“I Saw God Today” Middle School Retreat

The Middle School GOOTH attended the Salem Presbytery Middle School Fall Retreat on November 1 and 2, 2008, at Camp Hanes in King, NC. 14 youth and 4 adults attended the event and had a great time. Here are some words from two of our youth who attended:

Sara, 8th grade:

The Camp Hanes Middle School Retreat was really fun. We did energizers and sang songs. Then we had our keynote speaker-Dianna Wright. I really enjoyed her sermons. She had a very unique way of preaching. The theme of the weekend was, “I saw God today.” We had small group time and got to walk all around Camp Hanes and look for places where we saw God. This was fun, because the leaves on the trees at Camp Hanes were at their peak so they were all different colors. It was such a pretty weekend, it was easy to see God. Later that night we had a talent show. From our church, Janeth read a really cool poem and Olivia, Carter, and Meghan sang a song. Then we had the Darty.-(dance/Party) Overall, the Camp Hanes retreat was soooo much fun!

Sammie, 8th grade:

Camp Hanes this year was really fun. I made so many new friends. I learned a lot about how you can see God in other people and things. When we left the retreat I looked at everyone differently not because I had gotten to know them better, but because I noticed some of their wonderful qualities. Even though it was my last middle school retreat I really enjoyed it. And I know everyone else did too.

Great start to GOOTH!

GOOTH is off to a great start this fall. After a fabulous Kick-Off Event, we had quite the time at our Parent-Youth Event the following week and at Kick-Off Part Deux last Sunday. The Parent-Youth Event was not the typical fill-out-the-forms meeting. We did mixers, energizers, sang songs, and had a great time of fellowship, before getting down to business – an hour or more’s worth in close to 30 minutes! woohoo!

Last week at K-O Part Deux, we continued playing some of the games and activities that we didn’t have time for at the first Kick-Off. Again – fun times.

This weekend, we have TWO lockins. Middle School tomorrow night, and High School Saturday night. I think i’m insane for trying it, but i figure this way, my sleep pattern is only disrupted for ONE weekend, rather than TWO! I’ll let you know how it went on Monday!

We are also excited about Sunday night, because we are going to Greensboro to see David LaMotte in concert! It will be my 5th time in the last year, I think. I’m pumped. The youth are, too, since we had him in concert in April.

Can’t wait to see the GOOTH again!

GOOTH Kick-Off 2008

GOOTH had our annual kick-off tonight and had a fabulous time! we had 46 youth and about a dozen adults! that’s a record high number of youth for clemmons presbyterian! we had a great time with an odd assortment of food: finger-food rolled mini-wrap sandwiches, watermelon, and cake. yum! we sang several songs, including bebo norman’s “I AM” that we learned and fell in love with at montreat. then did three energizers: sparkle, istanbul, and run around. that took most of our time. we rounded out our time with some fun noodle games outside and a nice rousing chorus of “bambera”!! (jarrett you’d be proud!)

we missed those youth who couldn’t be there tonight, for whatever reason. some had games, some were out of town, some were sick. we had a lot of visitors and we hope they come back! it was great to have some new faces in the group. i’m looking forward to next week and continuing this year with this great group of youth!

montreat pictures

here are a couple of my facebook albums with pics from montreat. GOOTH, feel free to post your public links as comments to this post for others to see.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=367&l=00c39&id=305700031

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=366&l=954eb&id=305700031

Click on the “comments” below to see more albums from other GOOTH.

the one about the name GOOTH

*this is me recollection of the birth of the word GOOTH, while some of the details may be wrong or backwards, this is the general story. i apologize if its long, it takes time for such an amazing name to take root*

gooth. what a crazy word right? well we are a crazy group of youth, but where did this name come from and why is it such a big deal? it all started a long time ago ( about a year and a half ago) in a land far away (the high school room)….

In the fall of 2006 Jay, our newly installed associate pastor, threw out the idea of naming our fabulous youth group and so we took a Sunday evening to brainstorm among our separate middle and high school groups for possible names with the goal of coming together at the end and discussing our favorites. I personally thought that this was just a filler activity, something to keep us busy, little did I know how this fun brainstorming session would change our youth group forever (or at least the next few years). The high school room was particularly full that night and so there were a lot of side convorsations and very few serious ideas being mentioned…things like “cupcakes” and “frogs” i think made it on the board and I was starting to get frustrated when a few of the boys in the back started to talk about combining some of our favorites into one word. group of youth i think was already on the board and so they started playing with that…grouth….groyth….gyouth….and then gouth…wait no it’d be funnier to spell it gooth. I remember discussing the spelling of our newly invented word for a good 10 minutes. but there it was…GOOTH.

