24

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church 3920 North Victoria Street

Shoreview, Minnesota 55126 651.483.5419 | shepherdshoreview.org

Affirmation of Baptism

Sunday, October 29, 2017

1

Confirmation Faith Statements

2017

2

ORDER OF STATEMENTS: SAMUEL MAGNUSON ———————— PAGE 3 RANJANA MOSBY ———————— PAGE 6 SHELBY OLSON ————————–- PAGE 9 MOLLY SHWIFF ————————–— PAGE 13 CHLOE WAGENKNECHT ————— PAGE 15 BENJAMIN WEBB ————————– PAGE 18 LUKE WELSH ————————–—– PAGE 21

We extend a heartfelt thank you to Nina Welsh and Meg Gerlach, the adult leaders who have walked shoulder to shoulder with

our youth through their faith formation throughout the confirmation ministry here at

Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church.

23

character brings hope. And hope brings love and God's love will not disappoint us!” He truly lived out this verse and I hope that I can do the same because with that attitude, nothing can stop you. Other activities that I have done to help other people were playing with kids staying here during the Families Moving Forward program. I felt like the little boys really enjoyed having an older boy to play a makeshift basketball game with. In recent years, I have helped with Vacation Bible School and gone on mission trips to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area and this summer will go to Pine Ridge, South Dakota. I have also joined the Fix-it team during the summers. For me, these days included restocking the vending machine, cleaning the outdoor air-conditioning units, and meeting a lot of very nice people. This is where I first met Gary Ackert, who I later chose to be my second mentor in 8th grade. I believe that God is the creator of this wonderful, wonderful world. He gave his son, Jesus, to live as a human to set an example for us to follow so that we can live like God wants us to. During his life on earth, Jesus also brought us all salvation so that we could all be saved from sin. So, not only did Jesus set a fabulous example for us, but he also did it while saving us all. The Holy Spirit is the living aspect of God. The Holy Spirit is what influences our decisions so that we can make this world a better place. Baptism is how we are welcomed to the church. It was the very beginning of my faith journey in which I became a part of the church. Reading the bible helps me to learn about God, and how to better live my life. When reading, I learn of past experiences and stories that help to teach me how I can better live my life. Prayer is what brings me closer to God, when things are getting difficult, I know that God is always with me and he can make it better. When I get confirmed, it is the affirmation of baptism. To me, being confirmed means that I am now the person that is leading my faith journey. At Baptism, my parents and godparents said the vows that they would bring me to church and teach me about God, I then became part of the church. Being confirmed is the point in which I take over. I will now be in charge of learning about God and continuing to go to

22

Day in 2003, with my aunt Karen and my uncle Dennis being my Godparents. Every Mother’s Day we remember my baptism. Since then, I have been involved in numerous activities here at church. On Sundays, I was first in the nursery and then moved up to KidZone during my elementary years. During the rest of the week, I took part in On Fire services on Wednesdays and/or Saturdays. These services consisted of a lot of singing and dancing to a lot of catchy songs. Some of the song lyrics that I still remember are ‘we don’t like the devil cause the devil is a liar’....from the song Waves of Mercy. In my early years, Vacation Bible School was one of the highlights of my summers as I learned a lot and had a lot of fun. I also enjoyed dressing up as a shepherd at family camp at camp Wapo. I participated in many children’s musicals here during the summers, my favorite show being “Go, Go, Jonah” in which I played the part of Jonah. This part fit me perfectly because I didn’t have any speaking lines and I had to run around through the congregation. In the beginning years of the variety show, my small group and I made a skit that was about a certain bible story. The first was a parody of the creation story called “The Garden of Electronics.” In this adaptation, Eve was tempted by smart phones and tablets instead of the forbidden fruit. The following year, I starred as a lion in a spin on “Daniel and the Lion’s Den.” My small group has had a substantial impact on my faith journey. It allowed me to meet two other families from my church when I was only seven years old. I have grown up with the Magnusons and Winns and they now feel like aunts and uncle and cousins. The three families have tried to get together every month to strengthen our relationship with one another. I chose Mr. Winn to be my Lenten mentor for the spring of 7th grade. One person who was a role model to me in my faith journey so far has been my grandpa. Whenever we visited him and my grandma, I was always greeted by a warm hug and a contagious smile. A verse by which he lived by was Roman 5:3-5, in which it said, “We rejoice in our sufferings, because sufferings brings endurance. Endurance brings character, and

