Youth Group Updates

Kia ora whānau, What a term it has been for our Senior Youth group! This term we’ve been exploring the theme of practical prayer—asking where prayer meets our everyday lives and what big questions come up when we step into that space. So far, we’ve looked at how to pray, understanding shame, and prayerful reflection. There are still plenty of big questions to unpack, and we’re so excited (and a little nervous!) to see what our youth will bring to the table as the term continues. A couple of highlights so far: at our opening fun night we created piñatas, filled them with lollies, and had a great time breaking them open together. Over the term break, we also headed down to the badminton hall for some games and laughed as a group. Looking ahead, I’m especially excited about our upcoming combined Junior and Senior Youth Night. This is a special opportunity to invite the Junior youth into the senior space, giving them a chance to connect with our group and get to know the people and rhythms they’ll soon be stepping into. Blessings, Anaiwan Senior Youth Coordinator

---

The Avalanche Youth Group has been a blast this year. From prayerful reflection at the church, to ducking through trees at camp, our team have been silently making moves to create a welcoming and exciting space for the Intermediates of our parish and communities. Last week (August 8th-10th) the Intermediate Youth headed all the way out to the cold beachy forest in Foxton. We had an eventful weekend full of games, movies, prayer, workshops and some great food. The young people were excited to stretch their legs and stretch their faith, as we competed in many challenges with our groups and sang our hearts out to some classic camp worship songs (we were RUNNING). The last few terms with our young people have been super formational for everyone. We have had some awesome talks about personal faith, God’s character, and the fruits of the Spirit. It has been a privilege to see how much our young people have grown into their own relationships with God, as well as enjoyed time getting to know each other and having some good old fashioned fun. I have really loved seeing the connections forming between the young people as well as the development many of our younger ones have found in critically thinking about our Bible topics. We have had tons of fun with various messy and yummy challenges, trips to PaknSave, DIYs and lots and lots of laughs. Myself and the team are hyped to see what the rest of this term as well as next term will look like; No doubt it will be chaotic and crazy, so keep our whole group in your prayers as we welcome a bunch of new kids to our unique and lovely group.

---