Our confirmation class is on Sunday nights and most of the kids in the group are in the sixth grade. I grew up Southern Baptist so was not "confirmed." I found this info on the
UMC website and it is a good and simple explanation of confirmation:
Confirmation refers to the decision a person makes to respond to God's grace with intentional commitment, publicly reaffirming his or her baptismal vows before the congregation. (note from Lisa -- remember we baptize our babies in the UMC) Most confirmands are youth between the ages of eleven and fourteen, who have been nurtured in the church since their baptism as an infant or young child. Most churches offer a deliberate time of preparation before this service. During confirmation class, confirmands learn about the meaning of Christian faith; the history and teachings and The United Methodist Church; and an explanation of the baptismal and membership vows they will be professing.One of our ministers, Suzanne, asked if each staff member would take a "turn" as a helper during confirmation. As I so often do, I somehow "over-volunteered." I volunteered to work confirmation on the same night as the Young Adult Tailgate party (previous post). Why do I do that? or should I say, "How do I do that?" It worked out fine and was a day spent in church and with church folks so it was a good day.
This was the room when I arrived. On the table, you can see a box of baggies, paper plates, a few plastic knives, my one little sheet of instructions and three loaves of bread. Guess what we were going to do? We made sandwiches for a local
UMC that has lots of members who are homeless - Church of the
Reconciler which is located downtown. We offer confirmation classes every year and this is a very large class - I think there are between 45 and 50 kids this year - all learning about their faith, their God and their relationship with Him. Isn't that awesome? Gives me chills!! Since the class is so large, they are divided into travel groups. They eat supper with the larger youth group (grades 6-12 - we have lots of students!!). Then the confirmation group comes together and has a short session all together. Then they move in their "travel group" to the activity. (that's where I come in!!)
This is our group as we were making the sandwiches. Our two boys (as sixth grade boys will do) had a little bit (actually a lot!) of jelly on their hands and they had excused themselves to the bathroom. A parent mentor travels with each travel group. I had never met this dad (sometimes happens in a large church - even to the membership secretary) and I enjoyed spending this 30 minutes with him. He and his wife have triplets (immediate connection since I'm married to an identical twin and have fraternal twin kids). One of their children has some special needs and he is so cool. I served communion to him one Sunday and as I served him, I said, "This is because Jesus loves you." He looked up at me with beautiful expressive eyes and said, "Jesus loves you, too!" I thought I was going to sob aloud because I was reminded of how much God does love me. Powerful moment. Anyway, back to confirmation class. We made lots of sandwiches and a good bit of mess!! I really enjoyed spending time with all of them. One of the students in my little group has sat in front of us in church (or sometimes behind us) for most of her life so I love that "connection."
I didn't get to
participate in this part but I sneaked in to see the set-up and snapped a quick photo. Can you tell what they were about to do? They were going to wash feet. Now picture this - 6
th graders . . .They are presented this in such a way that it is an honor to wash feet. Now remember, we are a mainline protestant church. We don't do a lot of foot washing in church. As a matter of fact, we wash
hands on
Maundy Thursday. So this is a new thing for these students. The whole night was about doing for others - sandwiches for the homeless and washing feet.
On nights like this, I give thanks and praise to call Jesus my Lord. On nights like this, I am so glad that I am a Christian. On nights like this, I am reminded that I am called to be a servant to others. On nights like this, I am humbled by sixth grade students and their willingness to participate. On nights like this, I give thanks for my church family. On nights like this, I am a
middle-aged mom who is so very thankful.
I know that the green walls don't match the green comforter. We are going to get the walls painted - soon I hope! Remember when the mirror fell off the wall? We finally have almost all of the bathroom primed and ready to paint. I love the comforter. I've been looking for weeks and weeks and found this one yesterday at Bed Bath and Beyond.
I'm going to have the walls painted the green of this background color.
To me, Children's Hospital is a beautiful facility.
They have little red wagons in the lobby. The wagons are actually for the children. The parents can pull the children through the hospital. Those wagons come in handy for transporting dinner also.
Isn't the facility lovely? There were volunteers all over the place setting up a forest of Christmas trees that will be decorated by local companies and organizations. From the moment I drive up in front of the hospital to unload each time, my life is put in perspective - quickly!! Everywhere you look are parents who are exhausted, children who are sick and hurting, doctors and nurses hurrying to the next patient. I've followed caringbridge sites for several children - some who are doing well and some who are now with Jesus. I "see" them on each face.
I took a picture of these fish because I wanted Mark to see them. There is a huge school of fish swimming right through the lobby.