3

SAMUEL MAGNUSON My name is Sam Magnuson and I was born in Denver Colorado. I moved to Minnesota when I was 6 months old. My faith journey started the minute I was born. Faith has always been a large part of our extended family. I was baptized by my uncle ad my godparents are my uncle John and Aunt Jen. Faith has always been a huge part of our extended family. My uncle had baptized almost al of his grandchildren, nieces and nephews. Yet in my immediate family faith has always been a complicated subject for reasons that I will not get into here. Church for a while came across as an option in our family while in others it was not. My first real memory of faith was going to Sunday school and getting my very first bible. This was not much more than a story book. Yet my Mom would read it to me quite often. I always remembered the pictures that caught my attention because to be frank. I was a stupid toddler. I started to read later then a lot of other students in my class and these pictures helped my understand the stories and connect with the charters on a whole new level. Once I got my big bible everything changed. It was so big and intimidating and I choose to think that what was in my children's bible was all that was in the real bible. My ignorance was bliss. To me KidZone was always truly fun and a wonderful experience. It was also less boring than the normal service. Then one day that all changed, the church made a decision to make KidZone before service not during it. I would always remember not wanting to wake up that early and having to attend that long and boring service where this person had the audacity to just talk for a whole hour! Where was the coloring, where was the fun? As I got older church became less and less of a priority many other things got in the way. Swimming, baseball, sleep. I would remember laying in my bed until 10:05 so I would not have to go to church. Then there was a program for 5th graders. No matter how hard I tried I could never love that program. It may

4

have been the fact that It was brand new and people were still figuring things out. And it may have been the difficulty I had with one of the members. I remember one day I got a letter from the church that said that I was not attending this program and I should start to again. That letter did nothing to change the choice that I made and as I look back at it all the issues I had with that program seem small and insignificant. I feel like my faith as a younger child never really was that strongly Yet when I joined conformation and had to fill out sermon notes I started to attend church again. And guess what? I did not miss the coloring. Pastor Renee is a truly wonderful and inspiring person who I could just listen to. I really enjoyed church and would no longer sleep until 10:05 (on purpose). Once I even started to tell mom to wake me up for church. Now, different people’s faith takes many different forms. Here is what I personally believe. There is a father, son and holy spirit that make up what we perceive as god. Jesus, the son died for our sins. Baptism is the marking of a christian in faith. Holy communion is a way to remember Jesus, faith is voluntary. We need to offer ourselves to god to have a relationship with god. And finally Salvation. This was a topic of much discussion in confirmation. I believe that salvation is for all of god's creations because he loves all of us and would not create us and love us only to hate us. And these are all my opinions which is what I love about our church. You can have your own opinion about god and these things and you do not just have to believe what the pastor tells you. In conformation our leaders would always make is clear that there are no wrong answers and we all interpret faith differently. In our family we all have differing opinions about faith and that is okay. We all still love and support each other. To me conformation means that I am taking control of my faith. In our family after you are done with conformation. Attendance at church is your own decision between you and god. Conformation is really strengthening your relationship with god to the point where you no longer need you parents as mitigators. At this service I am confessing my faith in God. And taking control of my own faith. By being confirmed this was the first time that I really made my own faith based decisions and my parents did not make them for me. From now on it is my decision to come to

