Youth Memorial 

    

It was wonderful to be back in-person for Y last Sunday! Fortunately it stopped
raining long enough for us to be outside.
We thought about the properties of stone, and the uses of stone in the bible?
A number of times it was used to remember, one account is in Joshua.
The Israelites had been wandering in the wilderness for 40 years, living on
manna and quail. In Joshua 4 they enter the Promised Land, this is the land
that God had given to Abraham and is the land of Israel today. One man from
each tribe was told to pick up a stone from the river and then they were to
place them in a pile. They didn’t pick up small pebbles but big rocks from the
middle of the river. They were so large they had to carry them on their
shoulders.
The stones were to be a memorial. Stones that would have come from the
river bed would look out of place on the river bank in a pile. You can imagine
years later people might walk past the pile of stones and look at them. They
would remember the time when they crossed the Jordan, when God had given
them the land, when he had stopped the river to let them cross. The stones
were the tangible proof of the miracle that was the crossing of the Jordan and
entering The Promised Land.
This year has been a real challenge, it has been a time that has taken
perseverance to endure. It has felt a bit like time in a wilderness, when life
seemed on hold and we didn’t know what would happen. But there have been
good times too amongst it all. For us Impact has been an example of this.
Now things are starting to change, more people are being vaccinated and from
21 st of June we are hoping to be able to be free of most restrictions. Now is like
our crossing of the Jordan, we’re nearly there!
We spent some time thinking about the last year, what happened, how we felt
and how we feel now.
These stones have existed for thousands of years. They were stones that God
created when he made the earth. Whilst some might erode away, in hundreds
and hundreds of years even the dust will remain. God has been with us during
this time, constant like these stone.

We put our stone onto this board, so that it could be a reminder of what we
have gone through. In years to come we will see these stones and remember
that whilst it has been tough God was with us in these times.
When we see them again they will be there speaking of the witness of God’s
faithfulness and the new start we are about to enter as we recommence
meeting in person and coming out of the restrictions.
We would like to invite the church family to join us in creating our memorial.
Please bring a stone (which you can write on if you’d like) and place it with
ours.