I’m not sure what it was about this word but the high school youth quickly became obsessed with it. Jay had told us that the name could not become official until everyone had a chance to discuss it and come to a consensus (jay later informed me that “it was an exercise of using consensus as much as it was a way to choose a new name”), but the high schoolers didn’t care. We had decided that this was going to be the unofficial name whether or not anyone liked it. When it came time for the actual “consensus session” we were able to convince everyone that gooth was the best choice for a name and it became official on january 14th 2007.

after that the name took off. Gooth became this wierd word that instantaneously bonded anyone associated with it. jay, who might have missed his calling into marketing director, ran with it and had gooth tshirts made, gooth magnets, business cards, postcards, even this nifty blog.

I truely believe that God cares about things even this small and so I think that God had a hand in the naming of our group because without some kind of divine intervention i’m not sure that a) our youth could have agreed on one name and b)it could have had this effect because honestly….GOOTH? its crazy word…but then again, we are a crazy group.

much love

Chelsey McElwee

the fifth one about montreat (part3): week in review

Last Sunday evening, after spending the afternoon in a sweat soaked T-shirt and realizing that a shower wasn’t really much help in this humidity….I was thinking I would celebrate Friday (today) and be ticking off the minutes to go home. Wrong again! I feel sad today that this week is drawing to a close. I have a list of new favorite things, even though the “singing youth” are still high on my list. Sharing scripture with teenagers, watching them share scripture with each other, listening to their challenging questions and very passionate discussions.

From the beginning of this year, Jay has guided these young people in the direction of discovering their own spirituality. I have watched with growing interest thinking that it would be a long process. During our week in New York and this week at Montreat, this discovery journey has come to a point of realization. They get it……I mean they REALLY get it! They certainly have scores of things to learn, (I know I certainly do), but they have a sincere desire to grow in their faith. And they absolutely love doing that together….what a bonus! … Learning about the love of Jesus with some of your best friends. They have commented on other Youth who don’t have good experiences with their Youth Group. They realize how unique their relationships are within “Gooth”, but some of their experiences this week have confirmed those feelings. They think everyone should have a “Gooth”.

During this week in Montreat, as an adult chaperone, I’ve had much contact with other young people from different churches from quite a range of geographical locations. I’m sure there are a number of youth that are as excited about their faith and being part of their Youth Group as ours. However, it seems there is a far greater number that are just not. I feel privileged to have been witness to this experience, but more importantly to have been so deeply affected on a personal note. I am proud to be in the midst of these teenagers, they represent themselves (and you) very well.

I have to go; I understand from my young “advisors” that this worship service tonight is powerful. They are on their way, and I certainly don’t want to miss it.

Peace…….Ronda

(Sometime Later…..)

PS…Okay, now, I have another especially favorite memory….the Candlelight Service around Lake Susan. The beauty of that service would almost be an entirely separate BlOG.

the fifth one about montreat (part 2): candlelight

This year was my third and final year at Montreat. It’s been a great week. I’ve had a wonderful small group full of amazing people. We’ve had great keynoters and worship leaders. The keynotes and sermons all hit home with us on some level. The theme, as probably mentioned earlier this week was “throw open the doors”. We had sub themes that included doors of possibilities and doors to the church. We talked about things including the importance of holding each other and being held up ourselves, and just the importance of love overall. We learned so many new songs this week. At first we were all a little disappointed that the songs we had all loved for so long weren’t being played. By today though we had learned the new songs and have come to love most of them.

I waited until tonight to blog because tonight was the candle light service. It’s my favorite part of the week. At the end of the service on the final night everyone gathers around Lake Susan. We get candles as we file out of Anderson Auditorium and completely circle the lake. It’s so beautiful. We light the candles and sing a lot of the slower songs from the week. It has always been a really powerful and emotional night for me. Tonight was more emotional night than past years though because it was my final night at the high school conference. It was a combination of happy and sad. I was sad to be leaving, but happy to have had such a great experience both this week and at conferences in the past. Although, I did learn tonight at devotion that there is the possibility of coming back to be part of work crew next year. There is also a college conference in January.

Another great thing about this week was that I was able to see some of my friends from PYC for the first time since our final meeting, and I also got to see some of the people that I had met last year. Montreat has always been something I’ve looked forward to. It has been an amazing week: as amazing, if not more so, than I had expected. The group of us are so lucky to have each other. We have heard so many stories about youth groups that have people that constantly feel left out of their groups. I feel really lucky to be a part of Gooth where we don’t have that problem. I’m going to miss these experiences when I leave in August. I do, however, feel more ready than I did to leave. Parts of the conference helped me to feel this way. The day we talked about the doors of possibilities I talked about going to college with another graduated senior about our reservations about growing up and moving out. It helped me when I realized I wasn’t the only one with these reservations. It’s been such a great week and I can’t believe it went by as fast as it did.

