September Newsletter 2019

Katie:

Hi! My name is Katie & I’m fifteen. Recently, God made a way for something I deemed impossible to be possible. One thing about me is that I have a hard time talking and getting to know new people. This causes me to be suspicious of easy opportunities. Lately, my mother has been insistent about me joining the worship team at our church. I tend to be very shy when I sing in front of people, and so I avoided hearing why I should join whenever the subject came up. Over time, however, I warmed up slightly to my mom’s words. So, I decided to seek others’ opinions on whether I should, in fact, join or not. I was still hoping that I could find a reason not to do it, but everywhere I turned, people were saying that I should try it out. Let me tell you, it was kinda unnerving. Finally, one Wednesday, my mother and I were talking to one of the ladies who sing for the worship team. My mother told her how she thought I should join the worship team, and just like that, almost every person who was on the stage getting ready to practice encouraged me to try out. It was such a God thing! I consented, and now I’m auditioning to join the team permanently. Talk about God working His will despite my doubts!

Mary: 

Summer just got out, though to me it already feels like I have been in school for months. It MIGHT be because I am a senior, though. *wink* Considering this is the first newsletter since the summer, I figured this would be a good time to mention what has changed and what I have learned this summer. I personally believe that I have experienced tremendous spiritual growth this summer. I had fundraised to pay for a Christian summer camp over the past year, so that week this summer was amazing and probably where I honestly grew the most. I know everyone says they do, but it was probably because I heard of so many people growing spiritually at camp, that my heart was ready to learn new things too and grow. This is slightly sad to admit, but they trained us at camp to really listen to the words we sing and to mean what we sing. I mean, I sometimes did, but I did not put my heart into what I was singing. I used to think to lift your hands while singing was weird, but I actually did it myself at camp. The words stood out to me as something that I really wanted to be applied.

Another thing I learned at camp, that probably was slightly applicable to me before, was that I need to make room in my heart for learning something new about a passage before someone begins the lesson. For example, they told the story about the Prodigal Son. This is the most common parable ever preached in America. I had heard it multiple times, and even shown that the son that did not leave was a prodigal as well (I can explain this all in a later newsletter if you are interested). But, because the teacher told us all to leave room in my heart for more if God wanted to teach me more, I learned something new and I kind of felt empty just waiting to hear it in that hour's lesson. What new thing I learned in this was this- the Father was prodigal as well!