Last year I led Young Life for Senior and Junior girls in Carmel. Most of them are freshmen away at school now and I rarely get to see them in person. I love college Spring Breaks when they get a chance to come back and visit between school and their trip. Tonight I got to have dinner with Emily and Mac, two girls that I think the world of.
Emily surprised me with this Bob Goff canvas and the news that she's most likely going to marry Liam Hemsworth. I heard about summer concert plans and sorority life and all the things I miss when I'm not seeing them every week. I'm thankful that a year after they've graduated we can still sit down and pick up right where we left off.
Wyld Life threw a PJ Party Club tonight. Girls showed up in bathrobes and onsies, night gowns and slippers. I was impressed with the boys that sport pj pants and really supported the ones that wore their mother's pajamas... hopefully she knew they were borrowing them.
It feels like we've been doing Wyld Life here forever. These kids are such "Young Life kids" if you know what I mean. They look forward to these nights, get dressed up with their friends, want to be in a game every week and think the small group time at the end is the best. They're really getting it because God is at work here.
I love that we started this picture with five people and within twenty seconds this many girls ran into the shot. Taking pictures is one of our strengths.
Thanks to the time change we got to hang out in the daylight for a little bit before club began. It was so cool to stand in the driveway and just watch car after car roll in and the kids pile out before running to their friends. We had all of our I'll-never-miss-a-wyld-life-club-kids show up, some 8th grade boys show up and at least ten brand-new kids that had never been before.
Week after week I feel so lucky to get to be doing this. I loved going to WL Clubs in Carmel because we always had a blast but I never knew the kids the way I'm set up to know them here. I know most of the ones that show up but now I get to meet their friends and kids from the other Junior Highs that they bring along.
We waited outside until we had critical mass and then stormed the gym in the basement.
The 8th grade girls always claim the front row spots as we begin singing right away. They're so into this. Most of the boys run around in the corner but today we had several of them singing along. I got to dance in the back with 7th grade girls which is always a good time.
All of our games were PJ Party themed tonight. We had a sleeping bag race first. Team boy had two seventh graders hop down and pass the sleeping bag off to two eighth grade boys who hopped back. Next team girl gave it a shot before we announced their times. The boys won by 7 seconds, it was more difficult then expected.
When you sleep over at your friends house what's one of the best things their mom might make for breakfast? Pancakes! We cooked up a whole pan of them for our next game. Anne frisbee-tossed the pancakes to Andrew who had to try to catch them in his mouth. Then Soph and Ryan went to try to beat their record. I don't know if it was Anne's throwing or Andrew's catching ability but they won by a landslide.
RAFFLE! RAFFLE! RAFFLE! Abby and Molly are the bomb dot comb at getting sweet raffle prizes for us. Tonight we gave away a Justin Bieber blanket, a scalp massager, Little Rascals DVD and more.
Our last game of the night involved drinking orange juice from a pitcher, filling up a cup and then chugging it all. So much vitamin C.
Best friends Kiki and Maranda were victorious!
Alex Kocher gave the Club Talk for the first time and did a fantastic job. She started by having everyone close their eyes and think about darkness and a whole list of things that make our world dark. When we opened our eyes again she was holding a single candle. She shared about how Jesus is the light of the world and the verses in Matthew that say, "You are the light of the world. A town built on a hill cannot be hidden. Neither do people light a lamp and put it under a bowl. Instead they put it on its stand, and it gives light to everyone in the house. In the same way, let your light shine before others, that they may see your good deeds and glorify your Father in heaven."
We have Christ's light inside of us and we get to share that with the people around us. It would be silly to have this light and never share it. Alex had other leaders light candles randomly while she was talking to illustrate how one person can inspire and spark other people to find and shine Christ's light too. I love this image of all of us together bringing light into dark places.
I asked the stairwell girls what other things they pictured when they think about the verses about being a light. One said she thinks of a tiny city on top of a giant hill, one thought of a huge candle in a dark room, another of the beam from a light house shining out and one remembered the candle light service at Christmas Eve. We talked about being the light, when that's difficult and why it's important. These girls are already doing such an awesome job of being the light in our school, on their teams and with their families.
“I used to want to fix people, but now I just want to be with them," writes Bob Goff. I pray that our agenda at YL is to not really have an agenda at all. I don't need to fix these kids' lives, God is the only one who can really change their hearts, I just want to be here with them. Getting to just show up in their lives is going to let them see the light. I don't want to try to sell them anything.
“Something happens when you feel ownership. You no longer act like a spectator or consumer, because you're an owner. Faith is at its best when it's that way too. It's best lived when it's owned.” Learning that was the biggest turning point in my own faith. As these kids feel ownership of their faith, and aren't just coming because it's so fun, that's when I get really excited. It's happening, right in front of us.
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