broken

We did something strange in Sunday School this week: it was kind of a craft, but mostly an activity. We've been talking about Nehemiah and the re-building the wall all month. For the final lesson on that story, we talked about forgiveness. How even if we mess up and accidentally break something, forgiveness is glue that puts us back together. God can repair us, if you will... and eventually we'll be restored, but in the meantime, even with scars or whatnot, God still loves us.

I had Taylor take some pictures so I can show the pots we broke. Other than the Bible lesson part, what I learned is that kids sure like using a hammer and I'm not so sure I like using the hot glue gun-- especially when the burn from it hits my knuckle. At least the stinging sensation kept me awake through church, right?

Sidenote about church: it's humbling when a giggle fit hits me and a 7th grader turns around and mouths the word "Behave!" I blame Wendy. She always gets me in trouble when I sit by her. :)

HAMMERTIME!! The pot is under the towel-- each kid got a chance to break it with a hammer.


Piecing them together afterwards was challenging--sometimes impossible if the kid really, really enjoyed the breaking part of it. :)


Gluing is going on in the background but here we see the final product.

harmony

Tonight was the best meeting I've ever had with a high school youth group. The book we're using to walk through God's story is incredibly powerful and we're all connecting with it. I feel like a lot of youth ministry is a guessing game: will the right activities and the right lesson find the right kids at the right time? Tonight answered that with a resounding "ABSOLUTELY!"

We talked about harmony. Last week was creation and this week was the beauty of the Adam and Eve story before the fall. God created humanity and it was supposed to work. Of course it gets messed up but tonight we got to dwell in the moment before everything falls apart. Harmony. Everything going right.

Maybe it helped that the kids that showed up were band kids. Maybe it was fitting to talk about all of this in the middle of marching band season. God did this. We read parts of this chapter and the last poem of it in sort of a choral reading kind of way and it was beautiful.

It's amazing how clear things can be. Anyway, here's the quote of the night and then I'm headed home. Jordan was drawing on the counter after we were done. He kept screwing up whatever he was trying to draw and he yelled in frustration. I asked him what he was trying to do and this is what he said:

I'm drawing an artistic representation of harmony--how everything's different but it works together anyway.

And there's the vision for the world. Right there's the vision for the church. There's the vision for the kind of life I want to share with those around me.

Another quote of the day

From across the Underground, I heard this in the saddest, most mournful voice:

"Awwww... Clayton's not funky fresh."
-Chris

I'm terrible about asking for help

Really, I hate to admit that I can't do something by myself. I'd so much rather just do whatever I need done than bother someone else with it. That "oh, I'll just do it" mentality is the worst idea ever for youth ministry, though.

I need help. Right now these are the major needs in the Underground and I'm doing it right now, but please think and pray about who might be able to help.

After-school program volunteers would add so much to our program. Ideally, I could find a few people willing to commit to showing up between 3 and 5:30 either weekly or a few times a week. Some of the need would be supervision-- enforcing the rules and all that grownup stuff, but mostly I think these kids need to get familiar with some more adult faces. They're pretty good about playing games: board games or pool or made up games. I'm just not always able to play when I have to moniter the room.

TUG and JUG are awesome. This church is fortunate to have a great group of high school and junior high kids. I need at least one other adult to help with each group. The lessons are ready to go with some flexibility but I think what the kids would find important is just having a quality adult there. Another adult to invest in them and build a healthy relationship could be so great for both groups. JUG meets Wednesday nights. TUG meets Sunday nights.

Then there's 5th Quarter. There are just two left: Oct 3 and Oct 10. The 3rd is Homecoming and the 10th is the night before Covered Bridge Festival. Turnout at 5Qs this year has been awesome... I think they'll probably keep growing.

Those are the ongoing areas. It's also time to line up Covered Bridge Dinner helpers-- preparing, serving and cleaning up. The kids can (and will) help a lot, but it's also good to have adults around. So anyway...

I'm praying for the right people to step forward and volunteer or at least that I would shed my pride enough to ask for help.

for the cool and/or scary file

(I meant to post this earlier this week but didn't seem to have the right combination of computer+time+the mood to write.)

On Tuesday, the kids wanted to play Smiley Face Ball. I think I've described SFB before, but to recap, three kids per team and the goal is to throw the ball so you knock down the other teams pins. The pins look an awful lot like empty 2 liter pop bottles because they are, in fact, empty 2 liter pop bottles.

Anyway, there weren't that many kids around and Savana was the one who really wanted to play, so I told her they could play some SFB if she was willing to lead it. And good golly, can that kid lead some SFB!

It's always scary as a youth director when you see yourself either parodied or just imitated by the kids. I thought Savana was a great leader, but I'm biased because so much of what she said and how she led was exactly what I would say or how I would lead the game. She was pretty fair and a bit distracted by deciding who was on which team.



