GOD’S WORK.  OUR HANDS.

Youth Receive “Good Samaritan Training”

Three synod congregations: Covenant Lutheran in Stoughton, Grace Lutheran in Cambridge and East Koshkonong Lutheran gathered together for peer ministry training earlier this winter.  The Peer Ministry program strives to help participants see caring and  welcoming ministry in the midst of all aspects of life.  Sixteen participants spent two days training in the program whose basic essence is an invitation for young people to be the Good  Samaritan.   Instead of preaching and teaching it, you get the skills necessary to live it out in daily life.  The confirmation program at East Koshkonong had traditional components in years past.  One year of Bible and one year of Catechism.  This past year, East Koshkonong decided to help young people be a living expression of Christ in school and home, places they already were, by adding Peer Ministry as the third year of programming.   The goal of this third year of confirmation programming is to connect faith and daily life by giving youth concrete tools to be a living expression of Christ using every day common situations such as engaging in conversation when  meeting new people or dealing with friends in everyday situations such as family divorce, trouble at school and decision making.  The youth have already been journaling some of their experiences in unique looking journals that are a natural jumpstart to conversations with other youth around them.