Transcript
Danaca: Hi, Veritas Church, I'm Danaca Page. I work on the family ministry team. I'm here with Kari Elhard. She's one of our student ministry leaders as well. She serves in kids' ministry. So, Kari, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself?
Kari: I'm Kari. I'm married to Shaun. And we have three kids. We've been here at Veritas for a couple of years, and we really love it and enjoy it here. We like serving with our people here. I'm a substitute teacher and I get to spend a lot of time with youth throughout the week here at church and at schools throughout the community.
Danaca: So you talked about serving and how you enjoy doing that. Tell us, like why? What's the why behind why you serve? Why are you guys have gotten into serving here at Veritas?
Kari: Well, I serve out of a response to God's so amazing and generous and faithful the love that he's had for me. So Ephesians 2:10 tells us that our salvation is a gift from God, from his grace, and then tells us immediately that we're created for his good works. So as believers, we get the unique opportunity to be able to pursue hearts for his kingdom. Yeah, so that's just something we like to do here at Veritas out of a reflection of his love. And there's lots of reasons I could actually go on and on, but I have three other really good reasons why our family really values serving. The next one is that it actually makes our marriage better. Shaun and I really, really enjoy having a common goal, something that we can pursue that's outside the bounds of our standard family life. We get to do all sorts of silly things with kids throughout the week as a youth leader, as a children's leader. We get to plan crazy games. We get to practice worship music together. We get to collaborate on all sorts of lesson plans. So it's just a lot more fun than grocery shopping and bill paying together, you know, so it gives us a good outlet. It also is really great for our kids to see us serving. They are part of the next generation of this church. And it's important that they grow up knowing that serving people at church is a normal part of a Christian life. And we're already being able we're already able to see some fruits of that, like our son will run slides and do sound while my husband and I play worship music for the kids. Our daughter serves in the four year old classroom and she plays keys in the worship band. And it's just really, really cool to get to see your kids use their talents for God's glory. And then another reason and one of my favorite reasons is community. It is such a nice way to make friends, right? When you work side by side with someone every week, you get to know them really quickly. You get to know what they're about and you get to, you know, it's kind of like the better marriage thing. You get to have a common goal and it's a great way to make friends. It's a great way to know your church better. It's a great way to just plug in and feel like you're a part of it and that you belong.
Danaca: Yeah. So, you know, at Veritas the first part of our mission statement is to raise up mature disciples, and we have specific values within that of people and teaching the Bible. So how do you see your serving play into or accomplish that goal of raising up mature disciples?
Kari: One of the things I love about Veritas is that the Bible is at the center of everything, every single level that we serve. And that's children’s, youth and adults. The Bible's at the center of it. Even tiny little four year olds are hearing the name of Jesus every single week. And I personally teach in the third to fifth grade classroom and so our lessons are getting a little bit more lesson-y. But it's so nice just to know that every single level they're hearing about Jesus, they're learning about Jesus. And I, I love that the staff at Veritas pours into me so that I can then teach it to the kids. You know, I have so many opportunities. Resource are available, staff is readily available. There's one on ones. There are hudddles every week, there is a prayer that is said over the kids and students and adults every week. And I just really love that I get to be a part of that.
Danaca: Kari, thanks for being with us today. And Church, lets continue to be a people that raise up mature disciples, send out everyday missionaries and glorify God.