cleanup crew thank you!

Huge thanks to Dixie, Michael, Savana, Richard, Jordan, Jared and Chris for their awesome work cleaning the Underground today. We got the main room cleaned and mostly organized and the high school room cleaned.

I am so grateful for their help.

quotes of the day (so far)

Both were in conversation about a skit Kevin wants me to help him with later. Ignore that, though... they're better out of context.

"Hey Kevin, can I be your friend?" -me
"Sure. Now I just need to find God." - Kevin

"so, is the underground open in the summer?"

That's the question everybody asks. Sometimes it's followed by "so what exactly do you do in the summer?" While I could go on about the need for time to plan for the following year or the variety of activities that do occur in the summer, I just found this on another blog. I nodded as I read it and it's easier to put a link than to rewrite what's already out there and true.

So, if you're wondering why the UG isn't open regularly in the summer or why we don't have Sunday School or regular youth group meetings click right here.

Graduation Sunday/ Youth Led Service

If there is any chance at all that you can make it to church this Sunday, please come. I'm getting more and more excited about Graduation Sunday the closer it gets. I'm not so happy to lose this class of seniors because they're some really great kids and I'm going to miss them something fierce.

But, Jordan is preaching. I so strongly believe in what he's saying for his message. And the Sunday School kids are sharing a great lesson. And I'm so proud of what the JUG kids came up with for their youth message. And there's going to be a dance number.

Sometimes as adults, I wonder if we don't get too used to hearing just adults. Do we take time to listen to kids and try to learn from kids? This is one of those times to do just that. Please come or at least feel sad if you can't. :)

Some of the seniors and a random older than high school guy :

woohoo, it's MAY!!

The only thing that sounds better than May right now is JUNE! Just 20 days left of the school year and I can tell we're all feeling it. Attention spans seem to be shrinking-- and the kids aren't paying attention either!

10 things I'm super stoked about right now:

1. May breakfast! May 5th, 6-9 at the church. (food=awesome, early morning=blah.)
2. Lunch with my friend Nate Ruge tomorrow to plan a mission swap for this summer.
3. Youth led church on Graduation Sunday, May 24th. (Jordan is preaching!)
4. Schnurrrrr comes back from college for the summer. Maybe we'll finish our book.
5. CAMP CAMP CAMP CAMP CAMP. Summer is for camp.
6. The JUG kids tricked me into promising a trip to the Cellar during youth group this week. (If you haven't been to the Cellar, you should check it out. The atmosphere is cool, the smoothies are delicious and rumor is-- they have a Wii!)
7. The high school youth want to do a overnight at the yurts. I'm game!
8. Soccer. I'm digging this soccer season. Running the clock is a good time.
9. In 101 days I turn 30. I'm glad I still get to do youth ministry even though I'm so almost old.
10. This video came out this week. The National Youth Workers Convention is one of my favorite events on the planet. Watch this and maybe you'll see why:




HAPPY MAY!

easily amused

I couldn't get the video to upload to the blog from my phone-- maybe I'll put it on facebook in a bit. Eric, Lok, Jared and I watched this microphone spin around the circumference of the table for a good five minutes. Not sure you can tell what that was like from the picture. Blogworth? Maybe not, but still something I want to remember and laugh at later. (I'm starting to get sentimental... I'm going to miss these seniors when they graduate.)

Sprinting through spring

One of the common sense rules in the Underground is "no running." It makes sense because there are tables and obstacles everywhere and really, why would you need to run inside unless something was on fire? The running isn't as problematic as the crashing and subsequent bleeding.

Pretty much everyday down there, I say "(insert kid name), stop running." I've taken to making the repeat offenders repeat "I will not run in the Underground" anywhere from ten to twenty times. It's a temporary fix.

So this is what makes me smile. I'm running the clock for most of the home soccer games this spring. Controlling time is quite difficult. ;)I go from yelling "Stop running" to yelling "Run faster! Get it!" Turns out running outside is essential to a good soccer play.

I'm really surprised that the soccer players don't trip more on the field. They run in such close proximity to each other. That's a lot of feet to trip over plus the ball gets in the way. It seems like when they're all flying around so fast they make instant adjustments to keep their balance. The faster they move, the better they're able to leap over feet and dribble a soccerball. It's amazing to watch.

And that pretty much sums up this time of year for youth ministry. There's so much going on and everything seems to move at an incredibly speedy pace. Camp Sunday was this past week and then next big thing is Youth Sunday on Graduation Sunday. And then it's getting ready for all the summer events. My heart is screaming "Stop Running!" but it's almost more dangerous not to run through this time. The subconscious adjustments to include new events, meetings or conversations are second nature.

Still I think of a quote from my friend Adrian, "Why would you run, unless you were being chased?"