By Ruella Barnes

John and I have been enjoying being involved with the High School Group ROOTED for the past few years. We have met and enjoyed many of the youth of our church, seen them grow as Christians and wished them much luck as they’ve gone off to colleges, universities and careers after graduating.

This month, we were given the opportunity, during Pastor Heerak’s vacation, to lead the group. Our topic this year has been Spiritual Gifts, and Heerak asked us to share our gifts with the group.

We decided to share our experiences with mission trips since the youth trip to North Carolina is coming up soon. We were blessed to be involved in a trip to Zimbabwe in 1997 and to have a video of our time there in the Murewa District. Our ROOTED youth got to see the church we helped to build in the village of Maponogwe. We were able to tell them about the people we met while there, and about some of the people on our team.

We cannot tell you how wonderful it is to spend time with the young people at Glen Mar and discover how curious they are and how much they look at life through the teachings of Jesus.

Spending even a short time on Sunday mornings with our youth reminds us of Luke 6:38;

Give, and you will receive. Your gift will return to you in full – pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over, and poured into your lap…”