doing life in groups.
yet again another post that i’ve been wanting to write for weeks! truly, months? i think i shot these near the beginning of june. if you’ve been reading my blog for a while, you would have known that i’ve been a youth leader at my church ever since i graduated high school. in grade twelve, i was a student leader and then the years before that i was happily attending youth group every friday night. ;) i have cherished my time as a youth leader. part of our responsibilities were being there every friday night and setting up for the worship service. afterwards we’d talk and hang out with a bunch of wonderful kids. during the week there were lifegroups that went on all over for different age groups.
a lifegroup is a small community group for girls and guys (separately) of a similar age to get together weekly with a leader and talk about life. i remember loving my lifegroup when i was a youth. when i became a youth leader two years ago, i was handed a group of beautiful grade ten and eleven girls. the second year of leading, it was just grade eleven girls. we’d meet every tuesday in my co-leader amanda’s basement suite and talk about boysssss and love and life and jesus and what he’s showing us through the bible. some weeks we’d have a massive dance party and call it good. i loved it. so much. in february of this year, i felt the Lord really strongly calling me to move churches. i knew in my heart where i needed to be, the church i needed to get involved with. the hardest thing was saying goodbye to all of my pastors, fellow youth leaders and most importantly, these girls. i officially “stepped down” from being a youth leader in june and… i miss these girls! i made it out to one evening of their youth camp this august and got to see them all and hug them all and i quite enjoyed that.
here’s to your futures, girls. i know you are all going to have a beautiful grade 12 year: so much fun stuff lies ahead! i can’t wait to read about it on facebook. ;) you know i love you to the moon and back. love, JDP. (p.s. we pulled off a few self-timer shots, so i make a couple appearances. a couple of these girls took a photography class in high school and had fun trying out my camera. they did well!)
Those pictures are really nice. I love how you used different poses for all the girls, makes them so much more unique! I wish our church had a youthgroup, too small though. :-( On a different note, I saw you on Creative Live last night! My sisters and I love your pictures so we all got so excited. :) Loved your dress!
So very sweet! Yeah…I *really* miss my small group from when I lived in Denmark and unfortunately my church here does not have them. Thinking of starting my own random group out of people I know.
Hi!!!! I have been following you for a couple of months…probably since you were featured on I Heart Faces! :) I LOVE LOVE LOOOOVE your work and you are my favorite photographer. I really enjoy your work. Totally inspiring! :) Thanks for sharing. My husband is a youth pastor and I SO appreciate your honesty about your faith and love for Jesus. :) I have a few budding photographers among the girls in our youth group and it is so nice to have you to send them to! :) I am thankful for a safe place where they can learn about photography AND be encouraged with their walk. THANK YOU! Keep up the good work!I am still pretty new to this whole photography thing, but check out my page! Gina Mae Photography on facebook! :) Thanks again!!! I just love you!
These really made me smile!
Aww! Love this post!! You really captured the personality of each girl perfectly!!!! :) Oh, and I love the b/w photo of you. You’re pretty much amazing!
I love how you documented these girls! I’m a leader with high school girls too and it’s such a life-giving, challenging and beautiful thing to do! Love how you showed their personalities in these!
These are rad! I love all of the singles, so fun!