Engaging Young Adults

I think one of the greatest disservices we make to young people is to make assumptions.  Jim and I were talking recently about kids from our church who might be coming home from their first year at college in a few weeks, and how we can make no assumptions as we converse with them.  

It reminded me of an article I read a few years ago.    (https://fulleryouthinstitute.org/blog/connecting-with-college-students?utm_sq=)

They’ve tasted life on their own, made their own decisions, set their own hours, navigated their own dilemmas, encountered their own relationships, and resourced their own challenges.

Another resource that might help us engage the young adults who are returning to family events or the church where they grew up is the book, The Six Conversations: Pathways to Connecting in an Age of Isolation and Incivility. 

Social media does us another disservice. We might not have seen a "friend" on social media in y-e-a-r-s in real life. It's easy to assume they are in the same place where they were the last time we saw them. 

But usually they're not. Sometimes there are clues, but that's all there is. There usually isn't a social media announcement, "Hey, family & friends, just want to let you know that I have x, y, or z." Insert any belief, activity, or life change that might be frowned upon by their "old" friends or family of origin.  

When we engage with friends on social media, assuming they still believe everything we think they once believed, we are doing a disservice. 

When we engage with adults whom we knew as little kids (either our friends' or relatives' grown children or the grown ups to whom we once taught 1st grade Sunday school) either in real life or on social media, assuming they still believe everything we think they once believed, we are doing a disservice. 

Let's love well.  Feel free to share tips. I'm convicted, but not yet clear how to move forward other than to listen.  

Fall in our yard

The original owners of our house planted a row of evergreens along two sides of our yard.  But I'm very thankful we planted two maples when LG was a baby!

I grew up with four stately maples flanking the corners of our yard, so I am partial to maples.  

I am enjoying the variety of a yellow maple (sugar maple) and a red one. 

Jim walked in for lunch and was awestruck by how ablaze the sugar maple was.  I can't tell if part of it were truly green a few hours earlier (see last photo) or if the lighting makes it look that way.  

We're thankful for evergreens so we have some color (ha!) during the drab winter, but during fall, I'm thankful for our maples! 

Perspective & post-traumatic growth

A friend posted on Facebook recently about a person in the news whose struggle profoundly changed him. She wrote:

He stated that his struggle led to "post-traumatic growth." While I've not heard this phrase, it is akin to the phrase I have written on my prayer list, posted right beside my desk, "make it count." When we have trauma, struggles, disappointments, how can they lead to growth? How can they lead to a changed perspective on life? How can they lead to a ministry opportunity?

What a hope-filled perspective! And it reminds me of the Lord's ability to do more than we ask or imagine ... and redeem even the hardest of circumstances. 

What are your struggles, disappointments, and traumas? What is the Lord doing to bring redemption and growth through His power & love which does more than we ask or imagine?  We each have a story. 

1000 Gifts, Vol. 7, #68

661.  morning light coming through the windows

662.  Maple Street in our village lives up to its name! Every morning I drive down Maple Street after dropping the children off at school and I wish I could take photographs, though I doubt my iPhone would do the beauty justice

663.  knowing that I still have the gingko tree on my route to look forward to in coming weeks! 

664.  a drainer full of hand-washed dishes (fewer things in life give me as much satisfaction!)

665.  freshly laundered sheets & blankets 

666.  my alarm going off at 9.38, stopping to pray, and knowing that hundreds from our church are doing the same

667.  the last of this year's crop harvested!!

668.  health insurance agents and people who remind me to trust in the God who unravels mysteries [absolutely no good solution for our health insurance for 2026, that we can see]

669.  the thrill of watching a beginning reader find verses in her Bible and read (as much as she can) for Awana homework

670.  seeing firsthand the good providence of God

Cousins

Who are your cousins? How often do you see them?

When I was little, our cousins would come "home" from boarding school for Christmas and sometimes summer vacations. Anticipation was HIGH!  And we knew fun would be had! 

We also would drive 600 miles to "see our cousins" when we went to visit Grandma. 

Our own children get excited to see their cousins. "Will the cousins be there?" they always ask before we go to Grandpa's.  

