The nature of youth activities at Locust Grove has varied a great deal over the years. In the early decades the youth did not have the organized planning committee nor structures for church youth activities that we take for granted today. Youth social activities occurred in homes and were planned spontaneously by the youth or their parents. The first organized activities for youth were the Sunday evening young people's meetings.

These meetings began in the 1930's and were held every other Sunday night in the church building. The services usually consisted of three topic assignments given to lay members or ministers and an essay or two read by a woman. On the alternate Sunday evenings, church members would open their homes for an evening of singing by the young people. Those who participated had no organizing committee. From one of these Sunday evening singing to the next, the participants would spread the announcement about who would host the next "singing." Everyone who was unmarried and at least sixteen years old was invited to participate. At times the youth participated in these "singings" with youth group members of the local Valley View Amish Mennonite Church.

The youth enjoyed Saturday evening social activities in their homes. Activities included watermelon suppers, banana suppers, sledding parties, ice cream suppers, and "pound suppers." A "pound supper" occurred when the young men each brought a pound of nuts and the young women each brought a pound of candy. After mixing it all in large dish pans, the organizers would number off the guys and the girls. Participants would then mix up, find the person with their matching number, and eat nuts and candy together. After that, weather permitting, they would go out to the barn and play group games.

Another favorite youth activity of the 1920's and 30's was the "corn husking." Young people would arrive early at someone's farm and husk corn until dusk. Occasionally they would find a cob with red kernels. When this happened, the lucky guy could kiss the girl of his choice on the private side of a corn shock. Many today wonder what happened when a girl found a red ear.

Another Saturday evening social activity was the barn party. Many times a family would invite the youth of the church to their home for an evening meal, perhaps consisting of bean soup. After the meal, they would go to a cleared section of the barn for group games like "doodio," "ten little Indians," or an old game called bingo. Another favorite was "The Big Four" which was an early version of the present day square dance. Often someone played a guitar and a couple fellows played mouth organs. Sometimes Jake Lapp from Lancaster County would visit to provide music with his guitar. In the 1930's barn parties were considered wholesome activities by the group and many older members today still have pleasant memories of barn parties. However, as ministers and members became more aware of the spiritual implications of dancing and the associated sensuous atmosphere and temptations, the practice gradually died out, especially when ministers publicly condemned such parties in sermons. By 1944 nearly all Sunday evening activities were held in the church building and very few youth participated in barn parties.

During the war years in the 1940's, quarterly missions meetings became quite popular with the youth. These meetings were weekend services hosted by one of the Mennonite churches in the valley and they usually featured a returned missionary. Such events became popular opportunities to learn about mission efforts in many areas of the world. In response to these events, many young people became more involved in the following years in mission assignments as well as local outreach activities.

The 1940's brought many changes in the activities of the youth. During World War II gas and sugar were rationed by the government and curfews were enforced, resulting in a grim and burdensome time. The restriction curtailed many of the youth activities of earlier decades.

Finally, in 1945, World War II came to a close. On May 8 Germany surrendered and on September 2 the war with Japan was over. Curfews were ended, rations lifted, and the burden of war was lifted from every American. Everyone, including members of Locust Grove, enjoyed the relief of the end of the war. Soon after the war ended the youth at Locust Grove became quite active and organized. Several of the youth activities that started in the late 1940's continued for decades.

Locust Grove Missionary Project

The young women in the youth group organized a junior sewing circle to prepare clothing and blankets to send to various mission and relief causes around this time as well. Amount of Money Raised in Youth Missionary Projects

        Year    Amount
        1945       578.15
        1946       542.84
        1947       932.98
        1948       533.76
        1949       368.72
        1950     1,013.90
        1951       617.70
        1952     1,319.29
        1953       520.50
        1954       555.63
        1955       233.49
        1956       914.00
        1957       301.25

In 1946 the $542.84 that the youth raised was used to help a blind boy through school as well as other mission causes, including supporting a Jewish mission organization. That same year, 1946, the youth of Locust Grove also began distributing The Way door to door in areas of Lewistown, Burnham, Yeagertown, and Reedsville. The Way was a Herald Press publication, similar in size to the current Purpose magazine, and was designed as an evangelistic tool for community and unchurched people. This evangelistic activity continued through the 1960's as a regular event on Sunday afternoons.

