. last youth group .

Tonight was our last youth group of the year. We had a fun evening playing Twister Hoopla & trying to eat 6 Saltine crackers in 60 seconds.

Kaycee and Sarah

Kellie & Ali

Tanner & Kate

Whitney & Megan

Melissa & Kellie

There was an individual version – Melissa beat these girls & assured them the short bus would be along soon to pick them up! :)

We had a cinnamon roll hug with the seniors in the middle before we went home. I am going to miss this group a.lot. I started leading youth group when they were in 8th grade. They contributed so much to the group. The dynamics will sure be different with them gone!

…pennies from heaven…

Last night at youth group, we got tally up how much money we raised in our “Fill the Can” fundraiser! This fundraiser was super simple – I found the idea online. The youth group-ies all brought cans of pop, we put labels on them, and handed them out after church one Sunday. The basic idea was to fill the can with change, cash, or checks – as well as prayers for the mission trip we’ll be going on in June. We handed the cans out around Ash Wednesday and asked for them to be returned on Easter.

We had a great response from our generous congregation! We rolled the change last night at youth group…there was so much, I did not think we were going to get it done last night. I thought we’d have to bag up what didn’t get rolled and do it again next week. I should know better than to not believe in these kids – they amaze me all the time!

They worked so hard rolling all this change – it was very overwhelming, but they had great attitudes and we had a lot of fun doing it!

We’re going to announce the official total at church on Sunday…but I will say that we are so lucky to have such a loving and generous church family who supports the youth with all their hearts. <3

. you’ve been egged! .

(Thanks Mikaela for this idea!)

Tonight for youth group, we ding-dong-ditched…Easter egg chocolates!
We went to three houses, hid 12 Easter egg chocolates in the yard, put this sign on the door, rang the doorbell (or knocked), and ran.

 

They were supposed to be stealth, but it’s hard to keep 11 giggling teenagers quiet!

Look at that! You’ve just been EGGed!
But do not be alarmed.
We came, we dropped, we ran away…
Your house, it was not harmed.

So what is this before you now?
Just an early Spring surprise.
Be quick and look around your yard…
Twelve EGGs lay in disguise.

A secret friend has just dropped by
To share some spring time cheer.
So now you’re it! It’s now your turn
To Egg a house that’s near.

Select a friend, or two, or three…
Gather a dozen EGGs for each.
Be sly and hide them, knock, and flee!
Leave this message at arm’s reach.

Hang a poster at your door
And now your task’s complete.
Days ‘til Easter aren’t much more…
Aren’t surprises sweet!

We hope the families had fun with our little surprise. My apologies to the family who’s eggs were not so much hidden as thrown in their yard. Somehow 11 teenagers didn’t quite get the concept…

{ Youth Group Christmas Party }

Tonight was our Youth Group Christmas Party…usually we play the gift exchange game and call it good – but this year, they wanted to decorate Gingerbread Houses. I found kits at Costco for a good price and maybe a new tradition was born?!

We have 5 teams of 4 people…and they got pretty creative!

Here are the teams:

Winning 1st place: Emerith, Daniela, Rex, & Kellie

2nd place: Elaine, Paxton, Whitney, & Kylie

3rd place: Parker, Hope, Megan, & Kate

The Redneck Award (for having their tree and Santa on the roof!): Haleigh, Kaitlynn, and Riley

and in 5th place: Scott, Derek, Sydney, & Carissa (I liked their house a lot, but I wasn’t a judge…)

I think the youth groupies had a good time! Thanks to the Kleinbach’s, Hawk’s, and Karlye for being the judges!

{ december 1 }

Two years ago, I participated in a “Journal Your Christmas” class, I guess you’d call it. I enjoyed reflecting on Christmas’ past, present, and future; recalling old memories and traditions. I started to look around online for something like that for this year and found this: http://www.reverb10.com/the-prompts/. It was just what I had in mind! So – for the next 30 days, I’ll be journaling along with #Reverb10.

Today’s prompt is to “encapsulate 2010 in one word.”

I think the word that encapsulates 2010 for me is

Fresh.

