Youth Activities

The Youth Fellowship meets Sunday evenings at 6 PM at the home of Eric and Dee Ann Harmon.

The youth group hosts a Valentine Dinner for our church family, and they participate in the Youth Christmas and Easter programs.

The youth group made a mission trip to serve at the Backstreet Mission homeless shelter in Bloomington and the Feed the People outreach.

Care Packages

Each fall the Jr/Sr High class prepares care packages for college students, which include homemade cookies.

There are a lot of pictures — click the buttons or any of the pictures below to see all of them.

Love and Zombies

What if you lived in a world where what was happening in your heart began to show in your appearance? What if this change reached a tipping point, causing you to look something like a zombie?

In Love and Zombies, the zombie "infection" somehow spreads from one young person to another, making hard-hearted behavior more and more widespread. In this dystopian world, normal kids (called "pink cheeks" by the zombie kids) live in a state of tension with their afflicted neighbors. Can the normal kids find a way to reverse the zombie affliction?

Love and Zombies premieres on August 7, 2016 at Paoli United Methodist Church Fellowship Hall.

The following quotes from the Bible speak to the theme of the movie:

John 13:34-35 — "A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another."

Luke 6:35 — "But love your enemies, and do good, and lend, expecting nothing in return; and your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High; for He Himself is kind to ungrateful and evil men."

Ephesians 4:30 — "Be kind to one another, tender-hearted, forgiving each other, just as God in Christ also has forgiven you."

Director's note:

In the movie, responding with anger or violence to dysfunctional behavior serves only to spread the bad behavior "zombie virus". One means of addressing the problem is to find ways to express genuine love for the afflicted characters. Understanding the concept of Four Loves (Affection, Friendship, Eros and Agapé) helps to provide a system for finding the right way to approach an individual in need of love. For example, Ned, the outcast kid, recognizes that he and Zippy, the zombie girl, share a passion for something else (watch to find out what). Finding this common ground allows Ned to extend the hand of friendship to someone who is otherwise not that lovable. Experiencing this love from another has a transformative effect that dials down the dysfunctional "zombie" behavior.

Another part of the solution is recognizing our own dysfunctional behavior provokes others to behave badly. By turning the light of inspection on ourselves, discovering our own defects, we can take steps to heal our own defects. Since the bad behavior of others is often a response to our own bad behavior, healing ourselves also heals others.

These have been the main themes of our Youth Group discussions for the past year. We are glad to be able to illustrate them with a new movie, titled Love and Zombies.

Eric Harmon

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Cast Character Role
Bela Brewster Nature A normal girl
Connor Henderson Norman Nature's normal brother
Madison Street Zoie A zombie girl
Garret Vincent Zebby A zombie boy
Maggie Vincent Zippy Zebby's zombie sister
Kyle Marshall Ned An outcast student
Clara Henderson Nancy A smart historian
Will Stroud Neal A normal songwriter
Madison Shinkle Extreme Zombie and Coffee shop extra
Haley Owen Girl #2 Coffee shop extra
Catherine Henderson Crazy Barista An oracle
Eric Harmon Janitor A sage
Crew:
Lexi Reuter Make-up artist
Dee Ann Harmon Food service coordinator

Love and Zombies production pictures

Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016
Production of the 'Love and Zombies' movie, 2016

Valentine Dinner

The youth group hosts a Valentine Dinner for our church family.

Valentine Dinner at Paoli United Methodist Church.
Valentine Dinner at Paoli United Methodist Church.
Valentine Dinner at Paoli United Methodist Church.
Valentine Dinner at Paoli United Methodist Church.
Valentine Dinner at Paoli United Methodist Church.
Valentine Dinner at Paoli United Methodist Church.

Trip to Orange Beach, Alabama

Paoli United Methodist youth group trip to Orange Beach, Alabama.

The youth group's trip to Orange Beach, Alabama.

United Methodist youth group at Orange Beach, Alabama.

The Community Youth program began in February, 2013:

What a great time we had at our first Community Youth program on February 23, 2013. New Hope Christian Church, Paoli Mennonite Church and Paoli United Methodist had 24 youth in attendance and 8 adult leaders.

Representatives from each church met to talk about meeting once a month so that we had opportunity for our churches and youth to meet together. It is a great opportunity to work together, but it also gives each church youth group to make friends and have a larger group of youth with which to fellowship.

Our first meeting included music led by our own Holly and Billy Vincent and a devotion presented by Scott McGowan, pastor at New Hope Christian Church. He talked about what faith is and how God worked to build Jeremiah's faith, through his struggles. We can learn from Jeremiah that even when things get really hard in our lives, that God is still for us and will help us be strong.

The group was then divided up into five groups which included kids and youth from each church and led by members of our youth so that the groups know how to get around the church. Each group was given a first clue which sent them to their next clue. The laughter was infectious in both the adults, children and youth. And Caitlin's group finished first... what a whoop went up as they made their way home to Fellowship Hall and realized they were back first. The pastime of all youth, eating pizza, ended our meeting. What fun...and we're looking forward to meeting again on March 17.

We'll meet back here at PUMC for worship, fellowship and an egg hunt. Why not come out, meet our kids, our youth and see our future!!!! of Paoli United Methodist Church and our community.

Click here or on any of these pictures to see some pictures from recent youth activities.

Click here or on the picture to see pictures from the Valentine's Day three-course dinner the youth prepared and served. Following the dinner, Daniel Nichols entertained everyone with several songs. The evening concluded with the announcement of the winners of the silent auction, which included many Valentine-themed items donated by church members.

The Christmas Program and the practices dominate the fall youth schedule. The children's program welcomes all children in Kindergarten up to 6th grade. Our purpose is not to discourage any kids from joining us. So if you have a preschool aged child (3,4,or 5 years of age), we ask that a parent accompany them at our events. As always, we encourage the kids to invite a friend!

Below, the children's and youth groups perform in a Christmas program.

Children and youth groups in the Christmas program at the Paoli United Methodist Church.
Children and youth groups in the Christmas program at the Paoli United Methodist Church.