Senior Address by Lindsey Brush:
My Experiences at the Church of the Redeemer.
It isn’t easy for me to choose one particularly significant experience during my time at the church because I have been fortunate enough to have been involved in so many activities such as Sunday school classes, vacation bible school, the Dominican Republic mission trip, St. Michael’s Conference, and youth Sunday. Since my family’s joining of the parish, I have been eagerly accepted into the church and have made a lot of friends and a lot of memories, but while reflecting on the major milestones in my Christian life, I realized that my favorite memories were not centered around myself, but instead were mainly focused on helping others. The Redeemer’s youth program in particular has been a catalyst in the formation of my faith.
Being from a blended family, it is difficult to live/go to school in one town and attend church in another. It can be tricky balancing a solid group of Christian friends who have the same morals as I do with school friends who are not necessarily living in Christ. During the past few years of my high school career, I have experienced the most struggle and the most temptation. Fortunately, my time in Sunday school paired with lessons from the sermons have taught me how to cope with these temptations in a way that brings me closer to God. At the Redeemer, the support from my peers has provided me with confidence in myself that I can continue growing in my faith and not allow my morals to be compromised during my upcoming years in college.
I am especially grateful to have had the opportunity to attend St. Michael’s Conference since I was fourteen. The conference is amazing because it is a week-long representation of how joyful my life in Christ could be if I constantly centered it on Jesus and cast aside my worries about material things like clothes, money, gossip, etc. The friends I have made at St. Mike’s fervently display Christian values and the counselors and clergy are outstanding role models to me and the rest of the conferees. It’s very easy for me to feel God’s presence while I’m at the conference and I am sure that all of the people who have attended the conference before would agree. I owe much of what I have learned about living as a disciple of Christ to the conference. I know without a doubt that my life as a Christian would be much emptier without my experiences from St. Mike’s.
I am mainly thankful for the youth program here at the Redeemer because having a group of friends that I can trust and communicate with who are all facing similar struggles and decisions as myself reassures me that all of my problems can be dissolved through Jesus. Before being an active member of the youth program, I was not known for my altruism or humility, but instead, I had the tendency of being selfish. Now, as an adult and a soon-to-be college student at the University of Florida (Go Gators!) the lessons I’ve learned from the Church of the Redeemer will guide me along the path of Christ.
Amen.
Senior Address by Lindsey Brush
the Church of the Redeemer
Sarasota, Florida
3rd Sunday of Easter
May 4 2014