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Youth and Family
Ministries
First Presbyterian Church is
moving to a more holistic
view of ministry with
children, youth, and their
families. Instead of
providing a staff person for
just education, our new
position focuses on the
whole spirituality of
families - education,
worship, mission, and faith
development. Our Director
of Youth and Family
Ministries works with our
major programmatic
committees to help makes
sure that the unique needs
and experiences of youth,
birth through college, and
their families are included
and highlighted in the
ministries of the church.
Below you will see some
pictures of our exciting
ministries in the past year. |
Camp In a Van 2011
Pre-School Camp 2011
Garden Markers for the Bridge Youth
project
Painting the Nursery walls
Feed Our Starving Children
NETworks -
An
ecumenical Middle School & High
School Youth Ministry. A partnership
of The First Presbyterian, First
Baptist, St. Pauls Episcopal and Mt.
Zion Churches.
Hi I’m Elliott the new NETworks
director. I’m so glad to be working
here! I went through NETworks when I
was in high school and was Ben
Woods’s student leader at Middle
High for much of my high school
career. Just as great as working
here is also being back in my
hometown, being able to give back to
the community that gave me so much!
Being in this position has also
given me the chance to connect with
a lot of people I haven’t seen in
years and it’s great to have the
support of the surrounding
community.
I
graduating from Hudson High in 2004
and I went on to study Public
Relations and Biblical Studies at
Northwestern College in Roseville,
MN. I graduated in the winter of
2007 along with my future wife.
Kayla and I were married at the
First Baptist church in downtown
Hudson, so even though I moved away
from Hudson for a while, it has
always had a special spot in my
heart.
It’s been such a joy to get to know
the students and to feel so invited
into organization. I look forward to
helping them grow in their faith and
to help equip them with the faith
tools they’ll need to share their
faith with friends and family.
I
love talking and connecting with
people, so feel free to stop down
and say hello. Thank you all for the
warm welcome, God Bless
Networks Director
715-386-1446
The Middle High group meets on
Wednesdays from 3:00 to 4:45 at
St. Paul’s Episcopal
Church. This group is made up of
grades 6-8. A typical Wednesday
starts off with a snack provided
by one of the kids
(parents). Then we play a game
for 20-30 minutes to get some of
their energy out. We take them
outside as much as the weather
allows, but we do have space
inside for indoor games during
the winter. After the game, we
have a short worship time lead
by one of the senior high
leaders.
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The Senior High group meets on
Wednesdays from 6:00 until 9:00
at the Crossing Point (The
Point). This group is for
students in grades 9 through
12. Most of the kids come
between 5:00 and 6:00 to just
relax and hang out until supper
is served around 6:15. Some of
them do homework during this
time, but other activities are
board games, video games, ping
pong, and just socializing. We start our evening
worship at 7:00 and have a time
of worship music led by our
Networks youth worship
team. After worship I give
a biblical message to the
students and then they break up
into small groups. The small
groups are split up by grade and
gender and each group has their
own adult leaders. After small
groups we all gather back
together and circle up to have a
final prayer. The students are
then free to hangout and play
games until 9:00 when we clean
up The Point and head home.
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Every Sunday The Point is open
for kids to come and hang out
from noon until around 6:00 or
7:00. This provides another
opportunity for the students to
fellowship and get to know each
other better. We typically play
board games, Polish ping pong,
and there is a Madden Football
video game league.
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We have a number of special
events held throughout the
year. Here are some of them and
what we do.
Moonlight Mystery Madness
Or MMM as we affectionately call
it. This happens every October
and what we do is join all the
other youth groups in Hudson in
taking middle high students to
random fun places around Hudson
and The Cites from right after
school until midnight. The trip
is limited to 150 kids total and
always seems to reach
capacity. This year we went to
the ice rink in River Falls,
Jump in Woodbury, The Maplewood
Recreation Center, and other
little stops along the way.
