Easter-Egg Hunt

On Friday evening I sat inside listening to the steady rain while triyng to imagine an Easter-egg hunt inside the church.  Thankfully when I woke up Saturday morning the storm clouds had dispersed, and the sun was even trying to make an appearance.  The ground was wet, but it wasn't to wet to prevent us from having a fun filled Easter-egg hunt outside. 

A BIG thank you to the mid-highs that showed up at 9:00 to help hide the eggs and lead the hunt.  We hid over 450 eggs!  This was a wonderful event that got all the children and youth involved.  The senior-highs did a great job filling the eggs, the mid-highs excelled at hiding the eggs, and in no time the children succedded in finding the eggs!

Easter Egg Hunt

This Saturday from 10:00-11:00 there will be an Easter Egg Hunt for the children of the church.  The mid-high youth are invited to attend to help hide the eggs and to assist the children in finding the eggs.  The mid-highs are asked to arrive at 9:00 to help with set-up. 

Athletes in Action

This evening the mid-high youth group will have the opportunity to visit with three UVA Christian athletes.  Dinner will be provided and the youth will have an opportunity to hear from these athletes as well as spend some time visiting with them.  Please join us this evening for food, fun, and fellowship.  Hope to see you there!

Easter Eggs

This Sunday the senior-high youth will be filling Easter eggs during our youth fellowship time from 5:00-7:00.  The following Saturday the mid-high youth will be helping the children of the church participate in an Easter egg hunt.  The mid-highs will arrive at 9:30 to help hide the eggs, and the hunt will begin at 10:00.  The mid-highs will assist the younger children in searching for the eggs. 

Each youth family is asked to bring some candy or other item to to use in filling the Easter eggs.  If you will not be at youth this Sunday, but are still willing to contribute some items, feel free to drop them by the office. 

Senior-High Washington D.C. Service Retreat

When you think of the stereotypical homeless person portrayed by pop culture what do you think of?  Do you think of someone wearing multiple layers of clothing?  Someone pushing a shopping cart?  There are lots of images that come to mind, but as our group discovered this past weekend, many of these images are merely stereotypes and do not represent reality.

On Saturday we made around 30 bagged lunches to hand out to the homeless population around the area that we were staying.  We split into three groups, and went out to engage the homeless population and to offer a bagged lunch.  After close to two hours we came back together as a large group, and everyone agreed, finding homeless people is easier said than done.  We were expecting to fine individuals who fit the stereotypes that we had in our minds, the problem was there are not many people who fit these stereotypes.  We were able to hand out 8 meals.  While we were certainly disappointed we didn't get to hand out more meals, this lead to some good conversation about the homeless population. 

My group meet a gentleman by the name of William.  At first our group was hesitant to approach William, because we could not determine if he was homeless.  Not wanting to offend anyone we approached William initially asking for help.  We described who we were, and what we were doing.  We asked William if he knew of anyone who could use a meal.  William told us that he could use a meal, and that he would eat it right away.  After a wonderful conversation with William we headed back to rejoin the rest of the group.  We all agreed, even if we had no more success the rest of the day, we felt like we had accomplished something big by helping William.

After working in the morning we spent the afternoon doing a little sight-seeing around the city.  We ran into a homeless man asking for money near a metro station, and Kacie-Linn dec

ided that the group would take him to McDonalds so he could have a meal.  So we all crowded into McDonalds and Kacie-Linn treated our new friend to a meal. 

The following morning we worked with an organization called Café Capitol Hill.  They are a part of the Capitol Hill United Methodist Church.  This group offers a meal every Sunday following church.  We worked to help prepare the meal and set up the room, and then joined the congregation in worship.  After worship we went down to the fellowship hall to serve the meal to the approximately fifty homeless men and women who were gathered to eat.  We all had plenty of opportunity to not only serve the men and women, but to also fellowship with them.  We all h

ad an enjoyable time, and even made a few new friends.

During the course of the weekend we were able to serve others, and by doing so, serve Jesus.  It was a wonderful weekend and a positive experience for all involved. 

Coffee House Concert

On Sunday evening Jason and Kristi Burton performed a concert in the fellowship hall.  Around fifty Olivet members came together for dinner at 5:00 with the concert starting at 6:00.  The Burton's put on a wonderful concert full of good Christian music.  They were extremely talented and had great stage presence.  Everyone left the evening agreeing what a wonderful night it had been.