Confirmands’

Faith Statements

May 18 & 19, 2019

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Sean Barta

Arika Beckman

Evelyn Donnon

Taylor Fangman

Logan Farrington

Taylor Hartnett

McKenzy Johnson

Gavin MacFarland

Kayla Mumpy

Claudia Proctor

Lauren Stucky

Rachel Thomson

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Sean Barta

Bible Verse: Philippians 4:13- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me. Meaning to me: Because I know Christ is with me, I know that He will give me the strength to complete anything I set out to do. Hi, my name is Sean Barta, I am 13 and am an 8th grader at West Middle School and before I came to this program, I wasn’t sure what it truly meant to be a Christian. But after being surrounded by all these amazing people, I was led on to a path that showed me a way to walk myself into the Christian life. Before I Started Confirmation, I would always use Gods name in vain not knowing the true meaning of what I was really saying. Now living and having active faith in Jesus Christ I haven’t used Gods name in vain. My relationship with Jesus Christ has impacted my relationship with friends and family making me more-kind, and willing to give back and do more for people that have made a huge impact in my life. Sports has helped me grow in my faith as well. What I’ve learned from my experience in sports has helped me in ways I can’t even explain. Philippians 4:13- I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me has helped me with that too. What I’ve learned from my verse is that no matter what I do in my life, whether that be playing basketball or baseball, I’ve learned that if I use my faith, it will strengthen me in many different ways I’ve never felt before. Baseball being my biggest passion, I have learned to use that strength and help me play better. What I do now is pray before all of my games, because if I know that Christ is with me, I know that I will never fail. I know that all of our paths will take different turns in life, but we will be bound together by our faith. Our grace and forgiveness towards others and our passion to serve Christ will always be first and foremost. But those will also be the things that get us through our struggles and accomplishments, until the end. Big Thanks to my family, Pastor Rod, Ms. Lindsey, Ms. Brenda and Ms. Denise for all the support they have given me through this wonderful journey. -Thank you.

Arika Beckman

My name is Arika Beckman, I’m 13 years old, and my bible verse is: 1 Corinthians 13:4-8. Love is patient; love is kind; love is not envious or boastful or arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice in wrongdoing, but rejoices in the truth. It bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends. These verses are about what love is… not what it should be. What love is. Because the Bible is always telling us what we should do… commandments we should follow, prayers we should say, but

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this verse isn’t telling us what we should do. It’s telling us to keep doing what we already know. When we love one another, we are not arrogant. We are forgiving. We’re patient and caring. We don’t show off to everyone like, “Hey I love this person.” It’s not everybody’s business. It’s between you and the person or people you love. Romantic love, friendly love, family love - the verses apply to each type of love. If you’re showing off to everybody like, “Hey! I’m friends with this person. That means I’m popular now.” You don’t actually love them. You’re just using them for street cred, and that’s just not right. Love is about being humble about your love. Not picking out the most popular or famous person, but talking to and becoming friends with people you share interests with, then you can develop a bond and respect for each other, which can later bloom into love, whether it be romantic or not. A while ago in confirmation, we read 1 Corinthians chapter 13 verse 4 in our small group. Brenda said “what I like to do is instead of saying ‘love’, I like to put my name, or ‘I’ in its place in the verse; like I am patient, I am kind, I am not arrogant. And then check to see if it’s true about myself. And if it’s not, then that’s something to work toward, like not being arrogant, but being patient.” Then someone said, "What if we put God’s name in the verse instead of love or our own name? Like God is patient, God is kind, God is not arrogant.” Brenda said it’s all true because God is love. 1 John chapter 4 verse 7, “Beloved, let us love one another, because love is from God; everyone who loves is born of God and knows God.” reminds me that God made everyone to love. And that everyone who does love knows God, and God knows them through love, because God is love. God works through love if we open our hearts up to love others, but you can’t close your heart to love. Once it’s opened, it’s opened. You can’t not love after you’ve felt it. So we have to open our hearts to be ready and able to receive love, in order to receive God’s love and feel God’s works. It’s one thing to be ready but if you don’t have the ability or strength to receive love, you can’t truly be ready. There are two sides of the same coin. One side is for yourself to try to be the best person you can be. You have to try to be as patient, non-judgmental, and humble as you can. Then there’s the flip side of the coin. You have to be patient with others. You can’t succumb to anger when they accidentally make a mistake. Thank you all for listening to me say ‘love’ every other word in my faith statement. And that’s why I think Jesus is like a popsicle. Thanks, dad.

