Impact 2024

Article by Jonathan Scheffrahn
Photos Captured by Jonathan Scheffrahn & Julia Holdeman

AUTHOR: JONATHAN SCHEFFRAHN

Do you remember how Middle School felt? It is a time of body changes, emotional changes, life changes, and faith changes. On October 8th and 9th we hosted our Middle School retreat that we call Impact because our hope is that every student who attends is impacted by the reality of Jesus and His love for each of them. We have a diverse youth ministry with different students all dealing with different things. We have students who are having a hard time at school, students with family drama at home, students with loved ones fighting cancer, and students just trying to figure out if anyone wants to be their friend.

Pastor Jonathan began the retreat with a lesson on the extravagant love of God for each one of them. This is foundational to a healthy life and we wanted to make sure every student began their impact journey secure in God’s love. But let’s face it, we all wanted to be accepted by our friends and we planned many activities throughout the weekend where we saw students accept one another, encourage one another, and laugh with one another. Deeper bonds of friendship form after one retreat than months and months of attending youth meetings.

A real test came at the end of the retreat as the middle school band was going to lead worship in front of their peers and a key song was Lauren Daigle’s Who You Say I Am. It is hard to get up in front of your peers and lead worship, risking making a mistake and your peers laughing at you. We were so proud of the worship team that came prepared and closed out our retreat with their focus on Jesus.

Our prayer is that the seeds from Impact 2024 will continue to grow in the lives of the students who attended. Our desire is that the verses and truths spoken at Focus will continue to impact now in situations where they need it and also for years and years to come.