The Youth of Christ Church
The Episcopal Youth Community (EYC) of Christ Church is designed for students in grades 5-12.
EYC is a place where students can grow in their relationship with God through Christ. We have
fun, play games, events and break bread together.

Christian Education
Sunday school begins at 10:00 a.m. with breakfast served for everyone in the Youth Room on the
4 th floor. Then at 10:15 a.m. 5 th & 6 th graders move downstairs to the EYC Fish Room in the Bell
Building, while grades 7-12 break into Jr. high and High School classes on the 4 th floor.

Christ Church currently uses Grapple curriculum for 5&6 graders. Grapple is specifically designed
to get preteens grappling with tough, faithbased questions in meaningful ways so that they
understand and take ownership of their faith. Grapple gets kids into the Bible in a meaningful,
memorable, and effective way.

The 7 th & 8 th graders at Christ Church are currently working through a Lectionary Based curriculum that follows the Episcopal church Lectionary calendar. Through this study, students get the chance to search through the scriptures they hear each Sunday in a way that is more onthelevel with their everyday lives. The lessons are brought to life through application activities, dramas, and other handson teaching tools.

Students in grades 9-12 are working through an inhouse study on the subject of faith, specifically concentrating on being people of faith, and living that faith in their everyday lives. Study times are designed for discussion and interaction, in order to encourage students not to stop at only knowing what to believe, but to press on and live those beliefs out loud.

Face2Face/Catalyst
EYC Fish and Jr. and Sr. EYC (grades 5 through 12) meet every Wednesday evening in the Youth
Room on the 4 th floor for our midweek programming known as Face2Face for grades 5-8, and
Catalyst for grades 9-12. All groups meet at 6:00 p.m. and enjoy dinner and fellowship as a group,
then break up into smaller, agebased groups for discussion.

For those in grades 5-8, discussion during Face2Face centers on what is relative to the students, such as their school day, their friends, and social and political issues. The overriding question is always ‘Where is God in this’?

For those in grades 9-12, this school year has been devoted to a study of apologetics on a variety
of topics in Christian spirituality.

Service Opportunities
Service is a large part of our EYC community. We also participate in annual and monthly mission
projects on a local, regional, national and international scale. Once a month Sr. EYC delivers
“brown bags” of groceries to people living on limited incomes in partnership with P.A.T.H. (People
Attempting to Help), and also serves dinner once a month at the local chapter of the Salvation
Army. In months with a fifth Thursday, Jr. and Sr. EYC alternate serving dinner to the working poor
and homeless of Tyler in Christ Church’s Loaves & Fishes ministry. Our youth have various other
service projects they participate in throughout the year which benefit our neighbors in our
community as well as those in other places around the world.

Mission & Outreach
Mission is a part of every summer. For information on mission trips, please click here.

Everyone is Welcome!
Again, everyone in grades 5 through 12 is welcomed and encouraged to participate in the youth
program of Christ Church. Whether it is Face 2Face/Catalyst, Sunday school, or missions and
outreach (or all of the above!), EYC is a place for being oneself in a safe, fun and loving
environment. We have wonderful sponsors and teachers who truly care about our kids and who
give freely of their time and talents. Contact Denise Jarrett at djarrett@christchurchtyler.org or
Vance Garvey at vgarvey@christchurchtyler.org with any questions on how to get involved with
our wonderful youth!

Junior EYC

Junior EYC is a place for Christian fellowship, spiritual development, service to others and, of course,
FUN! All students in grades 5-6 (EYC Fish) and 7-8 (Jr. EYC) are welcome to join. We meet Wednesday evenings during the school year from 6:007: 30 p.m. on the 4 th floor and on Sundays from 12:15 - 2:30 p.m. at various locations for activities. We play games, eat, talk about our lives, share concerns and, of course, pray! We take trips out of town, attend diocesan youth functions at Camp Allen and participate in local service projects. Mission is an important part of Jr. EYC. To see pictures of previous trips, please click here. Come check us out or email Denise Jarrett on how to become a part of this terrific community.

Mission/Outreach

The last Sunday of every month members of the Sr. High Sunday school class deliver bags of food, prepared and provided by PATH to residents in the Salvation Army's William Booth apartments on Golden Road. It is a rewarding, fun and certainly not time consuming ministry; great for those of us who may not have an abundance of time to spare but want to get involved. In this ministry a single hour makes a big difference in people's lives! After delivering the bags, we eat lunch together at a local restaurant. Lunches are dutch treat, but scholarships are available if needed.

Mission Projects

Houston Urban Adventure, June 2527, 2010: Christ Church youth and friends currently in 5th and 6th grades will go to Christ Church Cathedral, Houston to learn about the needs of urban homeless. More details will come soon. Call or email Denise Jarrett with any questions.

July 1923, 2010 will be a Tyler Work Week where the youth of our church will be helping with various organizations around town to improve our community. We will have projects each day to work on and we will end the week with a party and cookout at the Beaty’s lake house.

Past Mission Projects

In 2006, the youth of Christ Church joined a Youth With A Mission (YWAM) group from Denver to work in and around Lake Charles, Louisiana. Clean up efforts are ongoing from Hurricane Rita, known as the "Forgotten Hurricane." Please click here to view pictures of this trip.

During Spring Break, 2007 we traveled to Bay St. Louis, MIssissippi to continue aid to victims of Hurricane Katrina. Our host was Christ Episcopal Church. View pictures from this trip here.

In summer 2007, the Sr. EYC went to Jalonga, Dominican Republic and partnered with the national diocese of the DR to help continue construction on a community center in the village of Jalonga. The trip was an awesome experience for all those who participated. To see pics from the project, please click here. Jalonga 2007

Also in summer of '07 the Jr. EYC headed to Sewanee, TN. In Sewanee, the youth partnered with Housing Sewanee, Inc. an organization of the Outreach Department of the University of the South. Since 1993, Housing Sewanee has built one home each year for a local family in need of decent housing. Approximately 80% of the work completed on the 14 homes has been done by young people ages 1322. The youth of Christ Church began framing on this year's home. They constucted interior and exterior support structures such as headers, T's and corners. Please click here to view pictures
from this terrific week on the mountain.

Summer of 2008 Sr. High EYC traveled to the Windy City of Chicago for a weeklong urban mission project. We worked with worldwide mission organization, YouthWorks, who partners with inplace
nonprofits and religious organizations to make a serious difference in the lives of the poeple of inner city Chicago. We worked in two separate low income neighborhoods remodeling a church office, planting a garden, hosting Vacation Bible School, and playing with kids in the Roberto Clemente Community Center. It was an awesome week of service and sacrifice. Not to mention we also took
in some of the best Chicago sites, sounds and flavors!

Senior EYC once again partnered with Youthworks! in the summer of 2009 to serve in missions in San Francisco. We spent a week working with children in various inner city programs, serving in a food pantry for the terminally ill, helping out at the San Francisco Food Bank, and serving those who are less fortunate in an inner city soup kitchen. The week was also an amazing time for our group as we learned more about ourselves as individuals and who we are as a group. The Holy Spirit was amazingly present as he touched the life of every student who was blessed to be a part of this amazing opportunity.