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For the final Youth Fellowship Day of the year, a special day purely for the young women within the church was held Saturday, December 9th. YEF Leader, Danielle White, along with two other committed church sisters decided to plan this day months in advance for the college aged girls. “We’ve really been focusing on more fellowship this year, as a church,” Danielle states, “so I also felt it was really important for the girls to hang out, outside of church and get to know each even better. Then they can feel more comfortable and be more united in Christ.” In total six girls joined in this month’s fellowship; young leader, Danielle, two of committed members, Kiara and Adriane, a potential committed member, Vanessa, and church-goers and bible study students, Toni and Brianna.
The day began very unexpectedly with at least 6 inches of snow blanketing the city the previous day. The excitement and giddiness of the girls over the snow made for an impromptu snowball fight before they went on their first activity. Some of the girls wanted to get a high view from the city, so their first stop was at SCAD Atlanta, local art college. From there they were able to get a beautiful view of the snowy city and take their first photo of the day together. After a short visit there, the girls headed to the mall for window shopping and lunch. Being teased by the clothes and products at the mall that they wanted and yet couldn’t afford, they headed to a pawn shop shortly after lunch!
As it was getting dark, the girls decided to head back to Danielle’s apartment to get a glimpse of the skyline at night. There, on the apartment rooftop, the girls were finally able to slow down and think deeply about their time together in the church. Each member spoke about what having a group of close friends within the church meant to them.
Tears were shed and the end the sharing time, the YEF leader prayed over the girls, thanked God for the day and over their safe travels during the holidays. After everything was said and done, the girls shared a group hug. They had a sleepover at Danielle’s home and spent the rest of the night, watching movies and making s’mores. The next morning the girls woke up, got ready and left for church together.
“For the final Youth Fellowship of the year, this day was truly a blessing. Looking back on the very first Youth Fellowship to Stone Mountain Park and how close each member got to each that day to this final event, I can truly see how much God has blessed these events. Even though they were complete different days, the atmosphere of each day was the same. We are young people coming together, as imperfect and flawed as we are, under the name of Jesus Christ.
The girls really surprised me, actually and it made me realize even more how powerfully God works and that the best thing I can do is to continue to pray for them. The day was very carefree and fun, but then towards the end it was the girls that just suddenly started to talk about the church and what it means to them. It was really touching. I truly say that these Youth Fellowship Days were a real success and have helped in building relationships within the Kingdom of God.
I pray that God would continue to use us in any way to save people and build bridges to Him. That we would always focus on this. But more specifically, I truly want to pray for those girls. After such a graceful time and this step in our relationships with each other, I pray that God would continuously protect our hearts from Satan’s attacks. And that we would keep close to God and in contact with one another during holiday break.”