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Evelyn Donnon

Faith is our choice to believe in something that might not be able to be proven. Something that you have a passion for and you believe in so much but it doesn't consume you. My name is Evy Donnon. Joshua 1:9 says, “Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be afraid: do not be discouraged, for the lord your God will be with you wherever you go.” Many of us in confirmation have been going to church for the majority of our lives. As children we have always been told “you are a child of God” and “God loves you”. Still is that enough to just know that God loves us? Isn’t it what we do with it? All of us as confirmands have grown together in many ways in the past three years and we have learned so much. My faith has been able to grow in ways that I might not be able to understand right now, but I know that my personal problems have been made easier with the support that I feel from God. It is easy to just feel that we are not alone that I always have someone in our corner even if I don’t feel that he is there. When I don’t feel like I can talk to anyone I can talk to God through prayer. We have been encouraged in our faith but have also learned that it is okay to be discouraged in your faith after losing someone that means something to you. No matter big or small everyone in our group has been through something that has made us distance ourselves from God even if just the slightest bit. Our belief has gotten us through it. Our church community has not wavered in their support since the beginning of our journey. They have helped me in ways that I might not have believed at the beginning of my journey back in 6th grade. My mentor has helped me on a one on one level that has been unbelievably helpful being able to get someone else's point of view on faith and what it can mean. I don’t know everything all I know is that I’m still figuring it out. I know that we can’t pick and choose pieces of our faith, but sometimes we do. We have learned how to express all parts of our faith and how to love God in our own way. I have learned that no matter what being courageous in my faith can make me feel closer to God and can help me when I need it and when I don’t think I do.

Taylor Fangman

Good Morning, my name is Taylor Fangman. I am an 8th Grader at Cimarron Middle School. As many of you may recall from the Youth Lead Service, I shared how my grandpa, who we called Far Far had passed away about 2 years ago. I never realized how important he was to me until the morning of July 13, when I got the call from my mom that he had passed away. After

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his passing, I was mad at God. I felt abandoned by God. My faith journey took a small detour. I didn’t enjoy going to church and confirmation as much as I used to. It was a year later when in Nebraska, my sisters and cousins were having a lot of fun making a music video to the song “Forgiven” by Crowder which was played at my grandpa’s funeral. I was spiritually torn. How could they enjoy something that had brought me so much struggle with my faith journey? That same night my Mor Mor (our Danish nickname for grandma) noticed something was bothering me. She said something that got me back on track with my faith journey, “Even when you are not feeling close to God he is always there with you forever and always”. That evening I realized that God is always with me and he will give me the strength to get through anything. This reminds me of Isaiah 41:10 “Do not fear, for I am with you, do not be afraid, for I am your God; I will strengthen you, I will help you, I will uphold you with my victorious right hand”. God is strong enough bear anything I am dealing with. I am also reminded of this, through a song by my favorite Christian Group, For King and Country called “Shoulders”. So, here I am, after 3 years of confirmation classes, with tons of love and support from my family, friends and my church, especially Pastor Rod and Lindsey and you would think my faith journey was complete. What I have realized is that my faith journey continues to evolve every day. I look forward to continuing to grow with all of you in my faith and relationship with Christ. Thank you.

Logan Farrington

Hello, and thank you all for coming here today. I am Logan Farrington and I am an 8th grader at Cimarron Middle School. I am here to share with you what my faith has been like so far in my life. Faith is a small word with a big meaning. The definition of faith is to believe in God’s promises, and to rely on his characteristics to control your life. To me, faith is like a crazy roller coaster. Sometimes it can be easy to believe in God, but in others, I feel like God isn’t there. For example, when the Denver Nuggets win, I know that God’s hand is there to help guide the team to victory, but when the Denver Nuggets lose; it can be hard to remember that he’s here. When something goes wrong it’s not that I feel that God forgot about me, but I feel that he needed to take care of a different issue in someone else’s life. In reality, he’s always there but maybe I just can’t see him as well. A few years ago I moved from Florida to Colorado which was also when I changed from a Lutheran school to a public school. This was a very hard transition

