After many all-nighters, our website is now up and functioning. There are still some bugs, and if you come across any please let me know. The site consists of a Newsletter front page, Event Calendar in the right margin, and two links so far: one o the “Meet the Youth Ministers” page which is still under construction, and one to the “My(YM)Space” forums which are fully functional though always under revision. The Newsletter will showcase events or happenings that have been going on in Youth Ministry and sometimes point towards some future happenings that do not yet have their dates set (and therefore are not in the Event Calendar). The Event Calendar stores all the Youth Ministry dates in it. Mousing over a date or clicking on a date or the name of the month will show what is happening that day/month. The “Meet the Youth Ministers” link will (when finished) go to a page that shows pictures of our Youth Ministers and tells a little bit about them. The “My(YM)Space” link, as previously stated, navigates the user toward the Youth Ministry Forums. In order to access the forums, one must create a username and password and follow the onscreen instructions carefully. Once a registered user, I have posted in the forums a guide to requesting permissions to actually view and interact with the forums. Once given permissions, ;users have access to posting topics, responding to others’ topics, and an in-site messaging system (Private Messages or PMs for short). For the safety of our teens, I will only approve members if I know who they are so my suggestion is to let me know via email or a phone call what you plan to make your screen name so that when I see it, I’ll know who it is. (Just a suggestion to make registering faster.) I hope you enjoy the new website!

Six Flags Fright Fest

On October 27, 2007 our youth group went to Six Flags Fright Fest. Everyone had a great time even though it was crowded. We had to get up really early in order to catch the bus at St. Joseph’s. On the bus ride to the park, we talked to our friends, met new ones, and played with our phones. We got to the park just as it opened so that we had plenty of time to ride rides, hang out, and walk through the haunted houses. At first glance you could tell it was Halloween. Everything looked old, haunted, an in perfect disrepair. Cob webs hung from every sign. Some rides were even renamed: Deja Vu was renamed Devil’s Turn. When it got close to dark, monsters started running around scaring people who weren’t paying attention to them, and when it got dark they would scare you even more. It was kind of cold, but no one noticed too much, and the little cold was worth it. On the bus ride back, almost everyone slept. We got back to St. Joe’s at midnight & were picked up to go home,. It was a really fun trip and I hope to see everyone and more on our next trip!