We are a group of energetic, fun seeking pre-teen and teens who just so happen to love christ.  What a great way to get together with our friends.  We meet every sunday at good shepherd lutheran church to have a fun, Bible-based study to explore the Bible and what it means to us.  We add plays and music to our studies.  We love to hang out in our bright and colorful space at church as often as we can. We also love to get together at our friends homes on the weekends. 

Yes, it is true, STAFF loves to have fun, but we also love to share God’s love with others.  We have participated in several service-related events in our church and community.  We took two weekends during christmas and caroled to about 21 members' homes and community retirement homes.  We shared a treat with each member as we visited.  It was a lot of fun to share the gift of music during this special time of the year.  We have participated in sending money to the Hunger Walk.  We helped serve at a community dinner held at the church and helped to coordinated a gift for each child who attended this event.  We helped a fellow members of STAFF to complete an outdoor classroom at a local school. 

Wow, this summer has flown by!!  STAFF has a few events coming up that you will want to participate in as much as you are able.  We are going to start doing some of the events now with our bigger Jr. and Sr  STAFF group.  How exciting!! 

The next event that we have planned is on Saturday, July 31.  The youth group will be supporting the second annual Car Show at GSLC by selling sodas, water, and chips.  Also we have been asked to monitor the food drive and empty the containers as this fills up to help the food pantry.  The event goes from 8:00 – 12:00.  Please sign up to make sure that we have coverage for the entire time that the event is going on.  You can “work” the whole time or just an hour or two.  Your choice, we just hope you can come.  For all of you who came last year this is a fun community event with some really cool cars to look at.  Stay tuned to see if we might plan something for after the event like float down a river or building something or some other project that will of course be great.  We’ll let you know if this works out for this date or for another time. 

BACK TO SCHOOL BASH EXTRA SPECIAL FUN EVENT…   
Friday, August 6 w e will have a…a….a LOCK-IN!.  Yes, will welcome the whole group…Jr and Sr.  We are looking at a multi-facetted extra exciting event for this group.  We’ll have evening events, maybe swimming, and devotions and food.  Then we plan to go around midnight to Malibu Grand Prix until about 6 am for all night games.  Then the group will come back to Gainesville for breakfast and devotions.  Then they’ll go home to sleep the rest of the day.  We’ll ask for an RSVP soon to make sure we reserve the correct number of spots for this semi private church party at Malibu.   

Saturday, August 21 is the Church Picnic.  This is sure to be a fun day at the park.

Sunday, August 22 will be another youth-involved Sunday service at the 8:30 service.  We’ll need ushers, greeters, readers, singers, guitar players, etc.  So please plan to be involved in this service, too.  We’ll get with everyone to make sure we can involve as many of our group as possible.

Sunday, August 29 Gwinnett Braves trip after church.  Open to the entire congregation.  If you want tickets please let Judy Brookshire know.  Go Braves…

STAFF is going to sponsor bi-monthly “drives” this year for the church to participate in so think about what you want to sponsor.  STAFF will, with Mr. Carl’s expert engineering skills, build a collection box with great STAFF style and pizzazz for the items to be placed in.  We may ask for used glasses, coats, gently (and not smelly) shoes, gently used or new sports equipment, etc.  Bikes that have been outgrown but still work…the group can help decide.  This is a fun, great and not costly way for our group to continue to make a difference in a positive way in the community and beyond.  These items will be donated to a great group who will benefit from the items collected.

We are so excited about the growth we will see this year as we have a Jr and Sr STAFF. 
AWESOME…

If you are a middle school or high school student, we would love for you to come worship and have some fun with our group!!!