PCMK Youth Group

06/07/2020

Tomorow is Youth Sunday! Tune in to our youtube channel at 10:00am for a very special PCMK Virtual Church service led by our youth with reflections from some graduating seniors.

05/24/2020

Online Youth Group today at 11am!

Find the link in this week's email, or you can message me.

10/28/2019

We Escaped from Alcatraz!

07/05/2019

07/05/2019

Photos from our 2019 Mission Trip to Baltimore, Maryland.

07/05/2019

Today, as you are all aware of, was the 4th of July. Knowing that we were going to be visiting the National Aquarium, we woke up early and were out the door to catch the bus by 8:30 AM. When we arrived at the Aquarium it already felt smoldering hot, and we went inside before allowed to tour the exhibits. While there, we saw tons of fish, sharks, an injured sea turtle, a sloth, and best of all, a dolphin training show. The dolphins were truly incredible and were the perfect way to wrap up our experience at the Aquarium. After our visit, our group split into 3 so we could spend our afternoon doing what we pleased. The other groups, the food and Fort McHenry groups had tons of fun, but my group, the shopping group started the afternoon off with Shake Shack(which sounds better than anything else). After a couple hours of looking around the Harbor of Baltimore, our entire group came back to the Center to take a break. We then went back out the harbor to watch the fireworks, which after seeing I can definitely say are the best fireworks I’ve ever seen(especially when I have ice cream in my hand to add on)! Overall, it was the best way to end our trip and truly showed me and our group the beauty of Baltimore.

Charlotte Marvin

Will woke me up this morning and said I had 20 minutes to eat. I decided to skip breakfast and sleep for 10 minutes then hang out in the living room. Today was our day off so we started it off by going to the aquarium. Afterwards we had a choice of what activity to do. I went on a food tour with Henry, Marcus, Sean, Tess and Paige. We started it off by going to a middle eastern type place which had good chicken and naan, then we went to this place that was clearly having an identity crisis because Will described it as a mix of an Italian and a Japanese restaurant and we ate tofu that was covered in barbecue sauce and rice that had meatballs on top of it. Then we went to a Mexican place that had sauce that was mildly spicy and Henry freaked out about it for the entire time because he has a low tolerance for spicy food. Next we went to a gelato place that had better than average gelato and for dinner we went to a pizza place that I am too lazy to talk about. We also saw 4th of July fireworks at the Inner Harbor.
Thanks for reading, Joseph Blair.

From Elisabeth Southorn - Another mission trip. I think it's #14 - Some thoughtful and amazing youth. Focus on food, justice, things that divide us, gardens, listening to others - a look at the world outside of our boundaries - physical, economic, racial, emotional, spiritual and all with some disturbing historical roots. Hopefully we will remember. Mission trips should be hard - and fun. Both happened. I keep going because I believe that our youth face an uncertain future and even tiny bits of light revealing the potential for a more just world and their part in it can make a difference. Encourage them to remember this week. I will hold them in my heart. es

I am proud to be Presbyterian. The stated clerk of our denomination, J. Herbert Nelson, has called for an investment in the cities in which we will hold our bi-annual General Assembly, which will be in Baltimore in 2020. Rather than just come into town for a week and then leave, his vision was that we would really learn about the city and try to make a difference in the two years leading up to the conference. The emphasis is called Hands and Feet. We were the hands and feet of Jesus this week as we pulled weeds, collected food and sorted clothes for the homeless. We learned a lot and hopefully made a small impact even as we were impacted by this experience. All this took place from "the Center" at the first and Franklin Presbyterian Church in downtown Baltimore. It has the tallest steeple in town, but more importantly, it stands tall as a beacon of hope in a city with much beauty and lots of challenges. I look forward to coming back next summer for General Assembly.
Most of all, I'm proud of our kids.
Pastor Dale

