Dear Parents,
If you are receiving this newsletter it’s because, hopefully, you have a student that is in some way connected to the Youth Ministry (Grades 5-12) at Northgate Free Methodist Church. If that is the case, I wanted to introduce myself to you. My name is D.L. Walter and I am the new Next Generation Pastor at Northgate. I can hardly express to you how excited I am to be on staff here, and to have the opportunity to minister to our youth and young adults. I wanted to take the opportunity in this first newsletter to share a little bit about myself and my family, and to ask you a couple of small favors.
I think the first real thing you should know about me is I have a passion for seeing teenagers grow in their relationship with Jesus, and develop a firm foundation so that their faith is thriving long after they have graduated high school. I believe one of the best ways for this to happen is for them to be a part of a loving local church that has a strong youth ministry. It is my hope that in coming years, we can continue to build a strong youth ministry program. Other things that you should know about me are that I am a huge New York Mets fan, I love photography, and I love spending time with my family.
Speaking of my family, my wife Tiffany and I have been married almost 18 years, and we have 3 amazing kids, Sophia (16), Lucy (14), and Daniel (6). They are looking forward to getting know people more and becoming involved at the church. Tiffany teaches Spanish in the Webster School District, she loves coffee and to travel. Some of the places she loves to travel to most are New York City and Costa Rica. This summer we were blessed to be able to do both those things as a family. We went to New York City for a quick weekend (and a Mets game, of course!), and traveled to Costa Rica with our previous church on a short term missions trip. Because we brought our entire family on the trip, we stayed in Costa Rica a week after the team left. During our time there we were able to connect with friends and see some sites (see pictures below).
Sophia loves singing, reading, and playing volleyball on her school team. At our former church she enjoyed singing on both the youth and adult praise teams as well. Lucy also enjoys playing volleyball and softball for school. She sings and plays trumpet, and loves listening to music from the 90’s. At our former church, Lucy enjoyed serving in the Children’s ministry, and hopes to continue to do that at Northgate. Daniel keeps us busy with his boundless energy; currently he enjoys running, playing soccer, math, and doing gymnastics.
Now that you know a little bit more about me and my family, it’s time to ask for a couple of small favors. The first favor is this: pray. Please pray for me and my family as we transition to a new church and new ministry. We had been at our previous church for 15 years. Pray for the youth ministry here at Northgate. There are a few specific things you can be praying for the youth ministry.
- Pray for our students as they are about to start a new school year.
- Pray for more volunteers. The more youth leaders we have, with their different personalities, gifts, skills, and interests, the better we can connect to more students on an individual basis. On a side note, as I am only starting to get to know people at church, if you know someone who you think would be a great youth leader please let me know so I can reach out to them
- Pray that God uses this school year to do amazing things in the lives of our students and in the life of our youth ministry.
The next favor is I would like to invite you to come out to a parents meeting on Wednesday August 31st at 7PM. I thought it would be helpful to start off the school year by meeting in person. I would love to share with you a little more about my vision for the youth ministry, get to know you a little better, and have you get to know Tiffany and I a little better. We will meet in the cafe.
One last item for this newsletter- As I mentioned earlier one of my biggest passions is for seeing teenagers grow in their relationship with Jesus, and while youth ministry and being part of a church is a major factor in that, the biggest spiritual influence in the lives of a teenager is their parents, which is why I will routinely keep your family in my prayers, and want to make sure you know that I am here for your family and your student. Please feel free to reach out to me with any prayer requests, or even if you simply want to get to know me a little better. I would be more than happy to meet up for coffee or sit down a few minutes after church.
