Here's the update we just sent out to parents. (A few dates have been edited. check for red font) ( New Calendar Available on The Sidebar)

Dear Parent,
I apologize for the tardiness of this update. A few things beyond my control were still up in the air, and I didn’t want to give you incorrect info. Again, I highly recommend that you visit our blog www.gcym.blogspot.com and subscribe by entering your email address in the appropriate form. If you do this you will receive regular updates. I have enclosed the updated calendar for the next 3 months. Note: some things are different than the tentative calendar you received at the parent meeting.

A few things I’d like to highlight:

• The Jr. Youth Rally will be held on April 22. We will need teens to help with this event as well as set up in the days leading up to it.

• There will be a Mission Trip Meeting (New Orleans) on April 26 at 6 p.m. This meeting is for teens and adults who are interested in going on this trip. We will give more detail and begin to solidify who is actually going.

• We will have a youth house workday on June 3. We need teens and adults to help us paint upstairs and put some finishing touches on the youth house.

• OVU will be hosting a lock-in on May 12-13. They are planning some interesting new things for the program that look quite promising to me.

• Graduation Sunday will be held on May 21. If you are the parent of a graduating student, we need your pictures as soon as possible. Garrett Harper has agreed to put together the slide show for us, but we need to show our appreciation by giving him as much time as possible to work on it. Also, please remember that you will need to set up a table in the foyer for your graduating student before Graduation Sunday.

• We will be hosting a Youth Ministry Game Night on May 26th at the Youth House.

• We will be hosting a Summer Blast Off Party on June 9 at the Youth House. This even will also serve as a “Welcome to the Youth Ministry” event for students graduating 6th grade.

• There will be a parent meeting on June 11th. This meeting will be much shorter than the last meeting and will be mostly informational. We are rethinking our approach to adult leadership which will slightly change the nature of these meetings.

• Mid Ohio Valley Workcamp will be held June 18-23. We have enclosed the registration and health forms for your student. Please help us by filling out these forms if they are planning on participating (and by encouraging them to participate). These forms are due by May 17 (no exceptions).

Small Groups:

• The majority of the teens (Jr. & Sr. High) will be meeting at the Youth House on Sunday Nights at 5:30.

• A much smaller group will be meeting in a group discussing financial issues (in the context of faith, of course) led by Doug Reeder. This group will meet at Doug’s house. He will be contacting the teens in the next two weeks with the details of when it will start, etc.

Upcoming events:

• We are thinking about going to “Spirit Song” at Kings Island on July 7-8. This is a Christian Music Festival plus and amusement park trip. This is by no means definite at this point.

• We plan on making a big push for the week of camp that Joe directs in July. Please encourage your teen to consider going. It would be great if we had a big group go together

• Ryan Ice (who has agreed to serve again as our intern for the summer) will be heading up an additional Mystery Mission Trip. It is open to everyone, but is an especially good option for those who can’t go on the New Orleans Trip.

Classes:

• We encourage you to check out what your teens are being taught. Most of our Wednesday Night Classes are available for you to listen to or download at www.ellisadam.podomatic.com . If you don’t have internet access or have trouble listening online, we will be happen to provide the lessons for you on CD.

Adam Ellis
Youth Minister
Grand Central Church of Christ
adamellis76@gmail.com
Cell: 304-210-8949