Tonight was our second Wyld Life event and our first Club all on our own. I was psyched, the kids were pumped and everyone was ready for the "best night of the week." Maggie came into town after interviewing at camp this morning and it worked out that she could hang out with me tonight and go to Wyld Life Club. Kids here are so incredibly, uncharacteristically punctual it blows my mind. We started at 7:00 but by 6:55 there was already a small crowd in the garage.
Wyld Life still feels kind of surreal and I'm not used to it yet. It's so fun to be able to lead girls from bible study, kids that I talk to in the hallway, old and current students, FBC girls and all their friends. It's just so fun. I love the energy when everyone is together and the anticipation for Club is so high.
We had a whole crew of our HS kids come help out tonight. They love YL so much they jumped at the chance to be here. I don't blame them. I'm so thankful for kids like Haley, Maddy, Chad, Jacob, Allie, Hallie, Max, Haleigh and Brooke that want to be involved and want to help like this. Their presence totally helped create the culture tonight and was such a big help to the other leaders and me.
When Club starts you have to wait for critical mass aka enough people to make the party really fun. So we cranked up the music and opened the doors. At first the room looked like this...
and a few seconds later like this...
and then like this with a kangaroo.
We started with a more fun and harder version of musical chairs- the participants are blindfolded and the seats are constantly being moved around. It's fun to watch the kids yelling and encouraging each other while they're crawling around to find a new seat. In between each game, there's a quick karaoke party.
Mags was the DJ all night and I sat beside her while I waited to get back on the mic to explain the next game. We totes had the best seats in the house.
We played one of my favorite games--frozen t-shirts. We called up six kids and gave them each a t-shirt that was basically a ball of ice because it had been in the freezer since Monday. There would be one individual winner and it was a boys v girls challenge to see which trio could get theirs on the fastest.
We cheered and screamed and then they finished in a dead even tie. Kind of unbelievable but so fun.
We had 1,000 Q-tip War. The room was split in half boys v. girls and then 7th v. 8th graders.
Donkaaay got on someone's shoulders to try to catch flying Q-tips in the air. Great strategy.
Caitlin and Rachel were twins in their new FBC sweatshirts and potholder headbands and were so funny the whole night. I got to play with Maddy Wilson who was my camper in Shoshone a few years ago- I just love her energy and goofiness and kangaroo costume so much. She sang on the microphone and helped me pick out which songs should be played when.
Cereal Sort was the next game. Each team had a spitter and two sorters. The spitter's job was to dunk their head in a bowl of cereal and milk and collect as much in their mouth as possible- kind of like bobbing for apples. They then ran to the sorting section, spit out the contents, and the sorters had to place each cereal piece in the right section.
For example, they had to collect two red Fruit Loops, two Lucky Charms Stars, etc. It was so gross but so fun. Zach, Kaitlyn and Jacob rocked and totally dominated the competition. Rachel went and washed her hands three times afterwards and said they still felt sticky.
I gave the Club talk tonight about living your life as a story that reflects Christ. I told them about some stories I'll never forget from my life-- Sar and Ben's engagement, getting chased by Duh Dawg with Taylor and Dom-- and stories we can't forget from the bible-- Noah and the ark, the men that carried their friend to see Jesus. I told them about how the Psalms say we should never tire of telling the story of God's amazing love and about people I know who do that so well like Grace and Heidi. I think that we're called to have our entire life be about Christ, not just schedule him in when it's convenient for us. It's definitely easier said then done but that's what I want to be striving for.
After I prayed we broke up into small groups all over the gym with the different leaders that came tonight. These 8th grade girls grabbed Maggie and I and we circled up at the bottom of the stairwell. It went so well and I'm so thankful for each of them. My Love Does girls are used to talks like this and it was so cool to bring these other friends into that conversation.
It's so cool for me to watch these other leaders with kids, many of which had never even heard of Young Life a year ago. I love seeing the HS kids open up and be willing to talk about their faith with these Junior High kids. It's a continuous theme that God is doing big things here.
We had a quick photo shoot because we're really good at those. I love getting time to be loud and funny and weird with friends like Sar. It happens every day at camp, but it's so exciting to be able to do this on random weekends throughout the year- just one or two days together is enough fun to last until our next reunion.
We just really love being great friends and loving life together and having so much fun all the time.
After night's like tonight I'm just so thankful. Thankful for my YL girls like Haleigh and how she's a main character of my life. Thankful for girls like Anne that have gotten hooked on Wyld Life and are such a part of my heart. Thankful for new kids that showed up for the first time. Thankful for my crazy students that I have to quiet down in class but I get to tell to be crazy here at Club. Thankful for other leaders that love God and love kids. Thankful for Q-tips and frozen t-shirts and Adele and stories and sitting in circles talking with friends about things that matter.
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