Each year the youth decided where to send money from their mission project. Most times the money was divided among several causes. For example, in 1950, the income of $1,015.50 was divided among fifteen missionary purposes, including supporting the missions in Beech, Kentucky; Gays Creek, Kentucky; Flint, Michigan; and Vassar, Michigan. The group also supported Jewish Evangelism, purchased supplies for Christmas baskets, and beef and peaches for Kentucky. In the following years the youth actively supported persons from Locust Grove who accepted mission assignments, including Jesse and Betty Byler, Thomas Kauffman, Harvey and Mildred Miller, Ruth Yoder, and Jesse and Edna Zook. Other missionaries and church leaders they faithfully supported included Frank Dutcher, Howard Hammer, Orie Kauffman, Irvin Shantz, David Showalter, Alvin Swartz, and Jesse Yoder.

One year the youth group chose the project of purchasing a car for Ruth Yoder who was serving in Gays Creek, Kentucky. Not only did the youth enjoy raising the money, they also had the excitement of driving the car to Kentucky, surprising Ruth with the car, and presenting her with the keys.

The potato project continued as a tradition with Locust Grove's youth until the late 1970's. Around 1976 Percy Yoder invited the youth to use some of his land for potatoes. That fall members of the MYF were picking up potatoes one Saturday afternoon when Leon Miller accidentally knocked a contact lense from his eye. Several people spent the next few hours looking for that contact lense, but they needed to abandon the search that evening because revival meetings were in session at Locust Grove. After the evening service, several youth group members drove their cars into the field and used spot lights to resume their search. Under their brilliant lights they searched tirelessly. But it was Tim Yoder, with a small and very weak flashlight, who finally spotted and retrieved the prize contact lense.

Locust Grove Chorus

All members of the youth group were eligible for membership in the chorus. Each year chorus members elected a director and an assistant director, each of which served a one year term. The directors were responsible for all the activities of the chorus.

Each summer the chorus planned a weekend tour. Destinations included Eastern Kentucky, Michigan, Virginia, and Ohio. The chorus also gave programs throughout the year at Locust Grove and other local churches as well. Opportunities for singing locally also included the Rockview State Prison at Bellefonte, various outdoor services, and Christmas caroling in the winter. Many small singing ensembles, including several quartets and octets, were started from this group.

Several girls remember a chorus trip to Flint, Michigan around 1960. After presenting a program at the Mennonite church where Jesse Yoder was pastor, eight girls were driven to a cabin by a lake where they were to spend the night. They expected to be picked up the next morning. But the mosquitoes were so bad in the cabin that it was difficult to get much rest. So they all went out, after dark, and went swimming in the lake.

Others remember traveling to New York City to present a program at the Bowery Mission. It was their first experience in the city, and many were terrified by the drunken men walking and lying around on the sidewalk. The men in the chorus formed two rows through which the young women could walk from the bus to the building without being assaulted.

Cottage Meetings

Most of the youth at Locust Grove during the 1950's and 1960's participated in cottage meetings. Youth often met at the church on Sunday afternoons at 1:30 to visit local elderly or lonely people. This provided a mission setting for those living in the Belleville community. Those being visited received their visitors warmly and everyone enjoyed the visit.

John S. Zook wrote an article about cottage meetings that appeared in an edition of the Locust Grove Echoes. After quoting from the passage in Matthew 25 about the need to minister to people in various kinds of need, John S. wrote the following:

"There are many different methods which can be and are being used effectively today to tell the lost and dying of the plan of salvation, but I believe the one method which is often overlooked and neglected is personal visitation. I believe our congregation felt that here was a door which is open for us to enter and to keep this commandment of the King. May I say that this work has been a blessing and an inspiration to my Christian life and experience. I believe that I can say that too for the young people who have helped so faithfully to go along into the many homes to sing for hose who were sick and those who needed fellowship."

One person they often visited was Sol Ross, a bachelor who lived in a very small one room house in Stone Valley. Sol received Christ during one Sunday afternoon visit and gave a very warm welcome to any visitors from the church. Other persons visited included Charlie Hutchingson near Jackson's Corner, Mark Harmon, the Ray Kipper family, Harry Clair, and Thomas (Tink) Wilson all in the Stone Valley area as well as other people in the Mill Creek area such as Howard Tate. Visits usually included the singing of several songs, scripture, prayer, and visiting. For many youth this was their first experience in meeting, singing, reading and discussing scripture, and praying with people who were not Mennonites and did not attend church. More than one young person, when asked to lead in prayer, was terrified, but in later years were very thankful for the experience of being pushed into doing something very stretching.

MYF

Youth in the decade of the 1950's were quite active with a full schedule of activities. On Sunday afternoons they participated in cottage meetings or distributed The Way. Monday evening the chorus practiced at the church and Wednesday evenings the young people participated in Bible study and prayer meetings. On weekends they planned socials and parties. The potato and corn projects required a lot of time on spring and summer evenings and on Saturdays. In addition to these activities, many young people also became quite involved in the mission projects that Locust Grove started at Woodland, Crenshaw, and Lewistown Heights as Sunday school and Bible school teachers. A social committee planned social activities and the project committee coordinated the annual missionary project. But there was no committee or structure that provided direction to the entire youth program.

