DIRECTOR'S MESSAGE

SThe Australian Catholic Youth Festival is coming our way and very quickly too. Though the festival runs from December 8-10, group bookings must be in by September 12.

This means we have a week to finalise who will be coming to ACYF with our 24:7 Youth Ministry groups. We need your help to finalise our group registrations. If your child is in Year 9 or above and is attending ACYF and you have not already filled out our information form could you please do so here - https://bit.ly/2lBWQH3 . EVEN if your child is intending on registering with their School or a Parish not aligned to 24:7 Youth Ministry we ask you to fill in the information form.

This Festival is really going to be a Not-To-Be-Missed event and we are encouraging as many young people to attend as possible. To be around thousands of other young people experiencing the richness of the Church will be something to behold and we know will bless each of our youth groups immensely. So come on everyone – let’s get on board and be part of this incredible opportunity to grow in what it means to Live for God, Full On, Full Time, All the Time.

SCHOOL MINISTRY

Retreats facilitated over the past week
Stewards of Creation Retreat – Holy Cross College & Mercy College

Invited to the Table, Eucharis Retreat – St Simon Peter Parish and Primary School

Confirmation Parent Child Workshop – St Luke’s Catholic Primary School & Parish

BALCATTA

LThanks for all who came last week! We hope the Father’s of the young people who attend our youth group had a great day. We had a great night playing the card game Spoons, with a twist as well as our extreme Nought’s and Crosses. Volunteer Leader, Felicity spoke beautifully about the Gift of the Holy Spirit, Courage by sharing about her Confirmation saint, St Perpetua and how courageous she was in times of hardship. Felicity then spoke about times that she has had to ask God for the gift of courage in her own life and encouraged us to stick up for what we believe in and face adversity in knowledge that God’s grace is with us. It was a great opportunity for all of us to see how we can develop this gift.   Next week, we are looking at reverence and how that is relatable to our lives. We have some big plans for the night so come on down! If you wish to attend ACYF with our youth group please contact Elysha or Stephen before the 9th of September.                 

BASSENDEAN

Last week at 24:7 Bassendean we had 39 young people come down to St Joseph’s Parish for our Capture the Flag Night! We started the night with some fellowship time before jumping into an intense set of Capture the Flag games. The Red team dominated throughout all of the games, but the Blue team took the championship by winning the final ‘winner takes all’ round! Next week we’ll be continuing our theme “Encounter” with a special guest coming to share about how they encounter Jesus in their lives.

FLOREAT

21 people joined us on Sunday for another trip around the world! Last week we launched into our games with fervour and enjoyed playing Esconde Esconde Manja, along with the better-known PVC Pipe, Handball and Soccer! One of the countries with the biggest population of Catholics, Brazil was the topic for our night with Youth Minister, Mark de Silva giving an exceptional talk on the amazing faith shown in Brazil, including the story of Brazil's patron saint, Frei António Galvão. Mark led us in a game of human knots, talking about how the Church in all countries is connected and we have to work together under the leadership of Christ through the leadership of the Pope to stay unified and help one another reach heaven. This was a great night especially for the soccer fans of the youth group!

Get excited because next week is the big Floreat Quiz Night!!! Just like last year, this event will welcome people of all ages so bring your family and friends!!! There will be a prize at the end of the night for the winning table and tickets will be sold for $5 at the door to raise funds for Australia Catholic Youth Festival. Look forward to seeing you all there!!!

GREENWOOD

Last Sunday we had a really fun night! To start, we played the Name Game, which was a great way to have fun and get to know each other’s names a bit better as well. This was followed by Freeze Frame, where we had to recreate famous scenes from movies, and it was really funny to see what everyone came up with! We then had Youth Minister, Anthony talk to us about the works of feeding the hungry and giving drink to the thirsty. Through his teaching we saw how it is more than just giving people food or drink, but we can also spiritually and mentally nourish people as well. By looking at examples in the bible and in discussion we saw how bringing people to Jesus, especially in the Eucharist, is the peak of spiritual nourishment and came up with ways that we could also contribute through giving our time and donating to charities who do these amazing works.This week, we’ve got another incredible night in store looking at the work of clothing the naked, with another lot of special guests coming in. So get excited for another fun night of food, fun and friends, can’t wait to see you there!

 MORLEY

For our first chill games night of the term held last Friday was outstanding to say the least with our highest attended night for the term being recorded! Our focus was all about building relationships with one another, with card games, boardgames, table tennis and handball as some of the main attractions to kick off the night. The room was buzzing! Even though there was a gale blowing outside, no-one took any notice. We then moved into a time of group games where we got to mix and mingle, and perhaps even learn some names that we weren’t too sure of. Our leaders led us in a crazy game of Boys vs Girls which only got more and more intense as Dan kept throwing some curve ball rules into each round. Steph and Mike then led us in Kitty Wants a Chair which seemed even more energetic than the previous game, leaving everyone puffed and needing a drink break. We were then able to compose ourselves and to think of what ‘the best thing we have ever done in our whole entire lives’ was...before we had to yell it out all at the same time to release any energy that we had left. Lastly, to finish the night off on a high, we were led in prayer and grace before sharing in an awesome meal together. Thank you to the Ho and Kolarikal families for providing us with such delicious food!  Come along this week as we Prepare for Battle! We need to be ready for any challenges that may come our way and face them head on. See you there!