For example:

• Kamryn, fresh from God.
• my new eyesight, a fresh perspective on things.
• time spent at Priest Lake, soaking in the fresh air.
• Fresh starts

What’s your word?

ok, after day #3, I decided this reverb10 thing is not for me. So - day 1 is my last.

Tonight at youth group is the night that we hand out “adoption papers” for the families we adopt. Each youth group-ie (as I like to call them) is asked to adopt a family member and they’re assigned either clothing or a gift. They’re also asked to bring household or food items (specific items listed on cards). I am always amazed at their open and willing hearts to provide for people that are less fortunate. They are so giving and so happy to be able to give these families a Christmas. I’m thankful for our youth tonight!

[ Food Bank Scavenger Hunt ]

Tonight was the 2nd annual

CUMC Youth Group Scavenger Hunt

for the

Connell Food Bank!

We had four cars of 3-4 kids, drove all over Connell knocking on doors, and gathered a lot of food for the food bank.

And....we all had lots of fun!

[ home again...and then back to the lake again! ]

Mom and I came home again for a quick less than 24 hours at home. The Youth Group is presenting about the June Mission Trip at church tomorrow and we're having a brunch to thank all of our sponsors. After church, we'll head back to Priest Lake for our final week. I hate to even think about it...I'm grateful for all the time I've been able to spend there, but I'm sad to see it come to an end for the year.

We had a fun week we had this last week! We had a super fun evening with the Johnson family at the Baumann cabin on Tuesday evening. We shared dinner with Gavin, Nick, Kate, Dave, and Angie, then took a boat trip to Elkins for Huckleberry Daquiris & came back to Trent's at Cavanaugh Bay for Huckleberry Daquiris, then played a fun game of Balderdash back at their cabin. That game was a lot more fun than I remembered! Everyone was on their game that night and quite creative with their definitions! So fun!

On Wednesday night, Mom, Craig, & I went to Hill's for Sushi Wednesday! Melissa, Tiffany, & I tried the week earlier, but it was too busy and sushi would've taken an hour! So, we went earlier this week and had great sucess! Sushi was delicious, the live music was so enjoyable, and we just had a fun time! The only regret was that we had to get back to the house for the finale of So You Think You Can Dance, so we didn't get to stay as long as I would've liked. Oh well - we'll try again this week!

We received some sad news while we were at the lake this week. My good friend Leah's Mom, Kitty Niles, passed away. She fought a valient fight against cancer with grace, faith, and trust in God. She was the sweetest & most caring lady and will be greatly missed by her friends and family. Three of my high school classmates have lost their Mom's in the past 9 months. It really hit me this week when I heard about Leah's Mom...I am so grateful our story turned out differently in April.

Lastly - here's a shout out for Jessica Perkins. FEEL BETTER SOON! We have cheerleaders to whip into shape, quilting to discuss at great length, and Emersyn to chase around! I found her the cutest "beginning of cheer season" present today - can't wait to see you guys so I can give it to her! (It has absolutely NOTHING to do with cheer...don't be disappointed! There just is no holiday to attribute this to!) Thinking about you and hope you're recovering well! I'll bring you your recovery goody bag when I see you in two weeks!

[ the West Side Story ]

{this is the article I wrote for our church newsletter...along with LOTS of pictures!}

The West Side Story
Tales from the CUMC Youth Mission Trip to Seattle

The 2009 CUMC Youth Mission Trip was an amazing experience! We thoroughly enjoyed making our mark on Seattle and serving God through our hearts and hands.

We departed on Wednesday, June 24th after enjoying a wonderful send-off brunch prepared by Zoee DeRuwe, Shelly Hawk, Donna Klindworth, and Kara Booker. Thank you to everyone who came to send us off in prayer. We felt uplifted all week long. After we said our goodbyes, we were Seattle bound! We arrived in the Seattle area and made our first stops at Costco and QFC Grocery Store. At both stores, the youth were challenged to a scavenger hunt to find all the groceries on their lists to complete our grocery shopping for the week. Thanks to those that donated grocery items, there wasn’t a lot left on our lists!
We arrived at Blaine Memorial United Methodist Church and were greeted by Barbara, their secretary, who showed us around to our home for the next few days.

We unpacked, settled in, and headed to the Seattle Mariners game! We had great seats along the 3rd base line and cheered the M’s onto a win over the San Diego Padres.