Hands down, my favorite part was when ***** was swinging around his sweatshirt to protect the pin he was guarding.

Savana said, "*****, you need to put your sweatshirt down. You can't play like that."

***** kept waving his sweatshirt around.

Savana said, "Really, *****... you need to put your sweatshirt down on the couch."

He looked at her; this time he heard her. Still hung on to the sweatshirt.

Savana sighed. "*****," she said. "Either your sweatshirt goes on the couch or you have to sit on the couch. Which do you want to do?"

He smiled and put his shirt on the couch.

"That's better," Savana said.


She sounded so much like me. Clayton's done that before, too. I'll hear him says a phrase or something I've said a lot. Apparently they do listen. Most of the time that's probably a good thing. ;)


(The ***** is to protect the name. I guess I'll try not to out mischievous kids on this blog whenever possible. Maybe you could just assume they're all a little mischievous.)

Quote of the yesterday

(Context: 3-4 of the UG kids are apparently planning a trip to Canada. They were hoarding popcorn in anticipation of their trip. I asked Ayden if he thought they were serious about this.)

"I'm not sure if they're serious, but if they are serious, they're talking about going to Northern Canada and I'm not going to be surprised if they get eaten by a seal."
--Ayden

Quick update

Today feels like a Monday so I'm going to keep this short. The weekend was good. It was fun to be at a football game again. I had a great conversation with Katy at the game and was blown away at the turn out for our first 5th Quarter. We had around 40 kids. Gaylene and Jen were great adults to have around.

Sunday School started again, too. The kids made monkey bread and then we served it at fellowship time. We're starting off with Nehemiah and building a wall. I'm pretty sure none of the kids got the connection between the bread and the wall, but this next Sunday ought to clear that up.

TUG (Teen Underground) was great last night, too. I think there's excitement for a new year and a great group of teens showed up. Probably what I'm looking forward to most this school year would be the JUG and TUG meetings. I just really like the group of junior high and high school kids that are part of the church right now.

One last thing before I dart downstairs to get set up for after school stuff:

write this down to remember if you need to, but the fundraiser is on.

COVERED BRIDGE FUNDRAISER DINNER
Saturday of Covered Bridge Festival
Roast beef, mashed potatoes, gravy, green beans, dinner rolls and PIE! for $7

More info will be coming on that soon, but hopefully you'll consider coming to eat with us that day or helping out with the dinner. It has the potential to be a great fundraiser.

quote of the day

Periodically, I'll post a quote of the day. Yesterday, Miranda had it. She was watching whatever silliness Clayton and Cy were taking part in and she, while eating chips, turned to me and said:

"This is better than cable."

Early Out Wednesdays

Winterset lets kids out of school around noon the first Wednesday of every month. Awesome if you're a kid, right? I never know what to expect when the kids show up that early at the Underground. They tend to get bored quicker and around 3 it feels like we've all been there forever.

That said, I was pleasantly surprised yesterday. The kids were actually really good. I had to yell a few times but I didn't have to pull anyone out for a time out and I didn't have to resort to letting them play Smiley Face Ball. (SFB is a great game-- but it winds them up something fierce. If they're already crazy, it can calm them a little, but when they're already calm... yikes!)

So anyway, after school was good, the $2 dinner was delicious and our first JUG (Junior Underground for grades 6-8) went really well.

Seven and a half hours straight with kids, no real break from that action, and I was still in a stellar mood when I headed for home.

Course it's early in the school year... in a few months some of the novelty of the UG will wear off and early outs might go back to being boring.

Until then, I might have the best job in the world.

overheard from the hallway

My office is in the back of the church, near the rooms that are home to the Pre-School that meets in our building. When parents wait for their pre-schoolers to get done with class, I sometimes hear snippets of conversation. Here's the gem from today-- one of the mom's was telling another parent about her conversation with her 3 year old earlier.

"Mommy, I'm ready for school!" (Apparently the girl hadn't put on clothes yet.)
"But you're still in your underwear. Let's rethink this."

At last... September!

I feel like the last few weeks, I've just been waiting for everything to officially start. Here we are in September... finally! And everything will get going this week.

The Underground is now open Mondays-Fridays from whenever school gets out until 5:30.
On Wednesdays, we'll now have WAC from 4-5:30, followed by a $2 Dinner, 5:30-6:00.

Junior Underground (grades 6-8) starts this week, meeting Wednesdays from 6:00-7:30.

Teen Underground (high school) starts Sunday, 6:30-8:30 p.m.

And finally church goes back to 10:15, with Sunday School before that at 9. We'll start Sunday school this month with the awesome story of Nehemiah building a wall. I promise it's more exciting than it sounds.

Anywho... I don't dare say things are back to normal, because I'm not sure there is a normal, but things are back to a school year schedule and I'm glad. Now bring on the fall temperatures and the football games! (Speaking of which... 5th Quarter is this week. Pass it on!)