Youth Group St. Stephen Representatives Beth DeRodes - 330-317-6850 St. Stephen's Youth Group Mission Statement The St. Stephen Youth Group holds that each child-as a child of God-each has gifts that need to be discovered, nurtured and shared. We strive to live and learn together as Catholics in a Christian community, within which the youth are encouraged to grow toward fulfillment as a total person. St. Stephen Youth Group strives to: * Help youth find a love for their own culture and accept the differences in others. * Develop an active awareness of cause and effect-what we do as individuals, a nation, or a world affects all people. * Help Youth Discover God's role in their lives. And of course to lead by example CALENDAR OF EVENTS 2008 Youth Calendar of Events Planting Seeds It helps now and then to step back and take the long view. Reign is not only beyond our efforts it is beyond our vision. We accomplish in our lifetime only a tiny fraction of the magnificent enterprise that is God’s work. Nothing we do is complete, which is another way of saying that God’s Reign always lies beyond us. No sermon says all that should be said. No prayer fully expresses our faith. No confession brings perfection. No pastoral visit brings wholeness. No program accomplishes the Church’s mission. No set of goals and objectives includes everything. What we are about is this. We plant seeds that will grow someday. We water seeds already planted knowing that they hold future promise. We lay foundations that will need further developments. We provide yeast that produces effect for beyond our capabilities…. We cannot do everything, and there is a sense of liberation in realizing that. This enables us to do something, and do it very well. It may be incomplete, but is a beginning, a step along the way, an opportunity for God’s grace to enter and do the rest. We may never see the end results, but that is the difference between the Master Builder and the worker. We are the workers, Not the Master Builders…ministers not Messiahs. We are prophets of a future that is not our own