I think Guy is the one who gave our ministry the name "feed um" . . .We feed them nourishing comfort food for the evening and Chaplain Paul "feeds" them with the love of Jesus.
Look at my messy work space. When the kids went away to college, I had time for my hobbies but for the last year, I've had no time - not even to organize.
This is my view from my table. My space is in our bonus room upstairs. Can you see the two deer on the left wall and the big fish straight ahead (sort of on the right). Those aren't mine. Really, they are not. They are Mark's. He caught that fish when I was pregnant so it is getting pretty old. Some day, when Laura marries and moves back out, I'm converting this room to nothing but my space. I can dream, can't I????
Trick or treat?
Another great thing about working at Trinity . . .we have "servants" who help us all of the time. (some might call them volunteers but Adam Hamilton said that you "volunteer" for the junior league or at the country club - in the church, we are servants of the King!) On Sunday, a lady named Lisa (not me) counts all of the attendees at the two traditional services (she saves me an hour each Monday morning). On Monday, Myrnie comes in the afternoons and files new member cards for me and does any other "membership" task (like pulling all the individual "single" cards for the married people so that I can make them a married card - probably doesn't make sense but it is a big help). On Tuesday, Gayle comes and puts all of the members into the database (attendance for members) AND Sandra and Polly come in and stick labels on envelopes. Those are my main "helpers" and I appreciate them so much. I know that they are doing this because they love God and as Christians, we all need to serve in one way or another. I know they serve with no thought of reward . . .but I love to give them little treats for the various holidays. This is another fun part of my job . . .making treats - here is the giant bag of candy.
Look at these cute boxes we found (actually, my daughter, Laura found them for me!!)
I love the black cat ones - they made me smile. Once again, I am thankful - yes, I am!!
This is our group as we were making the sandwiches. Our two boys (as sixth grade boys will do) had a little bit (actually a lot!) of jelly on their hands and they had excused themselves to the bathroom. A parent mentor travels with each travel group. I had never met this dad (sometimes happens in a large church - even to the membership secretary) and I enjoyed spending this 30 minutes with him. He and his wife have triplets (immediate connection since I'm married to an identical twin and have fraternal twin kids). One of their children has some special needs and he is so cool. I served communion to him one Sunday and as I served him, I said, "This is because Jesus loves you." He looked up at me with beautiful expressive eyes and said, "Jesus loves you, too!" I thought I was going to sob aloud because I was reminded of how much God does love me. Powerful moment. Anyway, back to confirmation class. We made lots of sandwiches and a good bit of mess!! I really enjoyed spending time with all of them. One of the students in my little group has sat in front of us in church (or sometimes behind us) for most of her life so I love that "connection."
I didn't get to participate in this part but I sneaked in to see the set-up and snapped a quick photo. Can you tell what they were about to do? They were going to wash feet. Now picture this - 6th graders . . .They are presented this in such a way that it is an honor to wash feet. Now remember, we are a mainline protestant church. We don't do a lot of foot washing in church. As a matter of fact, we wash hands on Maundy Thursday. So this is a new thing for these students. The whole night was about doing for others - sandwiches for the homeless and washing feet.
I tried to make a giant orange and blue cake . . .but as you can see, it is more gold and the inside was more green. I was afraid to put any more food coloring in the batter and icing!! That cake was a big draw from other tents - I almost didn't take it because it was so ugly!!
Lindsay made these - they were wonderful. She took two lowfat wheat thins and put peanut butter between them and dipped them in chocolate. YUMMY!! I've had these made with ritz crackers before (and have made them myself) but the wheat thins added a nutty taste along with some extra crunch. Yes, I even brought a red and white checked cloth to represent the other team. You can tell how hot it was . . .the chocolate is melting!!
Our group is a group of unmarried, out of college, in their 20's . . .but there were lots of other young adults AND their children at this event. This is one cutie-patooty . . .look at the runny nose - allergies in Alabama.
This is an overview of the group. There goes one of the food judges walking down the middle - we didn't win any awards and we were disappointed!!
Here is another pic of that cutie-patootie!
This is one of my fav pics of the afternoon - this is Super Cooper! Isn't he cute? Both his parents were college cheerleaders. That doesn't really have anything to do with this post - I just think it is a fun fact to know and tell!!
Only the kids jumped in the jumpy thing . . .sure did look like fun.
We even had corn hole and Holly and Lindsay were our players!! They represented us well (but they didn't win)
The afternoon ended with a hot dog eating contest and you notice there are no pictures . . .I was afraid that someone would throw up . . .so I stayed and cleaned up our tent and packed away our things. 
