Saint Patrick Youth (SPY) Group

SPY NIGHTS on Sundays, 6:30-8:30pm

All Teens 6th grade - 12th grade are welcome.

INVITE A FRIEND!

Parents/ Guardians: Please be sure to register you middle school (6th-8th) &/or high school (9th-12th) student(s), using the following link, if you have not already! 

(Teen) Empowering God's Children Class 4/21

This year, all grade levels will be taught Empowering God's Children, Lesson 2, Teaching Boundaries and Safety Guide. This is part of the Virtus program provided by the Diocese of Austin for youth. If you prefer to teach the lesson at home, you may choose to opt out of the in-person class and resources will be provided for you to do so.

SPY Teen Bible Study

No Bible Study 4/17.

Last Bible Study for the year on 4/24, 6-7pm!

Please contact Marlene Lopez with questions.

Thank you to all the families that encouraged their teens to be a part of this trial year.

*We will be returning this summer with an even more exciting program! Stay tuned for announcements about Dive Deep!, our new Wednesday lunch-time Scripture Study for Middle School aged teens and Discipleship Formation Study for High School Teens. Please contact Marlene Lopez ym@stpatrickhutto.org to find out more or sign up.

• Steubenville Registration & Fundraising
• New Protecting God's Children Class Date
• Fishers of Men Discipleship Retreat
• Teen VBS Leadership Opportunity
• SPY Ministry Volunteer Team Recruiting Event

*SPECIAL NOTE:

Only SPY families we have met with first will be able to attend this summer conference due to limited space and out of town travel. This conference will sell out. Do not delay in reserving a spot for your teen!

SAVE THE DATE! Fishers of Men Retreat: May 24-26
Cedarbrake Retreat Center, Temple

Fishers of Men is our SPY Discipleship retreat offered for incoming freshman through incoming seniors. This weekend retreat will be an opportunity for your teen to grow closer in their relationship with our Lord through amazing testimonies, tons of games & good food, lessons in living out their faith in the real world, powerful praise & worship, a chance for reconciliation and Mass with fellow Fr Piega & St Patrick teens!

Total Amount: $100

Non-refundable Deposit: $50

Due Date: 5/5

Remainder Due: 5/19

Limited Partial Scholarships available. 

Scholarship Requests Due: 5/5

Accompanying Service Hours, if partial Scholarship is granted: Due by 5/19

Contact Marlene with questions ym@stpatrickhutto.org.

Please see the weekly Faith Formation newsletter for Adult Team Volunteer Information. 

Teen VBS Leaders - July 8-12

This year, we have even more opportunities for our teens to help!

Middle School Teens can sign up to help lead the Preschool participants as a Crew-Leader in-training

High School Teens can lead the older crews in K-5th grades by signing up as: Station Leaders, Game Leaders, or apply for a position as a Scuba Instructor, our new Teen Leaders of the Teen Leaders! 

Our Scuba Instructors will lead everyone in song and dance every morning, perform skits, dress up and tell the stories of our daily saints, & set the tone for the week! These teen leaders will help in various roles throughout the week.



 Expectations:

• All Teen VBS Leaders are required to attend the training on Monday, July 1, 9am-3pm.
• If selected as a Scuba Instructor, training will conclude at 4:30pm
• Scuba Instructors roles will be contacted by 6/24.
• All Teen VBS Leaders are required to arrive at 8:30am daily, VBS week for a pre-start day meeting & announcements.
• Crew Leaders & Scuba Instructors must be present for the duration of the week, in order to build trust and rapport with the participants in their group.
• If your teen is unavailable to make the M-F commitment, do not worry! We can still find an area for them to plug in as a volunteer, with lesser responsibility.
• Teen VBS Leaders will be dismissed at 1:00pm, M-Th, and between 2:30-3:00, Friday.
• Last day to register: June 16!

Disciple Volunteers Recruiting Event for SPY '24-'25 on May 5, 6:30-7:30pm

Our Program is growing and we need your help!

Whatever your talents or skills, we would love for you to be a part of our team!

Not sure you have any talents or skills to use towards working with teens?? 

Oh, but you do! 

And God is calling YOU!

Come to our SPY Team Recruiting Event on Sunday, May 5, 6:30-7:30pm to learn more about SPY, our vision for next year, & how you can help!

