"Girl's Group"

Starting Thursday Feb. 5th from 7:00-8:30pm Claire Lowrance and Garrett Taft will be leading a small group for girl's at Claire's apartment. Girl's group is going to be a time of gathering, snacking, talking and praying. Sometimes we will play games, other times we might watch a movie, sometimes we might focus on a Bible study or a devotion. It is going to be a time for girl's to build closer relationships with us and each other and most of all; God. We are very excited to give the girl's another safe place to just gather and be themselves in this world of requirements and rushing. This is something that we hope will continue for years and will help build a peer support system within the church. I hope you will come out!

30 hr famine: Saturday Feb. 21-Sunday Feb 22nd
A multi-church hunger-education event with:
A pre-fast breakfast, Service projects World poverty and hunger awareness workshops,
Special age appropriate evening events, Prayer vigil, Worship exchange, offering of Letters, Closing Worship with communion, Break-the-fast meal
As Christians, we are called to care for the least of these. This means getting out of our comfort zones and learning about local and world poverty and justice issues. You will meet lots of great youth who will take this journey with you. You will have the opportunity to not just learn what you can do to change the world but to actually do something.

• begins at 8:00am on Saturday and ends at 3pm on Sunday
• Registration from 8:00-9:00am
• Covenant Fellowship Hall
• Pay $10 at the door during registration
• Bring overnight clothes, sleeping bag, pillow, and church clothes from Sunday Worship
• Choose water, juice, bread fast (up to you or your child)

MSY Retreat: Friday March 13th- Sunday March 15th

This event was created for the youth at Covenant for the purpose of group building and strengthening the youth’s comfort level and understanding of prayer. The focus of the event will be to empower the youth to communicate with God in a variety of ways that fit into their everyday lives. The weekend will be filled with Bible study, crud wars, recreation, prayer and worship. Worship will be lead by Christian singer Jonny Diaz who the youth have met earlier this year at his concert at Hopewell Presbyterian Church. We are very blessed to have his presence with us this weekend. Please don’t let your youth miss this opportunity to further seek God in their daily lives.

• Camp Grier in Old fort North Carolina (near Black Mountain)
• Only 30 spots available
• Jonny Diaz is leading worship and music
• $90
• $25 deposit due Feb 1st
• Kids need to pack like they would for camp; we will be staying in cabins.

MSY Mission Trip: Sunday July 19th –Sunday July 26th
This is the MSY first opportunity to go on a formal mission trip. They will be going through the DOOR organization which will set up our week doing a variety of urban ministry services throughout Atlanta. We will serve the large homeless population by working the in soup kitchens, homeless shelters, public gardens, etc. We will use public transportation and commune together at First Presbyterian Church. The youth will have the opportunity to attend a workshop at Sacred Heart Monastery and have Q&A time with the monks over lunch and a bonsai presentation. We will visit the GA Aquarium and World of Coke on our free afternoon. Sunday we will learn about the race struggles in Atlanta at Oakhurst Presbyterian Church. This church was one of the few in Atlanta that kept their doors open to African Americans and is now totally integrated.

• DOOR: Urban Ministry Organization in Atlanta, GA
• We will staying At First Presbyterian in cots and bunk beds in their fellowship area
• Mon-Thurs urban relief work organized by DOOR
• Fri visit to Sacred Heart Monastery , lunch with Monks (Q&A)
• Sat- free day, World of Coke, GA Aquarium
• Sun-Worship At Oakhurst Presbyterian, History of the Race Riots in Atlanta and worshiping together talk with Rev. Stroup
• $400 cost of total trip
• $100 deposit due Feb. 1st
• Only 25 positions open to the 6-7th grade

Amazing Middle School Youth!

Pull out your calendars!

