First, allow me to introduce myself to you. My name is Sarah Nichols. I have been a member of SEPC since I was 11 years old and an attendee with my family since I was 8. I grew up in this church, moved away to college in Atlanta, graduated, came back, got married, reconnected with SEPC and had a son, Finnegan. I love St. Elmo.  I LOVE SEPC. It is not just my Church family but my Family… I was hired this summer to take on the role of SEPC Youth Group Leader . This is a role that I never envisioned for myself, but God has a funny way of guiding us to the unexpected. My husband, Stephen, has helped me take on this role by leading the Middle School Youth Group on Sundays and joining us in much of our other activities. I could not do this with out him.

Although we might be few in number, the SEPC Youth Group does not disappoint in a beautiful overflow of personality, creativity, empathy and a desire to gain knowledge and understanding of God’s love for us as brothers and sisters in Christ. We are learning how we, as Christians, see ourselves fitting into our environment and what we have to give. Each of our walks varies a great deal in personality, but as a group I have been encouraged by the unity we have found as a church family. We are flawed and we are sinners, but we are striving to seek God in all things. Please pray that Stephen and I will hear the wisdom that God is trying to impart to us as we lead. We are quite new to this but we feel that it is where God intends us to be.

To aid in the growth of our group, we have dedicated the first Saturday of every month as a group service day. We began with SEPC needs in order to build commitment and accountability but will continue to expand our reach into the community. We have had a ‘deep cleaning’ day of the church nursery, organized games and activities for the Sunday School Fall party, assisted in the church work day with general upkeep repairs, provided Christmas gifts for a mother and daughter through Bethany Christian Services and made dinner for the Interfaith Homeless Ministry families, to name a few.

The High School meets every Wednesday night from 6:00 - 7:30pm for dinner at our home, and occasionally a restaurant, for fellowship, dinner and prayer. It is very informal but I believe beneficial in building a relationship with one another. The more high school youth, the merrier; I just ask that you RSVP to me so that I can know how much food to prepare and how to update you of our weekly plans. The Middle School Youth Group will soon meet under similar circumstances, but we have yet to figure out a good time and place to do so. Any suggestions or volunteers would be greatly appreciated!

On Sunday evenings we meet at SEPC from 6:00 until 7:30pm. Sarah usually leads the High School; Stephen takes the Middle School. We meet separately for the first hour for a lesson and discussion. Then we typically meet for a time of group prayer, a snack and a game of some sort.

More specifically, the High School has focused on how we, as Christians, can best live in a secular society by studying a book called, Eyes Wide Open, Looking for GOD in Popular Culture by W. Romanowski. This study will inform our planned viewing of the film, The Dark Knight, in the near future. Fellow SEPC member, Glen Stegall, who holds a Masters in Film Studies*, will lead us in a discussion of the film from a Christian perspective. (A specific date and time will be announced soon!)  We will be picking back up where we left off before the holidays with C.S Lewis’s thought-provoking book, The Screwtape Letters.

The Middle School has been focusing on knowing God’s Will through prayer, Scripture, the Holy Spirit and fellow believers as well as accepting God’s grace. Stephen has been known to encourage them to act things out a time or two and keeps things fun for our small group of 4 Middle School boys that we typically have in attendance.

If you are in or approaching 6th-12th grade, here are a few things that you can expect from us:

• “Getting to Know You get together” (which we will have at the start of each school year as long as there are new Youth Group members!)
• “Sunday School Fall Party” (Pumpkin Bowling anyone? How about face painting?)
• “Youth Group Fall Party & Pumpkin Carving Contest” (complete with smores, a bonfire and too much candy)
• “Corn Maze & Picnic”
• “Ugly Holiday Sweater Christmas Party Contest and White Elephant gift exchange” (we had some pretty tacky costumes and funny “gifts”. It will be tough beating Eddie’s amazing costume next year!)
• “Watch out for us Cancun, We love guacamole!”
• “Bowling Extravaganza” (watch out for Essie and her killer ‘Granny Roll’ skills!)
• “Car Dancing 2009!” (don’t worry, it was really more singing then dancing. I am a safe driver! Hillary can really belt ‘em out!)
• “Mr. T’s” (yeah, they know us there…)

There is more but I will stop at that. Hopefully I have tempted you enough to come and check out the good things that we have going on. If you should want to be a part of this there is always an open door as well as a need for volunteers. Thanks for reading!