I love days like today when I get to go from one fun thing to the next. Right after school I went to hang out with Taylor Porter and Susan, two of my old Young Life girls that just finished up their sophomore year of college. Really kind of insane that they're half-way through. As I was driving there I thought about how cool it is that we've been part of each other's lives for three years, the whole time I've lived in Indy. I'm such a fan of both of these girls and loved being able to just take turns talking about life while we drank giant Diet Cokes and ate a whole box of Cheez-its.
The kids from my Junior High ran their track meet in Carmel so I made a quick stop to see some of them compete before I headed to Young Life Club. Before it began David, Jake, Tony and Alex perfected their acrobatic sword-wielding techniques. When a group of Mary Ellen's girls arrived they presented her with a bouquet of flowers for Mother's Day. So precious. She is totally like a second mom to them.
Mary Ellen is one of my Young Life leader role models. I admire how she leads all of her girls, there are so many that she has invested in, prayed for, and loved well. They know that she will be there for them without a doubt to listen, to accept them for who they are, to encourage or challenge them and be someone that is leading them closer to Christ.
When I texted the Senior girls earlier in the day about Hunger Games Club I reminded them that this would be their LAST Young Life Club of HS EVER. I'm not really one for the dramatics but I really wanted them to come. I was thrilled to see Kayla, Steph, Emily and Mac show up dressed in their vibrant clothes to represent citizens of the Capitol.
We took the opportunity to have our own dance party on the gazebo before the official party even started.
We have great dance moves.
We haven't had traditional Young Life Club in awhile and we loved belting out songs like We Are Young and Call Me Maybe.
In honor of Katniss we played Girl On Fire: a flaming hot Cheeto eating contest. All the girls were pretty impressive and Kayla ended up winning a sponsorship for the arena.
To pay our respects to Peeta, two boys competed in a Pita flip off of a swimming flipper until they could catch it on their face.
The main event was an actual battle in the arena. Our cornucopia was a collection of shaving creme filled paper plates--you had to make a direct hit to someone's face to get them out of the game.
Once the game began you could use the kick-balls to hit a plate out of someone's hand, a sword to deflect flying plates or throw a tomato to distract other competitors. 5-hour energy drinks and Red Bulls were distributed by the Sponsor's for extra power.
It was so cool. Everyone was running around, diving for plates, dodging flying tomatoes, forming alliances and getting covered in shaving creme. Perhaps our game was even better than the real Hunger Games because no one died in our version. The girls fought like champs and Shana stayed in until the final few players.
There were a few casualties.
Winning at the Hunger Games isn't really their strength but these girls have plenty of enthusiasm for sure.
We had two victors, our very own Katniss and Peeta.
David gave the last club talk of the year, and maybe his last club talk ever as he is heading off to Chicago for school next Fall. I have learned a lot from David in the past couple years, not only did he teach us about the 6 non-negotiable truths of women, encourage me to never stop in a dance party, and make us continually laugh with his class David-isms, but he lived a life dedicated to following Christ. He is one of those unique people that want to live like Christ as much as he can through his words, his attitude and his actions.
Jake, David, Mary Ellen and I got to have a little team huddle at the end of the night about how much we have each been blessed to be a part of this community. Although I can't wait for summer to begin, there is no doubt that I will really miss all of this.
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