It has been a very busy year for our students. The focus of the summer of 2009 was the National Youth Gathering in New Orleans, LA. Seventeen youth and four adults embarked on a spiritual journey to worship together with 35,000 young Lutherans from across the United States. The pinnacle of the trip was the giving back that the youth did at John James Audubon Elementary School in the Jefferson Parish School District. The youth spent the early part of the day reading and helping in classrooms with youth that were struggling with reading skills. The later part of the afternoon brought the unexpected and Zion youth were ready for the task at hand. They cleaned out classrooms, hauled in new chairs, assembled new desks, and set up classrooms. The custodian said that the task they completed in one afternoon would be equivalent to 3 months of work for him. All was done with a servant’s attitude.

Fall brought transition in the LYO group as Kristi and Dave Burgess volunteered as mentors for the youth. This is the first time in many years that the youth have not had a staffed youth director or counselor. The program continued moving forward and growing in faith.

Activities that took place in September were the Zion boulevard weed clean up, regular coffee service, and FFF. October brought “Trick or Can”, in which the youth went out in the community to collect non-perishable goods to be donated to Community Action, this was a very successful endeavor in which approximately 950lbs of food was gathered. November was busy with a New Orleans Stockholders appreciation banquet and a Tuesday night lock-in. The evening of the lock in was capped off with a scavenger hunt that took us to many unique    locations around Minot. In December the youth assisted with the kitchen duties for the     children’s Christmas party and after enjoyed a party of their own in the youth room.