Our Lady of Mount Virgin, Garfield, New Jersey

The Upper Room will be participating in the annual Youth Conference "Steubenville East 2010" This year theme is "THE WORD BECAME FLESH" taken from John 1:14. This conference offers Powerful liturgies, dynamic talks, and engaging worship: Life Teen Steubenville Conferences offer the ultimate Catholic experience for teens to encounter Christ in His Sacraments and in His Church!

THE UPPER ROOM NEEDS MORE ADULT VOLUNTEERS
As we read in scriptures "the harvest is plenty but the laborers are few" (Matthew 9:37), our Youth Ministry is in need of committed Adults who love their faith and the Church and would like to share it with the teens of our parish. If you would like to be an instrument of God in this so much needed ministry please contact us at 973-772-2295 or write Fr. Bismarck at frbismarck@gmail.com for more information. A training for Youth Workers will be held on 9/12 at the St. Joseph's Center starting with the Holy Mass the training will end at 4:30pm. This training is required to be part of this Ministry.

On April 24th, The Upper Room Youth Ministry Program of our parish celebrated its first year anniversary. Looking back to when we first kicked-off with the Beach Blast Life Night until now, I can say along with the entire Core Team, it has been blessing after blessing at each youth group meeting. Whenever we thought “oh, they are not going to come tonight” the Lord would send more teens than we thought. In the course of the year, we have ministered to over 100 teens, including those who came once and never returned, but we are still going strong with our 18 faithful teens, who come every single Sunday night.

God has blessed me with a great and strong Core Team; we started with 10 adults as Core members. These adults plan and run each Life Night, which is packed with lots or creativity, fun and church teaching to bring God’s message to our teens. They are also present in the lives of the teens, as they open their lives to us. Currently, our Core Team is down to 5 members. Due to different personal reasons, some of the original members could not commit to the program, but still are strong supporters of our ministry in prayers.

This past March 5th, 6th and 7th, we held our 1st Youth Retreat at Bethany House in Munsee, Branchville, NJ. You can see our pictures by clicking here. We are attending a Youth Conference in July in Rhode Island and will be visiting “My Home Day Care Adult Center,” a Senior Citizen center, to bring a little joy to the seniors there. Many other activities will be planned during the summer for our Teens to be involved. Our last Youth Meeting for this school year was June 13th and we had an End of the Year BBQ. Everyone involved had a wonderful time.

Youth Ministry is the church's service to Young people in order to help them answer Jesus' call in their lives and to draw them to a full participation in the life, mission, and work of the church.

Purpose

The United States Catholic Bishops have drawn goals for every Youth Ministry Program to be used as pillars to create successful Youth Groups. The goals for Youth Ministry are:

To empower young people to live as disciples of Jesus Christ in our world today.
To draw young people to responsible participation in the life, mission and work of the Catholic faith family.
To foster the total personal and spiritual growth of each young person.

We have Joined forces! We, Our Lady of Mt. Virgin have joined forces with Most Sacred Heart in Wallington to bring about these goals. We have a total of twelve committed adults who have gone through a period of training to implement the LIFE TEEN Program in our parish.

LIFE TEEN is a comprehensive program that reaches teens in all areas of their lives: Emotional, Intellectual, Spiritual, and Relational.

What is Youth Ministry?

YOUTH MINISTRY IS...

The Upper Room Youth Ministry Program will help teens to develop an individual relationship with God. It will give them the best spiritual tools to become better Practicing Catholics and witnesses of the Faith.	Teens need to hear the truth! Strictly in line with the theology of the Roman Catholic Church, the Upper Room Youth Ministry Program will teach through creative Bible studies, discussions and personal experience.
The atmosphere will be open and loving! The Upper Room Youth Ministry Program will provide an atmosphere where teens can express their feelings (everything from loneliness, pain, anger, and sorrow to joy) and experience the unconditional love of Christ.	Building community is another important part of this teen ministry. The Upper Room Youth Ministry Program will help teens become part of a community where everyone is invited to experience the fullness of LIFE through fun and exciting activities.

Events / Activities

Life Teen Core Members

Fr. Bismarck Chau	Angela D'Angelo	Lorena Abarca	Michelle Vernuccio
Paula Rivera	Vinnie Letona, Jr.	Sonia Ponce Ehler	Susan Perrelli

Volunteer Coordinators

Maria Moreno
Prayer Partners Coordinator

Nancy Maddalena
Fund Raiser Coordinator

Cool Links