2025 Youth Service Weekend Recap

26Jun

Thank you for all the support and interest in our Austin Youth Service Weekend. I'm thrilled to say we had 18 students engaged in it this year! We started the weekend by working on the chapel space in Trinity Center. We redecorated it after a run to HomeGoods for supplies. This was a somewhat rushed project; our timeline was too condensed for all that we needed to accomplish. Our youth aren't entirely pleased with the work they did and want another chance to do it. Maybe an upcoming service project!

On Friday night, we cooked with Chef Ray. This part of the weekend is always a fan favorite. The teens LOVE working in the kitchen with Chef. He's so great at equipping newbies with tasks and tools. We closed the night with Compline and a devotional on why we come to church- to remind each other who we are.

We woke up early Saturday and headed to two worksites to paint ramps built by the St. David's team for the Texas Ramp Project. Six youth and two adults went to sand and paint the ramp at Next-to-New. They finished quickly and were able to join 12 youth and two adults at a private residence to paint a long ramp they had built in April or May. The day was hot, and I'm so proud of everyone for staying hydrated and making significant progress on those projects. Rex Hunt, our leader for the weekend with our Ramp Build ministry, helped to organize and supervise those projects. I'm very thankful to him for his work and time in helping those events go smoothly — it's rather challenging to organize so many teenagers for this kind of project; he helped us immensely.

At midday on Saturday, we all headed to Deep Eddy Pool to eat sack lunches and cool off after working all morning. That cold spring-fed water has never felt so good!

Saturday night, we wrapped up with another service of Compline and a devotional on our weekend theme, which is drawn from a prayer in Compline: "May we never forget that our common life depends on each other's toil." We also learned about the history of Deep Eddy Pool, and how even city parks like this are only accessible because we value living in community with one another and sharing community goods and sites.

We drifted off to sleep while watching "Mr Peabody & Sherman," the youth-voted movie of the weekend. On Sunday morning, we packed up, ate breakfast together, and attended the 9 a.m. worship service. It was so lovely to celebrate the end of a good lock-in with our parish family.

Youth Service Weekend 2025

Summer Youth Table

Sundays, 10-11 a.m., Sumners Hall

Come visit our youth table this summer and enjoy a variety of fun activities (see list below).

June 29 - Uno
July 6 - AMA with Kelsey
July 27 - Book Club
August 3 - Card Games
August 10 - Hottest Takes

Regular Youth Ministry programming; Episcopal Youth Community on Wednesday evenings (5:30-7:30 p.m.) and Youth Formation (10-11 a.m.) on Sunday mornings, will resume after Welcome Home Sunday on August 17.

Mark your calendars for the Youth and Children's Parent Orientations (10-11 a.m.) on Sunday, Aug. 24.