I want to thank you. Thank you for inviting me to be apart of your lives. I know this past year and a half may have been kind of tiring from all your traveling and all the changes that have been made within the youth group. Thank you for sticking it out! Mike & CJ really did a great job keeping activities available for you, even with their already busy schedule and it just goes to show how important you are to this congregation. Anyone I’ve talked to within the congregation always has so many good things to say about you guys and I just feel so lucky to get to be a part of this with you.

While I am super excited for our trip to Convention, I’m even more excited for when we get back. We will be able to relax a little more and just focus on what I view as the point of this group: digging in deep to the Word of God and trying to figure out how our lives fit into God’s plan, not the other way around. Starting in August, we will start a study that I’m creating specifically for each of you and our group as a whole. The specifics of it are still getting worked out, but our picture is going to be of a tree. Of course, you have the fruit & leaves, the branches, the trunk, BUT a section that is sometimes overlooked are the roots. They are so deeply rooted where no one can see them and strongly placed where the tree needs them to be. Our Study will have 4 sections: Roots, Trunk, Branches, Fruit & Leaves and will prepare us for our mission trip we will take next summer.

This topic has been on my heart a lot since I left you all last August for that silly state of Ohio. As I get settled here in Arthur, I’m putting down new roots. I have not been able to grow really deep roots ever since I left my hometown for college. I’m excited to be able to start growing these here in Arthur, but I’m more excited that you all are a part of that experience for me. Since my family is 2 hours northwest of here, I consider you all part of my family. That’s why I thought this vision of a tree would be good for us. I’m asking you all to join me on this journey that will probably make us grow more than we wanted to in the first place, but it’s going to be so worth it in the end. While we get to re-know each other and learn new things, there are bound to be some surprises along the way!

I want you to start thinking about this: What do the roots, trunk, branches, fruits, and leaves do for a tree? What are their main jobs? What are some ways that a tree reflects our lives as Christians?

Hmmmmmmmm…….