The Wilderness Map / Christmas Expectations

Hello!

The Olivet Youth Ministry team has a new monthly youth newsletter, “The Wilderness Map”. December 2010 is the first issue. The Wilderness Map is sent to Olivet Youth and Friends via US Mail. If you know someone who isn’t on our mailing list but should be, please contact our office manager Darlene McCormick, or any of us on the Youth Ministry Team.

Because The Wilderness Map is rich in graphic content, a special “Tidings-friendly” version, without the graphic content, is included in Tidings.

It is our hope that The Wilderness Map becomes the one-stop reference for information about all of the youth ministry programs. However, because any publication is out-of-date as soon as it is printed, we are also working to determine the best ways to communicate updates directly to youth and parents.

There will be a major update to the youth website, www.coatesvillemoca.org. There is also a FaceBook page, Coatesville MOCA (Mount Olivet Climbing Association). If you type MOCA in the FaceBook search window, you should find it quickly. Today we have 43 members. The FB page and the youth website eMail list are both used in tandem to distribute eMail / FB message updates of a timely nature.

For a few years we have been using and will continue to use short automated phone calls direct to youth and parents for ASP and Creation events. We are considering and have also begun to experiment with the use of concise text messages, direct to youth and parents for urgent updates.

Anyone on the distribution of any of these forms of communication will always have to ability to easily “opt-out” for whatever reason.

Hopefully, The Wilderness Map provides part of the solution for youth and parents to find their way through the pleura of youth activities going on.

Well, that has all been rather technical, hasn’t it?

It is almost the Christmas season. The anticipation is building. What are your expectations this Christmas? What do you value most and hope to get from this season? Would you like it to be different, or the same? I hope to spend some time considering the meaning of Jesus Christ in my life. What could be more important than God becoming one of us? God, being willing to come live with us in all the dirt, sweat, and blood of a human birth 2000 years ago? Christ became the God-Man, Jesus, for each and every one of us. Miracle of miracles. Hallelujah! A Messiah is born!
 
Happy Hiking and God Bless,
 
- allen