journeys-page

Today is Confirmation Sunday at Trinity. This year Nine seventh graders and their mentors devoted 13 weeks of Wednesday nights to learning about what it means to become a full member of the church.  Each time we would begin with 15 minutes of instruction by me with the whole group. Then the confirmands and their mentors would scatter to the corners of the church to discuss the questions in their workbooks and to read a couple chapters of the Gospel of Luke together. They also worked on their memorization of the 23rd Psalm, the Apostles Creed and the books of the Bible. Then we’d all reconvene after 40 minutes or so for final questions with me and discussion of the topic of the week. Our topics included things like: God, Jesus, the Holy Spirit, Worship, the Ministry of the Church, Prayer, Service, Death . . . etc. We took road trips to Seward for the Living Last Supper, and, All Faiths mortuary here in town.  They also each wrote the article on the back of the bulletin about where they had seen God, or their favorite things about the church. The confirmands also did service projects and talked about what gifts they have to offer both through in the church and in their daily lives. Today these seventh graders are publicly proclaiming to the world that they are ready to confirm the decisions made for them by their parents when they were baptized. They are telling us that they are ready to make up their own minds about this faith thing. And we, the church, are telling them that they are now adults, (and full members), in the eyes of the church. I will stress to them that this is not a graduation, it is an initiation in full membership in the church. This year’s confirmands at Trinity are: Grace Hill, Jaylen Hansen, Trey Engberg, Conner George, Madilynn John, Alec Sundberg, Makenna Garrels, Kyla Sybrandts, and Madyson Schley. Their mentors who went through the whole process with them are: Sebrina Bergmeier, Jeanne Graves, Vicki McDermott, Ron George, Danny John, and Jeremy Sundberg. Please take the opportunity today to congratulate them on this important step in their faith journeys. Grace & Peace, —Rev. Kelly Karges