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SYG 2010: Success for the “Southies”
Congratulations to the South Perth team who once again took out the title of overall Champion at the 2010 State Youth Games event, and also to Cornerstone (who hail from Busselton) in winning the small church competition.
The SYG weekend was filled with fun, friendship, fierce competition and fantastic weather – praise the Lord. Thank you to all our teams that took part and for the energy you displayed over the weekend, it was truly a sight to be seen.
Here are just some of the comments received thus far:
“Thanks so much for a very well-run games. Everyone couldn't say enough good things about the weekend. The adult volunteers all said they enjoyed themselves a lot and want to come again next year. The players said that there was a very good spirit throughout the events”.
“Loved having the opening ceremony on Friday night…loved XerDance, please have it at sportsfest”.
The theme of “Courage” carried across the weekend and it was fantastic to see the work put into each team’s individual theme and banners. South Perth was again a winner, taking out the 2010 banner competition with their theme “Stepping out, standing strong”. We also enjoyed hearing from our guest speaker Andrew ‘Fishtail’ Fisher about Courage both on and off the V8 supercar race track.
Thank you once again to our adult volunteers and sponsors who help to make this weekend possible. Also a special mention to the State Youth Games Organising Team (SYGOT) who have worked tirelessly over the last few months to bring it all together – well done!
We look forward to bringing you photos and also video from the event soon. In the meantime, if you took any photos over the weekend, we would love to see them. Please email some of your team photos to brittni.baum@sygwa.com.au and we’ll get them up on our website to share with others.
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Make Poverty History Road Trip 2010
Untitled from theROADTRIP.com.au on Vimeo.
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NYMC 09' has been and gone! It was great! I guess the best thing about a conference for me is that you're in a space where you're hearing from a lot of people about a lot of great things and it's usually in the midst of that, that God speaks to you personally and about your ministry. I got a lot out of it this year and I would love to share some of my highlights with you.
- Connecting with everyone from YVWA was great. These trips create a wonderful sense of unity and friendship
- Our Youth Vision Australia Gathering saw nearly 100 CoC youth people from right across Australia come together for dinner and fellowship
- Kym Edwards was honored as a great Youth Pastor in front of everyone at the conference by his church and young people he ministers to
- Being reminded that youth ministry is a long term mission that requires us to persevere for the long haul
I would encourage you if you did not go this time to plan for 2011.
I would also like to remind you at this point that YVWA has a relational covenant that has been designed to encourage you to have a mentor, be in a peer cluster, do professional development and get involved in YVWA gatherings and events. This is a really important part of our network because your health as a youth pastor is key in developing healthy youth ministries in our state. So if you would like to know more please don't hesitate to give me a call on 04013 128 135 or check out the website.
On Wednesday we had our central cluster meeting led by Dean G from Subi. It was great to be able to share our journeys, speak into each others lives and pray for each other. I sat back in our cluster and thought, "Wow this is powerful and effective." I left our cluster feeling energised and excited that together God is at work in us and in our ministries.
Well that's enough from me! I hope that you enjoy reading this update.
God Bless
Rod Thom
Minister (Youth & Young Adults) South Perth Church of Christ
Director Youth Vision WA
The National Youth Ministry Convention ’09 was a success on many levels. The first day was a professional development day – it was stuff we could take back that in itself would have been enough. But there were 3 days of fantastic electives, speakers & worship still ahead! The messages and information from all the speakers were a blessing that will hopefully be spread throughout Australia by everyone who heard them. To connect with other Youth Ministries and to see how God is moving in young lives right around the country was such an encouragement. One of the best parts of NYMC, though, was that we built community & team with the people from WA. We were able to get to know each other better, to have some laughs, share stories and be able to come back to WA together, having the shared experience of the NYMC. We will all be at our separate churches but now we know we have a wider team that are only a short distance away. working towards the same goal, going through similar struggles and that we’re all furthering the Kingdom of our God together.
Emily Dickinson
Community Youth Worker & Minister (Young Adults)
South Perth Church of Christ
NYMC was a fantastic few days for our team. So much is packed into those 4 days that it will take a bit to sift through and process it all. But we all left with new ideas to think about, inspiration to keep going, and grateful for the chance to step out of the routine to hear from the Lord. One of the great things about the weekend was the diversity of electives offered. There were opportunities to learn and think about so many different facets of youth ministry. It will take a long time to get everything into practice, but we’re going to start putting new things we’ve learned into practice even this week.
The other highlight for us was getting to spend time with other youth workers, catching up with crew from WA and meeting new people throughout the weekend. Getting to be with others in youth ministry is always encouraging and never dull!
Dean Groetzinger
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RECHARGE 09 was a fantastic weekend at Camp Simons again last year. Fridaynight 
saw the whole crew able to enjoy some good youth group games, without having to run them! Two truths and lie proved especially tricky but we found out some very interesting things about YV youth leaders and workers…
Saturday morning were some really beneficial electives. Pete Roberts left everyone with a lot to think about on leadership. Emily Dickinson got everyone straightened out on how to work with girls. Scott Vawser challenged us on what it means to be missional in our youth ministries and Dean Groetzinger got people thinking about some of the things we need to focus on when working with young guys.
Through the afternoon, it was time to meet someone new or bond with your team and people found things to do from watching movies to playing music, buying drum kits, or 4 wheel driving! We then regathered Saturday night after another lovingly prepared meal for a time of encouraging each other and being encouraged by Alisha Faulkner!
Leigh McIntosh brought us a great word Sunday morning from Ecclesiastes 4, reminding us all of the need to stay together and help our kids to stay together – just like geese! Did you know geese can fly 70% further when they fly in formation? (I guess you do if you came on the weekend!) We and our kids will be that much more able to go the distance in following Jesus when we stay in formation, hold each other up, and encourage one another. (Honk!)
It was a fantastic weekend, refreshing, encouraging, and thought provoking as well. We met new people and got to spend some ‘down time’ with our crews, not having to run everything as usual!
Hope you can make it this year!