Ken Griffey Jr.

We were up bright and early on Thursday morning to begin our work at Northwest Harvest’s warehouse in Kent. Their volunteer coordinators told us about the work Northwest Harvest does and then put us to work! Each of us had a job and together, along with two friendly 3rd grade girls and their nanny, bagged 2,966 lbs of coffee donated by Starbucks into 2 lb bags. Those 1483 bags will serve over 800 families. After Northwest Harvest, we toured New Horizon Ministries in downtown Seattle. Because they only allow volunteers over 18, we weren’t able to serve, but we did learn a lot about their important ministry to homeless youth. They are planning to open a coffee shop in July to teach the youth they serve employable skills, so Derek, Cullen, and Mack were able to help with some construction projects there. That evening, we enjoyed seeing the Pixar movie “Up” in 3D at the historic Neptune Theater in the U District.
On Friday, we began our day at the Atlantic Street Center where we painted welcoming plywood hearts that line their sidewalk and yard. They were very colorful looking with suns, rainbows, hearts, and words of encouragement. We also weeded and did yard work in the Center Garden, a place for people they serve to retreat. We all loved played with their Volunteer Coordinator’s 7-week old Golden Retriever, Maggie. The wonderful people at Atlantic Street Center gave us goody bags with treats and a coupon for Baskin Robbins, which we enjoyed later that night. After a quick lunch at a nearby park, we went to Urban Impact to help set up for a benefit concert they were hosting that evening to raise money to pay their summer interns that work at their day camp for elementary children. We did things like set up the concessions, build a dance floor, move chairs, make signs, and advertise in a local shopping area. After a pizza dinner, we enjoyed “The Jump Off 2009” benefit concert that featured local artists.
We started Saturday morning by enjoying Pike Place Market and all the fun things it offers. Kellie was chased by the famous fish throwers with a HUGE octopus, lots of us shopped for souvenirs for our sponsors, and we found the infamous Gum Wall. We all chewed up a piece and stuck it on the wall with millions of other pieces! We went to the Youth Reach Out Center, part of the Seattle Urban Gospel Mission and helped clean out their theater area, moved desks, and learned about their ministry. We enjoyed lunch and some free time at Seward Park before we went to Hope Place, also part of the Seattle Union Gospel Mission. Hope Place is a residential home for women and children that helps rehabilitate the women and put them in homes, school, and jobs. We were so happy to be able to serve dinner to the women and children and talk with them. The women are usually served cafeteria style, so to be personally served their meal at the table by our youth was a blessing to the women, but the interaction the youth had with the women was the real blessing. Reluctantly, we had to leave Hope Place to return to Blaine Memorial UMC to clean and pack up there.
On Sunday morning, after packing up the cars and trailer, we worshipped with the Blaine Memorial UMC congregation, a Japanese-American congregation. They were incredibly welcoming to our group and were excited to hear about the work we did in Seattle. We left the church and made our way to Seattle Center to enjoy the Experience Music Project. Everyone had a chance to rock out and try their hand at the guitars, drums, and keyboards. A highlight was the Jim Henson exhibit where we all got to be puppeteers with the Muppets! On our way home, we ate a last meal together at Red Robin in Issaquah. We arrived back at CUMC to welcoming families, full of stories of our week and hopefully to listening ears!
Nick, Kate, and I are very proud of each of the youth that went on the trip for their diligence, hard work, and cheerful attitudes no matter what the task. We are especially appreciative of Cullen and Lauren for their leadership as the oldest in the group and will miss them on future mission trips.
We are so grateful to our CUMC family for supporting us through prayer, supplies, finances, and love during our time preparing for our trip and while we were in the mission field. We were incredibly proud to be an extension of our church and hopefully, represented you all to the best of our ability.
Thank you again, from the bottom of our hearts. This would have been impossible without you.

Cullen Klindworth
Lauren Booker
Kate Hawk
Kellie DeRuwe
Alison Erickson
Elaine Pierson
Paxton Carlisle
Whitney Jones
Megan Booker
Mack Smith
Derek Klindworth
Marcie Koch
Kate Johnson
Nick Johnson