Last summer was so much fun! Some of the best stuff seems to happen on the "spur of the moment!"
One example of this came when a member of our church asked if the teens would like to come out to their place for a swim. I had not been out to their new home, so I got directions. They told me their street address and gave me some landmarks to look for.
Their neighborhood was beautiful! Nice homes surrounded by tall trees, kind of out in the country.
Well, we found the address and the boat sitting out in the driveway, and proceeded to go through the gate to the backyard. Their two HUGE dogs were there waiting to greet us.
We crossed the lawn and started to put our stuff down on the patio surrounding the pool. I started to slap on some sunscreen, and one of the girls started wading out into the pool when a terrible thought came to mind: They never told me they had dogs!
I grabbed the collar of the nearest mutt, checked his tags, and yelped in terror, "We're at the wrong house guys...let's get outta here!"
We grabbed all our stuff and made a mad dash for the gate. As we rounded the corner of the house, I gasped again; some of our boys (who were meeting us there) had rung the doorbell and were talking to a man at the front door!
To my relief, the man shut the door and the boys came over. They told me the man was there to fix the computers and knew nothing about a swimming party! We all hurried to our vehicles laughing hysterically when I realized my mistake...I had switched the numbers in my head! The real address was 120...not 102!!
The lady from church laughed when the kids told her what happened. She would later tell me that she and the doctor had a good laugh about the whole thing!
Wacky stuff from the fun, exciting, depressing, easy, hard, anxious, happy world of youth ministry!
Monday, February 28, 2005
Thursday, February 24, 2005
"Gelao" is Greek for laughter!
Well, this is my first post! I'd better make it good, huh?!
The teens in my youth group always have fun reminiscing about the crazy stuff that has happened, so I figured I better start writing it down! I'll try to post about stuff past and present, so feel free to read up and chuckle with me!
Last weekend, we participated in the 30 Hour Famine. It's a time where you fast for 30 hours to raise money for those who don't have food. About six kids decided to participate, and they did awesome! We only had juice and water from noon on Friday til 6 p.m. on Saturday night. I wish I had known what Friday night had in store...
I had decided to make Friday night a time of reflection...a time to get closer to God. In fact, our theme was "Hungry for God." I decided the teens and I would go through a prayer labyrinth of sorts. So I found some good ideas elsewhere, threw in one or two originals, and transformed our basement into a "Holy of Holies."
It was awesome! I had like 8 different stations where the kids would reflect on their personal lives, their faith, God, His power, their place in the Church, etc. I had bought like 100 tealight candles to help with the reflective mood. I put about 15 at each "station" on paper plates.
We were about 45 minutes into it when one of my boys (a big football player) starts flailing around on the floor! My first thought was, "Great! He's having a seizure!"
Then I noticed the sparks coming from the bottom of his pants! He had sat too close to the tealights and caught himself on fire!
Well, we put it out with only a few singed leg hairs. The only problem was he was left with a HUGE (almost two inches in diameter) hole in his new pair of jeans!
Anyways, if you ever work with fire, do the "safety talk" and have a fire extinguisher nearby! Oh, by the way, I'm lucky because his mom hasn't called me yet!
The teens in my youth group always have fun reminiscing about the crazy stuff that has happened, so I figured I better start writing it down! I'll try to post about stuff past and present, so feel free to read up and chuckle with me!
Last weekend, we participated in the 30 Hour Famine. It's a time where you fast for 30 hours to raise money for those who don't have food. About six kids decided to participate, and they did awesome! We only had juice and water from noon on Friday til 6 p.m. on Saturday night. I wish I had known what Friday night had in store...
I had decided to make Friday night a time of reflection...a time to get closer to God. In fact, our theme was "Hungry for God." I decided the teens and I would go through a prayer labyrinth of sorts. So I found some good ideas elsewhere, threw in one or two originals, and transformed our basement into a "Holy of Holies."
It was awesome! I had like 8 different stations where the kids would reflect on their personal lives, their faith, God, His power, their place in the Church, etc. I had bought like 100 tealight candles to help with the reflective mood. I put about 15 at each "station" on paper plates.
We were about 45 minutes into it when one of my boys (a big football player) starts flailing around on the floor! My first thought was, "Great! He's having a seizure!"
Then I noticed the sparks coming from the bottom of his pants! He had sat too close to the tealights and caught himself on fire!
Well, we put it out with only a few singed leg hairs. The only problem was he was left with a HUGE (almost two inches in diameter) hole in his new pair of jeans!
Anyways, if you ever work with fire, do the "safety talk" and have a fire extinguisher nearby! Oh, by the way, I'm lucky because his mom hasn't called me yet!
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