What's Up in 2005

Winter 2005

The Illinois/Wisconsin District Youth Cabinet is a group of youth from all over the district who get together and plan activities for other senior high youth in the district. This year, we have decided to make it a priority to keep people more informed about our activities. We have many upcoming events that we would like you to know about.

There are many opportunities for you to participate in and meet youth from other parts of our district, as well as from across the United States and the world. The schedule for this year includes our spring retreat April 1-3. When we planned this retreat, we wanted to involve more of our fellow Brethren in Wisconsin, so it will take place at our congregation in Stanley, Wis. The cabinet has taken the distance into consideration and is planning transportation so that more people will be able to attend and not worry about traveling that far. We will have transportation meeting points in Elgin and Rockford. Watch for further details. (Dates are set for the fall retreat, too: It will be Nov. 4-6 in Springfield, Ill.)

Also going on in April is Regional Youth Conference (RYC), which will take place at our closest Brethren college, Manchester in Indiana. This is always a good time where you can not only see other people from our district, but also from surrounding states. RYC takes place April 16-17. Everyone who has attended RYC says that it is a great time and always looks forward to the next year to pick up where they left off.

Taking place this summer in our district are two excellent youth camps. These are at Camp Emmaus, located in Mount Morris, Ill., July 24-30 and Camp Emmanuel, located in Astoria, Ill., June 5-11. The cabinet as a whole would recommend that any and all youth attend either camp; we know that once you go, you will want to keep coming back.

Many more opportunities exist in other parts of the United States. The first is Christian Citizenship Seminar, April 23-28 this year, which allows Brethren youth from all parts of the US to go to New York City and Washington, D.C. It helps you learn what you can do to help make the world a better place. Annual Conference is close by this year, July 2-6 in Peoria, and will feature a variety of daily youth activities along with inspiring all-Conference worship services. Another big event will not take place until next year, but you need to start raising funds and preparing to attend National Youth Conference in Colorado in July 2006. Everyone who has attended came back changed, so prepare yourself for a life-altering event.

Finally, we're always looking for new cabinet members to help us, and we want people from all across the district to apply for 2005-06. If you think you'd enjoy helping to plan these and other events, you can download a form here (at www.cobyouth.org). You can also find more details on all these events here, and there's a link to contact us if you have more questions.

Thanks for your time! In Christ,

The Illinois/Wisconsin District Youth Cabinet