Ministries to Children & Families
Nursery
This summer, during our 10:30 service, our 3 year olds will be digging deeper in to God’s word through stories, art and scripture memorization. We will use a wonderful book, My ABC Bible Verses, Hiding God’s Word in Little Hearts by Susan Hunt to help us learn more about the Bible so that we can know God better. Children will check in to the toddler nursery as usual and will then go as a group to their classroom, Room 202, for this wonderful study.
Books are available in our bookstore, Saints Alive, for anyone who would like to follow along at home. This book is great for use during family devotions or bedtime devotions. For questions or to volunteer…call or email, Dee Goehring at 843-814-7935or deegoehring@comcast.net. Come join us as we celebrate the ABC’s of God’s word this summer!
~ Dee Goehring
Nursery Supervisor
EYE ON I’ON
St. Michaelites enjoy a pot luck picnic and some fun competition on the courts
It doesn’t take much to gather a crowd of St. Michael people. But on May 22nd the “come on” was a tennis round-robin, two commodious swimming pools, and a sumptuous pot luck cook out under the pines at the I’On Club in Mt Pleasant.
At the invitation of the Head of I’On’s Tennis Program, Tiago Bruniera, a frequent attendee at St. Michael’s and a graduate of our Alpha program, over 100 members risked threatening skies to have a party that included -- for some -- heading out to the courts. Among them there were those who had not picked up a racquet in 15 years. Others were avid weekly players. While still others were junior hopefuls with racquets nearly as tall as they.
But the rains held off for all but 15 minutes, and the sun broke through to make the party a hugely successful event. It was a treat having Bishop Lawrence and his wife Alison with us, and three of our clergy (myself, Al Zadig, and Bishop Dickson) showed up – though only two of us took to the courts.
Ralph Waldo Emerson once said: “Friendship should… not be crushed into corners. It requires more time than poor busy men can usually command.” All the more reason for us not to try to squash every Christian relationship into a hasty Sunday morning coffee hour after church, but (while kids splash around in the pool) we need to linger over a grille, a beer, or fraternize around a swimming pool while the sun goes down.
As one guest said: “Let’s be sure to make this an annual event!”
~ The Rev. Dr. Peter Moore
Nursery News
Our nursery at St. Michaels is growing each day and we couldn’t be more excited about the opportunity to love and care for these future disciples. Some of the exciting things that we have done in the nursery ministry lately is to fully train all of our nursery staff as well as provide them with Safeguarding God’s Children training. We are so fortunate to have a wonderful nursery team that has a love and passion for our children as well as the Lord. In addition to our staff training, we officially opened the Nursing Mom’s Room on May 16th. This space is peaceful, private and filled with the love that we have for our nursing moms… please take a moment to check out this space, you may enter this area through the door at the back right side of the infant room. As always, we truly appreciate all that you do to support our nursery ministries…we are so blessed by your families.
Let the little children come to me, and do not hinder them, for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these. (Matthew 19:14)
In Christ,
Dee Goehring
Interim Nursery Supervisor
Sunday School News
Thank you to all who have volunteered their time and attended our exciting journey through The Ten Commandments, we have completed our travels through all ten and are excited about our review as well as our Sunday School Celebration. Our Celebration will take place on June 6th. This time will be a time of fellowship and surprises as our children share with their parents all that they have learned. Stay tuned for more information on this in the week ahead. Please be sure not to miss our final two Sunday School classes together for this study of the Ten Commandments on May 30th and June 6th. We have all enjoyed partnering with the parents of St. Michaels to live out our Deuteronomy 6 roles and we have cherished every moment with your children. Thank You.
Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength. These commandments that I give you today are to be upon your hearts. Impress them on your children. Talk about them when you sit at home and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up. Tie them as symbols on your hands and bind them on your foreheads. Write them on the doorframes of your houses and on your gates.
(Deuteronomy 6:1-8)
In Christ,
Dee Goehring
Interim Sunday School Administrator
Vacation Bible School: Hero Headquarters
Where Kids Join Forces with God
June 7th - 11th
It’s time for all of God’s everyday heros to sign up for VBS. Children (Ages 4 to rising 4th graders. Children must be 4 by June 1st) and all volunteers which include rising 5th grade on up. Nursery provided for children of volunteers. 3 year-olds in the nursery will enjoy their own VBS program. VBS registration forms are located in the Welcome Centers and online at www.vacationbibleschool.com/stmichaelschurch.
