Thank You for Giving to the Lord

In August, our youth minister retired after 40+ years in ministry. He had been with us at East Gadsden Baptist for 12 years. He is the reason Kip & I started dating. I don’t remember if I’ve told our “love” story, but when Bro. Allen came to the church, Kip started hanging out with the youth more. We grew closer together and eventually started dating. Which lead to an engagement then a marriage! Bro. Allen even performed our wedding ceremony. 

Our church had a big retirement celebration for him and many of his former youth from EGBC came. We surprised him with all of us getting together with his current youth Royo and singing “On Time God”, one of our signature songs we would sing everywhere we went! It was a great day honoring the man who had a huge part of my life for many years!

I have SO many awesome memories of youth trip we have taken with Bro. Allen, from beach trips, to Gatlinburg, to traveling all over the country singing for the Lord. We have sang at Major League Baseball games, the tomb of Abraham Lincoln, the Alamo, and MANY more places in the United States. Some of my not favorite memories from high school and early college are those from youth gatherings and trips. Many of our best friends we have now came from our youth group. 

Our very first trip as a group, Camp Sumtanga - October 2005

Kings Ranch Hannah Home - Christmas 2005

Singing the National Anthem at the Houston Astros game - Summer 2006

The Alamo - Summer 2006

Annual Christmas Dinner Theatre - 2006

Abraham Lincoln's Tomb - Summer 2007

St. Louis Union Station - Summer 2007

Gatlinburg - January 2010

Gatlinburg - January 2011

Mission Trip - Summer 2017 - DeFuniak Springs, FL

Gatlinburg - January 2012

Gatlinburg - January 2013

These are just a few of the hundreds of pictures I have from the trips we have taken. It was so much fun looking back at these pictures and remembering all the fun times we've had! 

Even though we haven’t been a part of the youth group for a couple of years (or maybe more than a couple), it is still sad to see Bro. Allen go. We will miss seeing him every Sunday, but we know that God has big plans for him and his family and also for the youth group at East Gadsden! Thank you Bro. Allen for being there for all your “kids” in the past 40+ years. So many lives have been changed because of you! 

“Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am a life that was changed. Thank you for giving to the Lord. I am so glad you gave!”