Final Payments for Level 1 and 2 Mission Trips
Now Due

Final payments are now due for our level 1 and 2 mission trips. If you remember at the parent meeting we had in January, we mentioned that every student receives a church-sponsored scholarship to help defray the cost of the mission trip. For instance the Savannah mission trip is $360 and each student receives a $50 scholarship making the price $310. If money is not an issue for your family, however, and you are willing to pay the full price of the mission trip, we can use that scholarship money to help other families and to offset some of our other increased costs. This summer we are getting hit doubly hard with our pricing due to the weakened dollar overseas and the increase in the price of gas state-side in the last few months since we organized our trips. For instance, when I budgeted for gas in January the price per gallon of gas was $2.75 and I budgeted $3. As you know the current price has been fluctuating between $3.25 and up to $4 in some of our locations. All of the foreign missions agencies we work with have had to raise the cost of our trip to account for the lower value of the dollar. With these added pressures, staying under budget for our trips is going to be difficult. With that said, the final payment due for Savannah is $110 (or $160 without scholarship). The final payment for Cincinnati is $150 (or $190 without scholarship). The final payment for Tijuana, which is due at our next meeting on May 18th is $250 (or $435 without scholarship). The final payment for Philadelphia, which is also due at our May 18th meeting is $250 (or $350 without scholarship). 

Freshmen Overnighter
May 9-10

This Friday & Saturday is our Freshmen Overnighter. If your 8th grade student has signed up with their $30, please have them at the church by 6:00pm Friday. We’ll have dinner together and begin talking about high school, what they should expect, the differences between middle school and high school, what they want to see happen over the next 4 years, etc. Hopefully we’ll be able to get them thinking about what kind of a high school experience they want to have. We’ll conclude our time Saturday at 6:00pm back at the church. Students need to bring a sleeping bag, pillow, change of clothes, and toiletries. All of their food will be provided. We’ll sleep the boys and the girls separately either at the church or at a staff member’s home depending on how many students we have sign up. If you need specific details about where we’ll be and when, please let me know. We try to keep some of the activities we’ll be doing a surprise.

ALTÆR Wilderness Trip “pre-briefing”
May 29

If your student is signed up for the ALTÆR Wilderness Trip please have them reserve Thursday, May 29th before ALTÆR from 5:00-6:00pm for a special “pre-briefing” of the trip as we go over packing lists and other pertinent information for this amazing adventure.