Sunday, May 04, 2008

Confirmation

Today is Confirmation Day. Each of the mentors is supposed to spend a minute or so introducing "our" confirmand. Here's what I've written about mine:
How can I sum up [D.]? A few of you know her already, and I hope that many of you at least recognize her. [D.] began her journey with [our church] when she was in middle school by coming to [youth group], about four years ago. Over the years, she has become more involved in lots of other church-related events here.

But, this is the unusual thing: [D.] had already been confirmed at ... [the] Methodist Church before she began attending here. Normally, when joining our church anyone who has been confirmed simply transfers membership. However, [D.] really felt that she would prefer to take another run at learning about what it means to follow Christ before joining our congregation.

Getting to know [D.] has been an eye-opening experience for me. Each time we met “for an hour” we usually spent 2 or 3 hours together because we’d always end up talking about school, the future, and (shhhh!) boys.

However, her faith is solid and clear. She has accomplished spiritual growth and learning by her own choice and with her own drive: for instance, in 2007 she read the entire Bible in a year on her own. I think that shows her determination and craving for discernment and direction from God. I hasten to add that she is also a lot of fun to hang out with, and may be one of the most realistically cheerful people I know.

One thing [D.] has reiterated many times in our confirmation time together is that she doesn’t know the names of many people in our family of faith. I know that we welcome all newly adopted members just as we welcome those who grew up with us. [D.]—or “Braids” as she was called on the [mission trip] last summer—will be a joyful addition to our congregation.
I'm really proud of her. She is a delight, certainly not without her faults--she is, after all, a teenage girl--but she has helped make the past 6 months a little more bearable.

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