

Join us as we fill our bellies with a meal provided by Texas Roadhouse & laugh it all off as we listen to Truth or Blarney. Did we mention that ZY Jam will be playing during the Luck O’ Irish hour from 5:00 - 5:30 pm? Dinner will be served from 5:30 to 7:30 pm. We will have fun games for wee ‘lil ones. One never knows what will happen, so don’t miss out! To attend, see the sign up sheet posted on the bulletin board or contact Lisa for more details (youth@zelc.org).

Abel Klemz, Alex Mensinger, Lloyd Livengood, and Sam Hinderacker have been busy serving meals once a month to the homeless youth.  Our last meal was homemade chile, cornbread, and brownies.  We are feeding 20-25 youth each time.

Saturday December 3rd from 1:00 - 4:00 pm

Do you need to do some special shopping for the month without the kids?Santa’s little elves will be providing babysitting from 1:000 - 4:00 pm  at the church.  Will will have fun games, craft projects, and snacks.  We will have some adults helping out as well.  Donations will go toward youth activities.  Tell your friends and make your reservations by December 1st.  Sign up on the bulletin board o email Lisa Mensinger, lgolfmensinger@gmail.com

 If you have any questions about the Youth Program, please contact Lisa Mensinger (LGOLFMENSINGER@gmail.com) or Bob Hackworth (rrhackworth@aol.com).

ELCA Youth Gathering -
July 18-22, 2012
Any teenager going into ninth, tenth eleventh or twelfth grade or having just graduated from high school at the time of the Gathering are eligible to attend this exciting event. We will be joining St Matthew’s and possibly other churches in Salt Lake. Please turn in your Registration Form and a check for $150 made out to Zion (MEMO: ELCA YG 2012) by October 1st. NO LATER.
October 9 - Registration opens online only at 12 p.m. MST, and will close when they reach 39,000 participants.

Youth Room Update:
Claire, Emily, Emma & Mack put their heads together a few weeks ago to brainstorm ways to make the youth room look more appealling and comfortable for current and future youth. A special thank you goes out to Paige Capps who happens to be new to Zion and is a Junior attending the University of Utah. Paige is an art student and we really appreciate her spending time with us to figure out our options to make the room look great for a long time. We are still working on the details but we are on our way. As they say at CreationFest - Paige you’re amazing!!

Youth in Action!!!

If you have any questions about the Youth Program, please contact Lisa Mensinger at LGOLF- MENSINGER@gmail.com), or Bob Hackworth (rrhackworth@aol.com)

Check back in August for highlights of our trip to Creationfest!

June 5 – Car Wash & Bake Sale – Postponed

Sorry, we will need to postpone the youth car wash and bake sale.

INTERIM YOUTH DIRECTOR! Zion’s Youth Committee is excited to welcome Lisa Mensinger as our Interim Youth Director. Last month at our committee meeting we discussed an interim part-time position, which allows our program to move forward as we continue to search for a permanent director. Lisa brings experience and a passion for youth. She was part of a two‐person youth team at her last church. She has already begun to lay plans and reach out to our students. Please keep Lisa and all of our youth activities in your prayers and look for opportunities to assist her and our other youth leaders as they help to develop our students’ spiritual growth. Bob Hackworth, for the Youth Committee Service Project: Thanks to Lisa, husband Brian, and all the 12-14 youth who worked Sunday, Nov. 28th making many pans of lasagna and brownies for the Volunteers of American Teen Resource Center. The food was delivered and served on Monday, Nov. 29th by Lisa and several of Zion’s youth. Thanks for a great effort! 

Zion Youth Prayer Project Update

Please see Liz Prystas (or contact her at eprystas@eathlink.net) to “enlist” as a youth prayer partner. The requirements are minimal–a few moments of prayer each day for a Zion youth member–but the rewards (for the youth AND you) are countless. Thank-you!

“Let our sons in their youth be as grown-up plants, and our daughters as corner pillars fashioned as for a palace.” Psalms 144:12