With more hope comes more intimacy with our Father. He is a giver, and as you press in and stop striving – the more you encounter His actual, tangible love.
Putting my thoughts into words has always been difficult for me, so when I was asked to write about the ways the Charlotte Fellows Program has impacted my life, I was left at a loss for words. How could I possibly articulate how just nine short months after graduating from college have changed the way I have lived these past six years? Though I entered the program hoping to figure out how to live a meaningful life in the “real world,” I left knowing that true meaning comes from living a life that has been radically transformed by the Gospel.
It’s hard to believe another year has come and gone. On May 16th, the Charlotte Fellows class of 2025 officially graduated. We had a special evening with fellows and their families along with many of our volunteers. After dinner was served, a blessing was said over each fellow by someone significant in their time as a fellow. It was a joy to celebrate all God has done and is doing through these young adults.
It’s tradition for our fellows to spend some of their final weeks in the program reflecting on God’s faithfulness throughout the past 9 months. A few days before the banquet, the fellows shared some of these reflections with each other. They were asked to consider how God showed up in the good and the hard times, how he stretched them, the people he used to love and challenge them, and how this year will impact their next steps. Included below are a few snippets from these reflections. Enjoy seeing what God has done! (And thank you to so many of you that support this ministry in various ways. You are God’s hands and feet.)
It has been such a gift to get involved with the Charlotte Fellows program this year as the Program Coordinator. I loved my experience as a fellow and it’s been a different kind of gift to be on the other side of things and watch God work in the lives of this year’s class.
On Thursday nights, as part of our weekly schedule, we have roundtable. Roundtable is where we get to sit with different people and hear their stories; how God is working in, around, and through them. These individuals and couples often take us back to their childhood up to the present day and share highlights, struggles, themes, and lessons learned. These have truly been some of my favorite nights of the year. I am learning a lot about how we don’t know people until we have heard their stories and I am learning to never make assumptions of what someone's story is.