Hero Headquarters will close this year with a family supper on Thursday evening, July 10th from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m., where families will see a skit, participate in classroom discussion, and make a craft with their children. Clean-up will be on Friday morning. Please sign up soon. The deadline is May 16, 2010. (We need volunteers for the Thursday evening supper - set up, serve, and clean-up)
~ Beth Stuckey - Home: 559-3424 Cell: 906-5932
Youth
High School Graduates
This year we will be honoring all of our High School graduates at the 10:30am service on May 30th. We hope you will join us in praying for each of them as they finish up their senior year and begin preparing this summer for college and career. This is a wonderful group of young people and it has been my privilege to serve as their youth minister for the past four years. Please join us on May 30th as we send them out into the world as missionaries on their campuses.
Name |
School |
College/ University |
Sally Barnwell |
Academic Magnet |
Furman University |
Maggie Condon |
Academic Magnet |
Appalachian State |
Elizabeth Dougherty |
Ashley Hall |
Clemson University |
Abby Grady |
Ashley Hall |
USC |
Ellie Hart |
Academic Magnet |
Clemson University |
Emily Johnson |
Bishop England |
Clemson University |
Walker Marion |
Academic Magnet |
Clemson University |
Mary Massalon |
Ashley Hall |
Clemson University |
Charlotte Morrow |
Ashley Hall |
Clemson University |
Charlotte Neyle |
Ashley Hall |
University of Hawaii |
Kathryn Pearce |
Ashley Hall |
USC |
Caroline Ravenel |
Ashley Hall |
USC |
Andrew Snedeker |
Porter Gaud |
Tulane University |
Eliza Tew |
Ashley Hall |
College of Charleston |
Anna Catherine Thornley |
Ashley Hall |
College of Charleston |
If you have a college student that has graduated and you would like to make an announcement in the next issue of The Messenger, please email publications@stmichaelschurch.net.
It has been an honor and a blessing to be the youth minister for the past four years. I still remember the weekend I came for my interview. I had never felt so at home in a place I had never before visited and that experience still speaks to me today. I also remember my first Sunday here. I have never felt so loved and welcomed in as I did at my first Pentecost picnic. So much has changed here, but the feeling of home remains the same. My prayer is that this community will grow in that blessing of feeling like a family and home to so many more who God will draw in through each of you; your love for others remaining constant.
It was a difficult decision for me to follow God out of youth ministry after my tenure of fifteen years. So many blessings have come into my life through this ministry; there is no way to measure it all. Even sharing that, I know that God is asking me to step out in faith to pursue a career in counseling. At this time I do not know what this looks like, but I have faith that God will provide and show me His plans. I have always had a heart for married couples and the family. There is something special in each marriage and each family but often there is so much brokenness it is hard to get past the brokenness and into the blessings. I pray that God will use me to help those in need in these areas and that I will be able to be a vessel of truth and hope as He prepares me for this new ministry.
I have learned so much here among you that has prepared me for stepping out in faith and trusting in His call. The power of calling on the Holy Spirit and the healing prayer ministry is a huge part of this. I know I will utilize all that God has taught me through my relationships and ministry with you to go out from here. No matter where He calls me this family at St. Michael’s will remain in my heart and in my prayers. I will forever cherish each moment I have had with you. These youth are like my own children and you can be sure the relationships I have built have been built to last. Thank you to each of you for lavishing me with Agape love; sealed with a kiss.
~ Susie Morrison
Confirmation 2010
This past weekend we held our confirmation retreat for our eight students going through this process of understanding and taking on the faith for themselves. It was a powerful time of seeing the life of Jesus in a new and powerful way. Over the weekend we explored the prophesies given about the Messiah, the birth of Jesus, his ministry, and finally his death and resurrection. As we discussed and looked deeper into the scripture, you could just see the light being turned on for these young people. I believe that this was a very powerful time of grasping who Jesus is for each of us individually.
It was a true blessing for our team; Trish Sosnowski, Newman Lawrence and me to spend this precious time with these students. We ask that you will continue praying for these students who will be confirmed on May 23rd at the 10:30am service this next month as they continue their preparation.
~Susie Morrison – Youth Minister
Youth Summer Mission Trip
This summer our mission trip for high school youth is to Tampa, Fl. We will be working with other churches in our Diocese once again through a company called, Team Effort, to serve the migrant workers in this area. As we know, migrant workers in our communities are often marginalized as a people group and it is our goal to go and serve the least of these by helping with building projects, clean up, and possibly working with the children as well as sharing the gospel of Jesus Christ. The mission is scheduled for June 27 – July 3rd. The cost for the trip is $425 per person. A deposit of $100 is due March 24th. This mission is for all students who will have completed 8th grade through seniors.
