Welcome to the St. Mark's UMC Student Ministry Landing Page!

Week of 5/6/24

1. Starting Wednesday, May 8th and ending August 7th, St. Mark’s UMC will be hosting Food Truck Wednesdays, 4:30 – 6:30 p.m., featuring a different food truck every week. We are making a special effort to invite our neighbors, so please consider being present to welcome all who attend, and bring your friends and family for good food, fun, and fellowship! An indoor dining area will be provided with all welcome, whether you partake of the food truck or brown bag it. Food truck menus and pricing for each week will vary (we will be hosting Spaghetti Monster on May 8th!). Water and lemonade will be provided in our fully accessible Banquet Hall, and families are invited to bring their own blankets or lawn chairs or eat in the Banquet Hall. The playground will be open to young children; all children must be accompanied and supervised by their parents.  Additional fun and fellowship opportunities will be provided throughout the summer!

2. …and speaking of our first Food Truck Wednesday tonight (Wednesday May 8th), we will be convening our first meeting of the newly formed Youth Council that evening at 5:30, which will meet semi-regularly to discuss spiritual needs and programming priorities for St. Mark’s Student Ministry moving forward.  If you are in grade 6-12 and are willing to serve on the new Youth Council, please join us at 5:30 pm in the St. Mark’s Banquet Hall on the evening of Wednesday May 8th … we will meet for approximately 45 minutes for our very first meeting (6:30 is the absolute latest that we will go).  We are aware that there is severe weather in the forecast this evening, and have decided to move forward due to the fact that severe weather is not expected to come until around 9 pm.  However, if anyone does not feel comfortable with driving to St. Mark’s tonight but still wishes to participate in Youth Council, please let me know and I will send you the link to the Summer Youth Programming Calendar so that you can still offer your input.  Since we are going over the calendar, parents are invited to participate in this particular meeting as well, and if you have a planning calendar that you use, my suggestion would be to bring that as well.

3. There will be no Sunday Evening Youth Gathering due to Mother’s Day on May 12th this year, so that our Youth can spend that evening with the mothers in their lives.  Sunday school will go on as usual at 9:15 in the Youth Wing.

4. SAVE THE DATE:  The theme of our Sunday Evening Youth Gathering on May 19th is Confirmation Sunday, meaning that this is the first Youth Gathering to which all 8 of the new Youth members (those who will have been Confirmed earlier that morning) will be invited.  We ask that all current Youth members be present to greet them and make them feel welcome in our spiritual community!  May 19th is also Service Sunday, meaning that after our fellowship meal we will be moving into the Food Pantry room in the office wing and packing food boxes for those in need in our community.

5. SAVE THE DATE:  St. Mark’s Children’s Ministry will be hosting its Beginning of Summer Bash at St. Mark’s from 5-7 pm on

   Saturday 6/1, and Youth & Families are both invited to this event.  There will be a waterslide, food trucks, popcorn, games and more!  Also, Youth Helpers are requested at 4 pm to set up games, etc.  Please let me know if you are willing to volunteer your time to help with this event!

6. There will be a meeting for those participating in this summer’s Multi-Generational Mission Trip from 11:30 am to 12:30 am on Sunday June 2 in the Banquet Hall.  We strongly urge all Youth who plan to participate in the Mission Trip (as well as their parents) to make attendance at this meeting a priority.

7. For our recent Confirmands / Rising Youth and their parents, there will be a New Youth Orientation Meeting from 11:30 am to 12:30 pm in the Youth Center on Sunday May 26th.

8. Congratulations to our Class of 2024 graduates Beth, Carly, L.C., Hank, Luke, Aidan, Landry & Elizabeth!!!

10. All Youth who plan to attend Cedar Crest Camp this summer are asked to please let Mrs. Hannah know that they are going so that she can coordinate transportation and the sendoff service ... hannah@stmarkstn.org

REMINDERS (Older but Still Relevant Announcements)

1. If anyone does not have access to the 2024 St. Mark's Youth Photo Circle, please click here for access to all St. Mark's Youth photos:         https://join.photocircleapp.com/G0MNKVE48C

2. Our Sunday Worship Team is seeking Youth Communion Servers (1 volunteer needed for the first Sunday of every month) and Youth Ushers (4-6 volunteers needed on the 5th Sunday of every month which contains 5 Sundays.  To volunteer for these service opportunities, click on the following link and follow the prompts.  SignupGenius will generate reminder emails shortly before the date of your service, so don’t be afraid to sign up months in advance: https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E48A8A823ABFFCE9-48490698-youth

3. SAVE THE DATE: St. Mark’s Children’s Ministry is hosting its annual Vacation Bible School during the week of June 24- 27th, and Youth workers are needed during the programming hours of  9 am - 12 pm on those dates.  We will need all hands on deck in order to make this a great experience for our guests (not to mention one of St. Mark’s best opportunities to minister to our local community!), so we would greatly appreciate it if anyone is able to volunteer their time!

4. All St. Mark’s Youth members are required to complete and return the 2023-24 General Health & Photo Release Form in order to participate in all future St. Mark’s events and outings. Click here to find a printable PDF version of the General Health & Photo Release Form, or I can provide you with a printed copy of the form upon request.

5. We are always seeking volunteers to prepare fellowship dinners for our Youth!  Below you will find the link to the signup sheet for coordinating volunteers for Youth Sunday Fellowship Dinner preparation... providing a meal can mean anything from preparing something homemade (our Youth tend to love those!) to simply ordering pizza (I'd be happy to place the order for you and pick it up myself, according to your preference).  If you choose to deliver the meal to us personally, we ask that volunteers arrive between 4:45 and 5 pm on Sunday evenings, and we would love it if you joined us at the table as we enjoy the meal that you've prepared (though it's completely fine if you can't stick around to eat with us).  These fellowship dinners make all the difference in creating a welcoming, comfortable space for our Youth where they know that they are cared for by their St. Mark's family! https://www.signupgenius.com/go/10C0E48A8A823ABFFCE9-47558419-stmarks

6. The Spring 2024 St. Mark’s Youth Programming Calendar can be found here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1m-AZc7QprlSM_JRgk_Tao3jLciH2yvtQAk_EITGXUA8/edit?usp=sharing