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because I went to a Lutheran school all my life, and to change to a public school was very hard to keep my strong faith. Not very many people at my school care much about their religion or their actions. I had to make sure to keep my boundaries that I had as a Lutheran school student. At first it was very hard, but people accepted the way I acted. I realized that if I was my true self I would gain many friends. This is why I chose my bible verse, Philippians 4:13, “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me”. This verse has helped me a lot on the sport side. Whether it’s basketball or lacrosse, I always repeat this verse to myself before each game. I have especially relied on this verse when we moved to Colorado because the lacrosse is way more competitive. All of the kids have been playing their whole lives which wasn’t really the case in Florida. Whenever I feel afraid or nervous I always know that I can do anything possible with the strength of God at my side. I know that I can trust God to give me strength to put the extra time in my sports while maintaining good grades in school. This can be very hard at times, but in my family, being a well-rounded person is required of me. No matter how hard I work there is always room for improvement. My family has really helped guide me through my path as a Christian. If my family didn’t attend Joy Lutheran Church I’m not sure where my faith would be. And of course if it weren’t for the awesome staff here. I want to give a big thank you to Lindsey, P-Rod, Brenda, Denise, and my mentor, Jeff. These people have all helped me understand myself and God more than I did before I took this confirmation class. In conclusion, I’ve had a lot of ups and downs in my faith, but I’m really starting to see a huge increase thanks to Joy. I hope that with everything I have learned in this great community, I can continue to help and serve others in need. I know that God will always help guide me for every step I take. Thank you!

Taylor Hartnett

Hello, my name is Taylor Hartnett, I am an 8th grader at Cimarron Middle School in Parker, CO. I play for the Select Castle Rock Rapids soccer team. I have learned a lot about God in my faith journey throughout my three years of confirmation. The bible verse that has touched me the most is Psalm 100:5 “For the Lord is good; his steadfast love endures forever, and his faithfulness to all generations.” Ever since I was little, my family has passed down values and teachings about God. My grandmother, Bubba, passed down these lessons to my dad and uncle, who have been passed down to me. The past year was very difficult for my family and I. We unexpectedly lost Bubba, my grandmother. This was hard because I was super close to

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her and did everything with her. Before this happened, my uncle was served divorce papers. Even though this was a difficult time for my family, and I God helped us through. I wear my cross every day in memory of Bubba and to show God that my faith and trust is in him. This bible verse means so much for me because it shows me that God loves us forever and will always have faith in us. Even though Bubba is not here today, I know that her love and faithfulness in me will be passed down for generations just like it was for her. When I lost Bubba, it was very difficult to see the positive side and know that God is with me. Being strong and courageous through this hard time was a big part of my faith journey. Another bible verse that has meant a lot for me is Joshua 1:9, “I hereby command you; Be strong and courageous; do not be frightened or dismayed for the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.” This bible verse shows me that no matter the circumstances, God will be with me and will put his faith in me. I would not be who I am today without my faith journey. My adventure would not be possible through, if it were not for my parents, my uncle, my sister, my great grandma, Brenda, my leaders, my friends, Lindsey, Pastor Rod, and Bubba. All of these people have helped me gain my faith and understand the Lord better. I would like to give my thanks, because God’s faithfulness is shown in al generations, especially in mine. Thank you.

McKenzy Johnson

Hi, my name is McKenzy Johnson. I am 14 years old. I have a little brother named Kale. He was my first best friend. He was nine years old when he passed away July 28, 2018, from a bicycle accident. Once the accident happened I never knew something so special, important and the pieces to my heart, the one I have grown up with since I was four years old, would be gone in the snap of God’s fingers. At least that’s how it feels. I learned about 1 Timothy 6:12... The Verse states, “fight the good fight of the faith, take hold of the eternal life, to which you were called in for which you made a good confession in the presence of many witnesses”. I believe that there is truth to this verse. I believe my little brother is telling me it’s worth it to fight the good fight, to hold onto faith and each other and in the presence of many witnesses, people I am going to meet along the way. To me, this means to have faith so that I can have hope. Hope to me, is learning that I am taking part of Kale’s Journey. It’s a journey in faith that is between me and Kale and God. I am also learning that life isn’t fair. I think that’s why faith is so important.

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It’s God’s way of giving us resilience. If you have resilience, then you can find hope. And if you have hope, then you will find faith. And that’s what faith is to me. Thank you to my mom and dad for helping me find my faith and what is important to keep fighting the good fight for. Thank you to my friends for giving me friendship during this time in my life. And thank you to everyone at Joy Lutheran for helping me learn to walk the walk in faith.

