Confirmation 2012

Last week three other sponsors and I took our confirmands on a week long hiking trip in the mountains of Colorado.  When I signed us up for this trip I had no idea how incredibly hard it would be.  When I was a kid my parents took us camping and for day hikes every summer, but this was my first experience backpacking.  There is no comparison in the two.  Backpacking is much more difficult than simply camping.

But in spite of the difficulty and labor that was exerted by all of us, we manged to have a fantastic time. Take time to look at these pictures and see these kids on the trip.

Here we are with the Great I AM.  This was the day before we headed out for our trip.

First day of backpacking.  "Our" mountain is the one on the right.

Mykaylee taking a short break.

Riley the trailblazer.

We finally made it into the national Forest.

Heading up the mountain.  Unfortunately, we missed our turn.  But it was gorgeous 

Chase resting up for the next leg of the journey.

Coach Josh Damron scouting ahead.  

Shannon enjoying the view.

Anyone who knows me is not surprised by a flower picture.

Alec and Sarah on break.

Alec and Sam enjoying a cool dip after hiking.

Chase and Vickie resting at lunch.

Cathy and Chase are up to something...

Abby and Mykaylee having fun after we got back.

A proud moment...we made it to a great look out.  It was incredible.

On July 8th, we will have our Confirmation service.  These young people will take their vows to the church and they will become full members of the UMC.  I cannot explain how much I learned from these kids and how much they mean to me.  On one of the evenings at camp, we talked about what we learned from Confirmation this year.  I learned to respect, care about, and love all eight of these youngsters.  I am so proud of them for everything they learned and accomplished these last few months.  It is my pleasure to have been their pastor through this process and I am so excited to see where God leads them over the coming years.

Here is "their" passage from 1 Timothy, "Let no one despise your youth, but set the believers an example in speech and conduct, in love, in faith, in purity."--4:12

A blessing for UMC Confirmation Class 2012
May the good Lord be with you 
Down every road you roam 
And may sunshine and happiness 
Surround you when you're far from home 
And may you grow to be proud 
Dignified and true 
And do unto others 
As you'd have done to you 
Be courageous and be brave 
And in my heart you'll always stay 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 

May good fortune be with you 
May your guiding light be strong 
Build a stairway to heaven 
With a prince or a vagabond 

And may you never love in vain 
And in my heart you'll always remain 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young 
Forever young 

And when you finally fly away 
I'll be hoping that I served you well 
For all the wisdom of a lifetime 
No one can ever tell 

But whatever road you choose 
I'm right behind you, win or lose 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 
Forever young, forever young 
For, forever young, forever young




Proudly dedicated to Sam, Mykaylee, Alec, Abby, Riley, Sarah, Chase, and Vickie

Print Page

Jaya Ho!

This next week marks an important time in the life of Haskell UMC.  Since Ash Wednesday, I have been teaching a confirmation class on Wednesday afternoons.  With the help of a few volunteers, 8 youth from our church have been exploring Christianity, faith, worship, Scripture, Methodism, and spiritual growth.  These young people have inspired me, challenged me, and have made me laugh throughout our time together.

One of the lessons on worship that we explored together gave us an interesting activity to work on.  Few Methodists may be aware of the fact that John Wesley was somewhat of a control freak.  One example of that is found on page vii of the UM hymnal.  On this page are written John Wesley's "Directions For Singing."  These directions were written by Wesley himself instructing his Methodist Movement the proper way to sing when they came together.  Honestly, these instructions are really good.  They tell the singers to sing in harmony, to follow the words, and to make sure to sing with excitement and a desire to honor God.

Well, the activity that was included in the lesson was for the confirmands to practice singing songs from the hymnal.  We divided the class into two teams.  One team pulled a rule from a hat and had to break it.  The other team was supposed to guess which rule was being broken.  The boys team (of course) got up to sing a song and they began to chant "Jaya Ho! Jaya Ho! Jaya Ho!"  The girls team couldn't figure out which rule they were breaking and I couldn't figure out which song they were singing.  They were giggling so hard that they never could get their act together.

When we finished the game I asked them which song that was and they told me to turn to number 478.  Sure enough, the song is called Jaya Ho.  It was a song written many years ago and translated from Hindi into English.  Apparently, it was a song that was quite popular during the 1950's.  Here are the English lyrics:

We come before thee, O Great and Holy,
We bow our heads to thee, Great and Holy,
Low at thy feet we bow in quiet reverence,
then sing thy praises, evermore repeating:

Lord, let us see thee, grant us a vision!
Sins and denials, dear Lord forgive us.
Take us and keep us in they strong protection;
safe in they refuge, we will sing they praises.

When those boys chose this song to chant, they were being silly.  However, I believe that the Holy Spirit led them to this song.  I find in these words exactly what Confirmation is really about.  It is learning who is supposed to be first in our life.  It is growing in our relationship with our King.  It is about knowing our place in his realm.  Confirmation is about accepting God's forgiveness and seeking out his vision for our lives.  It is about learning to trust in him and spending our lives singing praises.

So Cathy and I have adopted this song as the theme for our upcoming hike.  It will show up in the lessons and other activities next week.  You see, Jaya Ho, roughly translated, means "Victory Song."  And as these boys and girls become men and women of faith the song they will be singing is a victory song.  Until next time...Jaya Ho!




Print Page