This is a scene in the fellowship hall as our youth celebrated the successful Lads to Leaders trip to Nashville. Graduation celebrations, youth retreats, Ladies retreats, Bible studies, mission meetings as well as numerous other special gatherings mark the full onslaught of spring activities.

So many events are coming up! You should have already marked your calendars for Vacation Bible School. This is a terrific week in July (July 13-16) where we will have a place or a class for every age. The teens will be helping to coordinate and conduct the classes for our children up through the 6th grade.

It seems we are officially and rapidly transitioning into the spring/summer of the year. School events are populating the calendars of students and parents alike. The Lads to Leaders spring trip to Nashville has just concluded with a huge turnout recorded.

And they did. It didn’t take long for all the children to pick up on, “On your mark, get set, GO!” It was surely a ‘sweet’ Saturday morning with many parents, grandparents and children enjoying the hunt for candy.

These are just some of the participants in our Lads to Leaders program. These happen to be the ones that spoke last Sunday night. We’ll have more participating on Sunday night, April 13. We have many more youth and parents involved in the actual training and participation (not all events are public.

Yes, we are preparing for our egg hunt on April 12. Last year, it was a little cold outside, but that did not dampen the earnest way in which friends and neighbors came to search the field for eggs. We had plastic eggs (with treats) for the older children and eggs (with treats) for younger children who needed assistance. I had the privilege of meeting plenty of neighbors - and each person was invited to church.

We had a tremendous night last Saturday, where 5 men spoke at a banquet given in their honor for their completion of The Challenge - a spiritual challenge lasting several weeks intended to test their motivation and resilience in spiritual exercises which stretched their boundaries.