Gavin MacFarland

Hello everyone, and thanks for coming today. My name is Gavin MacFarland and I am an 8th grade student at Cimarron Middle School. Faith is a word with a lot of meanings but to me it is trusting in God and believing that He knows what He is doing. I think faith is easy to believe in when good things happen in your life. It’s easy to believe in God when I win my soccer game or get something I want. It’s easy to believe that He was with me, helping me have all that happiness. My faith can easily go down, like when times are tough. And while my mom and dad tell me that my life isn’t that tough, I feel that life is pretty bad when I lose my soccer game or something really important to me breaks or gets lost. If I ever find myself questioning God, it helps to believe that what happens in life is meant to happen for a reason. It helps me to believe that God needed me to experience those difficult times, even if I can’t understand why. During the times when I have felt my faith wavering, I could see myself regaining my faith back as time passed. It seems each time I question God, my faith grows stronger over time and the more trust I have in Him that He is always with me. “I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me.” Philippians 4:13. This verse has gotten me through things that were hard for me to do at times, either because I was shy or scared or I just didn't believe in myself. It’s remembering that verse, that helps me push myself through an uncomfortable situation because I trust that I am not alone. I don’t think I would have had the strength to do many things if I didn’t hold that verse close to me and know that I would be okay in the end because God is with me. I see that faith is an up and down thing. But I also see that as I grow as a Christian, so does my faith.

Kayla Mumpy

Good evening everyone. My name is Kayla Mumpy. I am currently an 8th grader at American Academy located in Castle Pines, Colorado. Today, I chose two bible verses that are about how God lead me to be here today.

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The first one is Proverbs 3:6, “In all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.” The second is Psalm 119:105, “Your word is a lamp to my feet and a light to my path.” Today, I would like to tell you about my faith journey and how it relates to these bible verses. I have not gone to church my whole life, like most of my peers. I was baptized in another Lutheran church located in Highlands Ranch, Colorado. It was the same church my parents were married in. However, once my family moved to the Castle Pines area, that church was too far away. So, we didn’t attend church regularly for several years. We would attend my grandparent’s churches on holidays, but that was about the extent of it. After time went on, me and my family started to miss our “2nd home”. We started to search for a new church to attend on a regular basis. It took us a little while, but we eventually stumbled upon one called Joy Lutheran Church. My family and I wanted to find a church to attend for Christmas Eve services while our family from Phoenix, Arizona were visiting us. We started coming to services at Joy Lutheran and we absolutely loved it. This is the perfect example of God lighting my path for me and leading me to where I belong. Pastor Rod was amazing and the feeling of community throughout the church made us feel welcome. We continued to attend services and began to get to know other members of the church. Eventually we asked Lindsey about the confirmation process at Joy. She told us that it was a three-year program and the seventh graders were already in session. Although, I could attend the last year and just take some makeup classes, and that’s exactly what I did. When I did start confirmation, I didn’t know anybody and everyone else had known each other for at least three years. But, everyone made me feel welcome and loved. This is yet another example of how God pointed me down the right path. It was like I had been there for all three years. Besides all the amazing people in confirmation with me, I also enjoyed learning about God and making new friends. Lindsey and Pastor Rod made everything easy to understand and fun to learn about. In conclusion, I believe that God has led me to this wonderful church for the people and the learning experience. I feel like I have second home full of family who love and support me. I am so grateful for everything God has given me and for leading me on my path here today. Thank you to my parents, my mentor, my group leaders, Lindsey, and Pastor Rod for helping me through my confirmation process and making me feel loved. I will continue to learn about God and trust in His love for me.

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Claudia Proctor

Hello, my name is Claudia, and I go to American Academy. Almost three years ago, when I first heard I was starting confirmation class, I was extremely scared and a bit upset. To be honest, I wasn't looking forward to spending my Wednesday nights doing more learning after a long school day. And my first year wasn't too enjoyable; in addition, my faith was not that strong. At that point in my life, I had a very hard time connecting with God. In the middle of my 7th grade year, however, we had a major crisis in our family. My mom was diagnosed with cancer. This drastically changed me and forced me to really think about my perspective of God. I remember thinking, "Why me?" and "What did I do to deserve this?" and it really took me into a dark place. After much thought and prayer during this very stressful time for my family and I, I realized that God is the main thing that can help uplift me during the hard times in my life. The verse, Psalm 34:4, says, "I sought the lord, and he answered me and delivered me from all my fears." This verse made me open my eyes to see how much God loves me. Through thick and thin, God is always there to help me stand up when the tough battles in life get me down. My relationship with God grew deeper through prayer as I turned to him asking for strength and love for my mom. Overall, God helped give me, my family, and my mom support to beat her cancer. She's officially cancer free, thanks to God working through both me and my mom. Now, I know I'm always be able to turn to God during even the darkest times in my life. Joy Lutheran and the people who make up this church have helped me so much with my faith journey, and I am forever grateful to be a part of this church.

