Summer vacation is winding down for the youth and post-high school students of our congregations, but your trusted bi-weekly newsletter with updates and features on youth and young adult ministries in the Virginia Synod continues on! VOLUME TWO ISSUE THREE will arrive on August 30th. ATTENTION CONGREGATIONAL LEADERS WHO ALREADY RECEIVE THIS NEWSLETTER! We have heard recently of adult leaders in some congregations who have still never heard of this resource. Please pass on the subscription information to anyone who might benefit from it! You can do that by clicking the box at the bottom of the newsletter OR forward this link to anyone you would like to invite: https://lp.constantcontactpages.com/su/wGc4kPK/FivePetalFriday. If you need to UN-subscribe, please send a request to our circulation department at delaney@vasynod.org.

The conclusion of the 2024 Olympics is only five days past, but we are already wistful for each and every one of the 39 different sports. Our readers responded that if they could sneak in a 40th for Los Angeles, their first choice would be Air Guitar Shredding (53%), followed by Napping (42%), and with only 5%, Instagram Posting. Napping's high schore is a bit of a surprise, except when you consider that nothing really beats a good nap.

Remaining in denial about the end of summer is pointless! Everyone agrees that an honest look back over the last ten weeks is part of a good mental health regimen. With that in mind ...

THIS WEEK'S RANDOM DEBATE:

LOST AND FOUND 2024 REGISTRATION OPEN!

Who is the best person in your Virginia Synod congregation to receive information about synod youth events and other youth ministry updates? The code to the left replaces the one that was sent out in our end-of-July mailing (see above). It leads to a simple survey that allows you to enter the name and contact information for your congregational youth leader. (If you have more than one, you can do the survey more than once!) If you would like go directly to the site via link, click here.

THE ELC-PNG??

What's that??

Many synods in our ELCA have what we call a "Global Companion Synod," a Lutheran church body in some other part of the world with whom they maintain friendship for mutual payer and support. For the Virginia Synod, that church body is the Islands District of the Evangelical Lutheran Church of Papua-New Guinea. If that name sounds familiar, it may be because we have over the decades developed a truly enriching relationship with our siblings there, including the youth of their Synod! Our "Dollars for Scholars" offerings that we often receive at youth events have helped support education for children of pastors, and the sturdiness of their faith in such a diverse society has continually inspired us. Why is 5PF mentioning them now? Because right now we have a delegation of pastors from the Virginia Synod visiting congregations and leaders in the Islands District! If you think your trip to New Orleans for the Gathering was long, consider that it's a 19-hour plane flight just to get to Australia, then additional travel to get to the main island of Papua New Guinea, then travel by boat or plane to get to most of the Islands District's congregations. We have been asked to keep them all in our prayers, and if you would like to follow their progress, visit the Virginia Synod webpage for updates!

It's the season for students to start back to school! Many congregations have started inviting their youth to bring their backpacks to worship on the Sunday before school starts to offer a blessing for the school year. Even if they've already started school, it's not too late! Here is a very nice order of worship from our siblings in the United Methodist Church:

Leader:

Today, we have before us backpacks to be carried to and from school by the children and youth gathered here.

These backpacks will contain work to be done, work that's been returned, books to be studied, tools to complete homework. Notebooks, pencils, pens, protractors, compasses, crayons, rules, scissors, glue sticks and other items used for school work will find their way in and out of these backpacks.

Some days, so much stuff will fill these backpacks that the student may find it difficult to walk. Other days, they will be light and nearly empty. But on each and every day, these backpacks represent work required of the students gathered here. And, as in every aspect of our life, we bring these before God for blessing at this time.

Let us pray together:

Gracious God, we lift to you today, these students.

They stand here ready to receive your blessings and they commit themselves to study and learning in the school year ahead. We ask your blessing on each of them.

Further, we ask your blessing on these backpacks. They will hold the school work of each student and will be carried from home to school and back again. As these students carry these backpacks, may they be reminded of the love and care of this congregation that surrounds them each school day.

We pray as well for the teachers and administrators in our schools. May they also be sustained by your blessing. May they be reminded that this congregation embraces their call to teaching and learning and surrounds them with love and care as well.

We pray in the name of Jesus who we seek to follow day by day. .

All: Amen.

To provide feedback ... ask questions ... obtain more info on any of this ... contact Dave Delaney, Virginia Synod Director for Youth and Young Adult Ministries: delaney@vasynod.org