07/04/2019

Hi everyone! Today was our last day working at Amazing Grace. On the our first day all of use were so caught up in all the drugs we were finding. It took us until today to see the true beauty in of the church and appreciate all of the things we were doing. Behind the church there is a beautiful green space with multiple gardens. We realized how sacred and special a place like this was in a city like Baltimore. I think all of us learned to appreciate the beauty in the mundane.
Lily Blair

07/03/2019

Today, Jose(ph), Henry, Marcus, RJ, Gabby, Charlotte, Luke, Noah, and I went with Dale and Elisabeth and some members of the other church to a Presbyterian farm near Annapolis. On the van ride there, we blasted the AC and played games while Luke was having some minor heat stroke. When we got there, we met Alex and his father, both of whom work at the farm. Our task was to dig up weeds in between rows of crops, so that the plants could adequately grow. We used shovels, rakes, and hoes to break up the soil and pull out the weeds. It was incredibly hot, but the work was very gratifying and we ended up having a lot of fun. We shared some interesting stories and mingled with people from the other church. We even got to see some sheep. Although Luke spent most of his time under the tent, he emerged to go on the swingset. He was met with a wasp sting which prompted him to quickly go back to the tent. After working hard for hours in the boiling heat, we were rewarded with italian ices from Elisabeth, Henry, and Luke. The ices had no spoons, which led to some creative solutions, including Jose using a woodchip as a spoon. After saying goodbye to Alex, his father, and the sheep, we got on the road and stopped at a Wawa on the way home, where Jose and I bought 6 donuts for $3. What a steal. Lily, Jose, Paige, Sean, and I went with Will to a supermarket to challenge ourselves to buy a meal with the amount of money people on food stamps get. We did a great job, although Paige wasted our money on tomatoes that no one else wanted. Altogether a successful day (except for Paige's tomatoes).
-Tess Fuqua

Today I was one of the six who went to the Babcock Food Pantry. We started by going through neighborhoods and picking up the donation bags left a day earlier by another group. While not all of the bags we picked up were filled, by the end we had multiple vans overflowing with food and clothes. Then, we had lunch and felt very grateful that the rest of our work was to be done in air conditioning. There were three rooms, one to pack bags, one to organize the donations, and one to make sandwiches. I chose to pack bags with Lily and two kids from the other group. We made over 200 bags and then filled three shelves and a closet. Sean also helped me shelve all the cans of vegetables. Then we drove home in the van for a break. Shortly after, we were each given one dollar and forty cents to buy a meal to give us a taste of what it is like to shop using food stamps. Me, Tess, Lily, Joseph, and Sean went to the grocery store and bought ramen and ingredients for a few quesadillas. Joseph and I bought a beautiful onion. To our dismay, Tess wasted money on gross orange soda.

-Paige Dalrymple-

Tonight, my fellow mission trip members and I took part in a series of prayer stations. These were stations that had some simple tasks and follow-up questions. Three of the five stations revolved around a map of the city of Baltimore. After marking the locations that I worked and will be working at, I placed some transparent maps on top of the original one. These included maps of poverty, crime, and food availability levels.

Chief among these maps was a map from the 1930s. Around this time, the Home Ownership Loans Corporation, or HOLC, gave larger loans to neighborhoods in Baltimore that were "safer and less risky." These decisions mostly depended on race; African-American neighborhoods were deemed hazardous and outlined in red. This practice of redlining is one of the reasons for the racial divides in Baltimore. It's not a surprise that the redlined areas match the areas of highest crime and poverty. And also within those areas is the Center and Amazing Grace Lutheran church, locations where I am staying and working respectively.

A repeated phrase I have heard in the services at the Center is the concept of boundaries. It was easy to hear about the racial and economic boundaries of Baltimore, a result from the redlining of the 1930s, but to see it on a map made those boundaries clear. This trip has been a lot of fun and I am happy to be going back to Amazing Grace to do my part in helping to overcome these boundaries.

-Noah Lim