Meet the Young People!

Baker: Baker is 11 years old and lives for skateboarding and video games. He does very well in school but will take time to grow up later. He is both endearing and irritating to his older sister, Jessica. He goes to school and church and wants to win approval, but he's always getting into trouble.

Tanyika: Tanyika is 12 and loves to read. She is particularly fond of mysteries and books about horses. She loves reruns of "Dawson’s Creek" and "The Cosby Show." She admires her older sister, Carol, and tries to be like her. They always go to church together.

Robert: Robert is 14 and sometimes gets impatient with his younger cohorts in the youth group. Nonetheless he stays with it. His family has been part of the church for years. He and his older brother James will be the second generation of his family to go to college.

Maggie: Maggie is 12 and the oldest child in her family. Her mother was pregnant with her when she and Maggie's father moved to the United States. Then they retire.

Juan José: Juan José is the youngest in his family at 13. Two years ago, his parents divorced. He and his older brother Benito were the only children left at home by that time. Every other weekend he and his brother stay with their Dad, who remarried last year. They like Mariana, their step-mother, but think she is a little picky about keeping the house tidy.

Jessica: Jessica is Baker’s older sister. She feels she has her hands full keeping Baker in line during UMYF. Sometimes she thinks it’s not fair. Before he moved into middle school, she had two years to be with her friends and think about important things such as how to be a Christian today. She committed herself to Christ when she was young, and loves going to church camp in the summer.

Benito: Benito is on the high school soccer team. He loves the feeling of running down the field powering past slower players. On the field, he feels in control. Off the field, he feels less in control since he was the oldest child at home when his parents divorced. (Juan José is his younger brother.) Their mother has confided her sadness about the divorce from his father without realizing that Benito might have been sad, too. UMYF has been a great place to think about life.

Carol: Carol is the editor of the school newspaper. She goes on the Internet to read Associated Press releases and puts "News Shorts" into the weekly paper to keep her classmates informed. She tries to keep up on politics and has read a lot about civil rights issues and women's issues. She knows her little sister idolizes her, so she tries to do something with her each week. She likes her church because most members see the connection between faith and action.

Sandy: Sandy is active in the drama club and is the stage manager for the high school plays this year. Sunday night is the only night she has free for church activities after she spends week nights keeping up with her homework and going to rehearsals. Her parents worry that she’s too busy but she thrives on it. Two people in the drama club have come out as "gay." Drama club is one of the places they say they feel safe. Sandy wonders why people harass them.

James: James, whose younger brother is Robert, spends a lot of his time on the Internet following the stocks that he pretends to buy. For fun he competes at the "Laser Storm" arcade at the local mall. His parents don't like it because it's so militaristic. After all, his uncle was killed in Vietnam. But James assures them that he's not going to join the army. He plans to get a degree in business and be a stock broker. When he was younger, James thought he might become a minister. Now he wants to live his Christian values as an ethical business person.