Summer with Eikon!

Another year of school is in the books, but that doesn’t mean that the St. Mark high school ministry is in hibernation until the fall! Here’s what’ll be happening this summer:

Summer Book Study

This summer, we’ll be reading and discussing a book called Crazy Love by Francis Chan. We will be gathering every week to hang out and discuss what we’ve read.

Meetings will be every Thursday at 1:00pm in the St. Mark youth lounge, beginning June 11th and ending August 13th. We will not meet on July 23 because of the National Youth Gathering.

Students will be responsible for acquiring their own copy of the book, which retails for $13.99, and can be purchased from most bookstores, including Border’s, Barnes & Noble, Parable, and Family Christian Books.

Please let me know if you plan on participating by contacting me at jake@stmarkwdm.org or (515) 210-3510.

House Parties

If summer is good for anything, it’s parties! Three times throughout the summer, all high school students are invited to attend house parties hosted by families of high school students. There will be food and beverages, and we’ll be playing games and just hanging out with one another. Listed below are the dates of the house parties:

• Sunday, June 21, 7 – 10pm at the Seemann’s
• Sunday, July 12, 7 – 10pm at the Nelson’s
• Sunday, August 16, 7 – 10pm at the Madsen’s

Coffee Tuesdays with Andrew

Every Tuesday afternoon from 2 – 4pm our new intern Andrew Karrmann will be camped out at Scooter’s Coffeehouse on 63rd and Grand. You’re encouraged to stop in at any time to enjoy conversation over coffee, tea, or smoothie (they’re the best). If it’s Tuesday afternoon, Andrew will be there… and we hope you will be too!

We look forward to seeing you around this summer!

Introducing our summer intern!

As the youth ministry at St. Mark grows, we’re constantly looking for ways to develop the ministry and to equip others for service. Accordingly, we recently hired St. Mark member (and former youth) Andrew Karrmann as a summer youth ministry intern. I’m excited about the possibilities before us, and I’d like Andrew to share some background on himself below.

My name is Andrew Karrmann, and I just started a new and exciting part of my life. I recently changed my major from Mechanical Engineering to Classics and Religious Studies in my quest to become a youth minister. What better place for me to begin my journey than the place where I spent a large part of my childhood, St. Mark Lutheran Church, as a Youth Ministry Intern.

I’ve been a member of St. Mark since birth. I was baptized, received my first Bible, took my first communion, and was confirmed at St. Mark. While I was attending St. Mark, I was very active in the youth group. I went on four summer trips with the youth group, including the 2006 ELCA Youth Gathering in San Antonio, Texas. Apart from the youth group, I was a member of the Choir, Band, Bell Choir, and was the High School Representative for Church Council. I participated in every church musical and most of the Vacation Bible Schools during my time at St. Mark.

Outside of St. Mark I attended Theodore Roosevelt High School on the west side of Des Moines. There I participated in Band, Jazz Band, Choir, and Show Choir. I was also a varsity letter winner in wrestling and baseball, and participated in cross country and football. Currently I am a student at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln where I am a member of the Club Baseball team. I was also recently elected to the position of Philanthropy Chair for the Gamma Beta chapter of Pi Kappa Alpha.

I look forward to the next few months when I will get the chance to grow in faith, share Jesus Christ, and serve others alongside the youth of St. Mark Lutheran Church.

The H2O Project

Did you know that every 8 seconds, a child dies because of a lack of clean drinking water? That’s 10,000 children per day, and 4 million per year. In most cases, clean water is right beneath their feet, but there is no well — only disease-infested pools of stagnant surface water. The good news is that we can do something about it.

I am excited to announce that both Eikon and CREW are in the midst of participating in The H2O Project as a service opportunity during this season of Lent. The H2O Project is simple:

For two weeks, drink no beverages other than water.

Set aside all money that would have been spent on consuming pop, juice, milk, coffee, etc.

Pool the money to support Living Water International, a group that drills wells for communities who lack access to clean water.

Myself, all of the high school and junior high students, and all of the adult volunteers are participating. We pray that by giving up water for only a short time that we can impact a community of God’s children.

When the project concludes, I will report back here with how much money we raised.

“For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink.” – Matthew 25:35

Winter ‘08 Youth Ministry Dispatch

The Youth Ministry Dispatch is a quarterly newsletter containing all sorts of great information to keep you “in the know”: important dates, event reviews, fundraising updates, recent pictures, and more!

If you’re on the St. Mark mailing list, you’ll be receiving a copy of the Youth Ministry Dispatch bundled with the St. Mark newsletter, which will be mailed later this week. If you don’t want to wait, just click below to download it directly to your computer.

Click here to download the full color Winter ‘08 Youth Ministry Dispatch (.pdf file, 2.4mb)

Click here to download black & white Winter ‘08 Youth Ministry Dispatch (.pdf file, 1.4mb)

If you’re on a PC, you’ll need a PDF reader to view the newsletter, such as Adobe Reader or the much-preferred Foxit Reader. If you’re on a Mac, the newsletter should open up in the “Preview” application.

Save the date!

Blitz slideshow

The students in CREW and some of their friends had a blast at Blitz last weekend! If you don’t believe me, check out the video slideshow below of the the night’s festivities:

Thank you to all of the adult chaperones… this couldn’t have happened without you!