Youth Ministry at our parish has a new team of leaders!  Six were elected from the Youth Core Team and six adults were invited from the parish family to act as mentors.  At our first meeting last week, Maui Pasefika was elected to chair this new Leadership Team and Adriana Rodriguez was chosen as secretary.  Congratulations to both of these young women!  Please keep them in your prayers.

Serving on the Youth Ministry Team are: Maui Pasefika, Adriana Rodriguez, Elizabeth Olozagaste, Valerie Torres, Tala Paulo, Margie Arguello, Byron Leonard, Diana Estrada, Katie Moorman, John Arguello, Susan McGuirk, and Betty Domingo.  Pat Sheehan will act as facilitator to the Team and Fr. Adrian will be the liaison with the Pastoral Staff.

This is a new departure for Youth Ministry at our parish and the team approach is one that is being adopted more and more around the diocese of San Diego.  Young people will be empowered to run their own youth ministry program at San Luis Rey with mentoring and support from adults.  The key word is empowerment and the team’s job will be to keep the program on track and provide leadership for those who wish to join our Youth Core Team and our youth program at the parish.

Engaging our young people and building their faith is a priority in our parish.  Excellent work is already done in Youth RCIA and Religious Education, with Altar Servers, at the Parish School, and the Youth Ministry Core Team which meets on Thursday evenings.  We hope to build on all the good work of the past and to move forward with an exciting program of events for our youth in 2011. We count on your encouragement and support and we thank you for your prayers and good wishes as we launch this new venture with our young people.

Wishing you a blessed and happy New Year

The Youth Ministry Leadership Team.