@ Youth Encounter

Debating whether to do a missions trip next summer or go to EDGE!? Now you can do both! EDGE! is partnering with YouthWorks, a multi-denominational organization committed to providing week-long, Christ-centered, life-changing youth mission trips. YouthWorks has 85 mission sites for junior high and senior high students across the United States, Canada and Mexico. Students will spend five days serving others in Christ and five days rejuvenating their faith and learning how to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ to others.

[CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY]

Forty World-Changing Years, One Great Weekend
Youth Encounter Closes the 2004-2005 Ministry Year
by Kate Tripoli

On August 12, 2005, hundreds of people gathered at Bethel College in St. Paul, Minnesota to commemorate the fortieth anniversary of Youth Encounter’s life-changing ministry, as well as to celebrate the close of the 2004-2005 ministry year and kick off the Proclaiming Christ Changing Lives Growth Campaign, which will last for three years and enable Youth Encounter to expand its ministry in several ways.

The day kicked off with the first Homecoming concert. Larry Dean Johnson, President of Youth Encounter, welcomed the teamers, their friends and families, alumni, staff and board members, saying, “During the past forty years, Youth Encounter has proclaimed Christ in over 7,500,000 personal, transformational encounters in six continents around the world.” The teams then gathered on stage to sing “He Reigns,” an anthem by the Newsboys celebrating the life of the global church. Five of the eight National Teams, called Captive Free, played two songs, often encouraging the audience to stand, sing and dance along with them. International Teams Watermark and Kindred shared songs, stories and pictures of their overseas ministry in Denmark and in Colombia, Ecuador, and Venezuela, respectively.

[CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY]

Teamers Reflect on Their Ministry Year
"So Long, and Thanks for All the PB&J"
by 2004-2005 Teamers

Memories... ah, the memories! It's so unbelievable that we're almost done with our year of ministry on the road! I distinctly remember sitting at this very computer in Stratford, Iowa writing a journal about how excited we all were to be back from Christmas Break and getting back on the road! And now I sit here, trying to write a journal that sums up all of my experiences, joys, tears, and hopes of this year and plans for the next.

First off, I'd just like to send out a huge and heart-felt thank you to all of you who have hosted us throughout this entire year! We love our host homes! Without all of you, we'd be sleeping in our crazy messy (well,...used to be crazy messy, now it's uncomfortably clean and sterile) van eating 49-cent cheesburgers from McDonald's and gaining WAY more than the estimated average of 30 lbs. on the road! Each and every one of you have touched our lives in some way, shape or form. From Hanlontown, Iowa and Conway, Arkansas to Bossier City, Louisiana and our beloved Kansas City, Missouri, we have had such an amazing and life-changing experience in this ministry. Being that music is only roughly 10% of our ministry, it's you guys who make the other 90% possible! So, thank you for all you do.

[CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY]

Early Bird Online Registration Available
New Discounts, E-Packets, and More
by Jo Barrett

Quakes and Construction Zones are coming your way!

Wow, can you believe it’s the middle of August already? It seems like summer has just arrived, and now it’s almost over! Where has the time gone? I guess the saying “Time flies when you’re having fun” can also mean “Time flies when you’re SWAMPED!” The Events division has been busy getting all the program materials for the 2005-2006 season ready to go. Here are just a few things we’ve been working on:

ONLINE REGISTRATION! Yep, you read it right. After months of planning, we are finally getting online registration. By September 1, you will be able to fully register your group for any of our 44 Quakes or nine Construction Zones. Right now, you are able to register your group for the Early Bird Discount by clicking on the Early Bird button on our Quake or Zone websites. (Or just follow these links: Early Bird Quake Registration or Early Bird Zone Registration.) If you have any questions about registering online, you are more than welcome to call any of the Event Directors and we’ll be happy to help you. If you don’t know who your Event Director is, you can find out by clicking here for Quakes or here for Zones. Don’t forget that the deadlines for the Early Bird Discount are September 1 for Events happening in the fall and November 1 for Events happening in winter and spring. That’s not very far away, so start planning now!

[CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY]

This November: Sounds Like Love
A High School Choir Festival for You
by Susie Anderson

Sounds Like Love in the Twin Cities this fall!

Sounds Like Love 2005 will be held November 11-13 at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church, Mahtomedi, Minnesota. Sounds Like Love is a three-day choral festival for high school church choirs where students from multiple churches will make up a 500-voice choir.

Students in ninth through twelfth grade will be participating in Bible studies, fellowship, rehearsing music and learning choreography. The weekend concludes with two large group performances at St. Andrew’s on Sunday afternoon at 1:30 p.m. and 3:00 p.m.

The festival aims to expose students to contemporary Christian music as well as the rich choral tradition of the Church. It also gives students the opportunity to share the Gospel with others through music.

For more information, please visit our website or contact Susie Anderson (susie@youthencounter.org or 651-287-8481).

UnBelizeable
One Woman's Experience with Side By Side
by Elyse Lee

Crew members and students stop for a...snack?

I truly believe that God was preparing me for this trip my entire life. Perhaps not in very obvious ways: I considered myself very unqualified for the tasks which this trip included. I knew no sign language, I had no experience in construction work of any kind, and I had never traveled outside of the United States. Why then was God calling me to serve Him by doing manual labor at a boarding school for the deaf in a Mennonite community in Belize? I did not know why God was calling me, but I knew that He wanted me to be there, and so I went without knowledge, without any special talents, abilities or understanding of my purpose in this foreign country. However, I did know that it was God who was leading me, and that is all that mattered.

[CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY]

Did You Know You're a Theologian?
How We Measure Our Ministry
www.youthleadership.org
by Tiger McLuen

Did you know you’re a theologian? Every day you write a theological document that expresses your beliefs about God and others. It’s a profound document—one that impacts everyone in your life. I call it a theological treatise, but you probably call it…a calendar.

If I peeked inside your calendar, I could identify your core ministry values, your beliefs about leadership, and your basic youth ministry philosophy. The way you spend your time says more about your theology than anything, even your checkbook (a close second). Your calendar translates the abstract into reality. It declares what’s really crucial in your life. If you say something is important to your ministry, but it doesn’t show up on your calendar, they are just empty words. If it’s not in your theological document, it’s effectively disconnected from your life and ministry.

[CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL STORY]

New Products and Features Ahead!
We've Got the Goods
by Ryan Veil

Greetings from the Youth Encounter store! It’s an exciting time for the Youth Encounter store. It’s the beginning of a new team year, which means exciting new products. Visit www.youthencounter.org and click on “store” regularly to check out new updates. Some things to look out for this fall are new Captive Free t-shirts, new International t-shirts for EACH International team, sweatbands, new hat styles, pre-orders for team CDs, and much more! Also, we will be remodeling our Online Store in the near future, and you will start seeing great new features that will allow for specials, sales, discounts, and improved customer profiles! Look for updates in future newsletters!

TELL A FRIEND