Geo-caching Hike

In search of the next cache

Last Sunday was a beautiful day, so we took to the forests of Beebe Woods to try our hand at Geo-caching.  Geo-caching is a game played around the world where people post the coordinates of caches and other people go out and find them.  A cache can be a box full of small toys, or just a log book in a plastic baggy.  Either way, it is a fun way to get outside and go see new places.  Learn more at http://www.geocaching.com/

We found it!

During our hike we found two caches, and earned our very first digital "souvenir," the Massachusetts Sate badge, for finding a cache in Massachusetts.  In all the caches that we found, we left cards of our homemade recycled paper with Job 12:8 and JWUMC Youth written on it.  Whoever finds them can take one and go look up the verse.  But in case you are curious, it is "Speak to the earth, and it will teach you."

Canal Clean Up!

Armed with our "grabbers" the youth picked up lots of trash.

You can rest assured that the bike path along the Cape Cod Canal is a much cleaner place after the Canal Clean-up last Saturday.  JWUMC Youth Group joined forces with a couple dozen other community groups to help Americorp pick up trash and accomplish other service projects throughout the area.

Our group was responsible for about two full bags of trash!  It was a lot of walking, but there were plenty of snacks and we even got pizza for lunch!

But the highlight of the trip was probably finding some crabs beside the canal before we even got started picking up trash.  Thanks to everyone who helped out, and for those of you that weren't able to make it, Americorp will be having this event again next year and we are surely going to participate.  Happy Earth Day everyone!

Great Game Night

"So I recommend having fun, because there is nothing better for people to do in this world than to eat, drink, and enjoy life.  That way they will experience some happiness along with all the hard work God gives them." -Ecclesiastes 8:15

One must carefully consider all possible moves.

The Youth Group took this message to heart last night with our very own Game Night.  We spent the evening eating the tastiest chili around and sampling an array of fruit juices.  A big thank you to all snack providers!  And we played ping pong, Nintendo Monopoly and the famous Giant Jenga set that we have been sanding for the past month.  We all had a great time and only sustained a few minor injuries from the Giant Jenga tower falling over onto us.

Now it is time to get to work for Earth Day.  This Saturday is the annual Canal Clean-Up. Check out the Upcoming Events tab for more information.

GAME NIGHT!

After much preparation, we are ready for game night!  Our giant jenga set is ready to be built and toppled over and rebuilt and retoppled over again.  We will also have ping pong, basketball, frisbee, more board games than you can shake a stick at, and a tasty snack.

Feel free to invite your youth group aged friends for a fun evening of games.  Meeting starts at 4:00 and runs until 5:30, this Sunday April 14th.  Hope to see you all there!

Egg Stuffing Accomplished

the pool table was transformed into an egg stuffing machine

This Saturday will be the annual Easter Egg at JWUMC.  But there wouldn't be much of anything to hunt unless somebody stuffed little plastic eggs full of candy and hid them around the church's yard.

The youth group joined in the egg stuffing fun with our annual pizza eating, movie watching, Easter Egg Stuffing Party.  We had a great time stuffing eggs, eating snacks, and chatting about our lives.

We managed to stuff 545 eggs!  It took a lot of patience and more than a few hours or work.  Special thanks to all of our egg-half-match-finders. Believe it or not, it is pretty hard to find egg halves that match in a sea of mismatched egg halves.

We will see the youth bright and early Saturday morning at 8:30 am to help hide the eggs.  The hunt starts at 10:00 am.  Happy holy week everyone!

Making Giant Jenga

The adults cut the 2x3's

The you did the sanding

This week we tried our hands at making a Giant Jenga set.  We bought a few 2x3's and measured out 7 3/4" segments.  Then we used a hand saw and cut the pieces as straight as we could manage.

Once we had the pieces, we needed to sand them down real well so that they would slide nicely while playing the game.  Over the course of our meeting, we managed to get about 12 rows done.  That is 36 blocks cut and sanded.

After some mathematical calculations, we figured out that if we use all of the wood, we will have 20 rows stacked on top of each other.  That means about 2 1/2 feet tall!

It is a work in progress as of right now, but by our next regular meeting, we should have a functioning Giant Jenga set.

And don't forget about our upcoming Easter Egg Stuffing Pizza Party on Sunday March 24th from 4pm to 8pm or as long as you can stay to help us stuff Easter Eggs with candy.

Giant Jenga and a Mission Trip

This Sunday we will be making a Giant Jenga set to have in the youth room.  We have a few 2x3's and some sand paper, so be ready to sand.  We will need to get the blocks nice and smooth so they aren't too hard to slide out.

We are also going to be talking about our mission trip this summer.  As of right now, the dates we will go are June 30th through July 6th.  And we are headed to Blue Knob, PA.  We will talk a lot about this at the meeting and see if these dates work or if we need to switch them.  In the mean time, you can learn more at www.teameffort.org and check out the video below.