Thanksgiving
Dinner
We bring together both senior
high and middle high for a
Thanksgiving dinner every year
at St. Paul’s. It went very well
this year, about 60 people total
showed up for the meal. After
the meal everyone went over to
Harvestime Outreach Church for a
time of worship and a
message. We went from needing
two turkeys to three, but I
managed to pull it off in my
first attempt. Thank goodness
for those Reynolds turkey bags!
Holidazzle Parade
We took the Networks bus to
downtown Minneapolis for this
year’s Holidazzle Parade at
Nicollet Mall. After the parade
we went to Chipotle to eat and
then headed back to Hudson. We
had 12 students attend.
Hudson All-City Worship
Four times a year we get
together with the other youth
groups of Hudson for a combined
worship service. It is a great
opportunity for our youth to be
together with other Christians
from Hudson and fellowship with
them. Our worship team played
for an All-City last spring and
it went very well. The speaker
is either a youth pastor from
Hudson or someone brought in by
the EYC (Ecumenical Youth
Council).
History Movie
of the Month
This is something I started
while interning at
Networks. Once a month I pick
out a history movie to watch on
a Saturday afternoon. We have a
short discussion about the
actual history behind the movie
and then enjoy with some popcorn
and pop.
New Year’s Eve Party
Once again we had
the New Year’s Eve
all-nighter. We had around 15
kids come and the evening
consisted of midnight worship,
movies, board games, video
games, and lots of food.
Winter Retreat
We’ve done a winter retreat for
the senior high students for the
past two years. We go to The
Wilderness Fellowship in
Frederic, WI. This has been a
good opportunity for the
students to sled, play games,
relax, and also spend time alone
with God. One thing we’ve done
and will continue to do is send
the kids off by themselves for
about an hour to just focus on
God and listen. It’s been a
great experience.
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Breakout
Breakout is a trip that we take
every spring break. Last year we
took 12 students to
Missouri. The first few days
were spent with Christian Wings
for the World and we repainted
an airplane hanger and helped
put up the steel structure for a
new hangar. The head of CWW even
took us up in one of his planes
on the last day. We then headed
up to St. Louis to work with
Jubilee Community Church. They
are working on restoring run
down homes in the more ghetto
part of St. Louis and then
selling them for cheap to
families. They want to fill the
neighborhood with Christian
people and really change the
area. Our middle high students
helped clean appliances at
Jubilee’s new church building
(an old grocery store) and the
senior high students helped
clear out an entire backyard
that had about three inches deep
of trash in it. It was an
excellent trip and I think
everyone made strides in their
faith. For 2007 we will be going
to Gulfport, Mississippi to help
rebuild homes destroyed by
Hurricane Katrina.
Mishpack
Last year we took 40 students to
Bozeman, Montana in late
July. The first week of the trip
was working with Habitat for
Humanity. We got to work on
three houses this year and we
got to see the finished homes
that we had worked on last
year. All of the kids worked
very hard and we accomplished a
lot. We had a day off on
Saturday and on Sunday anyone
who wanted could go to
Yellowstone National Park. The
next day we headed into the
Gallatin Mountains for five days
of hiking in the
wilderness. There were no
mishaps this year except for Ben
getting lost one day. The trip
was really great again. A couple
students gave their lives to
Christ and a couple rededicated
their lives to Him. Some
students who were maybe a little
wishy-washy in their faith
really solidified it during the
trip this year. I was so great
to see. This year we will be
heading back to Montana for the
third year in a row and expect
another great trip. To go on
Mishpack, each student is
required to do 24 hours of
service projects and attend
Mishpack University sessions
every couple weeks to prepare
them for the trip.
Mishpack 2011
Cornerstone
We went to the Cornerstone
festival in Bushnell, Illinois
again this year. Cornerstone is
a five day Christian music
festival where we camp out in
tents and go to concerts all
day. There are also speakers,
sports, swimming, and a prayer
labyrinth, along with many other
activities. We took almost 20
people with us this year and had
amazing weather. It was a really
fun trip.
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