Love, Brittany

the fifth one about montreat (part 1): candlelight

Colleen, Jacob, Niki, and Joey

Wassupppp Congregs,

We’re just straight chillin’ in the Happy Hearth (our house) listening to Baby Jay play the guitar. Small groups met for the last time today, so most of our groups did an activity called affirmations. It was sad that we wouldn’t go to small groups anymore this year. We passed around the “journals” we have been using all week and wrote nice little things about each other. Except sometimes there were quiet kids in our groups who we didn’t know well enough to say nice things about, so it was like “you were nice” or “thanks for having red hair” or “you ain’t dumb” or “way to be quiet, you idiot” or “I HATE YOU.” Just kidding. Left-overs for dinner tonight were pretty good, again. Pretty soon we are heading down to worship, and everyone is pumped for tonight’s candlelight service around Lake Susan which is always a powerful experience. This week has gone by uber fast. It’s sad that the week is coming to an end and we have to come home tomorrow, but it will be nice to see all of you again! (smiles!!)

Loooooove,

Us

Bethany

Dear church goers,

I’m sitting next to Joey, he’s being a sillybutt. He doesn’t think sillybutt is a word but I’m going to use it. Today I saw mountains. I was with Sarah and Jeremy most of the day. I brought them home to meet the fam. Oh course it got embarrassing. Everyone was singing and when I had a chance to escape they lured me in with hugs and kidnapped me! Jacob’s going to beddyweddybye. Umm. Sarah is getting a little emotional up in here. So night. I love you.

Love, Bethany

the fourth one about montreat: friends

Niki Ringer

Montreat has to be the thing I look forward to during the summer. This is only my second year going, but after last year, I couldn’t wait to come back this year. I can’t come back next year because I just graduated high school, but if I could, I would in a heartbeat. Today was like any other day with Keynote and small groups this morning. I think today’s keynote was the best one so far. The talked about “doors” that need to be broken down in the church. The topic travelled into our small groups and mine (SG 35!) spent the entire time having a serious discussion about the topic. I enjoy this year’s small group much more than last year just for the fact the people are so much more talkative and involved. I can’t wait for this afternoon when we get to go back to small groups and go to worship and the variety show tonight. Montreat is definitely my favorite part of the summer.

Bethany Ringer

Dear congregation peoples,
My mommy loved my last blog. She was very proud. Things here are well. Our GOOTH family is remembering retelling silly-willy stories from the week. Like any good family stories, they embarrassed me but I still love them. Well, the way it all started was I was chilling with a boy who I won’t name or call a sweetyface, even though it’s true. They were hinting at the fact I called him a cutie pie in last night’s blog. I told them that “cutie pies” are friends, and not “romantic interests.” Oh well, I guess my new friends will have to love my youth family if they want to love me too. Meanwhile the God party isn’t stopping anytime soon. Well at least not in the next 24 hours. Okay. Goodnight Clemmons/Winston-Salem greater area. I love you
Love, Bethany

Mr Cooper wants to know how Jay got a blog and what he has to take to get rid of it……(haha)

the third one about montreat (part 2): free day and dance party

Joey, Colleen, and Julia

CONGREGATIONNNNNN,

Today was awesome! After keynote and small group, we all had a free afternoon. We ate lunch and then split up to either go rock hopping, walk around the campus, or sleep. The rock hoppers hopped for a very, very long time and Colleen took a nappy nap. After this the group went into Black Mountain for a shopping spree. We all drank coffee instead at the Dripolater. It was the bomb-diggity. After our pizza from My Father’s Pizza, we journeyed to the castle of worship in a far away land, down the hill. “Love.” As it turns out, that is the shortest sermon ever given, we learned that in our much, much longer sermon. Also, we sang One Love by Bob Marley; it was the jam. “The Jesus in us loves the Jesus in you. It’s so easy.” (That’s another song we sang.) Next, the dance party with glow sticks and face paint. In order to gain entry, we were required to make a chant to earn glow sticks for the group and we used Jean Moore’s song about how long we had to wait to eat on the train from New York. “They want us to wait an hour to eat, and if you have to pee pee you better go now.” We learned to open the doors of our hearts today and to carry others while being carried ourselves.

Love,

Joey, Colleen, and Julia