21

storm to pass, learn to dance in the rain.” She tries to overlook any challenges that she faces to keep helping everyone else in our family. My dad, Dave, also inspires me. My dad and I ride to school every day and he always encourages me to stay focused and stay on track with my goals. He is always willing to go out of his way to help me with whatever is going on. My dad enjoys giving back to others and doing service. He gives back to the South St. Paul school district in his job as a superintendent. He helped co-lead the last two Pastor call committees here at Shepherd. Overall, his support for me and our family is amazing, and so are his jokes. There have been lots of struggles and tough times throughout my journey of faith, but I always see God in the end, whether it’s a good or bad situation. Though I’ve only been alive for fourteen years, I’ve faced plenty of large challenges in my life, and I’m sure there are many more challenges to come. I’m not worried though, because I know God has his plans for me. LUKE WELSH Hello, I am Luke Welsh and this is my faith statement. My life began here in the Twin Cities on December 9th, 2002. I have lived in the same house with my mom, dad, and sister for all 14 years. My faith journey began here at Shepherd on Mother’s

20

forgive people, no matter what they’ve done to you. To me, faith is your relationship with God, and the strength of your relationship with God depends on the strength of your faith. I think that your faith gets stronger as you get older and experience more and more throughout your life. Another thing that comes to mind when I think of faith, is the trust that you have in God. If you trust God to keep your life on track and moving in the right direction, your faith in Him is strong. Your faith might be strong at times and weak at others, but God has a reason for everything. My Grandma Lois and Grandma Marylin have taught me a lot about faith, whether they knew they were influencing my faith or not. They’ve taught me that you should keep working towards your goals even if things get tough, and it will pay off in the end. Another thing I’ve learned from them is that you shouldn’t take anything for granted, because you never know what life has in store for you. My Grandma Lois has showed me that you should be respectful to everyone around you, though it may be tough at times. She always looks for the best in people. When we’re with her, she always checks in with us and asks us about any sports or activities we’re doing, or if we’ve had any big successes in school. My dad tells me that Grandma Lois used to say “If you can’t say something nice, don’t say it at all.” My Grandma Marylin is another person who has always been there for me. She is always positive and strives to stay optimistic. Her happiness is contagious for whoever’s around her. She really lives life to it’s fullest. Whenever we’re with her and something doesn’t go as planned, she calls it an adventure. She doesn’t worry about much, because she knows that worrying doesn’t help anything. My mom tells me that my Grandma Marilyn lives by the saying “This is the day the Lord has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it.” My Mom and Dad have also greatly impacted my faith. My mom has been through cancer twice, and she is a living miracle. She works very hard to make things the best for me and my family every day. My mom has a phrase that says “don’t wait for the

5

church. And my decision to attend refuel on Wednesday nights. In our house once you are confirmed it is you own choice to come to church and our parents will not attempt to persuade us or change our choice. When I first started conformation I never really understood the bible at all. I could nor even point out the holy land on a map. And one thing that I still do not understand is why us, jews and Muslims all pretend that we are all so different. We all originated from the same area, have the same creations story and follow the same god. We just disagree on what god does and what stories are true. Well after that I enjoy to swim, bike and run. And all of these things are the exact opposite of faith because you have an exact measure of your progress. It is you against the clock. You can easily see if you are improving. That is very different from faith where you need well, faith. You don't know if you are building your relationship with god immediately. It takes a while to feel the difference and there is no faith time standards or a faith time cut to make it. It is all subjective. I don't really have it figured out. But who really does. We cannot just ask god am I good with you and get a yes or no answer. Faith is complicated and we cannot treat it like it is a simple task. One more interest I have is bike repair. And last year and this year I will be offering tune ups at the auction and this may not be a direct way to serve god it at least helps our church and it is a fun hobby I enjoy. Now, many people after they get confirmed never come to church (like my sister.) Yet I feel like I really enjoy the people and community enough here that I will have a continued interest in attending refuel on Wednesdays. This is the church I have been attending for my whole life. Yet until it was never my church. It was my parent's church. Yet now I know that this is my church and I will continue to attend my church as much as I can.

