“God showed Himself to me in bits and pieces, kind of like a puzzle.”

About Tamara

When I was a little girl, my mom taught me The Lord’s Prayer. She told me recently that she doesn’t remember teaching me that. God’s Word thus rings true: Train up a child in the way he should go: and when he is old, he will not depart from it (Proverbs 22:6). We went to church sporadically. Sometimes I was in children’s church. I remember from when I wasn’t, that it was extremely boring and the sermon went over my head. I sat quietly, letting the words go through one ear and out the other. My eyes were open, though. There was a Scripture bannered over the pulpit: It is done unto you as you believe (Matthew 8:13). That is the second Scripture I ever memorized.

“The Lord is good to me. And so I thank the Lord. For giving me the things I need like the sun and the rain and the apple seed. The Lord is good to me.”

The next piece of the puzzle was a Christian summer camp.

It was there that I learned songs like, I am a C, and, Oh, You Can’t Get to Heaven. I learned another song too, that I would sing to my baby girl when she was getting her diaper changed – The All Day Song. These songs have run through my heart since I first heard them in the 80’s.

In the fifth and sixth grades (or was it fourth and fifth?) I was in the Girl Scouts. I remember singing, The Lord is good to me. And so I thank the Lord. For giving me the things I need like the sun and the rain and the apple seed. The Lord is good to me. To this day I also still remember the words to the Girl Scout Promise: On my honor, I will try to serve God and my country, to help people at all times, and to live by the Girl Scout Law. I don’t remember the Law, though.

The next piece of my spiritual puzzle was the time I spent at the YMCA.

I spent my middle school summers at their Camp Fox in Catalina. I earned my “blue rag” one summer, and my “silver rag” the next. It was a discipleship program where one of the leaders joins you on a spirit walk and helps you develop and reach spiritual goals.

As a freshman in high school I met some new friends whom I still hold dear. They took me to their youth group at a close-by church, Long Beach Alliance. We mostly went there to flirt with boys, but I managed to soak in some God-knowledge as well.

After spending a couple of years at Alliance, I was still not as serious about the Lord as I could have been. I’d started and ended my first real relationship, but we were still friends. They say that the Lord works in mysterious ways but I actually don’t believe that. I believe that God is super intentional. I think that that boyfriend was brought into my life to lead me into a more meaningful relationship with God. After we’d broken up, we remained friends. And I gradually started to feel like I wanted him back in my life romantically. I was so overjoyed one day when he called me and invited me to church. Anything to spend time with him, I reasoned. Mind you his invitation was coated with his testimony, and even though I missed it entirely, the Holy Spirit still got me to where I needed to be.

I ended up studying the Bible with the Church of Christ, and started thinking about baptism. After discussing it with their youth leaders and with the youth pastors at Alliance, I was baptized in the ocean on August 20, 1995. Thus began my spiritual journey.

How Does Growing Up Godly help to fortify God’s kingdom here on earth?

Knowing that young people hold the future in their hands, we reach out not just to teenagers, but to those who have the greatest spiritual impact on them as well.

Parents

For Parents, Growing Up Godly provides encouragement, advice and insight for raising young disciples in an often immoral world. Whether your child is new to the faith or grew up in the church, raising a teen disciple is challenging, to say the least. What does the sex talk look like? Will they stick around if everyone else around them disappears? What happens when they feel like an outcast amongst their peers? It is such a huge responsibility to train them up right, to prepare them to rightly defend their faith, to have them take ownership of their own beliefs and to equip them to take the roads less traveled. One of the most effective means of defeating the devil in our children’s lives is a support system, which Growing Up Godly offers.

Youth

For Christian Youths, Growing Up Godly provides a safe space to talk about relatable and relevant topics, and focus on issues that affect teenagers. Sometimes there is a disconnect between what people think about young people, and what is true. Sometimes teens and pre-teens are overlooked and disregarded. Sometimes more is expected of them than they can handle. Sometimes no one seems to see or acknowledge all of their potential. The truth is, teens have their ears to the ground and have a great sense of what is going on in the church, in their communities and in the world at large. They have their fingers on the pulse of the people. They know what is going on and act and react in accordance with their own experiences. Teens and preteens – YOU MATTER. You are seen, you are heard and you are valued. Your thoughts, your opinions and your life story are essential in this world

Youth Leaders

For Youth Leaders, Growing Up Godly is a place to connect and collab, to share ideas, wisdom and knowledge. Aside from lead pastor, youth leaders and volunteers have perhaps the toughest job in the church. The teen years are the most formative of a human life. It’s when young people begin to be most independent, yet remain needy. So guarded, but still extremely vulnerable. They’re stubborn and rebellious, but thrive within the safety of boundaries, and secretly desire limits. Middle schoolers and high schoolers are sometimes super nerve-wracking to work with, but this age group can also be the Teaching this age group has so many challenges. For example, it’s hard to know what to do when one of your kids discloses in the middle of a session that he’s being bullied. What’s a cool way to teach Daniel in the Lion’s Den? Can’t believe middle schoolers are already smoking. Are we mandatory reporters for abuse? If so, what’s the protocol? Sometimes we lose kids in transition from the high school ministry to adult ministry. Must we always hear “crickets” when we ask for a volunteer to pray? They’re just not into it. How can we get them excited about the Lord? Let’s spur one another on toward love and good deeds

Our youth need a hand to bring them along the path to connect more with God. Join me to help them together!

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