Happy Tuesday everyone! 

This week there isn't a whole lot to talk about! Sunday school was a no-go, and IMPACT was a bit of a curveball for your students! 

I was sitting at home Sunday afternoon and thinking about the future of First church. Your children are already a part of that future, and I was trying to think of ways to empower them to "own" some of the ministry that happens here. I wondered if any of the students knew where to start, or where they were gifted. Oddly enough, this was something I had been thinking about for a while in terms of my volunteer leaders as well, so I rolled both things into one! I scrapped my lesson, and we all took a spiritual gifts inventory. I know that these are not 100% accurate, but the response was pretty good and I have encouraged your student to share their results with you. I think that hearing your parents affirm those gifts does something wonderful in the soul of a teenager. It boosts confidence, sure, but you are also affirming that God has made them with purpose and that is invaluable. 

Next week, we will continue our Can I Ask That book, and Lord willing have another lesson from the Black letters of Jesus! 

Have a great week! 

Good morning parents! 

This past week in Sunday School was a relief for our students, as we finally started to get more answers than questions. We finished up the chapter of our book, and are moving into a time of answering any lingering questions. We read from Berkhof's systematic theology to get a solid understanding of what the reformed church believes about Hell, and I did my best to translate that to modern english. 

The parent meeting seemed to go well in my eyes! I think that we covered the things that we wanted to cover, shared our goals and hopes and had some pretty solid feedback. Christy and I will keep digesting your thoughts and try to come up with new and effective ways to keep growing this ministry. 

IMPACT was a bit more low-key than usual, but the general idea there was to let your students know where we are too. We want them to be able to celebrate with us, and we were excited to share the results of the student survey with them as well. We have some great ideas of ways that we can maximize our effectiveness in things like Friday nights and Sunday evening IMPACT. Being able to hear both your feedback and your students feedback in the same night was amazing, and we hope you had as much fun along the way as we did. 

Thank you all for your willingness to come and show your support. We appreciate all of your feedback, and would even appreciate it if you would fill out the parent survey now if you haven't yet. We will leave that on the youth website until the end of January, and check it obsessively :) 

Have a wonderful Tuesday!