6

RANJANA MOSBY Hello, My name is Ranjana Lily Mosby and I was born on October 6, 2001. I was born in Tumsar, India and was adopted when I was three years old by my loving parents who took physical custody of me on October twenty second of 2004. I like to call it my “surprise kidnapping”. We arrived here to quite the crowd on November fourth. My family consists of me, my mom, Julia, (the most religious, faithful person you will ever meet), my dad Mark, and two three legged dogs Jack and Chance.. My mom was raised Catholic and my dad was raised Lutheran. Jack and Chance are sort of.. A free spirits. Even though they can be the worst animal brothers in the world they have more faith than some people. They have faith in us ,the owners, considering they were abused by his previous owner(s) in Tennessee and Puerto Rico . They have enough faith to trust us. I started my faith journey later than others originally as a Catholic. My mom and I attended St. Cecilia's Catholic Church in St. Paul Minnesota. I was baptized there when I was eleven years old. There was a reason why my mom and dad wanted to wait to baptize me. When I came here from India, the only language I could speak was Marathi , my native language back in India and did not really understand the concept of religion therefore not understanding the purpose of baptism. My parents wanted me to understand the purpose of it. That, or they did not want me to have a traumatic experience. Imagine coming to a new place with strange people dumping water over your head and then everyone cheering. Which was a lot like my lack of experience with Santa Claus, they did not want me worrying about a giant man dressed in red and white com-ing into the house illegally via the chimney. Some of the things you need to consider when adopting an older child. My Godparents are my uncle Tom and Aunt Lisa from Chicago,

19

dropped me off. Then, awhile later when I was in Kindergarten, I was in my first church musical at Shepherd. Since I looked up to my sisters, I pretty much wanted to do whatever they were doing, which led me to joining the musical. It was fun, so I was in several of those musicals in the following years. Aside from my involvement in church events, I started going to Camp Wapo up in Amery, Wisconsin in 2nd grade. It’s a bible camp with tons of great counselors and campers. In 2nd and 3rd grade, I went to their weekend camp, and in 4th grade and up, I went for a full week. I really started learning more about my faith when I began attending the week-long camp. The first day you’re there, you learn everyone’s name and something cool about them. Then you play a few games with everyone in your cabin, and before you know it the next day is there. The 2nd day through the rest of the week, (other than meals) you have a couple bible studies where you learn lots about Jesus and just the Bible in general. Later at night, we would do things called devotionals. At a devotional your counsellor decides on something for you and the other kids in your cabin to do, that’s fun but also has a different meaning to it. For example, one time our counsellor made us brush our teeth until there was so much toothpaste in our mouths that it hurt. When a few kids started drooling we decided to stop brushing. Our counsellor told us that the bigger meaning of it all was that “God loves us so much that his love for us is overflowing, just like the toothpaste was.” Though it was kind of gross when people started drooling, we understood what he meant. We always swam, played lots of games, sang songs, and also learned lots about God. At Wapo, I learned that God is constantly working in our lives, in ways that you would never expect. My favorite bible verse is Jeremiah 29:11. The verse says “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.” I think that this means God doesn't necessarily intend for bad things to happen to you, but if bad things do happen, there is a good reason behind it. God’s plans for you might not make much sense, but they will eventually. My favorite phrase that isn’t a bible verse is something that Gandhi said. The quote is “an eye for an eye will make the world blind.” I really think that there is a lot of truth to this quote, because you have to

18

BENJAMIN WEBB My name is Benjamin Webb, and I was born in January of 2003. I have three sisters and a dog, and I have been going to Shepherd of the Hills for my whole life. When I was a baby I was baptized here at Shepherd, and also attended preschool here when I was 4. I went to VBS, or Vacation Bible School, when I was little, and I had my first communion a couple of years later. I first started getting involved in Shepherd’s events when I was very young. VBS was the first thing that I went to, and all I remember is that I didn't want my mom to leave after she

