Youth Discipleship Ministry

St. Andrew’s Youth Discipleship Ministry is a community of students grade 6 - 12, various leaders and staff, striving to know God and to make God known through lives transformed by Christ. Students are invited to join weekly in attending Youth Group, Sunday School, and special events. We are committed to creating a community of fun, fellowship, service, and growth. Kids are encouraged to play hard, care for each other deeply, serve with intentionality, and ask difficult questions about faith. Here are a few highlights from this year:

Due to the difficulties we faced throughout COVID, we had to change what our student ministries programming looked like. Despite those challenges, that didn’t stop our students and leaders from meeting together whether that was outside in masks in the winter or in our youth room as we re-opened.

LOVE OUR CITY On February 13, over 40 youth and adult volunteers from St. Andrew’s and Northminster Student Ministries joined together to bring love to our local community. The idea, formed out of our annual 30 Hour Famine adventure, was to provide some “LOVE” to our community through a bag of groceries in these difficult times. The students met in Northminster’s south parking lot and packed roughly 600 bags of food and 200 hygiene kits over 5 hours. Each grocery bag contained 13 items: a box of cereal, 3 cans of soup, a jar of pasta sauce, a can of chili, a can of corn, a can of green beans, a jar of peanut butter, a can of tuna, a box of spaghetti noodles, applesauce, a 2lb bag of rice, 2 rolls of toilet paper, and a loaf of bread. Valentine’s Day stuffed bears and handwritten cards were also placed in each bag to spread more kindness and generosity. Bags were distributed in a no-contact drive-thru style with roughly 435 bags being given away to families who drove up on that Saturday. The remaining bags were picked up by folks from the Flowing Wells Unified School District Resource Center, Lynn/Urquides School.

YOUTH MINISTRY INTERNS We had another great experience this summer with our Intern Program. We had two volunteer interns supporting our programs as well as learning about theology, ministry, as well as how ministry applies to more than just working in the church.

FOREST HOME CHRISTIAN CAMP We had an amazing week at Forest Home Camp with 70 students and leaders! We swam; hiked, blobbed, mud pitted, and competed in crazy team games. A number of our students came to Christ for the first time or recommitted their lives to Him through teachings, worship devotion times, and cabin conversations. The ministry has been so blessed by this incredible opportunity to grow in our relationships with each other and our relationship with Christ!

THANKSGIVING Two events have shaped the holiday weekend in wonderful ways for our ministry and church community. Our Family Night included around 40 people playing and watching an exciting game of dodgeball following the Thanksgiving Eve Service. The next morning, we enjoyed an intergenerational game of Flag Football at our annual Turkey Bowl at Naranja Park. This year we had almost 25 players and spectators! RETREATS Our year also included several short retreats, Middle School Mission Days, and the Middle School Rockvember Lock-In with 30 students.

ADDITIONAL FUNDRAISING Our new Top Golf Tournament was a wonderful event at Top Golf Tucson we had 61 participants at a variety of ages and raised $3000. We are so thankful for the generosity of all of the players and sponsors who made this event a success we are looking forward to make next year’s Top Golf Fundraiser an even greater success.

LOOKING FORWARD 2022 In the next year we are looking forward to leaning into where God is sending us alongside the Family Ministries Team. We are excited to continue partnering with students and their families as we grow together in faith and life.

Our Youth Ministry is blessed to have amazing dedicated and consistent leaders that are on fire for God and wanting students to grow in their relationship with Him. These leaders are the cornerstone to our ministry and what God is doing in the lives of young students at St. Andrew’s. The church is blessed to have them and the ministry could not happen without them! We are so looking forward to what God has for us in this upcoming year. Our vision and hope is that students would continue to be amazed by the character of God and the way that He loves us and would be encouraged and mobilized to take part in building His Kingdom here on Earth. The Youth Ministry is a very exciting and busy place to be. Learn more about the ministry at sapcyouth.com. We are so thankful for this past year and look forward to God’s continuing guidance and provisions in the year to come!