When I applied to college I wasn't sure if I wanted to grow up to be a teacher or a youth pastor. I knew I liked working with kids and I was passionate about my faith. I ended up at Hope and started in their education program to become a teacher. Besides a couple religion classes forgot all about the ideas of a leading a youth group some day. But sometimes, on days like today, I look at my life and realize that God can still make anything happen. I may be a teacher by profession but the biggest moments of my life are when I'm walking in faith with dozens of Junior High and High School kids. It blows my mind some times how he works.
I started early this morning with a group of girls having a picnic breakfast on my classroom floor while we talked about Cold Tangerines. "Miss Wright, every chapter is so good. I don't know how that's possible. Every chapter in Love Does was so good too."
We met with the Jr Campaigners girls pre-Club since our pre-Spring Break week schedule is all weird. KCraig and I are continually floored by how awesome it is to grow with these girls. We're having conversations about Moses and the 10 Commandments, getting them to think about what's going on with gay marriage instead of just giving them an answer, talking about kids in their classes they want to share Christ with instead of judging or hating them, building a community of accountability. Tonight one of the girls asked, "So there's no way we can finish this before school's out. Can we still keep doing this all summer?" They're on fire. It also kills me that I can't be with them all this summer.
At 7:00 the caravan of mini-vans and SUVs pulled around the cul-de-sac to drop off droves of seventh and eighth graders dressed up for Costume Club. Tonight there were more new faces and friends from the other two Junior Highs.
These days I can't imagine not having Wyld Life. It would be strange to not do this every other week, to not know all of these kids, to not be able to have this much fun with kids that are all looking for a place to belong.
In every area where I've led it's a common idea that Young Life is for the "popular" kids. Not every kid is going to love coming here, I get that, but I want every kid to feel welcome if they want to check it out. This week I challenged some of our regulars to seek out friends from their classes and teams who haven't come yet, to personally invite them to come to Wyld Life. So many of their friends showed up for the first time.
Celebrating Halloween in March is pretty fun. Actually, I think dressing up any time is really fun.
While we wait for a critical mass to arrive we all run around outside and the girls take pictures. I love that when I try to get the boys to take a group picture this is what happens. So natural. If I back up to get more of them in the frame they just keep moving towards me.
Wyld Life is just fun-- yoga poses on top of posts fun, dressing up like your older sister and her boyfriend fun, being friends with everyone fun, forgetting about homework and tomorrow's math test for an hour and half fun.
These kids make me laugh. The girl in the middle, she hair-sprayed and bobby-pinned her hair so it would stay across her forehead like that. So impressive.
The basement was a party tonight. The 8th grade girls did such a good job of bringing everyone together to sing the songs. They're all slightly ridiculous and just totally awesome.
Tonight I was sitting with Jordan, my friend from my youth group growing up, as the kids played a game we first learned in the Rock Solid Youth Room with our youth pastor Sheila. Back in those days I LOVED going to church. Hanging out with my youth group friends was always my favorite part of the week. But I remember Sheila telling us that she wouldn't be able to judge the success of the program until she saw where we were a few years out.
Jordan and I have grown up since the days of 30 Hour Famines and Superchick concerts and we're still growing in our faith all these years later. I know that Sheila is happy with where we've ended up. Now I'm so curious to see where these kids will be a few years from now. Will the words we're sharing with them really sink in? Will what we're doing in Club affect how they live the rest of their week?
We're about laughing and being goofy, meeting kids where they are and challenging them to something greater, playing gross games and running around like crazy.
I love that here, like at camp, these kids can just be kids. They're not trying to get an A, to make Varsity, to be perfect or rebellious. They're just being kids-- weird, silly, loud, thoughtful, courageous, funny, smart, unique kids.
Lori gave the club talk tonight and got us thinking about WWJD. Maybe you remember the bracelets from a decade ago that got every one thinking about What Would Jesus Do? Lori got us thinking not about What Jesus Would Do but about What Jesus Did for us.
The stairwell crew talked about what it means to carry our cross, how we would have reacted if we were there when Christ was crucified, how we can share this "God wisdom" and what it would mean to think about WWJD before we acted. Tonight I was so thankful for their brave questions, for thoughtful comments and ideas. In the few months we've been meeting together I've seen them grow so much.
I'm thankful for this wolf and lamb, for Audrey showing up to help every single week, for all the HS kids that came because they love YL so much, for Genna dancing in front of the crowd, for Kailee and Avery coming for the first time.
I'm thankful for hearing kids share scripture up front, for Carter playing Viva La Vida, for Malena being goofy, for Julia and Olivia being awesome, for answered prayers, for things we could never make happen on our own.
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