Introducing Ivan Garcia, New Coordinator of Youth Ministry
10-13-2019Pastor's LetterIvan GarciaHello and Greetings in Christ!
My name is Ivan Garcia and I am the new Coordinator of Youth Ministry here at St. Thomas More. I am beyond excited and blessed to be able to serve this community and I look forward to getting to know the teens, families and parishioners of this great community. I have been involved in youth ministry for over 10 years and I have been a youth minister for the Diocese of Phoenix for over six years. Most recently, I was at St. Joan of Arc which is: 1) my home parish for over 24 years and 2) where I met and worked alongside Fr. John Ehrich. I love youth ministry. It is my passion to help teens get closer to Christ and I believe with great humility that it is Our Lord's ministry and I'm just here to help. I am married to my beautiful wife Nayeli, we have a very energetic, and sassy (takes it after her mom...) 8-month-old daughter named Lily Therese. I love baseball and football (as in soccer. You know, the real football) and I am a HUGE Los Angeles Dodgers fan (I can already hear the boo's...). I have the heart of a servant and I want to serve you in any and all the ways I can. I can't wait to meet you and I pray the Lord continues to bless you and your families!
I am very eager to start the youth group and with the help of our amazing Core Team members, I'm confident our youth nights are going to be fruitful and blessed. We are blessed here at St. Thomas More to be able to have amazing resources like LifeTeen and YMCentral to make sure we are sharing the gospel message with every teen that walks through the door. The flow of the youth nights will follow the Gather, Proclaim, Break and Send model to make sure our youth nights have consistency and to better share the gospel message. I know that F.I.R.E. and t.u.f. have always met on Sundays and we are going to change that so families have the opportunity to spend their Sunday together as a family. Our plan is to move F.I.R.E. (Middle School) to Wednesday nights from 6:30 - 8pm and t.u.f. (High School) to Thursday nights from 6:30pm - 8pm. Our Kick-Offs are October 16 for Middle School and October 17 for High School. We will have delicious pizza for dinner so I hope your teen comes hungry! I pray your family is open to those changes and that you join us every Wednesday and Thursday for youth group where we will grow in community, play some games, hear amazing talks and grow closer to Our Lord!
In Christ,
Ivan Garcia
Coordinator of Youth Ministry