Meet theEDGE Leaders (Maddie and Ava)

Its time for another episode for "Meet theEDGE Leaders".  This is an opportunity for you as parents to get to know the other adults in your students lives.  This week, meet Maddie and Ava, two of our 8th grade girl small group leaders.

Hello Everyone! My name is Maddie Vetsch and I am 20 years old. I am a student at UWEC studying Communication Sciences and Disorders, which will essentially, hopefully, lead to a job in speech pathology. I am originally from a town called Monticello, MN which is about 40 minutes west of the Twin Cities. I am so excited that living in Eau Claire now has gotten me connected with Jacob's Well; what a wonderful place to be! 

I absolutely love the community that comes with serving at theEDGE. The students and leaders are wonderful, and as soon as I paid my first visit I knew this was a group I wanted to be a part of. Growing up, my home church didn't have a strong youth program and I longed for one so badly. I want all students to be able to be involved in a Christ-centered environment, so here we are!

As I have been leading 8th grade girls this semester, I have certainly learned a lot. All of your students are wonderful and I adore each and every one of them. An encouraging part of theEDGE is that you can come feeling any sort of way, but when you leave, you feel brand new again and free of worries (I hope this is true for your student as well!). I hope that your family is feeling at home both at Jacob's Well and at theEDGE. I hope to meet more students and parents in the weeks, months, years to come!  

Hey-o!  My name is Ava and I am one of the small group leaders for 8th grade girls.  I have been spending my Wednesday evenings at The Edge for 3 years now and I have been going to Jacob's Well for 5 years.  I am a public health nurse working for the Eau Claire City-County Health Department and I love my job.  I get to help people every single day, which is what I love to do (both at work and at the Edge)!

One of the ways that I serve at The Edge is on the worship team.  Playing guitar and singing has been a way for me to connect with God ever since I started playing guitar in high school.  I hope to encourage the students to do the same by giving them an example of authentic worship on a weekly basis and an opportunity to be on worship team if that is something they are interested in doing.

The main reason I wanted to be a leader at the middle school youth group is because that is the age I was when I first met the Lord.  I had a great small group leader from 6th through 8th grade who helped me find answers to some foundational questions I had, and without her in my life I don't know where I would be.  Since then I have wanted to give back in that same way and pour my gained knowledge and insight into the next generation.  The thing I didn't know is that it would be SO FUN!  Every week is crazy, exciting, full of energy and full of life.  I am blessed to be someone who can come along side them during their confusing middle school years and give what I can to try to bless them in their walk.  What a privilege!

One thing that never ceases to amaze me is the prayer requests of the students.  They really reveal their hearts when they ask God to work powerfully in their lives, the lives of their families, of their friends and neighbors, and even people across the world they haven't even met!  The faith they have in prayer is always impressive to me and challenges me to have a child-like faith just like theirs.  They have truly blessed me and I am very thankful for the chance I get every week to spend time with them growing towards God together.

Ask your student who their small group leaders are and what they think of them.  Do you have any stories about how a small group leader has impacted your child's life?  Share it in the comment section below.