Thursday, May 13, 2010

Confirmation

Confirmation day has come and gone. I can hardly believe that my little girl is now an "adult" member of the church. I am so proud of all these kids.The open house that we had at the AmericInn was well attended and everyone there seemed to have a great time.

There were 11 kids that went through the program. They started in September 2009 and met three times a month through April. In addition to attending the classes, they had to attend church regularly and take sermon notes and do several hours of community and church service.

Ashley met her volunteer hours by playing piano for the youth choirs, raising money for Unicef and CROP walk (and walking for the CROP walk). She did several hours of volunteer babysitting for church meetings, served meals at church and at shelters, went door to door promoting fair trade products and garbage pickup. She worked hard and learned a lot. We have always had her do volunteer work, but doing service with friends is different than doing service with your parents.

Ashley grew quite a bit this year. Part of it is just her age and grade, but the majority of the growth came from spending the time with her peers and the church leaders. The kids learned so much about themselves through this journey. They came out with more questions about faith than they had going in, but that is the way it should be, they should have questions and should never be complacent or believe in something just because they are told to do so. They learned so much about each other too, and there was no judging or teasing, just a lot of embracing differences.

Christopher and I taught lessons once per month and had a great time. The kids blow my mind with their insight. They also sometimes blew my mind with their immaturity. :)  When we talked about the moral issues related to drinking, drugs, gambling, sex, abortion, children and woman's rights, war and sexuality these kids had such strong opinions.

I'm proud to have spent the last 9 years teaching them. I have seen them laugh and cry. I have held their hands crossing the street and sang silly songs with them. I've watched them change from little kids into young adults and I have loved being a part of their lives.

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