What a year it has been in the BFCC Children and Youth Program!
On top of all of our fun doing Children’s Church and Youth Group, we hosted several activities for our children. We carved and painted pumpkins for Halloween and hosted a Haunted Church tour during Downtown Billings Trick or Treat. We enjoyed a bonfire where we roasted marshmallows and ate pizza. We had a Christmas pageant, as well as a trip to the Museum of the Rockies in Bozeman.
During the summer our youth stayed busy. We combined forces with Mayflower Congregational Church for a mission trip to Seattle where we helped build tiny homes, organized clothes for an LGBTQ drop-in center, learned about the Duwamish tribe, and of course had fun at the Space Needle and Pikes Market. Four of our youth also went to Camp Mimanagish and enjoyed their stay. Our last activity of the summer was Vacation Bible School. We had a great time teaching our younger kids how to be menders of God’s world with Operation: Restoration. I even had the privilege of elevating four of our older youth to the position of Student Minister to recognize their tremendous contributions to the VBS program.
Of course, we have lots of fun plans for the year to come! Starting on September 17th , 2023, we will have Children’s Church again. As we did previously, children and youth will start in Sunday service in the sanctuary at 10:30am where they will begin worship with us. Then, after Time for Young at Heart, we will exit to our Children’s Church space to begin our time with prayer and then transition to a lesson.
We will continue to have Youth Group on Sundays after church, and on the second and fourth Wednesdays of the month. Sunday Youth group will be for 6th-12th graders and Wednesday Youth Group will be for 1st-5th graders. As always, we will be providing meals for the youth who attend Youth Group. If you would like to sponsor a meal or cook one for the Youth Group yourself, please visit billingsfirstchurch.org/ministries/youth and click the “Provide Youth Group Meal” button.
I am looking forward to another great year with the BFCC Children and Youth Program!
Marcus Frye
Youth Pastor