lots of hugs and free grub

Graduation parties were the theme of the weekend. Kim and I have been here at Calvary for 8 full school years. Every year, our number of graduation party invitations have grown (along with wedding invitations!). Some of them have been up-scale fancy soirées; others feel more like a family picnic with volleyball and lots of sweaty little kids running around chasing each other. It's a great chance to celebrate a milestone with our students.

Our student ministry gave our grads nice leather journals to help them track what God is doing in their lives. I hope that those journals get filled to overflowing with the stories of God on the move, transformation, love and good deeds.

We are blessed to see young people grow in their faith every year. Student ministry is sort of funny in that there's not a finish line. I guess a lot of ministry is like that. We don't often get to see the finished product. There's seldom a sense of "Whew, good job. Well done." But graduation sort of gives us a finish line, at least as far as our input to the students' lives. The grads will soon be off to school or work, taking first steps into the next adventure of their lives. Graduation gives us the opportunity to look back on the last seven years of their lives, to remember some of the good times, great decisions, victories and failures...It's good to be able to trace the hand of God in the lives of our students.

And the Clem's BBQ is always a plus...