The Mennonite Youth Fellowship (MYF) was first organized at Locust Grove in 1958. On September 20, 21 of that year, Harlan Steffen, from Dalton, Ohio, came to this area to inform the youth here about the purpose and possible structure of an organized youth group, complete with various committees. He gave a short talk on Saturday evening at the Belleville Mennonite School at a social planned for the youth. His Sunday morning sermon at Locust Grove was titled "Key to Christian Success," and on Sunday evening he spoke at Locus Grove as well. Youth stayed at church that evening for a hymn sing at 9:15 p.m.

As a follow-up to that weekend, members of all the youth committees, including the social, missionary project, and junior sewing circle committees were asked to attend a meeting to discuss the possibility of organizing their own MYF. Locust Grove's Mennonite Youth Fellowship was organized on September 30, 1958. Its stated purpose was "to unite the young people of the church in a program of Christian growth and service in order that they might come into a full acceptance of Jesus Christ as Savior and Lord, and into the best possible relationship with the church and the world." The purpose was to be accomplished "by emphasizing faith and practice, by promoting a program of evangelism and service, and by providing opportunities for wholesome Christian fellowship."

The first elected officers of the MYF were: President, Lee Yoder; Vice President, Floyd Yoder; Secretary, Ruth Yoder; and Treasurer, Irene Kauffman. A faith committee was organized to plan for all Bible study and prayer meetings. The chairman for the first year was Miriam Peachey. Other members were Lucy Bawel and Mark Yoder. A fellowship committee planned social activities. Chairman of this committee was Jeff Hartzler Jr., and he was assisted by Catherine Peachey and Ethel Hartzler. Finally, a service committee was responsible to coordinate mission and service activities. Co-chairing this committee were Thomas Peachey and Ken Hartzler. Ann Yoder and Lucy Bawel assisted them. The advisor couple for this first MYF was Paul and Anna Mary Renno.

In the years since 1958 the structure of the executive committee has changed very little. The youth still elect a president, vice president, secretary and treasurer. But in recent years the work of the other committees has been given to the executive committee and the advisors. In some years the youth have assumed much of the responsibility and initiative for planning their own activities, while during other years the advisors have carried that responsibility.

Activities the youth have enjoyed in recent years include hiking to the top of the mountain for Sunday school early in June, playing softball and volleyball games, going to Hershey Park, attending a baseball game at Pittsburgh, camping at Raystown Lake, and singing for the residents in the County Home at Shirleysburg.

Shirleysburg

In the fall of 1951, newly ordained Erie Renno was approached by several young people at Locust Grove wondering where they could have an outreach in a local nursing home. Several of the youth from both Allensville and Maple Grove spoke about their experiences in singing to the residents of nursing homes in Lewistown. Erie agreed to help the youth locate a rest home that did not have a group visiting or singing to the residents regularly. After a search, Erie discovered the County Home at Shirleysburg that had no regular church services or church group visitation.

For Thanksgiving that year the young people prepared fruit plates with cookies, bananas, and other foods. They passed them out to the residents who greeted them with large, sometimes toothless, smiles. They were delighted to be receiving something that was to be their very own. Many of the residents were very poor and had no one to care for them.

The youth also sang for the residents with piano accompaniment which was a new experience for some of the youth. The piano was played by someone from the rest home. Usually someone would also read a scripture and share a devotional thought

A tradition had begun. Going to Shirleysburg has become a legend for everyone who grew up in Locust Grove after 1951. It is the one mission outreach with the longest and most consistent involvement. At times interest in going has waned and leaders began to talk of discontinuing the visits. After all, Shirleysburg was not close to Belleville. And sometimes part of the thrill of going was just that, the thrill of going... very fast on the way to and from. Other times the thrill of going was found at the Dairy Queen on the way home. Still other times the thrill of going was in meeting a resident who remembers when your parent came as a youth twenty years earlier. But always the smiles of the residents communicated an appreciation for taking time from a busy week to go to Shirleysburg. And so, "going to Shirleysburg" continues as a regular youth activity.

In recent years the schedule has been modified from going each month to going every other month. On alternating months the youth visit someone in our own church family. The distance is closer, the trip is shorter, and sometimes the reward seems greater. And yet, the question remains, if we don't go, who will?

Locust Grove began printing church bulletins in June 1958. An announcement in the August 3, 1958, church bulletin states, "On the first Friday of each month, a group in charge of Elrose Glick and Leonard Byler gives a program of inspiration to the old folks at the County Home at Shirleysburg." This is the first bulletin announcement about going to Shirleysburg. How many times the word Shirleysburg appears in our collection of church bulletins is anybody's guess.

