Last weekend all of Indianapolis Wyld Life gathered together for the first All City Wyld Life Club. Tonight, all of the Young Life Clubs from Indiana and Kentucky gathered together at the Pacers Club for the first ever All Region Club. It was insane and amazing and ridiculous.
I drove downtown with Julia and Natalie and quickly ran into KCraig and Hannah. We redeemed our vouchers for free Pacers hats, a hot dog, french fries and pop. Concessions and people are always my favorite part of any sporting event.
Because all of the YL areas were gathered together we got to pull together all the Tecumseh people in attendance. Kmart and Carolyn Oneal, Emily Harlow, Josie Luptak, Ava and Emily Peterson, Julia Dewolf, Natty B and Frances Miller all made it for the picture. Other Tecumseh friends I later ran into included Joey Oneal, Molly Neterer and Courtney Brody.
There's so much more enthusiasm and fun when all of these people get to gather together. I love seeing leaders from different areas like Emily Welx, Mary Ellen, Katie Evans and Abby Miller. I spotted the FBC guy leaders from Bloomington and talked with Carmel girls as we watched the game. My friends and I sat in the very top row of the very top section. It felt like we could leap and land on the court without much effort.
KCraig and I worked on bracelets while we watched the game. Our favorite moment of the game was a tie between the Pacers Hip Hop team and the trampoline-flipping-dunking-guys. Unfortunately the Pacers didn't win the game but the luckily the night was far from over.
All of the YL people headed down the the bottom level and found seats facing the court and the stage we'd set up. Ryan led us in Don't Wake Me Up and Let It Go to start which was pretty sweet to have him up front.
Next KCraig came out with two other YL staff people as the Program team. They were the Pacers Mascot Squad, here to teach us how to turn up. Oh my goodness I love KCraig, especially as G Squirrel.
Big Apple, Blanana and G Squirrel pulled all 1300 of us on the court to play Over the Mountain. I ran into Annie from North Central, leaders Audrey and Abby from Butler and later Katie Evans too. I'm such a fan of YL people.
Next Julia and I represented HSE in a game with a leader and kid from every area. In the first round we had to run out into the crowd and grab an item from people of different areas. The last teams back got eliminated each time.
We returned with shoes, Pacers hats, belts, ticket stubs and hair ties. Then we had to compete in a round to go find Big Apple in the crowd, give him a high 5 and make it back up front the fastest.
Julia and I were one of six teams to advance to the final round. They played a song over the speaker, Julia had to hit my head to make me drink a shot of hot sauce and then she could try to name the song.
On the very first song she whacked my head, I quickly drank the hot sauce without thinking about it too much and Julia answered, "Ice, ice baby?" correctly. WE WON!
Moments later I was downing water trying to get the taste of hot sauce out of my mouth and Julia was checking out her scraped, bleeding shin that had gotten injured in one of the earlier phases of the game. Anything for victory.
I loved getting the chance to be a team with Julia tonight. She's my go to girl for fun and adventure and she was all about playing to win. I think we could take on just about any game down the road. Amazing Race? Survivor? Bring it on.
Jed, another YL staff person, gave the Club talk tonight and shared with us about his walk with Christ and how Jesus was sent here for each of us. It was surreal to hear the gospel being shared in Bankers Life Fieldhouse with hundreds of kids listening. God is good.
I don't think all the HSE YL people ever managed to all find one another, but here's a good chunk of us. I'm thankful for leaders that show up to live life with kids, for our kids that are living life to the full, for friendships grounded in faith, for fun like this that I can't get enough of.
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