SAVE THE DATE! Our Student Ministry Christmas Party & Photo Scavenger Hunt is Sunday December 18th. Middle School is from 5-8 p.m. and High school is from 6-9 p.m. Meet in the Community Center. To sign up your student or to tell us you can help drive, email bbortnem@salem4u.com.

Hey, Jr. High students! Salem and Trinity Klein Lutheran Church are merging together this December to have one huge, crazy fun Jr. High event! And it’s free! December 2 we will meet at Salem at 6:30pm and drive over to Trinity Klein. We will stay there until about 10:30pm and be back at Salem around 11:00pm. Food and drinks will be available to purchase. Email Brett at bbortnem@salem4u.com or Jayme at jnichols@salem4u.com to let them know you’re on board!

Calling all Junior High students! The first Wednesday in November is coming up! November 2 in the Community Center from 6-8pm! Come hang out, eat some food, fellowship, and learn about Jesus!

SIGN UP HERE!

On October 1st we had the privilege to serve our community by doing various yard work projects in a local neighborhood. Thanks to all the volunteers that gave their time and made this possible!

The 7th & 8th Grade service project has been moved due to conflicting events on Salem’s campus. It is now on Saturday October 1st. We will meet in the Community Center at 9am and are expected to be back by 12pm. Please bring gloves and any shovels, rakes, or wheelbarrows you have! If you have not recently filled out a permission slip, you will need to do so and bring it with you that morning. Hope to see you there!

Here is the permission slip:

Student Ministry Permission Slip

A new update to the calendar is an event called “The Gathering” which will take place on Wednesday nights. The first Gathering for 7th & 8th grade students will be on October 5th from 6-8 p.m. The first Gathering for High School Students will be on October 12th. Our high school group will also have more Gatherings on October 19th & 26th in the month of October. We are so excited about this new event which will be a great opportunity for our students to invite friends to. If you are a parent, I encourage you to have your student start thinking about who they are going to invite to “The Gathering”.  If you are a student, start thinking about ways that you are going to make an invitation to a friend and specifically which friends you’ll be inviting! In addition to some worship and devotion time, we’ll have crazy skits, games in the community center gym, open gym time, food, prizes and much, much more.

Interested in being on the team? Fill out an application and let us know! All 9th-12th grade students are welcome to apply. Includes:

-Overnight retreat
-Training once a month
-A chance to impact lives
and show who Christ is

Student Leadership Expectations and Application ’11-’12

Thanks to all who attended and participated in last night’s home school families gathering! We really value and appreciate your input and vision for students and this ministry. We look forward to the next two gatherings and what you have to say there as well! Remember public school meets on August 27 at 2pm and private school on August 27 at 5pm.

Some questions have come up about having meetings for different groups of students to try to hear what your needs are. Since arriving at Salem a few weeks ago, I have been approached with a variety of opinions on what our student ministry should and shouldn’t look like. There has been distinct separation in these opinions yet great unity as well. The separation has often fallen along the lines of where a student goes to school. The unity has been that we need to rally around that which Christ has called us: to go out and make disciples of all nations.

So these meetings are a conversation. A time for students and parents to express what they want to see out of student ministry here at Salem. And they are also a time for me to express some of my heart for working with students and their families. The goal of the conversation though will ultimately be unity found only in Christ. I don’t have a desire to split our student ministry into 3 separate groups, but I do have a desire to bring it together as one once we hear how God is working in our student ministry family’s lives.

I hope that you as a high school student or a parent of a high schooler will plan to attend one of these meetings. If you can’t make the one for your group, you are welcome to attend one of the other ones. This also helped us have a more manageable group size at each home. We’ll post their addresses the week of the meetings.

Public School Families Re-scheduled: TBD, Orrico’s home
Home School Families Re-scheduled: August 22, 7 PM, Wehmeyer’s home
Private School Families: August 27, 5PM, Campbell’s home

If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact me at bbortnem@salem4u.com or by phone at 281-351-8223.

If you would like to RSVP, email Jayme Nichols at jnichols@salem4u.com, and let her know which gathering you will be attending.