Youth Page

Rejoice Jr. is a monthly youth bulletin written and edited by Taisia Mills. The newsletter is dedicated for the youth of our parish. Our younger members need to be spiritually nourished and Rejoice Jr. is a way to convey the faith, teachings, and doctrine of the Eastern Orthodox faith in a youth friendly format. Included in Rejoice Jr are movie and book reviews, facts about Church feasts, information about major saints, and events and news from our young members. We hope you enjoy Rejoice Jr.

"Fantasia 2000 hit the theaters on June 16th. I give this movie an A+. It definitely uses new and improved graphics...although at times I was wishing for big plump hippos like in the old Fantasia. The artwork is more angular and has a lot of butterflies throughout the segments. There is a witty segment about Noah's Ark where Donald is responsible for getting all the animals on the ark. It is fun for all ages (even our parents)...bring munchies for your younger brother or sister.

Do you know that building behind the church? It used to be called the "dwelling" and will now be called THE EDUCATION BUILDING. There are plans to remodel this building. This means that our parents and friends at church will work hard to divide the building into 4 classrooms for church school. There will be no more classes in the kitchen and hallways. YEAH!! We will actually be able to set up class and leave it set up. Although, we will have to keep it clean and neat because our parents and friends need education too and will also use the building. When the renovations are finished, Fr. Bill plans to have a special Sunday where we will make a procession to the Education Building. There, he will bless the building and us, tell us who our teachers and classmates are, and then we plan to have an outdoor picnic. I am very excited about these plans, as I’m sure we all are. Please be sure to thank our parents and friends at church for all their hard work.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This month I saw the movie CHICKEN RUN. It is a claymation movie about a yankee chicken who ends up in a british hen coop. The hens are all trying to escape. This movie plays off themes and scenes from the movie THE GREAT ESCAPE. I laughed through much of the movie. I give it an A+. But don't take my word for it.

Dormition is a feast day of the church. It is celebrated on the 15th of August every year. Dormition is another word for "the death of." In this feast we celebrate the death of Mary the mother of Jesus. Take some time to look at the icon of the feast. You will find Mary on her funeral bed. Christ stands behind her holding his mother's soul. The apostles stand on either side, led by St. Peter who is at Mary's head. St Paul leads the group of apostles at her feet. It is our tradition that we bless seeds and flowers on the feast of Dormition. This is because Mary is the called the "FLOWER THAT BORE THE FRUIT," the fruit being Christ. Happy Feast Day!!!

Come to church on the feast itself, or on the eve of the feast. Church is on Monday evening at 7 p.m. and Tuesday morning at 7 a.m.Put out the icon of the feast for 8 days. This feast is celebrated at church for 8 days. Help mommy and daddy cook a special dinner for the feast day. Do not forget the cake and maybe some candles to blow out...just for fun. Pick or buy fresh flowers and have them blessed at church. If not, at least have fresh flowers in the house for the 8 days of the feast.

Fr Bill is the new priest at our Church. He comes here from New York where he was a cook at a seminary called St. Vladimir's Seminary. Fr. Bill also took classes at the seminary. He grew up in a small town in New Jersey with his mom, dad and a dog. Fr. Bill has lots of favorites: color = blue, animal = dog, food = lasagna, desert = ice cream, favorite place to vacation = Florida, favorite music = Bach, favorite movie = Dead Poet's Society, and his favorite subject in school = history. Of course we wil not leave out his wife, Taisia. Fr. Bill's least favorites include science and cottage cheese. When Fr Bill has time off, he likes to spend it by taking long walks. Fr. Bill says that he enjoys living in Charlotte. WELCOME!

Many of you may not know that there is an Orthodox youth camp for the Diocese of the South. It has been around for 18 years. I went to the camp the first year it existed which was in 1983. I was 9 years old. I went to the camp until I was 22 years old, first as a camper and then as a counselor. This year was my 15th year at Camp Life and Light.

The setting for the camp is in Florida, since most of the kids come from that area. This year we had kids from Richmond and Alabama come to camp. The day opened with Matins, breakfast, religious education classes, and swimming. Then we had lunch, arts and crafts, nature hikes, visits to the camp's animal farm, another education session and Vespers. Following vespers we had dinner, evening entertainment and then night swimming. The day was busy, but lots of fun for everyone. Camp is a GREAT place to meet other Orthodox kids your age. Maybe next year we will be able to take a group from our church. Please keep this in mind for next summer. It’s the place to be and I'll be there too.

This month the long awaited Tigger Movie was released on home video and DVD. I will not give it all away, but Tigger does a new move called a super-duper-alyoppter-bounce. This is a movie to put on the family Christmas list, and sure to be classic.