Gospel Team

After the Locust Grove chorus was discontinued in about 1970, a Gospel team was formed by the young people. The group was led by Gerald Peachey and was open to college age and high school students. Members in 1971 included John Sharp, Jean Zook, Becky Hostetler, Gerald Peachey, Frank Hartzler, and Irene Kauffman.

The theme for the group was "Recovering the Anabaptist Vision." The program consisted of singing and talks given by the team members. Programs were given at Locust Grove, Allensville, Woodland, and Bart in Lancaster County.

This group was the forerunner of another gospel team in the late 1970's and the current "His Children" group.

His Children

In 1985 members of the mission board at Locust Grove visited each Sunday school class and discussed with class participants several possibilities for mission outreach from Locust Grove. One idea that was shared and discussed was the possibility of organizing the youth and young adults into a group that could present programs and also complete a service project, perhaps in another area.

In the spring of 1986 Max and Brenda Zook organized a group of ten youth into a summer ministry team. The group agreed on the name, "His Children" to indicate their relationship with God as Father and the need for authentic relationships of love and trust between each other. The theme verse for the first program was 1 John 3:18: "Dear children, let us not love with words or tongue but with actions and in truth." That summer, the group traveled to Cincinnati, Ohio to help to clean up some areas of the city damaged by a small tornado. On the trip home, the group gave a Sunday morning program at Shalom Christian Fellowship in London, Ohio. The group ended the week with a Sunday evening program at the Cherry Glade Mennonite Church in Grantsville, Maryland.

The next year, 1987, the group traveled to the Bowery Mission in New York City in addition to giving programs in the local state prisons. They cleaned the kitchen and sorted clothing in New York. At night they tried to sleep on the floor in the office area.

The "His Children 88" group spent a weekend in eastern Kentucky, sharing a program at Turner's Creek Mennonite Church as well as working at the Bethel Camp at Clayhole, Kentucky. In 1989 the group returned to the Bowery Mission in New York City.

Several songs were repeated each year in these early groups. Terry Beitzel usually sang the lead solo in the song, "We Will Stand." He loved to sing his heart out with the words, "You're my brother, you're my sister, so take me by the hand..." The group also enjoyed singing "Friends" by Michael W. Smith several years.

No group was formed in 1990, but in 1991, Terry and Karen Beitzel led the His Children group to both the Bowery Mission and to the Diamond Street Mennonite Church in Philadelphia. They led the group again in 1992, but beginning in 1993, Alan Miller led the group. That year the group traveled to Flint, Michigan. The next year they went to Birmingham, Alabama, and in 1995, to San Antonio, Texas. Kim Hartzler then led the group during the past few years. In 1996 the group traveled to Columbus, Ohio, in 1997, to the Fair Play Wilderness Camp School in Westminster, South Carolina, and 1998, to Atmore, Alabama to help with the We Care prison ministry.

Group members often commented on evaluation forms at the end of a summer experience that God used the experience to help them to grow in trusting him and becoming more aware of the needs and opportunities for service and ministry in the world. Many times just experiencing life in a city was challenging enough for some members. On one of the early trips a group member watched a homeless man retrieve and then eat a partially eaten sandwich from a garbage can. That sight helped him to confirm a choice of a college major and ultimately, a career of serving people.

And nearly always the group members returned home with a deeper sense of appreciation for the aspects of theiw own lives which they had so often taken for granted. They seemed to see God's grace in new ways.

Student Aid Fund

Locust Grove has always shown significant interest in the growth and preparation of her youth for lives of service. But recently that interest has become even more tangible.

In 1983 Locust Grove received $77,000.00 as a bequest from the estate of Mary and Lomie Zook. They were two single sisters that lived together with a simple lifestyle, and were faithful and dedicated members of Locust Grove Mennonite Church. Upon receiving the money, the finance committee decided to use it to establish a Locust Grove Memorial Trust Fund. The purpose of the trust fund was to provide student aid for those attending college.

In 1995 Elsie Glick died. She was the last remaining daughter of Ben Glick, our first ordained deacon. Her will specified a contribution of $67,653.00 to the church. This was added to the fund, along with several other smaller donations.

The income from these funds is divided annually among the students who apply for these funds. Recipients must be members of the Locust Grove church.

In the first year of operation, 1983, four grants were issued for a total of $2,000 of student aid. Since the start of the memorial funds until the present, approximately $107,221.78 has been given to applicants over the past fifteen years.

These faithful and caring members who gave their money are now deceased. But their memory and influence live on in the lives of our young people who prepare themselves for lives of Christian service.