FRIENDS YOUTH - NORTHWEST YEARLY MEETING OF FRIENDS

July,2002

To Friends of the World,

Hello from Northwest Yearly Meeting. Once again we have convened on the campus of George Fox University in Newberg, Oregon during the week of July 20 through 26.

Families and individuals from all over the Northwest have gathered in order to listen to God and discern His plans for our meeting in the year to come. Many times I have heard this week referred to as being similar to a family reunion. And how true that is. Many 0( the youth do not get to see their brothers and sisters in God but once a year at this particular week.

Our theme for the sessions this year is "Live in the Spirit of Truth. ..and Speak Truth to the People," which is actually a quote from John Woolman, an early Quaker. Our evening services with the adults opened with a keynote address from Superintendent Joe Gerick. Monday night the guest speaker for the week was introduced: David Johns from Indiana.

In an effort to have the youth and adults of the Yearly Meeting get to know one another better, the youth hosted an ice cream social on Sunday night for all to attend. To better prepare the youth, and, therefore the future leaders of this yearly meeting, we attended workshops with the adults and also attended an adult business meeting.

Earlier this summer two of our ministry teams -YCCM (Youth Challenged through Children's Ministry) and YCAM (Youth Challenged through Arts in Ministry) were sent out around the churches in Northwest Yearly Meeting. These YC teams attend Yearly Meeting and are more than willing to share their experiences with the rest of the youth, in hopes to interest them and show them just a couple of the wonderful opportunities that the ministries provide.

This year Youth Representative Liz Ankeny was sent to the Evangelical Friends Church -Eastern Region Yearly Meeting sessions. She returned the latter part of the week to share her experiences with the rest of the youth.

Our service project this year was to help raise money for missionaries being sent from our yearly meeting to Romania to work in that country's orphanages. Money was raised by collecting pop cans from local people, and a car wash with people making donations. It was hot weather, but we were able to raise over $500.

We will be leaving tomorrow evening to spend the night at the beach. The day after we will enjoy an entire day at the radical (but cold) Oregon coast. This is our time to relax with friends, remember our hard work from the week, and kick back at the coast. It rocks!

With love in God,

Coby Bixby, Assistant Presiding Clerk High School Youth Yearly Meeting