Posts Tagged: yav

Pentecost Offering: We Are All Builders

You may never have thought of yourself as a builder, but you are — we all are. Some people you know actually do build solid things like houses and bridges or maybe roads and highways. But we all build things that support our future. Perhaps you build a garden each spring or a menu plan… Read more »

Pentecost Offering connects youth in the body of Christ

Fifteen-year-old Grace Reck usually can’t wait to try new things, but when given the chance last year to attend her first churchwide youth conference at Montreat, she dragged her feet — for a minute. “For both Grace and her twin sister, Emma, the Montreat Youth Conference was a pivotal experience in their faith journey,” said the Rev…. Read more »

Pentecost Offering Helps Young People Challenge the World’s Injustices

Yuriko Beltran wants to change the world — which is exactly why the 23-year-old entered the PC(USA)’s Young Adult Volunteer (YAV) program. “I like the fact that I actively contribute to change, which is what the YAV program mainly seeks to accomplish,” she said. The YAV program is an ecumenical, faith-based year of service in sites across the U.S…. Read more »

Pentecost Offering Sets At-Risk Youth on the Road to Success

Everywhere he looked, the Rev. Allen Shelton saw tremendous gaps — gaps keeping high school-aged young people of color from succeeding in life. Rev. Shelton, a veteran educator, community advocate and pastor in New Jersey, was determined not to watch promising youth fall through the cracks of an increasingly broken educational system. He wanted to… Read more »

Pentecost: Living a Life Through Faith

The branches of their family trees are filled with Presbyterian pastors and elders, so it’s no wonder that Akilah Hyrams and Noah Westfall — both alums of the PC(USA)’s Youth Adult Volunteer or YAV program — have lives rooted in their faith-building experiences. The YAV program is an ecumenical, faith-based year of service for young people ages 19–30 in sites… Read more »

Pentecost: More Than We Can Plan

From the day they are born and even before they are born, we are busy making plans for our children. Some of our planning is about the really big things, like the name they will carry or finding the college that will help them fulfill their dreams. Some of our planning is much smaller, like… Read more »

Pentecost: Who are our teachers?

The Psalmist says, “God from my youth, you have taught me…” Psalm 71:17, and that is true. But it could have also said, “God from the youth, you have taught me” and stated something almost as true. With a foundation in faith built in the early years, our youth can teach us something about leading… Read more »

Building faith connections that last a lifetime

By Lynne Foreman In the late 1980s, when I was serving as a youth group leader in my local congregation, my pastor invited me to attend a gathering that I recognize now as the early stages of a new movement for youth in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.). Even as I was being drawn headlong into… Read more »

Pentecost: Young Adult Volunteers stand up to injustice and work for healing

As a student at Presbyterian-related Davidson College, Langley Hoyt knew her own mind. The lifelong Presbyterian ventured beyond the college’s bucolic campus into the streets of West Charlotte, N.C., where the world’s injustices were all too apparent. “For two summers during college, I worked and lived in a neighborhood in Charlotte where my neighbors were… Read more »

O God, from my youth you have taught me

Who have been your most influential teachers? All types of teachers — at school, at church, at work and in families — help shape who we become. We are grateful for all our teachers. In Psalm 71, the author uses the image of a teacher for God by stating, “O God, from my youth you… Read more »