Dear Grandkids,
Metamorphosis is a big word. It means transformation. Which is another big word. Both words have to do with change.
You probably already know that I was a Student Pastor for 25 years – 10 years in Raleigh at Providence Baptist Church and 15 years in Durham at Ridgecrest Baptist Church. Back around 1987 I initiated a weekend retreat for our students at Providence which is commonly known as a D-Now Retreat but which we called Metamorphosis. We wanted God to use the weekend to bring about change in the lives of our students.
Little did I know how enduring the weekend would be. This past weekend we had our 25th Metamorphosis weekend at Ridgecrest – Meta2020. It involved about 70 students from our church plus about 12 other student groups. All total we gathered about 400 students from the Durham area for 3 awesome times of worship. Besides these large group times, students met in small groups at the homes where they were staying for the weekend to discuss God’s Word and have conversations about what the Lord was doing in their lives.
Your parents were a part of Metamorphosis weekends probably longer than any other students. They were involved because they were my kids even before they were old enough to participate and then they were involved as leaders for many years after they graduated from high school.They can probably tell you a lot of Metamorphosis stories.
Here are a few pictures from both the Providence and Ridgecrest events. See if you can spot your parents in any of these pictures.
And here is a pic from this years Metamorphosis at Ridgecrest.
I hope that as you grow up you have lots of opportunities to make fun memories with friends and that God also uses to create life-change. It has been fun for me to help create these kinds of Metamorphosis memories for about 33 years.
Never forget that you are very loved!
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