United Methodist Youth fellowship, UMYF, is open to all youth from 6-12th grades.  Meetings are on Sundays at 4:30, unless otherwise noted.  Activities are every weekend and vary from fellowship activities to Bible studies to community service projects.  Highlights and traditions of our year include the fall pumpkin patch, Christmas caroling and Christmas party, ROCK retreat in Ocean City, leading worship in March, Holy week activities such as the Holy Rollers Rock-A-Thon and car wash, and an end of the year bon fire and cook out.  Most of our youth entering the ninth grade through twelfth grade attend work camp in the summer.  We offer two work camp opportunities – Camp Hope, a United Methodist work camp based in Frostburg, MD, or Group work camp, a non-denominational work camp with varied locations.  Youth work on fundraising throughout the year to attend.  Our annual weekend family camping retreats also occurs late in the summer months and is organized and lead by many of our active parents and adults.  The youth choir sings several times throughout the year.  Please check out their links for upcoming rehearsals and times of performances.  The UMYF seeks to build Disciples of Christ while focusing on issues specific to the teenage years.  We seek to fellowship with one another and to be a vital member in the body of Christ with youth taking active and leading roles in worship.  We are a part of the Baltimore-Washington Conference and take part in district and conferences activities.  Come join us on Sundays at 4:30 for Bible study and fun in Jesus’ name!  Contact the Director of Youth Ministries, Meghan Humbert, through the church office for more information or details.

We are offering babysitting on the second Friday of April (11th) and May (9th) to raise funds for our summer camps. Children of all ages are welcome from 6 to 10 p.m. for crafts, games, movies and fun.

RSVP to brjcoren@verizon.net. (requested but not required) There is no fixed charge, donations will be accepted.

March 30: 5:00pm Begin preparations for Youth Sunday
April 6: 5:00pm Preparations and Rehearsal for Youth Sunday
April 13: YOUTH SUNDAY! ALL 3 SERVICES! Arrive 7:00am
April 19: Prom! Set up 1:00pm and Prom at 7:30pm – 10:30pm
April 20: No UMYF
April 27: 5:00 Meeting
May 4: Talent Show Preparations
May 11: Mother’s Day No Meeting
May 18: Rehearsal for Talent Show
May 25: Talent Show and Dinner

WOW! Thank you so much to everyone who participated in Holy Week activities! The ROCK-ATHON was so much fun as always! Thanks so much to Mrs. Humbert and the United Methodist Women for cooking breakfast. It was delicious. I hope you found the weekend’s activities to be spiritually uplifting and meaningful.

Come join us on Sunday, April 13 for Youth Sunday. The Youth will be leading 3 services of worship that day. The choir will sing, and scripture will come to life. You definitely won’t want to miss it!

Lots of pictures from Camp Hope 2007 have been posted in the picture gallery. Take some time to see fellowship, service, and worship of the Nichols-Bethel MYF. (Pictures can also be viewed full-screen using the slideshow applet)

About Camp Hope:

Camp Hope celebrated its 30th year anniversary in 2007. It is based out of Frostburg United Methodist Church and the campers are housed in the dormitories of Frostburg State University. It is a predominantly United Methodist based camp. The name of the camp is actually an acronym standing for Christian Appalachian Mission Project Helping Other People Enthusiastically. The homes that are worked on are in the Allegheny and Garrett County regions of Western Maryland. The camp runs for 4 weeks. Each week a different group of churches and campers attend. The average number of people attending a week is around 110. This summer, we will work on over 50 homes. That means that over 1,000 homes have been touched by this program throughout its history. Many home owners are ill or infirmed, widowed, handicapped, or are in some other way not economically able to make some of the repairs necessary on their homes. Each work team is divided within the church itself. So, we will be working with our own youth and adults. The day begins at 6:30 with morning devotions and breakfast, and concludes around 4:00. We travel to a variety of churches or community service organizations like the Lions Club for dinner each night. There, each church attending Camp Hope is assigned a night to lead vespers services. There is a spiritual life director who designs the spiritual theme for the week. This year’s theme is Extreme Home Makeover Camp Hope Edition! Thursday is a half day of work and a half day spent at Rocky Gap State Park and concludes with the talent/variety show.

Related links:

Youth Group Schedule of Events
Work Camp 2008 Update
Work Camp 2007 Recap

The first set of deposits have been made for Camp Hope workcamps. Our dates are reserved and WE ARE A GO! Please pay attention to the following due dates for deposits:

February 10 and May 4 for Camp Hope

Turning in funds and paying our debts must be punctual. Your fundraiser is deducted from these deposits. Also, please remember that there will be an additional fee this year for transportation because of our need to rent vehicles. February 10 is the first $100.