7

they must really love me because they stayed all three hours of the services. The perks of being Baptized on Easter as an official Catholic. Something happened at my first time in church at St Cs, after communion I asked my mom why only the grownups got the snacks and juice. . I was not very involved with the church or really in my faith back then. I was not able to participate as much as I could then. We prayed at dinner, took my grandma and grandma to church on Saturdays or Sundays, and listened to KTIS twenty-four seven but nothing much more than that. I did not know all the basic prayers or songs and was not really interested in religion at all. It just did not make sense to me. My mom recognized this and began searching for another path for our family. I joined Shepherd of the Hills or the Lutheran faith about a year ago just to see how it would differ from Catholicism. I sort of prefer this. This way of explaining, and teaching plus how they approach the whole religious topic is much more engaging and insightful in my opinion. As my dad likes to say “Those Catholics are tricky”. Even though I was in ninth grade, because my Catholic instruction didn’t meet up with the Lutheran one, I was originally placed with the sixth and seventh graders, but my mom felt it was not engaging me, so they moved me to the eighth grade class They felt it would be more effective. I agree with them. One reason why we chose Shepherd of the Hills was because shortly after we came to our first service and met Pastor Renee, my dad’s workplace experienced a traumatic event. Having only met us once, she remembered who my dad worked for and reached out asking if we were alright. It had a profound effect on my parents and we chose Shepherd of the Hills as our new community. Everyone was, and has been so welcoming and kind. We love it here. Now what is God, the Bible, salvation, and all that religious jazz? Depends if you want the denotation or the connotation. God is the creator, the power above all others, our heavenly Father, King of Heaven. Jesus is God’s son who he put on Earth in order to guide us into the Christian faith who died for our sins because he loved us so much. God would give up his only Son before He would give up on us. The Holy Spirit is harder to explain. The Holy Spirit is the third man in the triangle of holy people (The Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit). He is like the maintenance guy who does all the

8

miscellaneous stuff God and Jesus have not done. He is who they left inside us to keep the connection to the Trinity. Baptism is the cleansing of all your sins. The Bible is the written history of the holy word, and God’s instruction manual for us. Everything we need to know about anything is in the Bible. The lessons of Jesus and the words of God written down for us to interpret. Salvation is pretty much what God gives to us and what we give to him. The sense that God will at all time be there for us and that he needs us as much as we need Him in our lives. Prayer is like the communication between us and God. A place where we have the ability to release our thoughts and send wishes to someone who truly cares and is always there for us. My mom likes to say He fills all her cracks with grace and love. What being confirmed means to me is basically being accepted into the church as a believer and follower in Christ. You are literally confirming you faith to the church, becoming a part of something bigger, and accepting Christ as your savior. The majority of my interests and hobbies have to do with the arts. The arts being physical art and music. If I could let them consume my entire life I would let them in a heartbeat because of the fact I love them that much. I started playing piano in second grade and continued to play for seven years before I gave it up. It was an amazing introduction to music in my opinion. I have been playing violin since fourth grade and continue to play in the high school orchestra and on my own. I also have a deep passion for art, whether it be painting or drawing or any form of art I want to learn it. How i could use my interests at church is maybe being musically active or creating art for any situation. How I will continue being involved in the church is, well, obviously continuing to come to church with my family. I plan to continue to grow in faith, and in studying the bible. In fact, Pastor Trudy and Sister Tashina were kind of enough to create my own bible study I used to finish my Confirmation studies. I will participate in ReFuel and volunteer my time helping whether it is cleaning up, creating art or music, or being a greeter. Whatever I can find. Thank you for listening, and for your time.

17

are completely sure on what is the true meaning. People do not know whether everyone goes to heaven or if it's just the ones who believe in god or even if they have to pay some time first before going to heaven or one of the many other theories people have. This is one of those things that no one really knows the answer but as time goes on maybe people will be able to understand a little bit better. The last thing I'm going to talk about prayer, this is one of those things that I could do more but I do understand how significant it is, especially to help calm yourself and when you pray you know that God is on your side and listening to what you have to say. Being confirmed means that I'm going to be able to continue my journey with the Christian faith. This will help me continue my journey because I know that this is what I want and this is what everyone one in this room wants for me and everyone else getting confirmed with me. At the confirming service I am saying that I will continue to follow the Christian faith and will continue to follow the word of god and do what I am planned to do in life. I will use my skills to help myself get farther in my faith and understand more of what I am meant to do in life. I am good at helping and working hard as long as I am passionate about what I am doing. This is good because if I really believe in something I am great at working and will not stop working until I am satisfied with what I have done. This can help in faith because I love helping people or animals. This helps me serve God because I am doing something that is helping others. After being confirmed I would like to be involved in the church by going almost every Sunday. All I want to do is give back to the church for what they have given me. I would just like to finish by saying thank you to the church and all they have done to further my path in the Christian faith, So thank you to everyone in this room and everyone who has helped me when it comes to my faith is god.