2/1 Youth Sunday!
8:30 Worship James is reading the Souper Bowl Min for Mission and Duncan and he will collect the donations at the end of the service.
9:30-10:30 Youth are invited to eat breakfast upstairs int he Fellowship Hall for $3.00
11:00 Morgan will read the Minute for Mission. Volunteers will collect the donations in pots outside after the service.
3:00-4:30 6th and 7th grade are having a touch football game at the point and we will have snacks.
4:30-5:30 MSY choir
2/4 6:30-7:30 Bible Study in the Quest Room
2/5 7:00-8:30 The first meeting of the "girls group" at Claire's apartment hosted by Claire and Garrett Taft.
2/8 Regular Sunday School for 6th grade. This is going to be the first day of the 7th grade teaching the Ruth Rotation on the 2nd floor for Mrs. Pat.
5:45-7:00 All Youth Worship Lead by Quest : Love
2/11 6:30-7:30 Bible Study in the Quest Room
2/12 "Girl's Group" 7:00-8:30 at Claire's
2/15 9:30-10:30 Regular Sunday School
5:45-7:00 Cook meal for our guests are Room in the Inn
2/17 5:00-8:00 Serve meal to Room in the Inn Guests
2/18 Bible Study 6:30-7:30
2/19 Anyone helping with 30hr Famine are welcome to the 2:00 meeting with the planning team
7:00-8:30 "Girl's Group" at Claire's

2/21-2/22 30Hr. Famine 8am Saturday until 3pm Sunday
No Youth fellowship this night.

2/25 Bible Study 6:30-7:30 in the Quest Room
2/26 7:00-8:30 "Girl's Group" at Claire's





* 2/21-2/22 30 hr famine hosted at Covenant (Covenant MSY encouraged to come) ($10.00)
*3/13-3/15 MSY Retreat with Jonny Diaz to Camp Grier (Covenant MSY encouraged to come) ($90.00)
* 6/27-7/1 The Great Escape Youth Conference ($299.00) http://www.ycmhome.org/greatescape/
*7/9-11 Massanetta Springs Youth Conference ($300.00)
*7/19-7/26 MSY Mission Trip to Atlanta (Covenant MSY encouraged to come) ($400.00)

Christian Singer: Jonny Diaz

Christian artist Jonny Diaz is joining the MSY on our retreat in March (13th-15th) to Camp Greir. Jonny Diaz is an FSU grad who spent most of his life trying to become a professional baseball player like his older bother (who is currently playing for the Atlanta Braves). Jonny felt that God was leading him away from sports and giving him the time and talent to develop his musical skills. He has been leading worship with his band or alone with guitar for several years now. It is so exiting that the youth will have a chance to hear him play and meet him before their retreat weekend. For more information about Jonny Diaz and his ministry please visit his website:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=mjqhspcab.0.0.o5nbuocab.0&ts=S0353&p=http%3A%2F%2Fjonnydiaz.com%2F&id=preview

MSY Summer Mission Trip to Atlanta!

It is official that the 6-7th grade youth group is going on a mission trip next summer! They will have the chance to serve the homeless and the needy in Atlanta, GA through the DOOR organization. They will be going July 19-26th 2009. DOOR provides work opportunities and group gathering and devotional time each day. There will be a free evening on Wednesday where we will explore downtown Atlanta. We are staying at Central Presbyterian Church until the 25th. The group will be spending a morning at the Monastery of the Holy Spirit in Conyers, GA. They will get to experience mass and pray vigils with the monks, who will also provide interesting demonstrations like how to grow bonsai. Sunday, the group will be attending Oakhurst Presbyterian Church that is in Decatur (near Colombia Seminary). Oakhurst is a completely integrated church that was one of the first to open their doors to African Americans during the worst of the race riots that in the 60's. We are very excited to be able to give the kids this opportunity next summer.

For more information about DOOR please visit their website to find out what a typical day will be like for the youth and what their mission says.

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=mjqhspcab.0.0.o5nbuocab.0&ts=S0353&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.doornetwork.org%2Fhistory.htm&id=preview



For information about Oakhurst Presbyterian please visit:

http://rs6.net/tn.jsp?t=mjqhspcab.0.0.o5nbuocab.0&ts=S0353&p=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.oakhurstpresbyterian.org%2F&id=preview

For information about the Monastery please visit their website:

http://www.trappist.net/