God Has A Plan
God Has A Plan
For those that do not know me my name is Ellie Chambers, I am the oldest daughter of Rick and Kristen Chambers. I have attended CTK Anacortes since I was very little and have grown up in the church. I have also had the opportunity to be a part of the middle and high school ministry, YoungLife, where we come alongside middle and high schoolers and show them a little piece of God's love.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I have this verse on my blue keychain. It has also been circling my mind over these past months involving covid-19 and our global pandemic/panic.
God has a Plan.
I was a senior at Anacortes High School this year. "Class of 2020 … virtually the best class ever … Go Seahawks!" The past several months have been a challenge for everyone and the graduating class was no exception. It was not at all a typical senior year. I tried to look at the situation and keep this verse in mind, that God has a plan for me.
At the beginning of the shutdown, when we all thought this was going to be an extended spring break, I tried to focus on things I could look forward to instead of things I was missing out on. For example, when I started to feel frustrated about my cancelled golf season, I would shift my focus to look forward to graduation, being with friends and family before leaving for college… etc.
But, as we all know now, this was not an extended spring break.
Everything was different.
In person graduation ceremonies were changed to a YouTube video. We were no longer allowed to celebrate our accomplishment of completing 12 years in school together as a class. This was a crazy change and it was extremely hard because we had been looking forward to walking across the stage with our friends and family surrounding us.
With all the new changes, families were restricted from traveling. My extended family that lives in California was no longer able to come celebrate. The thing I had been looking forward to, the idea of the perfect graduation with my family cheering me on was gone.
That was when God's little miracles started to appear. Small things that people in our town were doing to love our senior class.
I am not sure if you remember, but one day the Seattle news did a story on this little town of ours. It was about the amazing people that helped to put our senior photos up on the streets of Anacortes. The folks at the "Little Tugs" store in downtown Anacortes, hand made masks for each of us Seniors. Then someone started talking about a parade.
When graduation day arrived my expectations were not very high. My family and I jumped in the car and headed to the high school. Slowly cars started trickling in, in a little over 30 minutes my entire class was in the parking lot, smiling and waving at each other! Most of us hadn't seen one another since the last day of school in March.
Then we started the parade and drove down Commercial… and all I can say is WOW!
As a senior I want to say thank you to the town for showing up and cheering us on. There were way more people than I could ever have imagined and out of the darkness of not having that "perfect graduation ceremony" we saw the light of our town pulling together to make 200 now graduates day.
So my little reminder to everyone is to remember this verse, because even in the bleakest moments we can still find little pockets of joy and love that we would have never known before.
God will always have a plan for us, even when there is a giant global pandemic.
I would like to make a prayer request to anyone who has read this far… Please pray for the 2020 Seniors, many are still being affected by the pandemic as it is taking away their opportunity to go in person to school or the adventures they had planned in the fall.
Ellie Chambers
For those that do not know me my name is Ellie Chambers, I am the oldest daughter of Rick and Kristen Chambers. I have attended CTK Anacortes since I was very little and have grown up in the church. I have also had the opportunity to be a part of the middle and high school ministry, YoungLife, where we come alongside middle and high schoolers and show them a little piece of God's love.
Jeremiah 29:11 "For I know the plans I have for you," declares the LORD, "plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future."
I have this verse on my blue keychain. It has also been circling my mind over these past months involving covid-19 and our global pandemic/panic.
God has a Plan.
I was a senior at Anacortes High School this year. "Class of 2020 … virtually the best class ever … Go Seahawks!" The past several months have been a challenge for everyone and the graduating class was no exception. It was not at all a typical senior year. I tried to look at the situation and keep this verse in mind, that God has a plan for me.
At the beginning of the shutdown, when we all thought this was going to be an extended spring break, I tried to focus on things I could look forward to instead of things I was missing out on. For example, when I started to feel frustrated about my cancelled golf season, I would shift my focus to look forward to graduation, being with friends and family before leaving for college… etc.
But, as we all know now, this was not an extended spring break.
Everything was different.
In person graduation ceremonies were changed to a YouTube video. We were no longer allowed to celebrate our accomplishment of completing 12 years in school together as a class. This was a crazy change and it was extremely hard because we had been looking forward to walking across the stage with our friends and family surrounding us.
With all the new changes, families were restricted from traveling. My extended family that lives in California was no longer able to come celebrate. The thing I had been looking forward to, the idea of the perfect graduation with my family cheering me on was gone.
That was when God's little miracles started to appear. Small things that people in our town were doing to love our senior class.
I am not sure if you remember, but one day the Seattle news did a story on this little town of ours. It was about the amazing people that helped to put our senior photos up on the streets of Anacortes. The folks at the "Little Tugs" store in downtown Anacortes, hand made masks for each of us Seniors. Then someone started talking about a parade.
When graduation day arrived my expectations were not very high. My family and I jumped in the car and headed to the high school. Slowly cars started trickling in, in a little over 30 minutes my entire class was in the parking lot, smiling and waving at each other! Most of us hadn't seen one another since the last day of school in March.
Then we started the parade and drove down Commercial… and all I can say is WOW!
As a senior I want to say thank you to the town for showing up and cheering us on. There were way more people than I could ever have imagined and out of the darkness of not having that "perfect graduation ceremony" we saw the light of our town pulling together to make 200 now graduates day.
So my little reminder to everyone is to remember this verse, because even in the bleakest moments we can still find little pockets of joy and love that we would have never known before.
God will always have a plan for us, even when there is a giant global pandemic.
I would like to make a prayer request to anyone who has read this far… Please pray for the 2020 Seniors, many are still being affected by the pandemic as it is taking away their opportunity to go in person to school or the adventures they had planned in the fall.
Ellie Chambers
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