16

not have learned as much and wouldn’t be able to go to confirmation with previous knowledge, so I just want to say thank you to everyone who has supported me, including my godparents. They are Sheila and Nick Pilney and my cousin Shannon. After I started paying attention in church I went to classes for first communion and they fed me food so it was pretty fun. The people who have influenced my faith the most is anyone who taught me anything in confirmation or helped me understand what was happening when I had no idea. I believe that God has taught us things in life that we do not give him credit for. I have learned to cope with loss and always know that there's hope when something bad has happened. I have learned that I am strong and can handle things when life takes a sharp turn. I was planning on talking about my family and the illnesses they have had but over the summer a big thing happened in my life (because the illnesses didn’t affect me as much). My dog I have loved for 8 years passed away. I know some of you don’t want to her about my dog but I think it has a greater meaning. I have always lived in house with animals and I am very protective of them. They are the one thing that won't judge you and they can even lower your blood pressure and make you relax. Over the summer we went on vacation with our sick dog. She had cancer and ended up passing away on that vacation. We all agreed that we would get our new dog in august, 2 months after, and during that time we were all pretty miserable, and at that point we already had a dog lined up for adoption. We went back to the same place and basically found a stray dog that was a lot like our old dog. We brought him home and he cheered us up so much. He never leaves our side and honestly kinda seems like a blessing from god. This all leads me to believe that god give us good things to make up for the bad things that happen. So in confirmation we learned a lot of things like how Jesus was the one person that kept us all alive by dying for us on the cross. The holy spirit is God's power in action. Baptism is the action that gets you ready for your life in faith. The bible is the story of what happened with the creation of earth and how everything happened before we were all alive. I believe that faith is what you believe in and how you believe in something. And now salvation, we have had a LOT of talks about salvation and none of us still

9

Ranjana SHELBY OLSON Hi, It’s Shelby. I was born three weeks before I was supposed to. I was born at… on July 2nd in 2003. I was born in the Minneapolis Children's Hospital. I live in the same house I have always lived in with my Mom, Janet, My dad, Brian, my sister, Gabby. I have had many pets in the past, but I currently have a dog named Toby, we are planning on getting a puppy soon. By the time I present this I should have a lab puppy. I also have a more unusual pet. Her name is Jacqueline we call her Jackie for short. She is my gray and white hooded rat. Church has always been a part of my life. I was baptized when I was 1 here at Shepherd Of The Hills Lutheran Church. I was accompanied by my parents, most likely my sister, and my Godparents. Donny and Cheryl Olson, Donny is one of my dad's older brothers and Cheryl is his wife. We are very close, although they like the Vikings. When I was growing up I remember KidZone was one of my favorite places to go on the weekends, it was always so fun and we got to jump and dance around. I grew up believing everything happens for a reason, but I also grew up believing that if you swallowed an apple seed an apple tree would grow inside you. When you are growing up you are susceptible to nonsense like that, to help you try and figure out the big and complicated world around you. That is why it is nice to know that there is someone watching over you, dropping little hints to keep you on the right path. That is what God is to me, he is like my best friend, I can tell him everything

