Sunday nights

A faithful friend is a sturdy shelter;he who finds one finds a treasure. A faithful friend is beyond price, no sum can balance his worth. A faithful friend is a life-saving remedy...

Sirach 6:14-16


Friends are people who guide you and grow alongside with you. I have made some of the most incredible friends these past few years, who have guided me and grown with me in my faith. Today was our last Lifenight (HS youth group) of the year; my last official Lifenight at St. Helen as a student and a teacher (for now at least). Honestly, I almost started crying about 4 times. Lame maybe, but I was realizing just how much I'm going to miss these Sunday nights come September. Being a student in Lifeteen, freshman through junior year, I absorbed a lot of info and got close to some of the greatest people. As a small group leader this last year, I still felt like a student a lot of the time. I got the chance to sort through what I'd absorbed and really learn what it was I believed. I grew in my faith at the same time I was sharing it with some of the greatest kids I could have to call a small group. We had some kids come and go, but tonight I saw how we became a little Sunday night family. To begin the year, I was afraid. Still kind of figuring out the direction of my faith and leading a class of freshmen on my own at the same time was really daunting. Today, in mingling with each other near the end of the night, I heard the bits and pieces that we all took away from this year. In talking about the weekend, learning how to pray, discussing marriage and eating a few sugar cookies, my only hope is that these kids, my kids, learned a little something and want to keep coming back to learn even more. It was because of some of my own teachers that I kept coming back. I am so grateful to have had teachers and these kids this year who gave me the chance to share with them what I had to begin with and gave me so much more to know along the way.