Current Areas of Need:

Communications Team- support in the writing of a SPY Night weekly summary & newsletter, flyers, contacting SPY families for various events and needs, & all sorts of other communication optimization needs still to be determined!

Fundraising Team- team members in this area will help plan & execute future fundraisers to help get our teens to conferences, mission trips, and to help with general programming costs. Creativity & gumption go a long way here! All our efforts will help make events more affordable for all of our families, provide weekly supplies, and fun SPY logo items as well! 

Retreat Planning Team- help us plan & implement retreats in all sorts of different ways, from logistics, to the talks, speakers, praise & worship, liturgical & prayer components, environment... so many pieces are needed to complete the puzzle that make up a retreat or lock-in! Whether you want to be a part of all the action or just handle a piece of it, we could benefit from your time and talents!

Meal Team for Retreats & Lock-Ins- one of the most important elements of a successful retreat is filling the retreatants' bellies with yummy food! You can't beat a warm meal to support all the energy they'll burn off being extra-active, both physically & mentally for an entire weekend!

Administrative / "Behind the Scenes" Team- some of the exciting tasks of our behind the scenes team include sometimes-rewarding challenges of overcoming the hurdles of making copies, Tetris-like skills of organizing SPY Night supplies, utilizing your fast-fingers for entering new teens into our new database, and many, many other thrilling "back-end" jobs that do not necessarily need to be done on Sundays or among the teens! The sky is the limit here! Help us optimize our program & get to know the inner working of our team & this ministry!

SPY Night Small Group Leaders- help as a small group discussion leader for our teens on Sunday evenings. This is such a rewarding and spiritually-fulfilling role. Our SGLs are the first experience many of our teens have with a mentor to pray over them, guide & teach them in our faith, and walk alongside them in the journey. SGL's are relational ministry at it's best!

SPY Parent Ministry: Small Group Leaders- help to begin our Parent Ministry, where parents will gather together in fellowship to discuss our current SPY Night topics and pray together for the needs and challenges that parenthood brings.

Praise & Worship Leader- know how to play a guitar? Love to sing & pray? We soooooo need your talents!!

Meal Planning Team (for SPY Nights)- our faithful servant-hearted MPT works together to plan weekly SPY Night dinners, recruit other parent volunteers, & execute the food & fellowship portion of our nights. Sometimes there's a bit of cooking, sometimes a bit of prepping, a bit of cleaning... but always a lot of laughter and comradery! Whether you enjoy cooking, enjoy cleaning, or can volunteer to help coordinate a volunteer schedule, we have a spot for you!

Guest Speaker Team- assist in recruiting & "booking" new guest speakers for SPY Nights and special events. Sometimes we need a speaker for special topics, sometimes a speaker comes to us with a request to share their gifts with the teens, sometimes it's a "hot topic," sometimes it's a prayer service needed... sometimes it may be a magician that's needed! St Patrick (& beyond our parish-borders too!) is blessed with so much talent! Now, its just finding a date to plug them into our calendar!! 

Teen Outreach Team- this team will work to plan ways and events to reach our teens that have been away for awhile or do not yet know about SPY Ministry. We also would love to implement a plan to celebrate birthdays, keep a running list of teen events such as their sporting events, competitions, & shows or performances, and find extra-special ways to show Christ's love to them. Afterall, being Catholic isn't just a Sunday Night thing or something to check-off your list!

Don't see an area that interests you? 

Do not fear! We still have a place for you here!!

May 5, 6:30-7:30pm!!!

SPY Night Meals

We need every family's contribution this year to provide meals for our teens on Sunday nights. We offer a variety of ways for you to help:

1. Donate monetarily through St Patrick Pushpay: Give to Faith Formation (pushpay.com) 

(Please note in the memo line this is for: "SPY Ministry Meal Donations")

2. Volunteer to cook or prepare portions of a week's meal ahead of time. 

(Please contact Laura Diaz lauracdiaz@yahoo.com or Marlene Lopez ym@stpatrickhutto.org for details or use the Sign-Up Genius links to do so)

3. Donate supplies ahead of the Sunday SPY Night for our Meal Prep Team to make dinner for our hungry teens! 

April Meal Ingredient & Supply Donations:
April 21 Teen choice

This is a regular, weekly need and we cannot accomplish feeding our ever-growing ministry without your help!