In just three days we'll be packing our bags and getting out of Fishers. It's time for Spring Break. The grand exodus of Indiana when the schools empty and most families head South to Marco Island, Siesta Key, Panama City Beach, Orlando, Destin and maybe even Cabo. We're craving warm weather and sunshine and a break from our regular routine. Young Life started Spring Break early at Club tonight.
My spirit immediately leaps a bit when I put on Nike shorts, tie dye, a snap back and tall socks with my Sperrys--it's like my uniform for happiness and joy. But seriously. When I combine that with a room full of Young Life friends I just can't help but be excited. Brookie surprised me and showed up, KCraig screeched when Karl the cool dragon walked in and BGrad showed up ready to YL party.
It felt like summer and Spring Break in the gym tonight with sunglasses, beach towels and bright beach balls. Three days left of school doesn't feel like too much and we know we can make it through.
Side note, how phenomenal would it be to go on a Young Life Spring Break trip with a bus full of Young Life friends? That would be an adventure. In my parents early days at Tecumseh, they used to lead Spring Break trips for campers. They'd pick everyone up in the bus on the way down to Florida, camp in tents and go to the Disney parks every day. Can you imagine how much fun that would be?
We know that people have been going to the tanning beds but we hear the UVA rays in Indiana are just as strong as the ones in the South. We're getting our base layer here. It doesn't have to be warm to get a sun tan right?
Winter sports have finished and Spring sports are just beginning so some of our girls can start coming back on Monday nights again. I was thrilled to see Haley and Libby and loved getting to be in a small group with them.
There was a huge group of friends and leaders at Club tonight and there energy was explosive. This is one of the nights I'll think back on and say, "YES, that Spring Break Club was SO fun."
Ryan led all of us in Roar and Best Day of My Life to start things off. We belted out the words and danced around with our friends.
We had to get ready for Beach Volleyball so we played our own Young Life version. You have to hit the ball over the rope to get it to the other side. You can't let the ball hit the ground. There are 5 balls in play the whole time. Jackie and Abby kept score for the two teams and they went crazy slamming and smacking the balls around the room.
After last week's Memory Loss Prevention game at Wyld Life Old People Club, we set up Spring Break 101 for the Young Life kids tonight. It was the same type of matching game, but this time with SB themed pictures.
They had to beat the Wyld Life time of 11 minutes and the leader time of 4:20. Watching them scream and dive across the floor to match bottles of sunscreen or two surfboards was pretty incredible. They ended up finding the last pair at 4:16.
Nothing tastes like Spring Break quite like a giant cherry and blue raspberry slushie. We called up Team 1 (Mark, Drew, Kaelyn and Cierra) and Team 2 (Mark, Devon, Haley and Nick) to see how fast they could finish the slushie despite the inevitable brain freeze.
They all started off strong but soon they had to take turns stepping away for a break from the brain freeze. Mark ended up taking care of the last little bit for his team and leading them to victory.
Spring Break is all about fun and spontaneity and music so it seemed only fitting to have a spontaneous (nope, we didn't really plan it) dance party. We started with "Die Young" and then got requests for High School Musical's "All For One" and Backstreet Boy's "Everybody." Our kids have the best taste in music.
Ryan told his best/worst Spring Break story that included a land yacht, a last minute trip to Florida, 27 girls and sleeping with a washcloth. Then he continued to share with us about rest, about laying our burdens down and living in the freedom of Christ. In our small groups we talked about God's promise when he said, "Come to me all who are weary and I will give you rest."
Later tonight I got to talk to my friend Allison, an old YL girl who is now a Senior leading YL at IU, about life. She said that she's "amazed at the amount of energy and joy and excitement" I have all the time about Young Life. I agreed that I do love Young Life and feel like it's what I'm called to invest in right now, but you don't always get to see the whole picture.
I post pictures on Instagram and blog about all the highlights, there are a lot of them. It's good to focus on the positive. But the truth is that everything isn't always perfect. I don't post about when Young Life girls don't text me back or if I get ignored at a basketball game. I don't tweet about when I find out one of my girls lied to me or made the same mistake for the tenth time. Those things definitely happen. Sometimes Young Life is messy and hard and frustrating and I get annoyed. But I'm learning in those moments when things don't work out the way I plan and when girls don't respond the way I want them to, that maybe this is a little bit how God feels sometimes. I'm reminded that even when I'm too busy for God and don't give him the time of day that he still loves me. He doesn't get frustrated or subtweet about me or say that he'll ignore me for awhile. God just keeps on loving me unconditionally. I want to love like that.
*Allison, Matt, Sean, Robert and Nick represented the IU chapter of FBC down in Orlando on Spring Break. #fbcrevolution
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