God’s Agent of Change conjures up images of a mighty band of superheroes with secret missions. When we take on the mission of being God’s agent of change in the world, we must be ready to be transformed – individually and together.

Every three years, 30,000 high school youth and their adult leaders from across the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America gather for a week of faith formation known as the ELCA Youth Gathering. Through days spent in interactive learning, worship, Bible study, service and fellowship, young people grow in faith and are challenged and inspired to live their faith in their daily lives.

The 2018 ELCA Youth Gathering is being held in Houston, TX (June 26—July 1) and the theme is “This Changes Everything.” Our primary scripture will be Ephesians 2:8 “For by grace you have been saved through faith, and this is not your own doing; it is the gift of God.”

My birthday is February 14, Valentine's Day. This year it was also Ash Wednesday. I don’t normally think about the full circle of life on my birthday, however this trio had me reflecting quite differently this year.

We don’t know the time for when we will be born and we don’t know the hour when God will call us home. It just happens, in His time. What we decide to do during that time is what matters most.

Sunday, January 14 was our service day. Every year over the Martin Luther King weekend the children and youth come together to work on a service pro-ject. This year our focus was on service to others.

Our Confirmation and High school youth came together and made 24 loaves of Communion Bread. It’s great when our youth can come together and strengthen their bonds and work on a project that benefits others. In this case it benefits our church. With 14 youth in attendance, the kitchen looked pretty clean when it was all over. Thanks to the adults that mixed and mingled with the youth as they were mixing the dough for our Communion Bread and mingling among friends.