10

knowing that he will always be listening, he will always be there for me, and no matter what I do he will eventually forgive me. I still have to do the right thing, but I hope that he will help guide me along though the road of life. Jesus is the son of God, and I look up to him a lot, because of the fact that he gave his life so that God could forgive our sins, which granted us salvation. He reminds me that everyone makes mistakes, and just because you make a mistake doesn’t mean your life is over. It means that the people who forgive you are the ones worth forgiving. On the other hand The Holy Spirit is kind of confusing to me, it is the power that conceived the Virgin Mary. I have never really felt the presence of the Holy Spirit but I do believe it is out there somewhere waiting for the right moment to show itself. From what I have heard it is the force that stays and supervises us from earth instead of from up in Heaven. I believe that baptism is when God takes you in as one of his own. Not only does the congregation promise to care of you, and in return you promise to stick with God even just a little through the hard times, but God promises to help you through the hard times, if you let him. He promises to never let go of you, and to care for you until you meet in person. I feel like Communion is a small baptism, every time we do it, it is kind of like a small confessional. By taking the bread and wine/grape juice you are cleansing yourself from sins, and telling God that you will always support him, and that you believe in him, and that you are asking for forgiveness. I believe most things in the bible, I do think that people take things way out of context, and that it is from someone's perspective, and so it may be twisted a little, and some may be dreams not reality, but most of the bible stories are inspiring and they have a big lesson that comes from them, which is why I like going to church so Pastor Renee can help me interpret some of the bigger meanings from the smallest of passages. My faith has wavered a little from time to time, depending on where I was in my lifes journey. For example, last summer,

15

prayer, but this is an example of how all of these things are different for everyone. To me, being confirmed is like officially becoming part of the church. It is like passing a test and being able to move on to the next level. Something I really enjoy is helping people. I like doing things for others and making them feel better. I also really enjoy playing soccer and being active. I think I would enjoy being a doctor that helps people who have sport related injuries. I would be helping people and I could relate to them on how they got their injury. I believe that I would be serving God by doing this because I am helping others. Finally, I will continue to be involved in my faith after I get confirmed by going to church every Sunday as much as I can, and going to Refuel on Wednesday nights. I also think it would be fun to be a mentor for confirmation students when I am old enough. Thank you. CHLOE WAGENKNECHT Hi my name is Chloe Wagenknecht, I was born on June 10th, 2003. I was born in Minnesota and was baptized right here in this very church. I am just one part of a six person family, the other five are my Mom, Dad ,my two sisters, and my brother. I have been a part of this church since I was born. I started off in Sunday school and moved on to kid zone, after my sibling stopped KidZone I did too because I didn’t understand everything and hated being called on when I did not know the answer, so I went to the normal service and would just lay on my mom's lap in the and stare at the lights above, while tuning out the actual church service. As I grew older I would actually listen to the service and take notes (even before I had to do sermon notes). I never wanted to come to church but my sister and mom always forced me out of bed, and for that I have to thank them because or else I would have missed so many more church services. If I didn’t come to church on the days I wanted to stay home I would

14

Overall, I believe that my dad has impacted my faith the most. He enjoys studying religion, especially the words used in pray-ers. He has taught me a great amount about God and has always explained anything to me that I don’t understand about God, Jesus, The Holy Spirit and everything else. Another thing that has had an impact on my faith is Camp Fos-ter. Camp foster is a YMCA camp located in Okoboji, Iowa. Five years ago when my best friend Elsa told me about a camp that her brother went to where you have to walk backwards on the backwards bridge except for on backwards day, where you meet life-long friends and make great memories, I knew I had to go. Eventually, my parents agreed. When July 26 rolled around, I was nervous to be away from home for a whole week, but ex-cited to meet new friends and have fun. By the third day, I had already made lots of new friends and had tons of fun. The time when my faith was most affected was the 4th day when eve-ryone was at the bonfire that was held every night. Everyone was singing camp songs and laughing along with each other. In that moment I felt a sudden peace and happiness, like nothing I had ever felt before. Somehow I just knew that God was there that night around the campfire with us. I believe that God, Jesus, and the Holy spirit are real. I also believe that they are different for everyone, along with baptism, communion, faith, salvation, and prayer. I think that all of these things have a different meaning for everyone. For me, God is the creator of all life, and he is always with you. Jesus is our savior and died on the cross for us. I believe that the Holy Spirit is something that is always with you, too. To me, baptism is a way of confirming your relationship with God, even if you were too young to know it. I also believe that communion is a way to show Jesus that you are thankful for what he did for us. To me, faith is like your bond with God. It can be strong at times but also weak at others, but no matter what, it is always there. Finally, when I think of prayer, I think of an envelope with your prayer inside that gets whooshed up to God the second after you say “Amen.” I’m not sure why that’s what I think when I hear

