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OCF Church@yoyoyocf
MSM -February 2023
Letter from MSM
Dear MSM Parents,
Welcome to our February Newsletter! In the beginning of each month we send out all the information that is going on within YOCF. Make sure to stay connected to our instagram @yoyoyocf for updates! Check out down below our plans for the coming weeks and the ways we will be connecting with each other, daily, weekly, and upcoming events!
Our Middle School students meet together during our second service. They will start over in the main service for the first set of worship, but will head on out at the end to the youth room for their own message. Our teaching lines up with the same passages that are being taught in the main service, which is the book of Matthew. On Communion Sunday (4th Sunday of the month) we do not have youth group & we encourage families to sit and enjoy Communion together. We will not be meeting 2/19 because we will be at Winter Camp.
Wednesday night youth group starts at 6pm with games followed by a message, small group time, and wrap up at 7:30pm! Make sure to look at our calendar for this month for what each Wednesday night will look like.
This month let us hold onto this reminder, "Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength" (Deuteronomy 6:5).
With Much Love,
YOCF Staff
SCHEDULE & ANNOUNCEMENTS
Volunteers Needed: Parents' Night Out Fundraiser
We are hosting a babysitting night at OCF on February 10th from 5-8pm. We are in need of student volunteers for the event. Here students can earn Hume bucks that can be reimbursed at Hume Lake this year. We have a limited amount of spots to volunteer for this event so it will be first come first serve. Dinner will be served to volunteers.
Winter Camp
Where: Forest Home
When: February 17th-20th 2023
This year we are bringing our middle and high school students up to Forest Home Christian Camps for our Winter Camp on the same weekend!
We will not be having middle school service 2/19 because we will be up at camp.
https://www.youtube.com/watch/BAVaE7IfS-YHume Lake
When: July 30th- Aug 5th 2023
Where: Hume Lake Christian Camps
Our deadline for registration for Hume is February 26th!
Camp Registration Links
Sunday Morning Youth Group
Every Sunday morning during the 10:45am service we will have a youth service during the teaching portion of the service. Middle school students will start in the main service through the first set of worship. Once worship ends and during announcements they will come over to the youth room for their own teaching of the same series. Through the Fall we will be going through Matthew.
On the 4th Sunday of the month is Communion Sunday meaning no YOCF
We will not be meeting 2/19 because we will be at Winter Camp
Wednesday Night Youth Group
Every Wednesday night we have our mid-week youth group program at 6pm at OCF. We will start off with games followed by a message, break off into small groups, and pick up is at 7:30pm.
Shaping Spiritual Change in Your Teenager
Jim Burns -President of HomeWord and Executive Director of the HomeWord Center for Youth and Family at Azusa Pacific UniversityOne of the main reasons I remain focused on young people as my life work is because it is such an important time for developing a relationship with God. It's exciting to see teens explore their spirituality, but it's also a bit scary for us parents. As they move from a concrete faith to a more abstract way of thinking, they just may say and do some things that go against their parents' views. While in college, our daughter Christy felt she had to disown our faith to eventually claim her own faith. Interestingly enough, her faith still looks quite similar to ours.
This is the stage in their faith development where teens may not want to go to church, or they might say things about God just to get you upset. It is a time of passionate belief and passionate doubt. One morning they may sincerely feel called to be a missionary, and later in the day they will tell you they don't believe in God anymore and they want nothing to do with church. Both feelings are real, for the time being, both feelings are a normal part of their faith development. The worst things parents can do is freak out, panic or put down their child during this time of searching. Young people are on a spiritual quest, and we can't mistake skepticism or doubt as a sign that they are not interested.
Parents must also avoid smothering their kids with their own faith. Sure you can set expectations (like church attendance,) but don't spend much time preaching at them. Allow and even affirm the difficult questions. A healthy faith has room for questions. And whenever possible, empower them to put their faith in action. During a tenuous time in the faith development of one of my own daughters, we went on a foreign mission trip together. The experience of putting her faith in action caused her to do some very important thinking, and after college graduation, she moved to Ecuador to invest a year of her life working with kids.
Teens today are very experiential. They need opportunities to put their faith in action. Obviously, we can't all go with our kids to a foreign country to do mission work, but we can help them find the time to give them the opportunity to do hands-on ministry and learn that the call to Christ is the call to serve.