Youth in grades 6-12 meet on Sunday nights from 5-7pm for loads of fun, dinner, worship, and growing closer to God. You are invited whether you can come all the time or only once in a while! Parents join a rotation to provide dinner.

Youth Sunday School - Meets from 10am-10:45 in the youth room across from the church library every Sunday morning. Middle School class (6th-8th grade) in large room, High School class (9th-12th) in smaller room.

Highland UMC offers Confirmation for youth in 8th grade and older. It is a journey where youth are paired with adult mentors to learn what it means to be a United Methodist Christian. We believe that our commitment to follow Christ is more important than all other commitments, so Confirmation requires youth to not only participate in classes but also be fully engaged in the life of the church through worship, service, and other ministries. Classes will be held Wednesday evenings from 5:30 - 7:00pm, January 4 - March 28, 2012. For more information on how you can participate as a youth or an adult mentor, email Charlie.

Every 12 weeks, Highland Youth & Families have a major opportunity to make a real difference in the lives of temporarily homeless families. Wake Interfaith Hospitality Network (WIHN) helps homeless families get back on their feet. Local faith congregations like Highland each host WIHN for a week, providing food and shelter for families while the children go to school and the parents look for work or go to work, and look for affordable housing. 80% of families helped through IHN find long-term housing.

Here’s how you and your family can help: “Adopt” a WIHN family. We usually find out the names and ages of the families the Thursday or Friday before we host them. You can “adopt” a family by making a Welcome Bag for them, and praying for them by name each night they stay at our church until they find a home. Further, you can volunteer to play with the children one night, and your parents can be overnight hosts (you can too on a non-school night) or van drivers. David Dix is Highland’s contact person for WIHN, and Jared, his son (who graduated from our youth program last May) has been helping coordinate WIHN for the past 2 years—reminding all of us that you don’t have to wait until you’re an “adult” to take leadership and make a difference in the church and community.

How to make a WIHN Welcome Bag:
Spend no more than $25. Get a toothbrush for every member of the family, and travel-sized toothpaste, shampoo, deodorant, lotion, soap, washcloth, and any other toiletries you think might be useful if you had to sleep in a church away from home for a week. A small toy for each child. A card written to the family letting them know your family will pray for them until they find a home, signed by YOUR FAMILY (not Highland Youth).

Quick Fact: Families now make up 40% of the homeless population. Causes for family homelessness can come anywhere from a father unable to work due to injury, a mother losing her job, or a house fire or natural disaster.

In October, over 60 youth and adults from Highland participated in Youth Ministry Architects (YMA). We shared the story of our youth ministry, our hopes and fears, our joys and disappointments. The Architects gave us a “blueprint” suggesting where we need to focus in order to make our hopes and dreams a reality. The time for complaining is past and the time for construction is here. For the entire calendar year of 2011, our youth ministry is officially “UNDER CONSTRUCTION.” This means we are working hard to plan well, communicate well, find and train leaders well, and most importantly, show our teenagers the love of Christ well. So please bear with us patiently this year, trusting that we are working hard to move from good to great.

YMRT
The Youth Ministry Renovation Team (YMRT, pronounced "Why-Mart") meets regularly to follow through the 13 month blueprint for creating a sustainable youth ministry structure that we received in the YM Architect's assessment back in October. Just thought you'd like to know that we didn't just hear your opinions about the youth ministry--we're actually making the necessary changes to give Highland the best youth ministry we can have right now!  The team is made up of Scott Loftin, David Moreau, Laura Black, Charlie Baber, and David Goehring.