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Three Summer Stretch small groups—such as this one on the cover—planted 500 pine saplings along Lord of Life’s campus perimeter. It’s a great analogy for the Children, Youth & Family department’s mission. All of us may not see trees (or children!) reach full maturity— yet still seedlings are planted & nurtured for the future. Lord of Life believes in youth and invests in faith formation. And this month, it is very exciting to invite all adults to enter a faith formation journey with The Story (see Pastor Joel’s lead article)! The August issue traditionally features youth in summer programming; this month is no different. Lord of Life’s children and youth were in Adventure Week, Vacation Bible School (VBS) for preschoolers/kindergarteners, and Summer Stretch. Occurring during August is also a middle school mission trip to Milwaukee, WI, and more VBS for elementary ages. Whew! May we also learn about Finding Balance in Bible 101 by Brian Schroeder (Pages 10-11)!
—Bev Mello
ENTER THE STORY.................................................................2-3 BIBLE 101: FINDING BALANCE ............................................4-5 PRESCHOOL - KINDERGARTEN VBS.....................................6-7 ADVENTURE WEEK................................................................8-9 SUMMER STRETCH / CONTACT US..................................10-11 WHICH IS BEST COMPASS FOR YOU & YOUR FAITH?......... 12 2
E N T E R by Lead Pastor Joel Wight Hoogheem (joel@lordoflife.org)
Our brains are wired to make connections. I recently attended a conference where I did not know any of the other attendees. Whenever I’d meet another new person, I found myself trying to find connections between them and me. Hometown, family situation, job history, what have you. What I found was that I was able to make connections with each person I met since our shared humanity gave us a common space. It was up to me to find out what it was. This all points to ideas about our identity. Who are you? Who are we? And maybe most importantly, whose are you? Beginning this fall, you will have the opportunity to make all those connections within the biblical story. As people of faith, we want to understand how we’re connected to God’s grand story. Lord of Life will be using a great resource called The Story as a way for us to learn about the scope of the entire Bible and see just how we fit into God’s story. (Spoiler alert about whose we are: we are God’s!) The Story is both a great resource and the journey we’ll be taking over the next eight months. We will travel through the entire Bible over 31 weeks, from Genesis to Revelation. We will hear of God’s promises and love. We will connect with imperfect biblical characters who wrestle with similar issues to what we do today. We will be
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