As I get closer and closer to my move back to the East Coast, I am enjoying my time here and knowing I will miss many of the people and things here. One is the church that I joined.
I got to be a confirmation mentor this year, and I am very grateful the pastor asked me if I was interested. My mentee is a kind, sweet, energetic, and thoughtful young woman. The confirmation class gave her an opportunity to think about issues that youth do not get the time to consider in other facets of their life. How often does a child really sit and think and discuss topics like faith, belief, poverty, kindness, service, or love? And I do not think you have to have a specific religion to make discussing these topics valuable. I see the youth who went through the process and they gain a certain maturity. One in the group of five decided that he did not want to confirm his faith because of difficult topics discussed throughout the year. The statements of faith that these children wrote were beautiful. The common theme was about how they struggle with Christians who do not love everyone, but say they do it in the name of their religion. They recognize that even within a religion their are different takes on how to practice that religion, and it frustrates them.
My mentee and I did not know each other at all when we started this process, and after this experience, I am sad that I will not see her continue to grow because I am moving away. I did tell her that I would love to continue hearing what she is doing even though I am leaving. She gave me this cross and a stone that says "Faith" as a gift. I love it.
The associate pastor who runs the youth programs is on vacation, so I volunteered to help with youth group tonight. I came home to my house being 57 degrees and not a bottle of red wine in the house, so a cup of tea it was. The message on my tea* was fitting.
I spent quite some time getting a couple of activities ready for youth group. Another adult had mentioned he would do the Bible study part, so I had been thinking about how to keep 6 to 10 middle and high schoolers busy the rest of the time. I came up with a candy ball and Bible mad libs. We actually filled the 2 hours well with dinner and activities, and it was fun! A pretty decent success.
It does not hurt that I totally have crushes on the associate pastor and the guy with whom I did youth group tonight. Maybe a post for another time, but don't hold your breath. :-)
*If you have never had any Yogi tea, it is worth picking up a box just for the messages - they are great!
3 comments:
Me and religion don't generally get along, but when you speak of it... well it sounds ok.
That's good! I mean, if there's candy it can't be all that bad.
It must be difficult to leave a good church and all the relationships you developed there. I hope you find an equally good one to join after you move.
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