Sunshine Youth group, St. Ignatius RC Church, 2012.

Reason for forming the youth group?

Objectives:

Helping the church, help others to develop their gifts and talents, help the less fortunate in the community, develop good/ positive behavior as character, and grow deeper as Catholic Christians in our faith.

Factors required:  commitment, seriousness, cooperation, iniative and responsibility.

Activities: visit the sick, singing, (Saturdays) library, fund raising, picnic, games, dance, guitar lessons, art and crafts, history and census of the village, computering, choir, retreat (once a year), carpentry, campfire, (once in 2 months) honey bees feast, visit nearby churches in nearby villages, bible study, (essential questions of our faith) monthly newsletter, blog, cleaning of church compound, plants in the church yard, and storing telling.

Activities for raising funds: fair, games, vegetable farm, concerts, BBQ, and fishing,

Sunshine Youth Group

Our Expectations	How do we acheive
Trust	Bringing gifts
Cooperation	Visiting sick
Respect	Attending service
Be responsible	Working for the church
Be succesful	Come and Pray
To be challenged	Bible Studies
Need to be enthusiastic	Recreation, fun, socializing,
Hard working	Interaction with other groups
Discipline	Teach younger children – Bible
Our faith – gods words – closer to God	Workshops – decision making, family life, etc etc
Develope Potential	Inovative leadership
Learn Behaviour	Remedial Classes
Visit the sick	Helping Younger children
Help the needy
Show love
Work together towards a goal
Team Work
Know God more
Be bold and active and
To take part in church activities
Better understand  life
Participation

Sunshine Youth Group Visit to Moco- Moco on the 24^th of June, 2012

PLAN OF ACTIVITES

8 hrs assemble at the Church presbytery to travel to Moco- Moco

10 hrs Mass in Moco- Moco

Participants for mass

 Readers

1.Theodore

2.Levon

3.Mary

Prayers of the Faithfull

1.      Mary

2.      Theodore

3.      Bernadette

4.      Amanda

5.      Levon

11hrs Meeting with the youths of the village

1.      Call to order – Vijay

2.      Prayer --  Carol Jacobs

3.      Hymn---Marisa

4.      Ice breaker activity.. Medino

5.      Introduction of the youth members ( individually)

6.      Introduction of our Youth group

7.      (a) why did we form the youth group--- Vijay, Silvia, and Mcdon

8.     

(b) what are the activities---- good and negative ones.. Denise and Kathleen

        8 Questions:  what are the problems and challenges encountered by the young people in the village ( for the P.L.A  chairman).

       9 Other questions and perhaps ask him to share with us about the scenario about his daughter’s death.

Lunch

     10  indoor game. By Vijay

     11 a short video show

     12 closing prayer—Theodore

     13 Games—Football—organizers, Levon and Theodore

Names of the youths enlisted to go on the trip

1.      Denise Hernandez

2.      Silvia Alexander

3.      Kathleen

4.      Carol Jacobs

5.      Amanda

6.      Mary

7.      Esmey Pedro

8.      Bernadette

9.      Levon

10.  Theordore

11.  Kenny

12.  Lewis

13.  Mc don Joseph

14.  Marisa

15.  Vijay

Since there are 16 persons going on the trip to Moco- Moco, the group had decided to go in two vehicles.  Eight will go with Fr. Ronie and the other eight will go and return with Mr.Micheal Abraham, already confirmed to take us with the condition of us buying the fuel for him.

While for food, some members of the group volunteered to contribute in carry some items such as onions, rice and coconut milk and chicken etc to make a cook-up. As for the drinks, other members volunteered to carry a few bottles of refrigerants. It is intended that the food we will make will be shared also with the other (youths) present at the meeting there in Moco-Moco.

To take a group of young people from an Amerindian Village to another one for any visit or trip, we thought that it would be good to notify and seek permission from the parents of the youth group`s members, for them to have a knowledge where their child is and what they are engaged in. Thus, we will write a letter to seek permission and notify the parents of each member to allow or not their child to go with us on the trip. We will also send a letter of notification to the Touchou of Moco-Moco informing him/her of our visit to the village, and also one to the Touchou of our Village St. Ignatius informing her of our intended visit to Moco- Moco.

Your Sincerely

Vijay Simon (group leader)

The history of St. Ignatius RC Church and the village

According to a few elders in the village who said the same thing about the history of the village “before there were a few family houses settled around the area, not close by, but far apart near to their farms and hunting ground located at the foot of the Kanaku Mountains. That time there was no Church in the area, only for one in Yupukari some distance away in the north of Ariwa, the original name of St. Ignatius Village. Then one day at mass at Yupukari, the priest said to them that two priests will be coming from Georgetown to visit them in Ariwa so they must prepare to meet them there. The people met the priests when they arrived and they asked them if they would like to have a priest, and they said ‘yes’. So after such agreement they build the church at Ariwa, then after the people stopped going to the church at Yupukari and went to the one at Ariwa.  Then after that the church attracted more people to live close by in the area. So like that the village was established and the first touchou Alfred Bruno was elected where he worked along with the priest and the new members who came to make up the new village.”

Such oral history coincides with the following from the Catholic Church’s history in the Rupununi: the history of the Catholic Church in St. Ignatius began in 1909, when Bishop Galton SJ, and Fr Cuthbert Cary-Elwes SJ, came here to establish a mission to the Amerindians of the Runpununi. The spot which was chosen for such was Ariwa (a Macushi word which is a name of a particular fish), which was the original name of the Village located on the right back of the Takatu River just on the Brazilian border.  There the missionaries established a base and dedicated it to the founder of the Jesuits and became known as St. Ignatius mission, a title it still retains today. 

From such history the Amerindian Community, a Macushi village got its new name St Ignatius, established by the Catholic Church, thus making it a more or less Catholic one. St. Ignatius Amerindian Community is located about 15 minutes from Lethem the administrative centre of region nine (9) and has approximately 600 residents.

Reference: Oral version from elders in the village

                    from the book "The Rupununi Mission"