The Church is made up of many people. Kids are part of the Church too. You became a member of God's family, or the Church, when you were Baptized and Chrismated. Being a part of God's Church means that you have to do work. Sometimes Church is called a ship. God is the captain and God's people (YOU) are the crew. The crew work with the Captain to sail the ship. To sail smoothly, we are assigned "ship" jobs. These jobs are Discipleship, Worship, Fellowship, and STEWARDSHIP. Being a steward means that we give God our time, our talents, and our treasures, to be shared with others for His glory. (Young Life sept '87)

There are many reasons to be a good steward. But in order to be a steward, it is important to understand what a steward is and what a steward does. The word steward means taking care of something. God has given us so much and we are to take care of it. Let's pretend that our neighbor goes on vacation and asks you to watch and feed their cat. You happen to really like this cat since you do not have a cat in your home. You feed the cat and play with it, watch it chase little bugs and its tail. You were able to give your love to the cat and it made you feel special. When the neighbors came home, you gave back the cat because it was theirs and you were only taking care of it. It is the same with God. He gives us so much: money, toys, love, intelligence. It is our job to give back something. Unlike the cat, God does not want it all back. He only asks for a small portion of it back. This means that if someone gives you $10 for your birthday, you give back to God only $1. It wasn't even your money to begin with. You were only given it to take care of it. This is also true of your time. God gives LOTS of time and only asks us to give him 6 minutes out of a whole hour. That's not much when you think about it. This is not just something that our moms and dads have to do, but we are asked to give to God what is His as well. (to be continued next month...)

Now we are back to school...the busy schedules, the piles of homework, the Girl Scout meetings, soccer games, and lots of other things that involve loads of our time and energy. We can not forget that among all of that, we have also gone back to CHURCH SCHOOL. Church school is one place where we can fill our heads and our hearts with good things and learn about God and His words. It is important for us to dedicate ourselves to church school just as we do to Girl Scouts and Soccer games. This year everyone in the church will learn about the Old Testament in church school and in Fr. Bill's adult bible study. It will be an exciting year filled with learning, fun, great crafts, community outreach projects and fellowship. Please thank your teachers and aids for volunteering to teach you and for all the hard work they will put into teaching you. Your teachers are teaching you so that one day you will be able to teach others. And you will.

I'm sure you've been to the doctor many times. Sometimes you go for a check-up even though you are well. Other times you go to the doctor when you are feeling sick. Doctors know a lot about the way the body works and what kinds of medicine will help our bodies get better. St. Luke was a doctor, too. He studied about the body and medicine. He must have worked very hard to be a doctor. He must have been very smart. Luke was good at other things. He liked to paint. Luke painted the very first icon. It was of the mother Mary holding baby Jesus. Luke liked to write, too. One of the most important things Luke did for the Church was write one of the gospels in the Bible. Luke wanted people to read about Jesus the Savior and the wonderful things Jesus did. Luke prayed to God to help him do the best job writing the gospel. After Jesus went to heaven, Luke traveled with St. Paul to many cities teaching about Jesus. Luke was treated unkindly by the people who did not believe in Jesus. These people did not want Luke teaching about Jesus. But St. Luke went on teaching and preaching the good news of Jesus. We remember St. Luke and all the wonderful things he did for the Church on October 18. (By Ann Marie Gudus-Mercera in A Way of Life)

Gregory was the youngest of three children, so when his older brother and sister started to get an allowence, he got one too. Gregory was only 6 years old and his older sister and brother had to wait till they were nine to get an allowance. It wasn't a lot of money, just enough to learn how to spend and save money. Actually it was only $1 a week and it went up 50 cents every year on Gregory's birthday. The allowance wasn't for doing chores or getting paid to help out around the house...those things were just expected. The allowance was to teach Gregory how to spend and save money. Gregory's father came home from work and talked to him about his allowance. Dad said that now that he got this money, 10% of it went to God… That meant that Gregory had to put ten cents of his dollar in the collection at church on Sunday. It didn't seem like a lot, but that meant that there would only be 90 cents left. "That didn't seem like a lot, but when it comes down to it, mom and dad didn’t have to give me the money in the first place. If mom and dad could spare $1 every week, surely I could spare 10 cents," Gregory thought. From then on, every time Gregory got an allowance, money for christmas, or even money for his birthday, Gregory gave 10% of the money to God. Jesus tells us in the gospel that if you are faithful in a little, He will give you authority over much.