NEDLANDS

Last week the theme at 24:7 Nedlands was Father’s Day! We kicked off the night with a game of Wall Tag before having a quick dinner and listening to a great talk about our dads and what makes a father’s love so special. Afterwards we had the opportunity to make our own Fathers’ Day cards and were blown away by the creativity at Neddies! While we were finishing up creating our cards, our parents started arriving and we joined them for a highly competitive match of the extreme sport known as Spoons! Thank you to all the parents who joined us this week. Don’t forget that this week we have our DEATH NIGHT, exploring what death means for us in the Catholic perspective – so come dressed in your best for the darkest of nights!!! 

OCEAN REEF

Last week we had our youth group car wash fundraiser and it was amazing to see a bunch of young people there helping to raise money for our youth group and ACYF. This week we will be continuing our theme of ‘Listen to what the Spirit is Saying’ so get keen for an amazing time of food, fun, and friendship!

OSBORNE PARK

Last Friday night was fantastic! The night started with a game of Islands, where we had to be standing on an island by the time the music stopped, keeping all of us on our toes. This was followed by a game of ‘the Name Game’ testing our minds and our friendships! Gez, a former youth minister of 24:7 Osborne Park and his beautiful wife, Nicole came in and spoke to us on the four loves as identified by C S Lewis. We learnt about the restrictiveness of our language when it come to the term love as originally there were four loves spoken of. The focus of the night was on Eros. The word that means romantic or passionate love. We heard from our speakers that our world is full of this love and it would have us believe that it is the only one that matters. However, it is our Christian faith that teaches us about the importance of having control of this love and how it must be balanced with the other forms of love. We ended the night with an activity watching ads and trying to identify the type of love displayed on the screen. It was an awesome night and we simply just can’t wait for the next one!

SERVITE

 Thanks to the 30 young people who joined us at 24:7 Serve! What a joy it was to have you all there, for a great afternoon. We had some extra relational time this week, and we all had a great time enjoying the 24:7 Serve favourites - basketball & board games. After that free time, we moved into some structured games, which were frantic fun.  The first one was Boys vs Girls. It’s a fast-paced game that requires quick feet and some frantic strategy. The guys were victorious this time, holding off the ladies to win 3-1. The next game, Minefield, was again a hit. We worked in pairs (one person blindfolded) with the other tasked to direct their partner through a maze of cones. This required careful listening and a great deal of patience, especially when the leaders started switching around the cones! We then moved into a talk from our student leader Hannah, who broke open the topic of patience. She explained that because being patient requires us to be empathetic and understand where others are coming from, it doesn’t always come naturally. She explained that by being patient with others, we are extending the same sort of love that God has for us, and parents have with their children. Join us next week for more games, an interesting talk from a special guest, and food! Can’t wait to see you there!

SOUTH

41 folks banded together to have a night of fun along with an encounter with the Sacrament of Reconciliation. After greeting some new faces, having our introductory prayer and scripture we then had a boys vs girls Human Knot competition! The girls had a bigger number to work with, but that didn’t stop them from winning the first round! Boys then worked hard and met their goal of winning the next rounds! We then burned some massive amounts of energy with rounds of dodgeball. Truly arm strength and throwing technique made the difference along with the brave and skilled in catching. After a quick break, everyone then processed into the chapel for a talk by our guest speaker, Fr Chris! Fr Chris spoke to us about Knowing God. He shared how God wants our time and he accepts all that we are and that we need to fight against distractions of the world and even our own mood sometimes to put God first. Prayer is a powerful method of communication through which God listens to our needs and loves to listen and speak into our lives. We then had a lovely time of Adoration, praise & worship and the Sacrament of Reconciliation was made available. An examination of conscience was handed out that really encouraged everyone to go to confession. We had such a line we had to ask Fr Vijay if he could help out! We are truly blessed by the service of our priests! This week we have a Catch-Up night in our Hoods and the Youth Mission Team joining us! It’s shaping up to be a bit of a fruity night, so bring some fruity friends as well as some fruity snacks and we’ll see you there!

SUBIACO

 Last week we had some great fun together as we launched into a series of games, beginning with Death Potato! This was followed by the energetic and adrenaline inducing, Commando, and the hilarious game of Honey, I Love You. After this round of laughter, we then explored the corporal work of mercy - visiting the sick, which was presented by Elysha. She covered what this work meant for us, how we could pray for those that are sick and encouraged us to even help take care of the families of those who were ill. It really helped to open our minds to how much we can actually do and raised our awareness to be more far reaching. We look forward to the next youth group to have fun with you all!