Education
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Sunday School
St. Matthews Sunday School has changed! We're excited to try out a new schedule this year that will give more opportunity for teaching and spiritual growth. If we want our children to value and understand the Liturgy they must experience and participate in it, therefore we will begin Sunday School before church starting at 9:00 a.m. This will start with all the kids together for a time of prayer and welcome, then they will separate into age-based classes for instruction and fun. At 9:45 everyone will get back together for singing and prayer to get ready for Church at 10:00. This new schedule is not only for the kids, there will be adult formation classes at the same time so we can all learn and grow in community. If you would like to volunteer to teach please let Terra Swisher know, you can call, email, write, speak to her in person or use any other form of communication you can think of to get in touch. This new schedule starts September 11, 2011, hope to see you there!
Vacation Bible School
Vacation Bible School was a blast! See you all again next year!
Youth Activities
Youth Group St. Matthew's Youth Group meets Sundays from 6:00 to 8:00. Supper is served at 6:00. We talk about God and life and we do fun activities, play games and generally hang out. It's overall a pretty good time! Please join us if you are between 6th and 12th grades.
Diocesan Wide Lenten Lock-in
All 8th through 12th graders are invited to join us February 24-25 at St. Matthew’s Church in Bloomington for food, fun and learning. We’ll learn about why we celebrate lent and what it’s all about (hint: it has to do with Jesus).You can start arriving around 6:00 and can be picked up the next day at 7:00 p.m.Friday we’ll have a speaker and activities that explain Mardi Gras and Lent as well as some just-for-fun games and activities. The evening will wind down with a movie and snacks and sleeping. While sleep is for the weak, someone once told me “nothing good happens after 2:00 A.M.” and with those wise words we’ll be calling it a night. The next day we’ll have more fun and learning.
For more information contact Terra Swisher at St. Matthew’s tswisher@stmatthewsbloomington.org or call the church at (309)664-4646. This information is also available on the St. Matthew’s website http://www.stmatthewsbloomington.net/
New Orleans Mission Trip
The youth had an exciting July this year. St. Matthew’s first-ever mission trip on July 17 - 24, 2011 was a huge success. We had a fantastic time and were able to help some great people.
Here’s a synopsis of our trip: Sunday morning we left the church excited to be on our way. After months of fundraising and planning, we were finally headed to New Orleans. After much singing and chatting and game playing, we stopped in Jackson, Mississippi for the night at St. James’ church. We were provided breakfast and a cool place to spend the night. The next day it was off to our destination. We spent most of Monday touring the city and settling in to what would be our home for the next week. We stayed at the Annunciation Mission. They provided us with meals, beds and most of all, air conditioning to come back to after a hard day’s work. The wonderful people who work there shared not only their time and resources with us but also their stories and lives.
We worked all week long on three different houses: priming, painting and trim work. The kids worked hard in the heat. In fact, Randy, our contact at St. Paul’s Homecoming Center (our work base), was surprised at how much we accomplished.
Our youth group kids are great, not only are they hard workers but they were polite and genuinely interested in the people we were helping.
By Saturday we were ready for some fun on the town. We spent the morning and early afternoon shopping and strolling through the French Quarter.
Sunday morning we were packed up and ready to go by 6:00 a.m. The trip home was once again filled with fun and laughter. After a week of working hard together, eating together and basically spending every waking moment together, the youth of St. Matthews were still pleasant to be around and even a lot of fun. Thank you for lending us your kids and sending them to help New Orleans.
We look forward to the upcoming Sunday School year and all the new things it will bring.
~[Terra]