This is a great way for students to get out and serve, grow in their faith, and grow in their understanding of what it means to be a disciple as they share their faith with people around them. Please feel free to contact me in the youth office if you have any further questions.
The end of the school year is challenging to students and parents alike and it is also a challenge in the life of the youth ministry. This year we will send off nineteen seniors from our ministry. Some of the students have been involved deeply in this ministry through weekly meetings and missions locally, rural, and international. It is difficult for me to believe that these students and I have been working together for four years to grow in faith in Jesus Christ. It has been awesome to get to know each of these students and their hearts. I am so excited to see where God will send them and to know what He will do in and through their servant leadership.
I would like to honor all our seniors in our next issue of the messenger, but I need all the parents help in making this happen. Please contact me through the youth office with any honors they are graduating with as well as where they are attending or venturing off to this next year.
I ask the congregation to join me in praying for our seniors as we recall what it was like to be in that last phase of high school and the itching of spring and senioritis. Please pray for protection over these students and in hope for God’s plans for their future.
~Susie Morrison ~ Youth Minister
Skiing for Jesus
It has been several years since the youth of St. Michael’s have taken a ski trip. As we headed up the mountains in a huge bus, it was not much fun for me. Of course, I enjoy the students and their antics as we travel, but the combination of the winding roads and movement of a giant vehicle do not much agree with me. However, in the twilight of evening seeing the beckoning tranquility of the open fields covered in sheets of white there was a peace like one rarely experiences on a trip with youth.
As we arrived on top of Snowshoe mountain resort, night had fallen and the fog mixed with the white was absolutely breathtaking. We checked into our accommodations and grabbed our ski equipment for our adventure the following day and joined together for a powerful time of worship.
Finally, we were off the bus and could move around freely and enjoy the crisp air and ability to engage without the restraints of the bus seats. After some crowd breakers with our new friends from First Scott’s Presbyterian, we sang praises to the Lord and settled in for our first talk of the weekend. Our speaker was a youth minister from Trinity Episcopal Church in Pinoppolis, Phillip Holladay. His lessons each night were on the heroes of the Bible. In his talks, he brought a different character of the Bible to life for the students this led them to an understanding that God always is with us no matter the circumstances and that we can stand firm in His provision to face any obstacle. This was powerful for our students as many are facing graduation and decisions about their future.
The skiing and snowboarding was an absolute blast for the students and chaperones. However, what I will cherish is the moments of time spent seeing these students worship God and enjoy one another out of the context of everyday life. These retreats are precious to me as a youth minister. The relationships built during this time open up opportunities to share the truth of God’s unfailing love for the young people.
Preparing Youth for a Sexual Culture
On Sunday, March 7th, we will begin a study with our youth on sexual abstinence and God’s plan for sex. We will be attending an event at 4:30pm at Christ Church in Mount Pleasant to open up the subject with our students about abstinence. This topic will be followed up at our youth meetings in March to dig deeply into the subject and into the Word for deeper meaning on God’s plan for sex. The goal is to provide our young people with the truth about sex in a culture that exploits it.
Why are we taking up this subject of abstinence with our young people in church? It is because the subject is often taught in the schools but without the context of what God has designed. There is more to sex than the world would teach our young people and it is important as Christians to enforce a moral code with the Word of God. The article below shows that with sexual abstinence courses, young people DELAY having sex. However, when we back up the abstinence lessons with the truth about why God asks us to abstain until marriage, we provide our young people with more than just morals.
Study: Abstinence-Only Classes Reduced Sexual Activity. Adolescents who took abstinence-only sex education classes were more likely to delay having sex, a new study shows. Students either took eight hours of abstinence-only classes; eight hours of safe sex-only classes that included information about sexually transmitted diseases and the importance of using condoms if sexually active; or an eight- or 12-hour comprehensive course that covered both abstinence and safer sex. Another group of students were enrolled in eight hours of a general health class that did not discuss matters related to sexual behavior. Two years after the courses began, with 84.4 percent of the students still enrolled in the program, students in the abstinence-only class were 33 percent less likely to have had sexual experience than the other groups. Source: BusinessWeek http://signup.homeword.com/ct/3291962:1693632236:m:3:56232873:5ABA5FA4C01D75D8FECA59C265663638
It is the churches responsibility to equip our young people with the Truth in all things and especially sex and God’s plan for them. Please pray for our students in the month of March to hear the Truth about God’s desire for us in sex.