"Let us build us a city and a tower, who’s top may reach unto heaven; and let us make us a name." (Gen. 11) "Come!" said the men, "Let's make ourselves a name!Let's build ourselves a tower,And get ourselves some fame!"Let's all work together And make the tower high,So it stretches up to heavenAnd reaches to the sky!" But God above is watching As the men worked on the tower. He saw they wanted greatness. He saw they wanted power. He wasn't pleased with what he saw.He knew it wasn't good. He said, "I'll mix up their language So they can't be understood" So when a workman tried to talk with other workmen near, Funny words and babble sounds Came drifting to his ear. "Tee...lee! A-lah-doo-ween!" "What is that? What do you mean?" "Pim-pam! A-dack-a-too!" "Well, I give up! I can't work with you. No longer could they talk, And no longer could they build. They couldn’t work together, So their hammers soon were stilled. They couldn't live together, So they scattered far apart, And that's how the languages First got their start. (from the Bible Nursery Rhyme Book by Emily Hunter)

Recently I revisited a book that I read when I was in Miss. Bullard's fifth grade class at Enterprise Elementary shcool in Florida. The book is called THE BRIDGE TO TERIBITHIA. It is about a boy named Jess, the only boy in a family of 5 children. Jess seems to do most of the chores around the house since his two younger sisters are too young and his older sisters are too busy with boyfriends or at the mall. Things change when a girl from the city, Leslie, moves into the old Perkin's house next door. Jess is no longer the fastest runner in the fifth grade, but as a trade off, he gains a best friend who enters him into a wonderful new world of imagination and also introduces him to a lot of classic books like Mobie Dick. The story isn't all happy. A very sad twist brings Jess closer to his family. I recommend this book for preteens and early teens....but do not take my word for it.

To be a Christian is to be thankful. Thankfulness is a trademark of a follower of Jesus. Do you remember the story of the ten lepers? They stood off in the distance and cried out to Jesus as He passed by: "Jesus, Master have mercy on us!" They wanted to be cured from their diseases. When Jesus saw them, He said to them: "Go and show yourselves to the priests." And as they went, they were healed! But only one of the ten came back. He fell on his face at Jesus's feet and thanked Him. The Gospel tells us that he was a Samaritan, someone who was considered by the Jewish people as an outcast. Jesus asked, "Were not ten cleansed? Where are the other nine? Was no one found to return to give praise to God except this foreigner? Rise, go your way. Your faith has made you well." To pray means that we speak from our hearts and share our hearts with God. Jesus taught us how to pray when he taught us OUR FATHER. What is important for each of us is not only to say those words but to pray them like Jesus did, so that Jesus's thoughts become our thoughts. We want our hearts to be filled with God's love and goodness so that we can be thankful as Jesus always was thankful. We Americans and Canadians celebrate a Thanksgiving Day each year. We gather together with family and friends to share food and drink. On that day we are grateful for our land, our freedom, and the many gifts that have been showered on us. For us Orthodox Christians, this holiday of Thanksgiving can be a stepping stone on the journey to becoming a truly thankful person. Thankfulness is the founder of our Christian life, faith, and prayer. There are three steps in knowing how to be thankful. 1. we must recognize something as a gift. We must recognize that a gift comes from someone. 3. Finally, we say thank you.What are our gifts from God that we should recognize? EVERYTHING! The beauty of creation in the warmth of the sun, the color of the flowers and trees, the splendor of the animals especially, the gifts of life in ourselves and in others--all are gifts we have received from God. Each evening before we go to bed, we should ask God for forgiveness for all the things that we have done wrong during the day. And we should thank God for all the blessings and all the gifts such as food, clothes, family and friends, that He has given us, as well as the wonderful things we have seen, heard and learned each day. God also is happy when we say, "Thank you!" and we tell Him that we know that He is the giver of all the gifts and especially the gift of life. Here is a short prayer taken from the Psalms that you can say. "YOU ARE MY GOD, AND I GIVE THANKS TO YOU: O MY GOD I PRAISE YOU! (Psalm 118:28)

On November 15 we begin a 40 day fast called the Advent or Christmas Fast. Each time there is a special event in the Church, we are called to get ready, to prepare. We fast for 47 days before Easter. We fast before we come to Holy Communion each Sunday, and we fast before Christmas. Fasting does not mean only not eating certain kinds of foods such as meats and cheeses, but it means changing our lives. We can fast from eating too much, and talking too much, from gossiping about our friends at school, and from not doing our homework on time. We can fast from playing too much Sony Playstation, from giving our parents a hard time and from not keeping our room clean. We can also help out more around the house and spend more time with our family. We can start to pray at home by ourselves and with our parents. We can read the Bible or if we can not read, we can ask our parents to read Old Testament stories to us since we are learning about these stories in Church School. Fasting is a time to look at our life and see what things we do not like about ourselves, and then figure out how we can change. I suggest that we make a list of all the things we do not like about ourselves. Do we lie to our parents too often? Are we mean to our brothers and sisters? Do we talk about kids at school in a mean way? Do we waste time? Do we obey our parents...And the list goes on and on. After you make the list, think about how you can change the things you do not like. Then I suggest you save the list and go to confession. Confession is a place where we can talk to our friend, the Priest, and he can help us figure out ways to help us change and become better. Talk to Fr. Bill about all the things you have written down. Do not be embarrassed to have a list,(even I write things down a list and I am 26 years old). I go to my priest, who's name is Fr. Paul and talk about all the things I have written on my list and he helps me figure out ways to change. This change will help us get ready for the birth of Christ, for Christmas.