South District Fun Trip is January 2-4! This is a red-eye trip to Disneyland. The charter bus(es) leaves Catalina at 11pm on Thursday night. Youth spend all day Friday in the park. We leave and ride home all night Friday night and arrive in Tucson on Saturday morning. The cost of Disneyland ticket and bus transportation is $95. If you are interested in going (and the whole family is welcome - students younger than youth group age must be accompanied by a parent), please let Richard know by this Sunday, Dec. 1. The deadline for turning in the money is December 15.

Shop Til U Drop activity is planned for December 14. This is another traditional event. We will serve at Casa Maria on Saturday morning. Meet at the church at 8am. We will return to the church around 11:30 and then leave for the Park Mall at 12 noon. Bring money for lunch at the mall. We will walk around the mall (and some youth will shop for friends, family) until 4pm. We will then return to the church for a movie and snacks. Everyone should be ready to go home at 6:30. The day is divided into 3 segments: Casa Maria (8-11:30), the mall (12-4), and the church (4:30-6:30). Students may join us at the beginning of any of these segments, and they may leave us (with parental permission/pick up) after any of the segments. Some students may just do Casa Maria and go home. Some will come to the mall and then get picked up. Some may just show up at the church for the movie. I think you get my point. We do need 10-12 students to work at Casa Maria. What better Christmas gift could you give Jesus? He said when you help the needy, you are serving HIM!!

Christmas Caroling is scheduled for December 22! As we did last year, we plan to carol and visit senior adult members of Catalina. This is an activity that the whole family is invited to, and we will need drivers. We plan to leave the church at 6pm (after dinner) and return by 8pm.

Regular Sunday night youth group is scheduled for Sunday nights December 8 and 15. Youth group will not meet on Dec. 29.

A NOTE ABOUT THE FIRE
     On Monday, November 18, at approximately 9:30pm, a fire was reported in the youth room. The fire did totally destroy the room and its contents, but the fire was limited to the youth room. Due to building and safety issues, the Catalina Day School has been partially displaced. The room and its contents were insured and we are most thankful that no one was hurt by the fire. I was in the youth room Monday afternoon around 4:30, and I did not notice anything wrong at that time. Fire investigators seem to think the fire was electrical in nature. The roof will have to be taken off the building, and extensive construction will have to be done. This will probably take several months, but we have been without the youth room anyway due to the air conditioning installation and subsequent construction. So, I suppose we are used to not having the youth room.
     Several churches and south district United Methodist youth groups have called and offered support, encouragement, and contributions. St Paul's youth group sent our kids a large poster and milk and cookies. St Mark's youth group sent over a box of board games, some brand new.
     Obviously, some things of sentimental value were lost: several photo albums, and the cross, among them. And this loss is tempered by the fact that some of our new kids have not known much about the youth room, and our regulars have been out of it for such a long time. We were able to use the room on Sunday night, the 17th. (We had a work day and cleaned it up and set it up on Veteran's Day.) There was a great feeling, being in the room again. And it pleasantly surprised me how easy it was to run a program with our own equipment that was set up our way to facilitate what we do. Outside of the Bride's Room, the youth room may have been the nicest room on campus. The trustees recently remodeled the room, and it was all you could ask for in a youth room. It was the envy of youth groups who visited. So, this is a great loss to us, but we survived without the youth room before, and we will again, until it is rebuilt. I think losing the youth room could have a greater impact on our Sunday morning class than on Sunday night youth group. Although we have been meeting in H-232 for Sunday morning for quite awhile, if the class had been able to move back to the youth room, I think it would have been a big boost for the class. So, we will use H-232 for Sunday morning and Fellowship Hall for Sunday evenings at present.

Richard Jones