Spring Break – a great time of the year as we gear up for the last couple of months of school. For the Mt. Haley Youth, it means fundraising season begins to earn our way to State Youth Convention.  We are meeting this actual day to go Pop Can collecting to begin the quest to pay the $80 balances needed for SYC. The real “PRAISE” was the blessing of the recent Mexican Supper we had where enough money was raised to pay everyone’s registration fee to SYC.  God always provides!

Other fundraising opportunities will include:  our “Garage Sale” on the weekend of May 3-4.  If you wish to contribute we will be collecting items in the Mt. Haley garage up until April 20, then we will transfer and be collecting things at the Grahams until the sale.  The Mother’s Day Flower Sale will begin next week with plants being delivered after 4:00 PM on Thursday, May 9th.   We will also have a gift card sale where we receive a percentage of the costs beginning in a couple of weeks.  These make great gifts for Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Graduations, and for general use – especially for gas & food.  Every card sold profits the youth group.  As soon as the weather clears, we plan on doing yard work for our favorite person, “Olive,” plus any other people who would like to hire us after school for spring clean-up.  Of course we will continue to have “Pop Can Sundays” and collect ink cartridges.  We know God will provide.

We are excited for State Youth Convention on the weekend of May 17-19. This year’s theme is “RENEW” and will feature the concert & worship band, The Afters, with Chicago Bear Chaplain, Ray McElroy as the speaker and a special drama presentation in concert by onetimeblind.  It’s one of our greatest weekends of the year.

The Sixth Graders had a marvelous time at the Midland Center For the Arts “Grossology” exhibit. We enjoyed the presentation and the museum for a couple of hours, then went to Happy’s Pizza with the added treat of a McDonald’s Sundae.  A great day of fun for the 6th graders.

The “Fruits of the Spirit” are being studied & discussed in our youth meetings using our brand new Quickview NIV Bibles furnished by the congregation and church council. We want to express our appreciation and thankfulness for the new Bibles; they are working out great and really add to our meetings.  We have done patience, self-control, faithfulness and goodness so far –do you know what’s left?  Anyway, that should take us through May.

We are gearing up for the summer.  Although we will not have meetings every Sunday night, we will be having lots of events. Last summer, we had some great outings such as the canoe weekend, the lake trip, Loons game, banana splits and more.  There will be no mission trip this summer because we will begin the planning, fundraising and preparation for next summer’s trip to Nashville to attend the International Youth Convention & Mission.  This event is opened to any student entering high school in the fall of 2014 and any student one year after their high school graduation.  We hope to take a group to this significant celebration of Church of God youth.

Parents, your prayers, support and encouragement are greatly appreciated and we look forward every week to sharing the Gospel of Jesus Christ with our students through interaction, study, fellowship and relationship.  Thank you for sharing your son or daughter.  We also encourage everyone to come and be a part of our weekly Mt. Haley Worship every week at 11:00 AM.   Love God, Love People

Blessings,

Pastor Jerry