Sizzling Salsa, Spooky Cemeteries, Sundae Services, Surprise Snatchings

The Middle schoolers and I just got back from Salsa Night at Ballet Arts Center which was great fun. The kids were wonderful dancers. We learned the girl’s steps and the boy’s steps and they came away with a CD of salsa music to play at the SVMS Dance next Friday Night. Clue night will be the following night, Oct. 29th, and, come to think of it, will be the 3rd annual here at St. Philip’s. The wonderful Bruce and Miss Rachel will be helping with the formal dinner and Murder on the Grill game we're going to play. Francis will be teaching a Rite-13 Lesson on Compassion and Mercy which will focus on some Commandments, and also on following through with living the Gospel. The kidnapping of Vickie’s 3rd-4th-5th grade class was a success and we were joined by Marie S., here visiting from San Diego State U., which was absolutely lovely (and I hear whispers of the younger kiddies plotting to kidnap the Middle schoolers at some later date for another trip to the donut shop).

This is an exciting time for our High Schoolers also. . . I've put together three Sunday Evening teen worship services, with Christian rock music, youth sermon, prayers, and ice cream to follow. We're doing an All Hallows Eve service at Evergreen Cemetery that's extra creepy, but the message is all about Christ being beside us, in front of us, within us. This experiment, called the Teen Worship Project, is a work in progress and if it becomes well attended by November, we'll keep doing it through the winter. This project was inspired by our new Youth Steering Committee an invaluable resource of new ideas and inspiration. Members include Bruce Clift, Karen Krestensen, and Clive Ellis, with encouragement provided by Bill Kelly.

                 Carter Potts, Director for Middle and High School Youth Program