Youth News – January 2021
Lisa Ortiz, Youth Director
Happy New Year from the SBCSL Youth Program!!! We hope that January finds you and your’s feeling joyful, safe, and well. With 2020 now in the rearview mirror, we are looking forward to creating an amazing year in 2021!
December in Review… We spent December preparing for the holidays with stories, crafts, and (virtual) community. Early in the month, we asked our Youth Program members to tell us their hopes and wishes for 2021. We’re-dedicating this newsletter to sharing their answers, and we think you’ll agree that we have some pretty amazing young folk in our spiritual community.
I hope I can visit my Aunt and Uncle in Las Vegas.
-Acahni, Age 11
I hope Coronavirus will end and I can meet my friends and have a sleepover.
-Adela, Age 10
I want to be a human
and invent things.
-Audrey, Age 5
I want to have a dog.
-Clare, Age 8
I hope to have time to work on my writing; I’d like to see more of my extended family again; I’d like my community to be able to meet in person again; I hope our country/world can make progress in everyone’s willingness to accept each other.
-Dahlia, Age 15 (pictured in her own hand made chainmail)
I want COVID to end and get back to school and baseball; I want my family and friends to be healthy; I want to see progress toward equality and environmental justice.
-Ethan, Age 14
I want a dog.
-Emily, Age 8
I’m looking forward to going
back to Disneyland
-Harper, Age 5
I hope Cornavirus will end.
-Lea, Age 8
I wish to have time with ALL my family.
-Lyra, Age 3
I wish for a zombie as a pet.
I would keep it in my
bearded dragon’s cage.
-Nyxon, Age 8
I want COVID and wildfires to end; I want to go to a baseball game; and end oil spills in the ocean.
-Ryker, Age 11
I hope for my family and people around me to heal and stay safe; I hope the pandemic ends; I hope we all continue growing from lessons learned in 2020; I want to see more initiative toward progress.
-Velina, Age 15
I hope that COVID-19 will end; I hope that school goes good; I hope my family will be able to do things outside of our house; I hope no one in my community will get COVID-19; for the country and the world, I hope nothing bad happens from COVID-19.
-Waylon, Age 11
I want wildfires to end so we have better air and having play dates with my friends.
-Vincent, Age 11
Zoom Youth Church: Pre-K – 3rd 10:30 – 11:00 * 4th – 6th 11:00 – 12:00 * Jr High and High School 12:00 – 1:00
Please contact Lisa or any of the Youth Program volunteers for Zoom details.
Lisa Ortiz
Lisa Ortiz has served with the SBCSL youth since 2014. She became Youth Director in 2017 and is loved by the entire Youth program. “Young people require authenticity,” she says, and this is my “passion in working with the youth”. She continues, “I am committed to youth church because without young people there is no church. A great teacher himself, Thich Nhat Han says “children are the flowers in the garden of humanity.” I delight in spending time with kids and I like who I am when I am in my role as director. I am showing a whole new generation how they might use our principles to navigate and create their own world. That is a very rewarding experience and one that every parishioner should be engaged in one way or another. Because without those flowers, our garden simply will not grow”. Lisa welcomes questions and communication with any and all parents. She has also established a required training program for all youth leader volunteers. If you are a parent, or desire to volunteer, and have questions, please feel free to send her a message.