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Youth group events

28th January 2009

This Saturday we had our first Auburn youth event for the year and it was absolutely awesome. I came away exhausted (it was a worship/prayer/sleepover event and everyone knows you don't actually sleep at youth sleepovers) but absolutely inspired and full of excitement about the year ahead.

We had informal hangout time where people could visit the prayer room, play Wii, fill each others designated envelopes with encouragement notes, play volleyball, verse each other in our own little version of 'So you think you can dance' (hilarious!), eat or just talk. I loved this bonding time! It was so good to see everyone connecting and enjoying themselves. But this wasn't my favourite bit.

We had some tasty snacks during the night. Jodie (our youth church co-ordinator) cooked up some delicious pies and sausage rolls for a midnight snack and these were followed by Billabongs. They were a real hit. But this was not my favourite bit.

We had a great worship time that included the song 'Building up the temple'. Before we sung it, we had opportunity for people to explain in one minute what the song was all about. The best answer would be determined by congregational applause and the person who delivered it would be awarded with a prize. Anyway, the guys and girls almost lost their voices trying to out-do each other with the 'boys/girls won't you help us' bit and then they spontaneously formed a human pyramid. It was pretty funny. But that wasn't my favourite bit either.

At 9pm we all piled on to two buses and headed out to Sydney Olympic Park in Homebush. It's only about 10 minutes from our church building. We gathered on top of a huge hill and spent some time in silence just listening to the sounds of our community. After feeding back about what we could hear (answers included a car horn, people walking and flatulence...) we thought about the people who live in our community.

A couple of young people read out some scripture about the light of the world and then the 30 young people spent some time spread out across four different prayer 'stations' where they prayed for various people within our community including teachers and our mayor/town leaders.

The four groups were all led by young people so I got to sit back with the legendary Matt Gluyas (our youth leader) and the awesome Jodie Griffin and just take in what was happening. It was so beautiful - seeing young people huddle and pray with focus and with love for their community. This was by far my favourite part of the night. God can do anything with unselfish young hearts that are committed to partnering with God to see change in their world.

We'd love to hear about some of your really special youth ministry moments. Visit the MORE facebook page to share.

Bless you guys,

- Claire Hill