March 11th – Youth will be serving dinner at Crisis Ministries. We need 8 volunteers to sign up to help prepare and serve this meal. Also, in the month leading up to our serving dinner, we are raising money to pay for this dinner, which is the first time we have ever done this. We are asking that students bring in their change saved from giving up simple pleasures like Starbucks or ice cream during each week in February. Our goal is to have $200 so we are able to pay for the entire meal for this special ministry of feeding our homeless. Parents, please help me by reminding your child to give up those extras and to bring the money they save by doing so to youth group each week.
March 20th - Water Missions Annual Walk for Water … Our team for Water Missions is under St. Michaels Church – if you visit the Water Missions web site and go to the sign up you can simply join our group. From there you can create your own personal way of raising money for the walk. This is an amazing mission especially when you consider the need in Haiti and Burundi. We are so excited to sponsor such an important mission.
Confirmation – We have begun the confirmation classes with our 8th grade youth. We meet at the regular time for middle school youth on Sunday’s from 4 – 5:30pm. Please, if you have any questions about confirmation contact me in the youth office.
Also, feel free to contact me in the youth office if you have any questions regarding youth, or any of the above missions of our ministry to youth and their families. E-mail susie@stmichaelschurch.net or 843-266-2802.
Youth Updates for Parents
February 14th – Concert - All our youth families are invited to join us at the Winter Jam Concert; only $10 at the door. Meeting at the North Charleston Coliseum, doors open at 5pm and concert begins at 6pm. This is a great way to spend Valentines as a family. Headliners – Third Day, Newsboys, Newsong, Tenth Avenue North, Fireflight, and more. Guest Speaker is Tony Nolan. We will not have regular youth group on this night but encourage you all to come along with our leaders to this concert.
February 21st – 3:30 – 5:30 pm Talking to Young People about God’s plan for sex. Do you want to have more tools in your tool belt to talk to your child about sex, abstinence, and God’s plan in all of it? Well, this meeting is specifically for you. We are partnering with Heritage, a sexual abstinence program, to help equip you for this sometimes awkward discussion with your children. Our plan is to meet with all the parents and then meet up with the students at a separate time. Together we can give these young people solid information about God’s plan for them to wait until marriage for sex and to equip you to share this with them so we can make a huge impact together.
Some students may not be ready for all the information we will be sharing and I encourage all parents to attend this meeting so you can get the specifics to make the best decision for your family.
In this meeting for all parents on Sunday, Feb. 21st we will cover the material we will use at the student gathering in March. The plan is to take our group (students) to Christ Church in Mount Pleasant for an event on God’s plan for sex and why they should choose to be obedient to his plan. In the meeting we will talk about Christian Values, Dating, the difference between love and lust, and how to build relationships without them leading to sex. This is all very contrary to what our young people see in TV, Movies, Videos, and such and we want our young people to be equipped to handle the world around them with their faith and morals in tack.
We will be meeting with students Sunday, March 7th from 4:30pm – 7:30pm at Christ Church in Mount Pleasant. We will cover the material we will have shared with you on the 21st and then have a time of fun with students from both churches along with pizza. Please let me know if you have any further questions with regard to this special event.
March 11th – Youth will be serving dinner at Crisis Ministries. We need 8 volunteers to sign up to help prepare and serve this meal. Also, in the month leading up to our serving dinner we are raising money to pay for this dinner, which is the first time we have ever done this. We are asking that students bring in their change saved from giving up simple pleasures like Starbucks or Ice Cream during each week in February. Our goal is to have $200 so we are able to pay for the entire meal for this special ministry of feeding our homeless. Parents, please help me by reminding your child to give up those extras and to bring the money they save by doing so to youth group each week.
March 20th - Water Missions Annual Walk for Water
This year we are putting a team together to walk and raise funds for this mission. This is a plan to support the mission of getting clean water to communities in desperate need for the health and welfare of the people. Clean water is difficult to come by in places such as, Burundi, where we have seen the effects of not having clean water. It is exciting to support this ministry especially this year as a team from St. Michael’s is preparing to head over this summer to install three water systems in Burundi. Please watch for details to be sent home for you and your children to get involved in this very special mission.
Please feel free to contact me in the youth office if you have any questions regarding youth, confirmation, or any of the above missions of our ministry to youth and their families.
Susie@stmichaelschurch.net or 843-266-2802.
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