Post-Pool Party Updates (6/22)...

Most of us had a great time at the pool party at the Meiners house, and again, many thanks to them for their generous hospitality.

There are three major things to remember after our discussions at the pool party, and they're all posted as different blog entries:

1. 'Jazz' Event (6/28): Car Pool, Anyone?
2. Forms, Forms, Nothing But Forms...
   
3. The Lucky Seven Lock-In (7/7)
   

Please be sure to read each of those articles and leave a comment with your availability/response. 

I'm trying out a new feature of the blog -- comments -- and we'll see how this works.  Don't panic if you don't see your comment right away.  I've got them set up that I need to moderate the comments...  that means comments will be visible only after I approve them.  (For now I'm being conservative and don't want strangers to leave comments.)

The Lucky Seven Lock-In

Our final big prep activity prior to the Gathering will be a lock-in...

When:  7 pm on 7/7 (Tuesday)

Where:  evening activities at the LCM house (next to Bethel Church)

                sleep overnight at the Church

In addition to Rock Band and other fun stuff, at this meeting we will:

1.  Finalize and sign the Bethel Covenant.  (Todd will bring the final draft that night)

2.  Receive the completed, signed forms required for the Gathering.  (Click here for details)

Please leave comments regarding your attendance for this event.  (If you can't make this, you need to make arrangements with Sherman about signing the Covenant and submitting your forms.)

'Jazz' Event (6/28): Car Pool, Anyone?

Most of us are going to the 'Jazz' event (click here for details)...

Would anyone like to car pool there from Bethel?  We'd want to meet at Bethel around 5:30 to get to Unity-Bel Nor by 6:00.

And let's try something new here... please comment to this post and list the people from your family going to the 'Jazz' event with you, and your vote about car pooling.

Thanks!

(Please be patient with the commenting... this is my first time trying this feature.)

Forms, Forms, Nothing But Forms...

As inevitable as death (and new life!) and taxes... paperwork.

These forms need to be filled out, signed and submitted by Tuesday 7 July at the Youth Lock-in.

There are three forms that all youth must fill out:

1.  Bethel's Emergency Medical Form:  Click here

2.  ELCA's Medical and Emergency Form:  Click here

3.  ELCA's Liability and Release Form* (for youth):  Click here

Rebecca, Todd -- the ELCA Liability and Release Form for counselors:  Click here

UPDATE as of 7/9:  There are only three forms required for each youth.  The Bethel Travel Form is to be filled out by only one leader.  And our ServantLife project does NOT require additional release forms!

Bethel Connection: Youth Article for June 2009 Issue

Here's the text of what appeared in the June 2009 Issue of the Bethel Connection (monthly newsletter):

Counting Down to the Youth Gathering...

The school year is coming to a close and the high school students are ramping up for the national gathering in late July.

The 2009 Gathering, whose theme is "Jesus, Justice and Jazz," focuses on how God calls on us to help in redeeming the world.  In that vein, this is the first time that the Gathering is subcontracting all the buses specifically for local transportation to service events.  At previous gatherings, there were optional service opportunities; this year each participant will spend one of their three full Gathering days at a service project as part of rebuilding New Orleans from the damage of Hurricane Katrina.  One of the other two days will focus on Learning, and the other day will be in the Interaction Center.  All three days (Learning Day, Interaction Center Day, Servant Day) build upon each other, making for a very focused Gathering experience.

In addition to the Gathering programming, the St. Louis-area youth groups have planned some extra stuff:  on the way down we'll be visiting the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis (usually closed on Tuesdays but they'll open for 90 minutes just for us).  Also there will be a half-day trip to a Mississippi Beach to see some of the Katrina-ravaged coastline that still hasn't be rebuilt.  And we'll have one special dinner at Mulatte's, a local restaurant with authentic Cajun cuisine with live music and dancing.

The Bethel participants are:   Miriam Bohlmann Kunz, Scott Floerke, Daniel Gross, Amy Lee, David Owen, Carson Pryor, Haley Pryor, Genevieve Schmoeker, Karl Webster, Lilly Webster;  adult counselors are Pastor Rebecca Boardman, Pastor Todd Koch and Sherman Lee.

Look for more news about the Gathering in future Bethel Connections.  The Youth Group will also keep its website (http://bethel-ucity-youth.blogspot.com/, also available as a link from the Bethel Church home page) updated with news and planning.

In the meantime, here's one other special link, specifically for receiving donations to be used in New Orleans to buy supplies for the service projects.  Rather than have youth groups transport tools and equipment from their home cities, these donations help New Orleans rebuild their businesses:  http://archive.elca.org/scriptlib/DS/giving/youthgiving_gift.asp.  And you can use that link to explore other information at the Gathering's official web site.

STL Pre-Gathering Event "Jazz" (6/28)

The STL coordinators for the Gathering planned three area-wide events, named "Jesus", "Justice", and "Jazz."  We missed the first two because of scheduling conflicts.  The third one we're all planning to attend.

