"And then sometimes I'm just like, 'Oh I see what you did there God, you silly dog.' "

After school I got to pick up Haley and Olivia. They both wished they could have come to TWL with us so we needed some catch up and hang out time. Their request was to go book shopping, an adventure I always support, so we headed to Target because Fishers is lacking in the bookstores these days. We looked through all the rows and sat down in the aisle to read a couple pages of different books. It felt like a Saturday afternoon just being lazy and hanging out together.

After three days of YL on our Fall Weekend trip I was a bit tired but still excited about Campaigners. The leaders gathered for dinner and got to have Jon lead our training again tonight. He has so much insight and experience and passion for YL and his coaching really is invaluable.

Carly, Emily and Michaela were the first to arrive and I was so excited to see them--one went on Fall Weekend, one I know from the Jr. High and one I've never met. I love that God keeps bringing this mix of kids.

Brooke, Haleigh and I got to be triplets in our new YL shirts from this weekend. Brian and Jon rekindled their friendship that had formed on Friday afternoon. (p.s. Really fun to see Jon back in his element with all these kids at Campaigners when I'm now more used to seeing him with leaders or committee members.)

I'm so thankful for Payton, Libby and Olivia--girls that I get to keep walking with and I remember when I first started coming to their Friday morning bible studies in their 7th grade year.

I'm thankful for Alli, Julia, Olivia, Natalie, Hayden, Emily, Ali Bell and Grace--these girls who have gotten hooked through Campaigners and now they never miss a week.

I'm thankful for all these guys that are helping to build the culture of what we do here on Monday nights. I can see that this is important to them, that they want to keep growing together.

I'm thankful for the wisdom of sophomores like Erin and Aly and new friends that crack us up like Olivia. I was blown away when Seniors Connor and Sierra walked through the door tonight--we met them on Friday at the school and they said they would check it out. At the end of the night they told me since they're the first Seniors they've decided to be the Dad and Mom of all the kids.

 

I'm thankful for leaders like Todd that come alongside these guys and build mentoring relationships with them.

 

Tonight I was thankful for our songs-- for the circle of guys singing together, for Mariah and Natalie and Maddy's requests, for Chelsea's enthusiasm about singing, for how loud Kate and Carly got.

I'm thankful for friends like Audrey and Natalie, Ali and Hallie that are full of so much life. For these girls that are searching and figuring stuff out and wanting to know more.

I'm so thankful that Lauren has recovered enough from her surgery that she could come back tonight. I'm thankful for my friendships with Lauren, Butt, Haleigh, Libby, Haley and Hannah, for their joy, and for their hearts.

We talked tonight about the metaphor of the cup in Matthew 23, that you can't just clean the outside of a cup but you have to wash the inside first. In our own lives we have to work on cleaning, healing, restoring the inside of what's really going on rather than just shining up the outside of our lives to look like we've got it all together. I'm thankful for all these kids that want to dive into scripture and conversation together, that have so much to say and so much to share.