Gone, But Not Forgotten

 Hello, y'all! I feel like I always begin my blog posts with something along the lines of "long time no see'" and it is really sad to continue with this pattern. I could list a ton of excuses. Firstly, I could mention that I am now in college. Secondly, I could mention that I am working three jobs. Thirdly, I could mention that our Bible Study group has kind of fallen apart for a few reasons which I will not get all into detail about now. Fourthly, I could talk about how I do not even use Skype anymore. Fifthly, I could mention that I am personally still out there creating content on my own personal accounts. 

But, here I am. Here I am making a post on a group blog account. Here I am allowing all of the audience to see that while we are gone, we are not forgotten. No, we could be forgotten about by literally every soul. But, I will not forget. During the years that I was a part of this group, I treasured every moment. It brought me joy to be a part of such a community. I loved getting to fellowship with my Christian peers and talk about what we were learning together. 

For a while, we tried to have a system where members could gain points by working on memorizing verses, talking about what we had learned the week before, or working on blog posts of their own. Sabine and I are both big writers, so it came naturally to us. But, we could tell that our peers were struggling with these challenges. Of course, just having a simple points system was not enough to motivate some. It was okay, though, because it was an experiment that we learned from and grew in. 

We often had a book that we were reading together and then discussing. For a while, we tried to assign readings for outside of the group, but none of us felt that we had free time to use in that way, so that fell apart as well. But, we grew from it. We found some simple devotional paths to use, or some different lessons we all were learning about in our lives that we would talk about as a group. 

All of this said and done, no matter what happened we learned and grew together. From the OG members to those who had joined towards the end, we had adventures together, made memories, and had lots of "screenshot-worthy" conversations. I don't think I would be who I am today if it was not for this time in my life. So, even if TEAM or WOW or CLAY or whatever we ended up being was still a thing or not, we are who we are today because of it. Thank you for sticking around for the journey.

- MaryBeau for CLAY

(I hope this goodbye is not forever.)