By Heerak Kim, Pastor for Youth & Mission
What’s been going on in the Youth World?
I’m glad you asked!
- Exercise more, procrastinate lass, learn new things
- Stop eating junk food
- Work out every day: dead lift 320lb, bench 200lb, curl 80lb, 50 sit-ups, 50 pushups without stopping
These are some of the promises our high school youth made in the beginning of the year. We learned that our reality is created first from dreaming/imagining and then practices/disciplines through faith. We shared our wishes and came up with individual practices. We became a covenant group in which we are accountable to each other. On Sunday morning, we ask how well we kept the discipline for the week. We offer no shame or criticism on a failure – only empathy and reminders that we are on this journey together, and of course, encouragement to keep striving for the goal.
Past Youth Events
Renaissance Festival – It was an up-scale Halloween type experience. We witnessed the power of stories from those devoted and serious costumes influenced by Nordic tales. Turkey legs were yummy!
Packing shoe boxes – Our youth also have Glen Mar’s service DNA. We packed around a hundred shoe boxes for Operation Christmas Child. While packing, we listened to the stories of how these shoe boxes have impacted in different regions of the world.
Youth Christmas Party – One of games we played was spicy noodle challenge. There were 4 levels, 1. mild, 2. little spicy, 3. spicy, and 4. very spicy. Our youth were able to handle well even the highest level.
High School graduates’ brunch – It was a time of catch-up and reconnection. Those graduates are now studying and working hard in many different areas such as engineering, computer science, math, photography, linguistics, education, and film.
Ice Skating – Playing tag on ice makes you sweat. It’s a sort of our tradition to have ice cream after ice skating which I still don’t understand.
Talented Glen Mar Youth – Glen Mar youth are gifted! They have learned and performed in different high and middle school sports, bands and orchestras. Let’s support them by our encouragement.
Sunday Afternoon Trail Walk – Repeated spiritual disciplines nourish us. We will walk in different trails on Sunday afternoon 3pm, rain or shine. Contact he********@********mc.org for more information.
As for the missions at Glen Mar, we have had a VERY BUSY Fall – (Christmas) – Winter season as usual. Since our last Messenger quarterly newsletter, our Glen Mar serve/mission ministries hosted, facilitated, or produced many efforts. You will find the stories of each of the following in this issue of The Messenger.
- Hosted and facilitated the Martin Luther King, Jr. Day of Service – January 16, 2023
- Our Habitat Team worked on a home that was dedicated a “Home for the Holiday” – December 15, 2022
- Provided meals for the Cold Weather Shelter – December 12-19, 2022
- Collected gifts and gift cards for Wish Upon A Star – December 4, 2022
- Produced our FIFTEENTH annual Journey (Walk) To Bethlehem – December 1-4, 2022
- Hosted Glen Mar’s 2nd Free Community Health Fair (in one year) – November 12, 2022
- Organized, hosted, and facilitated the Sixth annual Jewels for Hope – November 5, 2022