Oh my gosh! What an amazing weekend! I am still rocking out to “We Lift Our Hands In The Sanctuary” in my head! I am so grateful and thankful for all of you who participated in this fantastic weekend. We are all especially thankful for the adult chaperones who helped us this weekend. Steffanie Felder, Christine Blair, Kevin Blair, Denise McHarg, Mike McHarg, Wes Baker, Mrs. Patterson, and Christie McMullen, and Meghan Humbert. They gave up an entire weekend to be with us and we could not have participated had it not been for them.

Our theme for the weekend was “Jesus Christ – More than a Rock Star!” Salvadore was our musical band for the weekend and they were AWESOME! It was so much fun watching all of our youth and adults dance and sing and lift their hands in praise. The scripture lesson for the weekend focused on the Matthew scripture where Jesus asks his disciples “Who do YOU say that I am?” We were challenged by that question all weekend. We examined the idea of being “someone” for “somebody” after reading the scripture where “some people” bring a blind man to Jesus to be healed. We communed together under the Bishop’s direction with 5,500 other people. This was truly an amazing weekend. We did have some fun though – the Playland at the Boardwalk will never be the same! There were many challenging games of Ski Ball enjoyed by all. Not to mention the fact that we discovered the joys and wonders of Thrashers French Fries, Dumsers ice cream at 11:30 p.m., and the Candy Kitchen! We would especially like to thank the United Methodist Men for buying each participant a ROCK T-Shirt. They were worn on Saturday night and adorned by glow necklaces. The kids looked great.  Come see the bulletin board outside of the youth room for pictures.

Camp Hope will be the third week of July.  If you are interested in attending, you must sign up ASAP!  Deposits are due and numbers of youth and adults attending are quickly needed.  So, please sign up on the sheets in the youth room if you are interested.  Youth must be 14 years old or entering the 9th grade to attend.

So What Is Camp Hope? What Is “Group” Work Camp? What Is The Difference Between The Two? Why Are We Attending 2 Different Camps?

We have heard these questions a lot over the last few months, so as we approach the time of departure, we thought it would be nice to answer. Attending two camps this summer will allow us to branch out to meet the needs of a growing youth group. There are many younger youth this year and we wanted to allow them to have a work camp experience that really would encourage them in their service. Expanding the chance to experience a camp whose fundamental principles are the same but whose structure is different will allow us to expand our making Disciples in the youth group.

Camp Hope

Camp Hope is celebrating its 30th year anniversary. It is based out of Frostburg United Methodist Church and the campers are housed in the dormitories of Frostburg State University. It is a predominantly United Methodist based camp. The name of the camp is actually an acronym standing for Christian Appalachian Mission Project Helping Other People Enthusiastically. The homes that are worked on are in the Allegheny and Garrett County regions of Western Maryland. The camp runs for 4 weeks. Each week a different group of churches and campers attend. The average number of people attending a week is around 110. This summer, we will work on over 50 homes. That means that over 1,000 homes have been touched by this program throughout its history. Many home owners are ill or infirmed, widowed, handicapped, or are in some other way not economically able to make some of the repairs necessary on their homes. Each work team is divided within the church itself. So, we will be working with our own youth and adults. The day begins at 6:30 with morning devotions and breakfast, and concludes around 4:00. We travel to a variety of churches or community service organizations like the Lions Club for dinner each night. There, each church attending Camp Hope is assigned a night to lead vespers services. There is a spiritual life director who designs the spiritual theme for the week. This year’s theme is Extreme Home Makeover Camp Hope Edition! Thursday is a half day of work and a half day spent at Rocky Gap State Park and concludes with the talent/variety show. Wednesday is dinner on your own night specially July 4th this year. We will be attending our week of Camp Hope with several other churches, but locally Glen Burnie UMC. We depart at 8:00 a.m. on Sunday, July 1 and return just around lunch on Saturday July 7.

Group Work Camp

Group work camp is quickly approaching its 30th anniversary. It is a nondenominational and international organization that welcomes youth groups from around the country to a variety of locations each summer. Each week holds about 400 youth and is run by its own staff. The emphasis is on growing a teenager’s faith through service to others. Traditionally, Nichols-Bethel has taken, and will continue this year, to take our senior high members of UMYF. The campers will stay this year in Reading, PA. Work teams will be divided with other churches. Participants are assigned to crews based on age, gender, and skill level. Homes to be worked on are chosen based on similar criteria as Camp Hope. A typical day at Group also begins around 6:30 with breakfast and a morning devotional program. Work concludes around 3:30 and campers return to the high school to shower and prepare for dinner. Dinner is served at the school followed by an evening program. Each youth group will have time for its own devotions and to discuss what is happening on their sites. Wednesday is a half a day of work as well and we get to go and explore all the wonders that Reading, PA has to offer. This year’s spiritual program is based on Renovation. We are very much looking forward to meeting fellow Christians from around the country and forming new bonds of Christian love. We will depart at 9:00 a.m. on Sunday, June 24 and return after lunch on Saturday, June 30.