YOUTH GROUP

Goal:
The goal of the Lavang Youth Group is to live according to the words of Pope John Paul II, “You are the salt of the Earth. You are the light of the World.”

To realize this vision, the youth group wants to create a place where every youth in the Ottawa-Carleton area can share thoughts, feelings and interests in everyday life, can exchange ideas, and can learn more about the Vietnamese culture as we together apply the Gospel teaching to our life.

The Lavang Youth Group plans to carry out the above goal by creating fun activities based on friendship, Christian life, discipleship, sacrifice, and unity while not forgetting to exercise Youth’s part in looking after the church premise and in lending our hands to the Church’s requests.

Actions:

1. Ways to build friendship, unity and spirit to help one another:
- Organize sport activities and tournaments such as bowling, ping-pong, beach/indoor volleyball, badminton, tennis, hiking, etc.
- Organize entertainment activities such as movie night, coffee night, Karaoke night, party, etc.
- Organize group activities such as camping, BBQ, picnic, cottage trip, and ski trip
- Organize weekly educational tutorial session for elementary, secondary, and university students needing the help or suggestions of older youths with experience in the field such as computer, accounting, commerce, etc.
- Gather a group of volunteers to look after God’s house and the surrounding areas such as cleaning inside God’s house on regular basis, raking the leaves in the fall, shoveling the snow in the winter, mowing the lawn the spring/summer and other activities that the Parish requires Youth’s help on.

2. Ways to promote and preserve the Vietnamese Culture:
- Organize Vietnamese culture night or fashion show to exhibit Vietnamese arts, to tell Vietnamese story, to perform comedy about the Vietnamese culture, to show Vietnamese traditional long dress and robe, to sing, etc.
- Organize New Year event with dancing, singing, and tasting of Vietnamese food

3. Ways to carry out the Gospel teaching in everyday life:
- Have a gathering each month, guided by Father Thong, to recite prayers, pray, learn the Gospel, discuss topic about life, and talk about ways of applying the Gospel teaching into our life.
- Organize Prayer Nights and/or retreat occasions for Youths and/or for the Parish in preparation for the coming of Christmas and/or Easter.

4. Miscellaneous:
- Get together each month to get update on upcoming events and feedback on past events
- Update and inform youth members via emails on the procedures, news and plans of activities from the Vatican and from other Catholic groups
- Create a Website for the Lavang Youth Group to post news, announcements, and pictures of past group activities.

Lavang Youth Group's website: http://youth.lavangparish.org/