11

when Gus died. My faith weakened, because I thought how could the power in the sky make me have to go through this, and take away my best friend? I knew Gus didn’t deserve the heartache and the pain he had to go through. Now that I have had time to think, I believe it has instead made my faith stronger. I know that Gus didn’t deserve cancer, but it. wasn’t God that gave him cancer. Cancer gave Gus cancer. I got to hold Gus while he was dying, I was frozen, I couldn’t do anything but hold him. I wouldn’t cry. I didn’t shed one tear. It was like this huge boulder had been lifted off my shoulders, I think that was God, taking the sadness out of my mind, so I could stay strong for Gus, when he needed me the most. It numbed the pain for a long time for both him and me. It is one of the worst feelings in the world to watch this random stranger drive away with your baby in the trunk of her car, taking him away from you forever. I was mad at God for a while, and then I realized that God had blessed me with eight amazing years with the most wonderful dog, and that strengthened my faith more than it had ever been before. That experience helped me realize that just because someone isn’t with you in person anymore, it doesn’t mean they are gone forever. Gus will remain in my life forever. I believe that Salvation is being saved from something. When Jesus came to earth, to give his life to save us, he granted us salvation. Salvation saves us from our sin. When we make mistakes, and sin Salvation saves us from the wrath of God. It helps God to understand what happened, and our point of view. I don’t believe Salvation can be lost. I think it is earned when God promises to take you in no matter what, during baptism. Prayer is when you talk to God, you thank him, you ask him to help others, and sometimes you ask him to help yourself. I think that he will get the message, and that although it feels sometimes like he is taking forever to respond, and it feels as though you are talking to no one. I believe he is always listening, he responds in weird ways like dreams, waiting so you can figure it out yourself, to little signs pointing you in the right direction. To me being confirmed is like growing up. It is like moving from

12

college to the world beyond. During confirmation you are like a kid trying to find your way through the huge world around you, but once you are confirmed you have to make the right decisions. I promise to do my best, and try and set a good example for the other people. I believe being confirmed comes with responsibility, trying to use your skills to nurture, and help make the world a better place. It means using all your talents for what in your opinion is the right thing to do. Softball, helping others and nature are some of my interests and skills. They can help me serve the lord Softball helps me with teamwork because to get big projects done you need more than one person. Helping others is just right there. It will help me when people are in need, and just people that need a little pick me up. I love nature and being outdoors, I also like helping the environment because it makes me feel like a better person. That ties into helping serve the lord because by getting people off the streets you are helping the environment and helping those people, who are also Gods children. I will continue to be involved in Church by coming to most Refuel meetings, I would like to go on the next Mission Trip, and church retreats. Church used to be just a place to worship God on the holidays like Christmas and Easter, but over the course of confirmation, and my life I have learned that it is a place to be expressive, unjudged, loved, and a place for you to show your love for God. Thank you

13

MOLLY SHWIFF Hello! My name is Molly Shwiff and I am 14 years old. I was born on June 13th in 2003 in Maplewood, Minnesota. I have lived in Roseville Minnesota for my whole life with my mom Jill, my dad Stuart, and my twin brother Emmet. My twin brother and my dad are Jewish, which has had a big impact on my life. Growing up, I got to learn about Christianity and about Judaism. That also meant that my family celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah. My faith journey started when I was baptized on September 21, 2003, here at Shepherd of the Hills Lutheran Church. From then my Godparents, Jennie Eastman who is my mother's cousin, and Peter Eastman who is my mother's brother, along with my parents, teachers, and mentors at Sunday school and confirmation taught me a great amount about God, Jesus, faith, and life lessons. Growing up, I liked going to Sunday school and tried to be there as much as I could. I enjoyed the video games in kid-zone and the donuts that were served after the service the most.