An auction after Sunday dinner will offer tempting items and help send teenagers to camps where they fortify bodies and souls.
By JEAN JOHNSON
Published May 1, 2004
WEEKI WACHEE - Participants in the youth ministries at Christian Church in the Wildwood are looking forward to this summer's pilgrimage to Tennessee and Kentucky.
They are anticipating the camaraderie, sports, Bible classes, worship and fellowship with other Christ in Youth participants from throughout the United States as they examine their faith and explore career goals.
To offset expenses, the church will have a youth auction Sunday. Items will include hotel passes for weekend stays and getaway packages, pool cleaning for six months, and gift certificates for massage therapy, go-carts, grocery shopping, house cleaning and babysitting.
Among those who are looking forward to the trip is Christa McGrew, a member of Christian Church in the Wildwood since she was 2 days old.
"For a long time I came only because my parents did," McGrew said, "but I started coming for myself when I was 12 and we began talking about dating. I have grown a lot in the last few years and I have changed my relationship with God."
The 17-year-old homeschooled senior enjoys the elective classes and the free time to hang out with other teens.
McGrew said that although almost all her friends are Christian, she gets along with people who are not and "likes to see where people are coming from." Her long-term goal is to obtain a degree in biochemistry, join the Peace Corps and eventually "go to Africa and set up a field clinic there."
This will be McGrew's fourth pilgrimage to Milligan College, a private Christian college in northeast Tennessee.
McGrew and her best friend, Elizabeth Campbell, 16, migrated to each other when learning of their commonality as lifelong members of CCW: Campbell became a member of the church when she was 1 day old.
Campbell is a junior at Central High School. Although she has friends at school, "the environment at school is so different from the environment at church," where she hangs out with the majority of her friends.
The teens' parents also are good friends and have always involved their daughters in church activities.
Neither girl has a boyfriend and neither feels odd without one. They go out together in groups, particularly after the Wednesday night youth sessions.
"New people always comment on how friendly everyone is," acting youth minister Jeff Jacobs said. A church member for nine years, Jacobs began working with the junior and senior high school groups about five years ago.
"Wednesday night is a time when the entire church is together for singing, and (we) have a meal together," Jacobs said. "Afterward the adults break into small group studies and the youth get their youth group time." The teens are encouraged to bring friends.
Activities include group study or outreach, a bonfire or cleaning up church grounds, planting of foliage and small group Bible studies. There are about 30 teens in junior high and 20 high school seniors. The seniors group will grow by 12 in the next school year.
The youth conferences will be held June 21-25; juniors will travel to Grayson, Ky., and seniors to Tennessee. About 1,000 teens participate each year.
Before breakfast and dinner, there will be singing led by a band, followed by a speaker who will talk about that week's theme. The kids can enjoy swimming, tennis, soccer, gym, softball and hiking, Jacobs said. Eight chaperones (usually couples), including Jacobs and his wife, Kara, will join the group.
A special-education teacher at Suncoast Elementary School, Jacobs has been the "interim youth minister" part time for almost a year. This summer, he will leave Suncoast and become the youth minister full time.
Jason Santiago, 18, is a Central High school senior and has attended CCW for about 18 months. Before that he hadn't attended a church since eighth grade.
Santiago learned about Christian Church in the Wildwood from a "girl at school I had a crush on. After attending the church, I started paying more attention to the church than to her," he said, laughing. "When I began to listen, there was something other than just going out and partying every weekend. I can actually have a purpose in this life."
Although he has friends at school, he doesn't "hang out with them much because we live in two different worlds."
Santiago has convinced his mother to return to church, and she has been attending for about two months. His father died three weeks ago. "This church is definitely a blessing," he said, recalling how pastor David Pardue rushed to the hospital when Santiago called him at 4 a.m.
Santiago is hoping to enjoy this year's youth conference as much as he did last year's.
IF YOU GO
WHAT: Free barbecue dinner and CCW Youth Auction
WHEN: Sunday. Dinner at 5, auction at 6.
WHERE: Christian Church in the Wildwood, 10051 Country Road, Weeki Wachee (just north of State Road 50, off U.S. 19)