We went to Grandpa's Sunday night. They knew only one cousin (in her early 20s) would be there, but then saw their second cousins pull up and shouted, "Our cousins are here!" [Their dad is Jim's cousin and an only child. We agreed early on that our children would call them Aunt and Uncle and vice versa.]

While at Grandpa's, I was speaking with one of Jim's cousins about her Christmas plans (and those of her children & grandchildren).  I mentioned how much our children love playing with her grandson. She said, "He loves being with them, too. He calls them his cousins." 

The lines get blurry between first cousins, second cousins, and second cousins once removed, etc. (although never for my dad). :) 

We were actually at Grandpa's Sunday night because of a cousin visiting from Oregon! 

Almost 100 years ago Jim's grandmother came from Oregon to the Midwest to marry Jim's grandfather.  Jim's Grandma was one of four siblings.  

And for decades, members of Jim's extended family took turns traveling to Oregon annually for the family reunion.  No one has done so in recent years.  But one of Jim's Grandma's nephews and his wife flew to the Midwest to visit for a few days to see family.  (He and his wife also came about a dozen years ago.)

It's easy to lose touch with cousins who grow up across the country, but it was heartwarming to see Jim's 95 year old dad reminiscing with his 80 year old cousin whom he has only seen at family reunions.

9:38 AM

Sunday morning. 

Adult Sunday School class. 

Crowded room.

Teenagers all the way up to a 99 year old. 

Panel discussion. 

Two young people who spent the summer with missionary couples working among unreached people groups, one in Asia and one in Africa.

One married couple who is reeling from being denied access to return to their field of service where they had been for the past 17 years (also among an unreached people group). 

A gray-haired enthusiastic farmer seriously yet enthusiastically moderating the panel and asking insightful questions. 

As the 17-year-veteran missionary was in the middle of an answer, all of a sudden, the room was filled with chimes, melodies, bells, and beeps of various ring tones. 

Mr. O pulled out his phone, turned his alarm off, and, without missing a beat, said, "It's 9:38. Those of us who were here yesterday were challenged to set an alarm on our phone for 9:38 everyday and take 9-38 seconds to pray for laborers, as it says in Matthew 9:38, so let's pray. Lord, we acknowledge that you are the Lord of the harvest, and the fields are ripe. There are so many millions who haven't heard. Would you please send laborers to these three villages we represent on the panel, that people will hear the good news and believe? And would you raise up workers to go from this church? Amen. Okay, where was I?" And he continued. 

Would you consider setting an alarm for 9:38 AM (or PM) for the next 30 days to do the same?  We were challenged to pick one continent, one country on that continent, & one missionary in that country, for whom we will pray for teammates. We were also encouraged to pray that the Lord will raise up harvest workers to go from our church. 

Therefore pray earnestly to the Lord of the harvest to send out laborers into his harvest.

A godly heritage

 ::reprint from November 27, 2012::

In the past three months, we have attended the funerals of two of our siblings' in-laws, an aunt has passed away, an aunt and a parent have fallen, and another aunt grows weaker daily.

With most of our parents and their siblings (and many of our siblings' in-laws) in the 75-85 year range, this is the season we are in.

And God gives grace.  And He teaches us ... through the example of their caregivers, through questions nieces ask (and we are privileged to answer), and through the built-in time of reflection ... reflection on both the lives and examples of these saints, but also reflection on the Gospel and the anticipation of heaven. 

One obituary began:

So-and-so passed away at [age] ... .  She met Jesus face to face on [date].  She is survived by...

 She met Jesus face to face!

I still get chills every time I remember that sentence in her obituary. 

Sunday night we sat in a pew behind my in-laws, two aunts and two uncles, a distant cousin, and a close family friend, all of whom are in the 75-85 range, as we listened to heavenly arrangements of Christmas music.  The music was indeed heavenly, but I was overwhelmed thinking of the hundreds of years represented in that pew of walking with and living for Immanuel, God with us! ... and of the legacy they have given us ... and the decades and decades of prayer for Jim (and by extension, for me).

John Newton wrote 350 years ago:

Show me what I have to do,
Every hour my strength renew:
Let me live a life of faith,
Let me die Thy people’s death;
Let me die Thy people’s death.

I am thankful for those who go before us who live a life of faith and those who have gone before us who died "Thy people's death."

This stanza from Newton's hymn is a great prayer!