When I got to church this morning, I got the second-to-last pint of apple butter; it had all been sold, and the kids made $270 for confirmation camp; almost enough tuition for one camper.
They have been busy raising money since this summer, doing everything from making sloppy joes at our church yard sale to hosting an evening spaghetti dinner/talent show. In a couple of weeks they're going to be selling "deer camp care packages" filled with baked goods to sell to the army of hunters that descends upon our area every November.
This is just so cool.
I never got to confirmation camp when I was a kid -- my father, balking at the cost, said, "You don't really want to go there," which in my family was code language for "Fuggetabout it." But I made up for this deficit in my spiritual formation in college, where I got involved in Lutheran Student Movement; one day early in my freshman career I'd seen a poster advertising a regional LSM retreat...thought, "That sounds interesting"...and wound up traipsing with gee-tar and bedroll almost a half mile to The Other Lutheran Student Parish. (I was in the LCMS at the time, so this was very daring behavior...ah, if they only knew it was just the beginning...) I wasn't sure what sort of reception I'd get -- but five minutes after showing up I felt as if I'd met a bunch of long-lost siblings. I had a swell time; kept going back; brought some of my other LCMS friends with me. My experiences at these retreats were so important in my spiritual formation; they played an important role in my learning to speak freely about my faith, in examining social issues from a Christian justice perspective, and in making me comfortable doing worship "front and center"; at LSM retreats I cut my eyeteeth leading small groups and helping write informal liturgies. Even when I felt the most estranged from the Christian faith, many years later, I looked back at those days with a certain discomforting wistfulness. (And in hindsight I think perhaps the Holy Spirit was messing with my head, in a good way, bringing up those happy memories despite my best attempts to shoo them away.)
Long story short, I think that youth ministry is important. I don't think that it is my particular charism, but I have nothing but respect for laypeople and pastors who work with teenagers and young adults. Any way that I can help the kids in my parish enjoy some of the same fellowship and spiritual support that I was blessed to experience in my younger years is time and money well spent, if you ask me.
And this apple butter is...mmmmm...delish. You'll have to take my word for it.
Apple butter
5 comments:
LSM was wonderful when I was on college. I can't possibly imagine what life would be like now had I not encountered it. Walking into the student center at University of Florida was like going home.
Yes, indeedy.
And I have LSM's website over on my blogroll, in case any readers with some spare bucks would like to help them out. (Their constituency generally being in a ramen-noodle-as-food-group, mattress-on-the-floor demographic.)
Apple butter.
Is there anything better?
Well...yeah, there is...ROFL But apple butter is pretty darn good. And this batch isn't cloyingly sweet; it has just enough tartness to make it interesting, like a good cider, and is spiced just right.
I've been stirring it into my oatmeal in the morning, and it's pretty dandy that way. Also good on peanut butter sandwiches.
> the other Lutheran student center
At Univ. of Texas, the two share a building and most programs, though they have separate services. Many a Missouri Synod youth such as me has started up going to the LCMS service, gravitated to the other one (which in the 70s was the shared LCA/ALC service -- that dates me!) and never went back to the LCMS. They still share a building at UT but with the changes in the LCMS since then it's a wonder they haven't at least constructed a very high wall down the middle of the building.
Post a Comment