Dates and Updates

Greetings and Salutations all,
I wanted to give a quick rundown of activities and plans.

First of all:

Elijah's Promise Soup Kitchen

This is a very active soup kitchen, serving around 80,000 meals a year and it also runs programs for culinary education and entrepreneurship training. Overall, very worthy cause. The soup kitchen is also in the middle of New Brunswick, in a pretty nice part of town (just down the street from the State Theater, if anyone knows the geography) and it has a very established volunteering program.

Because of that we're also planning a food drive. This Sunday a box will be brought to mass and there will be an announcement. However, on March 2nd, we will also put up a poster with a list of the necessary food items.

Here's a link to the volunteering page of the soup kitchen and it has a list of items needed.

We can also raise money since they also need donations.

The current plan is to go for March 8th for the actual volunteering. The only issue is there might not be enough room for everyone in the soup kitchen, so I'd like to get a head count. Right now I'm expecting 6-8 people to be coming, if more want to we can do it over two weekends, and if everyone has a good experience we can do more volunteering.

Also:

I'm hoping for a get-together at Dave and Buster's. It's like Chuckie Cheese for adults, which is to say, it's awesome. Contact me as to what times people would like to go.

We also need to start planning for Easter. I know it is still a good chunk of time away but it is better for us to be prepared early.

Finally,
March 2nd we're having a Youth Meeting (although this will not be an English mass, the 16th will be English mass and another youth meeting).

I'm hoping to start trying to do discussions about our faith, since that is the essence of the MYCM.

So for the first meeting I thought it might to be nice to reflect on a passage that most of us are familiar with: 1 Corinthians 13: 8-13

Love never ends. But as for prophecies, they will come to an end; as for tongues, they will cease; as for knowledge, it will come to an end. 9For we know only in part, and we prophesy only in part; 10but when the complete comes, the partial will come to an end. 11When I was a child, I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child; when I became an adult, I put an end to childish ways. 12For now we see in a mirror, dimly,* but then we will see face to face. Now I know only in part; then I will know fully, even as I have been fully known. 13And now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; and the greatest of these is love.


That's about all I have for now, if you have any thoughts on the plans I've outlined or the passage above, please leave comments!

Also, mark your calender for the Toronto MCYM North America Youth Conference. The deadline for application is March 31st and especially if we want to figure out some ways to reduce costs, I need a head count as soon as possible.

Well, anyways, I hope this message sees you well.

God Bless,
John Thomas
MCYM NJ President 2008