Youth

The goal of our youth program is to build relationships with St. Matthew students that foster their personal knowledge of, trust in, dependence upon, and love for Jesus Christ.

UMYF (United Methodist Youth Fellowship)
Our Youth Group meets for a meal and time of fellowship each Sunday, 6 p.m. - 7:30 p.m., in the Family Life Center.  Click here for more info.

Sunday School
The youth are currently doing a study of the Bad Boys and Bad Girls of the Bible.  We are using Barba J. Essex's books for this study.  All youth classes meet on the 2nd floor of the Gym/FLC building.  The Middle School boys will meet in the "Game Room" at the end of the hall.  The Middle School girls will meet in the "Blue Room"in the middle of the hall.  The High School youth will meet in the "Car Room" at the other end of the hall.

Annual Events!!

Pumpkin Patch: For over 30 years our church has supported the youth program with the pumpkin patch. Each October we open up the front lawn for hundreds of pumpkins. This year we sold over $24,000 in pumpkin sales! We're already looking forward to next year! Mark your calendars to unload on October 1, 2011 after church.

Christmas Shopping for Adopted Families: The youth annually give of their time and money to families within the Greenville School District who are in need of Christmas Gifts. This year we will do the shopping for our families during our Lock In event in December. This is such a great way to serve our local community as we remember God's greatest gift to us in the season of Christmas.

Retreats: This year we went with four other youth groups to Asbury Hills for the "Intertwined". Several United Methodist youth groups joined together for this event. We even participated in the Bodacious Banana Banza Burp and Slup Relay Race!

Annual Ski Trip: This year we will go back to Winterplace, WV for our annual Ski Trip over the MLK holiday weekend, January 14-17th, 2011.

Salkehatchie Summer Service is a week-long mission trip in South Carolina for youth 14 and older. We annually send a large group to serve in McCormick County at the Baker's Creek Camp. For more information about Salkehatchie, click here!

Summer Trips- We will be posting more information about these trips after our January Youth Council Meeting. Last year we participated in a SURGE weekend at Lake Junaluska in Western North Carolina. We also took a mission trip to Hilton Head Island and partnered with St. Andrews by the Sea UMC for service projects and beach fun!

Dates for this summer:

June 11th- 18th  Salkehatchie at Baker Creek Camp in McCormick County, South Carolina.  Salkehatchie Website

June 19th- 24th  Music & Liturgical Arts week at Lake Junaluska.  Music Week Website

July 7th- 10th  Surge into Misions at Lake Junaluska.  SURGE Website

July 11th -17th YOUTH 2011 at Purdue University.  YOUTH 2011 Website

Sports

We have had a great Basketball Season this year and it is coming to a close. Our Jr. Boys team won the tournament in their division.  We will celebrate all players and coaches at our Banquet on Sunday, March 13th.

GET GREEN to Get Green $$ Do you have an old cell phone hanging out in a drawer at home? Would you like to recycle that phone? Better yet, would you like to help the Basketball Program by recycling your old cell phone? The answer is YES, you would like to help! That's where the GET GREEN to Get Green program comes in. This company is committed to joining with organizations to keep our planet green and healthy by reusing or recycling cell phones. But it doesn't stop there! The company offers money back for each phone recycled through the program. Old cell phones can bring in anywhere from $0.25 up to $50.00. So help support our Basketball Program for children, youth and men's teams year round by recycling your old cell phones. There will be two collection boxes at the church: one in the Narthex, and the other in the gym. For more information you can go to their website: WWW.GETGREENTOGETGREEN.COM