"Name a state that starts with a vowel." "Vermont!"

One of my FBC girls is going on a mission trip to the Dominican Republic over Fall Break. Today the FBC army all made tornado bracelets for her to take to the kids and adults she'll meet on her trip. Together we can do big things. We won't get to be there, but we're going to be part of brightening the day of 80 people thousands of miles away. That's awesome.

 

Wyld Life hosted Camo Club at Geist Park tonight. All of the leaders met early to eat pizza and go over the plan for the night. I'm thankful for such a big team of consistent leaders this year, 11 HS kids and about 7 adults that are sold on this mission. There's no way we could reach so many kids without all of these people saying, "I'm in."

I'm stoked about this new year of 7th graders and all the enthusiasm they bring. With every week that passes I know them a little bit better from class, FBC, sitting in the stands at games and in the hallways at school. There are some hilarious, creative, fun, crazy and kind kids in this group.

I'm so lucky to get to know girls like  Alaina, Kate, Meric and Amanda through the Love Does group. I love that I get to show them what YL is all about and invite them to experience all of this craziness together. That's such a huge part of what we're about-- doing this together.

Tonight I'm so thankful for girls like Lexi, Sophie, Emma and Linnea who just make me so... happy. When they walked across the parking lot for Club tonight I couldn't help but run over to them. I got to sit with them as we sang songs and we ran around together during finger jousting. These girls rock and I love that they're part of Wyld Life.

I'm encouraged to see kids from all different friend groups and types of kids continually showing up to Club. Everyone is welcome here.

Tonight we had some Tropical Soldiers show up at Camo Club. They let me know they secured the perimeter before we got started.

Despite conflicts with soccer, cheerleading, volleyball, lacrosse, football and basketball we still had an insane turn-out of kids tonight. I don't know what we're going to do on a night when everyone can come.

Milly came straight from cross country and didn't wear any camo. Luckily her friends took care of that and stuffed her with leaves so she would blend right in. We double checked to make sure none of the leaves were poisin ivy.
Our first game brought four kids up front for what they thought was a pumpkin pie eating contest. As soon as they were blindfolded the pumpkin pies were swapped with Taco Bell Mexican pizzas.

Their taste buds were surprised as they started to eat but that didn't slow them down at all. After we declared Logan the winner, they all won their uneaten pumpkin pies in thanks for participating.

Then we invited everyone to stand up and try their skill and agility with finger jousting. You lock hands with a friend, stick out your pointer finger and try to touch the other person. Everyone was jumping and running all over the field trying not to get touched.

I was so excited to see the next game in action that my friends at LT Young Life played last week.  Graham, Claire, Rylan and Jules each brought up a leader to sit in front of them on the bench. Each kid held an egg and we gave them a category for each round. They went down the line shouting out their answer. For example if the category was "pops" they could yell: Diet Coke, Sprite, Mellow Yellow, etc. The first one to hesitate or repeat had to smash their egg on their leaders head.

Some of the eggs were hard boiled and didn't make much of a stink but the raw eggs were definitely messy. Mariah got lucky with four hard boiled eggs on her head. Claire had to smash two raw eggs on her teacher Mr. Bill's head. It was pretty awesome.

Our HS leaders put on their first skit of the year, "If I Weren't In Young Life," and did an awesome job. We had a farmer, Belieber, rapper, spit take, flight attendant, bird watcher and surfer dude. These guys were hilarious and the kids loved it.

Ryan came back up to play and teach the kids, "One Things Remains"--one of my very favorite songs. Then Maddy Wilson shared the Club Talk of the night. She told us about how she's applying for colleges right now. As terrifying as that is, she knows it doesn't help to worry when she needs to just give control over to God. She wants to arm herself in the armor of Christ so she's ready for whatever will come in the future. Maddy read us the verses about the spiritual armor and talked about how important it is for these kids to think about these things all day and week long.

In our small groups we went through Maddy's talk and each of the different pieces of armor. We each have the shoes of readiness, belt of truth, breastplate of righteousness, shield of faith, helmet of salvation and sword of the spirit. I loved hearing what the girls had to say about each one.

Then all of the groups put on face paint for the last event of the night-- Capture the Flag.

It was pretty dark by the time we played but the kids still had fun running around and chasing each other. The flashlights from their phones were like lightning bugs all over the field as they ran. We didn't end up with a winner but no one really cared.

One of my favorite parts of Wyld Life nights is seeing all of the kids Instagram posts after they've gone home. It's a stream of pictures of Junior High kids and leaders dressed in camo with comments about how much they love Wyld Life and these friends.