Lauren Stucky

Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” Hi everyone. I am Lauren Stucky. I am 13 years old, and this is my faith story. As you may know, last year was pretty tough for my family. Our whole family went into the hospital. When my dad was first diagnosed with colon cancer, it was pretty rough. Every night before bed I would talk to God about my dad getting better and how well he would heal. I felt horribly because I was helpless. I wasn’t able to help my dad heal. After long nights in the hospital, and stressful days, my dad finally healed. He had such an amazing recovery. So skipping ahead of time, in November my mom was in

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a car accident. I was on my way home from school and saw a car crushed. I told my friend, “wow that doesn’t look good. “When I got up the driveway, my dad said we have to go. I was so confused where we were going. I had asked my dad if my mom had heard the crash, he said, “she definitely heard it.” After that we started heading toward the hospital. By the time we got there I was shaking in fear. I couldn’t even look at my mom without tearing up. Her face was all bruised and it killed me. The next day, I’m not going to lie, I was kind of embarrassed to be with my mom. She looked kind of scary. Sorry Mom. But I knew it was going to get better because every day I knew God was watching over her. And in August… my sister then continued the chain. She went in the hospital on the 8th. It was the worst feeling in the world when she said to me, “I can’t walk.” My heart just immediately dropped. It was horrible to just think about how this happened to my best friend. Those first three to four weeks were the worst. I always thought about it, and I could never get it off my mind. It never left. It came in my heart at school, sports, and just in bed. Every time it would make me tear up. Sometimes more than other. Some were full cries. This incident definitely made me lose some hope in God. For those few weeks I dreaded going to confirmation. It was hard to listen at large group, when all I could think about was this. After that it got better day by day. My hope regained little by little. My verse really helped me realized that these things all happen for a reason. Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you, declares the Lord, plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” This verse really helped me to see how this was God’s plan. He made all this happen for a reason. Like the verse states, “plans to give you hope and a future” God made our family overcome these challenges to gain more love and hope in God. These challenges that we have conquered will definitely change our future. This has made my family become closer together. These challenges made me realize how much I need my family to become a better human being. This has also made me see how I rely on them to be able to continue my faith journey. These challenges have made me personally become closer to God. My family has definitely changed in a way were we have all been able to get closer to our God and we can and will benefit from it. There were many ups and downs during this process. But this has definitely changed our family for the better. I would like to leave you with this quote from Payton Manning, “My faith does not make me perfect, it makes me forgiven.”

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Rachel Thomson

Jeremiah 29:11, “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” As some of you may know, I went to a leadership camp this past summer called young RYLA. It stands for Rotary Youth Leadership Awards. I learned about this through Gail Lehrmann, she helped me through the process, and guided me along the way. In fact, she kept asking me since 6th grade. As you will hear, I owe a lot to Gail. The camp was a weeklong trip in the mountains where you would do team building activities with a group of complete strangers. By the end of your week you have 11 new friends that act like family. To get into the camp, there are 2 essays you need to write, and an interview. As I was coming closer to writing my essay, I wasn’t feeling like I wanted to go. I was too afraid to meet strangers I had to be with for a week. I am a shy person, and usually when I meet new people I am with at least one friend. I felt like I was going to be the girl who never said anything. But always in the back of my mind I knew I had to do it. So I decided to at least write an essay. Eventually I went through the interview process and I got an email that I was accepted. The first day I showed up, the trees and nature was so beautiful. I knew God was with me this whole week, and he knew I was ready for it even though I didn't think so at the time. The first day we were put into groups we had for the week. Immediately it felt like I could be myself around them, and I could tell them anything no matter what. As the week went on, we did lots of different team building activities. Our group never completed most of them, we couldn’t even complete a human knot. But the important thing was that we were working together. The whole week I could tell God was with me every step of the way, and helped me make new friends. The last night we did and activity where you stepped on stage if something applied to you. It started out with things like “go on stage if you are a girl or boy.” Eventually the question was “come on stage if you have ever had suicidal thoughts.” It was unbelievable how many people went up there, probably around 80. As people saw who was up there, everyone started crying. They were hugging each other, and telling them how amazing they were. I could feel the Holy Spirit surrounding the room with love. It was so empowering. God was with me through it all. Even though I didn’t want to go at the start he helped me through it, and now I have a group of people that are like family members to me. This is just one experience where God has shown me his plan. “For surely I know the plans I have for you, says the Lord, plans for your welfare

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and not for harm, to give you a future with hope.” My name is Rachel Thomson, Thank you.