For those who missed this whole story, Laura Dekker is the dutch 16 year old who has just sailed solo around the world. You can read the BBC report here.

Not a bad effort really!

You may remember that Laura had to fight through the courts to be allowed to set sail. An attempt was made to block her departure, citing her youth as a reason to protect her from such a high degree of danger. The challenge was defeated, though, and the dutch courts finally allowed her to set off. She arrived back last week to be greeted by family, friends, and TV cameras from around the world.

This is all a really interesting question for parents, teachers, youth ministers, and all those who work with young people. When do young people need protecting from themselves? And when do we need to let them take risks so that they can grow?

In this case, the courts appear to have made the right decision, but I wonder what people would be saying now if she hadn't made it back alive. Part of me wants to think that we would still have recognised the need to let people take risks, but I'm not so sure. It's a difficult one.

If we leave all young people entirely to their own devices, then things are going to go wrong. Equally though, there are dangers from wrapping them in cotton wool. The former might place then in danger, while the latter might well mean that they are never able to grow.

Tough one!

[image hotlinked from Laura Dekker's website]

Great movie review from CathNews.com...

What most distinguishes the latest alien invasion movie The Darkest Hour, filmed in obligatory 3D, is its similarity to other re-cycled movies about the end of the world, and its spectacular setting in today's Moscow.

Two young American software designers, Sean (Emile Hirsch) and Ben (Max Minghella), board a plane for Moscow where they discover that their software has been stolen by Styler (Joel Kinnaman), a shonky Swedish middleman purporting to be their Russian contact.

The two men console themselves in one of Moscow's nightclubs, and are just getting to know two young women on holiday, Natalie (Olivia Thirlby) and Anne (Rachel Taylor), when the city is plunged into darkness by a power blackout, and eerily beautiful electric 'jellyfishes' start falling from the sky.

This is the beginning of an invasion of aliens from outer space, intent on plundering the earth for its mineral deposits. There are some genuinely frightening scenes at the beginning, where a Moscow bridge and the city's ancient, majestic buildings crumble into the ground, and people snared in the electric tentacles of what looks like floating fairy floss are reduced to ashes.

But once the initial shock and excitement settles, there is really nowhere for the story to go.

The invaders are electrical intelligences whose presence can be detected by the sudden coming to life of car lamps, street lights, etc. Not everyone is destroyed.

There have to be survivors, of course, the story depends upon it, and in this American-Russian co-production, the nationality of those who live to fight another day is commendably even-handed. However there are times when the film is reduced to no more than a child's counting game.

It's no coincidence either, that as earth fights back, a submarine becomes the transport of choice to rescue survivors. Also disappointing is the amateurish rendering of the aliens' faces, which are similar to those on any number of iPod apps - Jan Epstein, Australian Catholic Office for Film & Broadcasting.

[Source | image hotlinked from source]

Those awesome folks over at Busted Halo have written a piece giving three tips for worshiping well. Their tips are to find your worship community, explore new ways to worship and to get involved. The article goes in to far more detail, and is well worth a few minutes of your time to read.

To that list I would probably add a few things myself - don't feel you have to do things you're not comfortable with; don't let anybody tell you that there is only one way of doing things; don't do something you alone want to do that will make the rest of the congregation feel really awkward.

I'm sure there are more people can add too.

I think that in youth ministry one of our main challenges is to help young people to find what really works for them in terms of prayer and worship. There are so many different spiritualities within the Catholic fold, and there's bound to be one that's right for them. Exposing them to different things and helping them to find their fit, as it were, is a crucial, fun part of our work.

A few days back we linked to the series from YouthLeadersAcademy.com on training volunteers. The next two posts in the series are here and here.

Youthmin.org has a post about the frustration that youth ministers can often feel

Fr. Stephen Wang has a post about the need to make a 'to don't' list as well as a to do list. Distractions are a killer when you're busy!

YouthLeadersAcademy has a great piece on overcoming your fear of public speaking...

..as well as an article about why teens sometimes struggle to tell the truth!

And just for good measure, another piece from ChurchLeaders.com (I love that site!) this time on why youth ministry programs aren't necessarily a bad thing.

And finally, CatholicYouthMinistry.com (the excellent Lifeteen site) has some advice on how to get your teens to sing at Mass

[image hotlinked from Flickr user NS Newsflash]