Ahren's Confirmation

In the United Methodist Church the youth are given the opportunity to go through confirmation. It is a way to reestablish the promises made by families at baptism, and for the kids to take on a bit more responsability in their faith journey. They accept that they are now old enough and have enough information to decide if living a Christian life though their church is something they are willing to commit to. At the same time the congregation is asked to renew their promis to help and support the youth. Some kids choose to wait untill high school, but Ahren felt ready now. The boys went through 9 weeks of classes ( the woman in the picture above isn't one of the youth, she is our youth director) where they learned the different seasons of the chruch, how and why we celebrate certain things, the history of John Wesley, United Methodisim and our church here in Yakima. By the end of the process Ahren also had to write his personal credo explaining his beliefs. It was a very nice service on Sunday followed by cake, in true Methodist tradition - we do like to eat together! Ahren did a great job in leading the congregation in prayers and the call to worship. He also came all the way out of the 13 year-old funk to accept peoples congratulations and talk to everyone. There was a good deal of smiling from both the boys and their families. We are so proud of him.