Ecuador Mission July 9-17

We are going to do our best to keep everyone updated on our journey to Ecuador. If you would like to follow our adventure, please go to:

http://sjyouthmissionecuador.blogspot.com/

We will be spending the night at St. John's tonight, and we will depart from the church parking lot at 5am in the morning. We will arrive back on July 17th, late in the evening. Please continue to pray for us, the communities and people we will be serving, and that we may be a blessing as we grow in faith and love.

blessings,
dorian

Playing Catch Up!

Hey there folks,

So, I guess I first need to apologize for the long drought. I have been neglectful of the youth blog, and I deeply apologize. The last month has just been so busy, that the youth blog just got overlooked....But here it is!

Gravatt Day was a blast. I do wish more youth had come with us, but it was a great time filled with worship, bbq, swimming, ropes course, and good times.



The day before Gravatt Day, a group of us hung out at the Rosewood Crawfish Festival to sell water and gatorade. Paula Bowers, Katie Law and others painted faces, and Alex Bowers was the Crawfish mascot. We had a really good location, right across from the pole vaulters. All in all it was a great day and we raised about $1,100 for our trip to Ecuador.



Junior High New Beginnings was a blast! We had 6 youth attend and 1 adults attend, and we had 3 youth and myself on staff. It was a very cool weekend of faith exploration, discussions, games, food, dancing, singing, meeting new friends from all over the Diocese, and some much more. One little hiccup: I had to leave early for Confirmation on Sunday and Will K came home with me because we thought he had a stomach bug. It is a good thing I brought him back! He ended up having surgery for appendicitis! Just so you know, he's doing great now. Check out the pics:



On the evening of Palm Sunday, EYC hosted a unique event: The Labyrinth and Journey to the Cross. The Labyrinth is an ancient prayer tool. The design of the one we borrowed from St. Martin's was copied from one in France that dates back to the 1200's. Journey to the Cross was a 12 station interaction prayer experience. It walked you through the final week of Jesus' life. Very powerful. This will become an annual event, and it is open to the parish, so make sure you check it out next year.



This year has been amazing! Make sure you join us for the final EYC...the Spectacular St. John's Youth Got Talent Review and Auction. Come join us for an Ecuadorian dinner, EYC celebration, photos of youth events, stories, youth talent show, youth auction, and much more. See you there!

blessings,
dorian

Lock In!

Grace and Peace, my friends!

We had a Lock In this past Fri-Sat, and it was an absolute blast. We stayed up all night, played games, ate great food, had awesome fellowship, and made some really cool tshirts. We played glow in the dark strobe light dodge ball. I know, it sounds confusing, and it was...but it was fun. We also attempted to make bubble gum sculptures, but they ended up being just large blobs of chewed gum. Mmmmm, yum. We played a bunch of other games, Catch Phrase, watched a movie, played xbox, etc....

The coolest part of the evening, though, for me, was making the tshirts. We had 5 designs that were created by Catherine Collins, Taylor Jackson, Jack Moore, Katie Law, and Paula Bowers. Paula made screens from sheer material and old wooden picture frames. The designs were traced onto the screen, and then a blocking agent was painted on the screen. Finally we screen printed our own shirts by squeegying paint through the screens. They turned out incredible.

If you weren't able to come to the lockin and you want your own tshirt, come to EYC @ the Art Shack on Mar 29. We will be taking orders for purchase from the parish in the very near future. Check out the pics:

Paint Ballin'!!!

Grace and peace, my friends!

This past Sunday, St. John's EYC went to play Paint Ball. I will admit, I was a bit nervous, but everyone got along and had a great time. It did hurt/sting a little when you got shot, but it wasn't overly violent or anything. It was good clean, "hunt your neighbor down" fun! If you missed it, I do apologize, just make sure you catch it next time around. We will definitely put Paint Ball on the "To Do Again" list. Check out the pics:



blessings,
dorian

Hangin' with St. Francis!

Hey there folks,

On March 1, the first Sunday during Lent, our friends from St. Francis in Chapin came to hang out with us and do church. It was really cool. The youth director at St. Francis, Allison, is a really good friend of mine. We did all sorts of stuff, got to know each others' names, played games, tore apart bananas and then put them back together...

We also closed the evening with worship. We have a little Lenten service at St. John's EYC called Fire and Ice. We combine elements from Evening Prayer in the BCP and Evening Worship in the New Zealand Prayer Book (and then add a little creativity) to create this little service. The whole premise is to recognize what Lent is all about, and then we have two hands on prayer stations to physically give up to God the things we have either sacrificed or taken on for Lent. It involves burning, big flash of fire, and washing and making clean. Then we closed the evening with songs and singing.

Check out the pics:



blessings,
dorian