Wyld Life All City Club

This morning I met up with Amanda, Anna, Becca and Mackenzie for breakfast. They were CILTs two summers ago and they all go to Zionsville together. I couldn't believe that I hadn't seen them since I first got back from camp at the start of the school year. Catching up with them was long over due. I've always admired this group of girls for how genuine, thoughtful, patient and hopeful they are. They have strong character and they lift others up. 

Tonight I got to be part of the first ever All City Wyld Life Club. This event brought together the kids and leaders from Carmel, Zionsville, North Central, Lawrence, Washington Township, Noblesville and HSE. Somewhere over 300 kids gathered together with a kind of energy that can only be produced by kids in Junior High.

I got to emcee the event with Kyle Perkins which was pretty awesome. It's pretty wild to get the attention of a group that large and then hope they're listening while you explain a game they're all about to play.

It works pretty well to just give the directions and say, "ready, set, go!" and trust that they'll all figure it out and if they don't they'll still have fun anyway. The funniest game to watch was a clothespin war when they had to steal them from other people's backs and then clip them on their own shirt.

Oscar and Meijer made banana split hot dogs which were disgusting. I was sitting in the very front row and was fearful that some of the toppings were going to slide off the dog and fall on me.

Then kids got called up front including Cecilia, Ayden and Matt Meyer. They were each given a shirt with a hamburger topping and then they played Boys v. Girls to make the right burger the fastest.

There was a surprise birthday party complete with party hats, noise makers, candy thrown through the air and cookie cakes. 6 kids came up front so we could all sing Happy Birthday to them. Hannah Devoe really was having her birthday today and she was only mildly embarrassed.

KCraig gave the Club Talk tonight and did a phenomenal job. This friend loves to talk about Jesus and how much she loves him and how much he loves us. She told the kids about how when they have a really crazy day and they just need to rest Jesus feels the same way. She told us about how the disciples had to trust Jesus and one of them even got to walk on the water with Jesus. She told us about being honest with him and how she first experienced being really honest after she climbed out the window of the computer lab in elementary school. She gave these kids a bigger and better picture of Jesus.

Then it was chaos time. For the next hour kids could go to the basketball court, dance party or gym. There was a mass of children racing to the gym that had to look similar to the running of the bulls. The middle schoolers invaded the room of ropes, rings, nets, trampolines, balance beams, bars, foam pits, forts and a tumble floor.

The cheerleaders got to show off their tricks and tumbling passes which was very impressive. The other half of the kids tried cartwheels or just jumped around because the floor was so springy.

We might not be trained gymnasts but we still had fun hanging and swinging on all the equipment.

I'm still kind of shocked that I never saw anyone get hurt. There were some employees supervising the room, but for the most part the kids just did whatever they wanted. Kids were swinging on the rings and kicking off the wall to go further.

I loved seeing leaders like Trulock, Blaire, Pidgeon, Jess, Conner and the rest of our team hanging out with our kids and just having fun with them. Tonight was extra fun because there were seven areas of kids and leaders all hanging out at once.

Oh, and I flipped upside down on the rings. I didn't know I could do that.

Hannah taught me how to be a professional on the beam.

This would definitely be a spot to come back to again. I had so much fun tonight with these 7th and 8th graders. I love Wyld Life.

After Club finished, a crew of adult and HS Wyld Life leaders went to Steak n' Shake together to "make bad food decisions." I'm always a fan of being with these people and we were there till midnight just hanging out.