The specs:

• Date/Time:   Sunday 6/28, from 6:00 - 8:00 pm
• Place:  Unity Lutheran in Bel Nor, 8454 Glen Echo Dr, Bel Nor, MO 63121
• Who's invited?  Youth and adults... that includes all parents (even if not chaperones!)
• Agenda:  Cajun style dinner, making a MSLC-Youth Banner (that's Metro St. Louis Coalition Youth), swaps, Cajun are projects, and if you bring your instruments, you can have a jam session with a jazz pianist, followed by worship.
• Cost:  $3 / person
• I need to have a final headcount by 6/14 (our pool party) so I can meet the RSVP deadline of 6/15.

Gathering Prep: Pool Party (6/14)

From the Backyard Bonfire to the Pool Party, our group certainly loves alliteration...

The second summer planning event will be a Pool Party!

• Sunday 6/14 -- 2:00 - 5:00 pm
• At Ted and Emmy Meiners' house, 6235 Waterman, University City.  (It's right up the block from Karl and Lilly's house.)
• Will focus on Covenant Planning
• Will get final head count for the STL-area (MSLC-Youth) "Jazz" Event on 6/28

Our Covenant Planning...

Pastor Todd will be leading our Covenant discussion at the Pool Party.

He will provide a starter covenant, some of the major topics to consider for group discussion and approval, and the enthusiasm to drive us to a final draft of the covenant.

What is a covenant?  As Lilly pointed out at the Backyard Bonfire, it's a promise.  Just as God promised us new life in Christ, we will make promises to each other as we journey to New Orleans and back.  It will include what we will do for each other -- on the bus, in New Orleans, at the Gathering, in the hotel -- like always travel in threes, be respectful and so on.  It will also include what we promise not to do to each other, like not keeping someone up late who prefers to go to sleep on the early side.

Eventually we'll post our Covenant to another entry on this site.

Decisions about Food/Budget

One of the myths about Lutherans is that whenever they gather they have good food.  And all myths are grounded in some truth...

Here's a rundown of the meals during our trip, and whether we're bringing our own, buying onsite, etc.:

• Tue 7/21 -- Breakfast: before/during the bus ride -- Each person to bring their own
• Tue 7/21 -- Lunch:  Stierholz-Websters to provide individual lunches for bus ride, in coolers
• Tue 7/21 -- Dinner:  Fast food on the way to New Orleans

• Wed 7/22 -- Breakfast:  eat what we bring, or try the hotel-supplied breakfast for variety, quality and most importantly speed of service.  [Sherman will be in the pre-registration line getting our Gathering packets]
  
• Wed 7/22 -- Lunch:  bringing our own lunch in coolers for our trip to the Mississippi Gulf Coast
• Wed 7/22 -- Dinner:  Mulate's Restaurant for authentic Cajun cuisine and entertainment

• Thu/Fri/Sat  7/23-7/25 -- Breakfast:  eat what we bring, or the hotel-supplied breakfast
• Thu/Fri/Sat  7/23-7/25 -- Lunch:  grab lunch onsite at/near Gathering events.  For the one day of our Servant Project, lunches from Subway Restaurant will be supplied.  (In case you're wondering, the owner of Subway hails from New Orleans.)
  
• Thu/Fri/Sat  7/23-7/25 -- Dinner:  grab dinner onsite at/near Gathering events.

• Sun 7/26 -- Breakfast: eat what we bring, or the hotel-supplied breakfast
• Sun 7/26 -- Lunch:  will be supplied to us for the return bus trip as part of the STL bus contingent (we've already paid for this)
• Sun 7/26 -- Dinner:  fast food restaurant

Other notes:

• I'm pretty sure we said we would buy cereal, milk and other breakfast stuff in STL to bring down to New Orleans. 
  
• Stierholz-Websters will prepare lunch for our outbound bus trip AND will buy lunch supplies for our Wednesday lunch, if we give them a shopping list.  (Probably the easiest thing is double up whatever they buy for the Tuesday lunch.)
• Snacks (for the bus ride, hotel life and day trips) are to be brought by each individual.
• Everyone should bring their own water bottle / canteen for the trip.

We're scheduled to return Sunday night / Monday morning around 2:00 AM.

Bethel NYG 6/3 Update (Post Backyard Bonfire)

Although Pastor Rebecca took notes, she's been really busy prepping for and attending the Synod Assembly... so I've cobbled together what I can from my hazy memory from our Backyard Bonfire (5/31).  Here are the high points:

1. Next Bethel Youth event is the Pool Party, followed by the STL-Area Pre-Gathering event called "Jazz."  You can always see the latest Bethel Youth Schedule at Upcoming Bethel Youth meetings
2. We made decisions about food/budget.  Each person is to bring their breakfast for Tuesday 7/21, the Stierholz-Webster family will pack lunches for the 7/21 bus ride and purchase lunch supplies for the Wednesday 7/22 day trip to Mississippi.  We'll also bring our own breakfast supplies as a group.  More details are at Decisions about food/budget
3. We need to draft and finalize a group Covenant for the Gathering and for the bus.  More details about our planning are at Covenant Planning for the Gathering

Even though I hit the high points above, please be sure to traverse all the above links for details.

*** Update!  We have some fine marshmallow roasting devices left over at our house.  We also have some leftover tupperware.  Please help us reunite these wayward kitchen thingies!