Saturday nights are for Wyld Life. A parade of cars, SUVs and min-vans turn in to Shore Acres and drop off a mob of 7th and 8th graders. Soon basketballs are flying, the swings are filled with kids, leaders are greeting everyone and there are circles of friends all over the place. Wyld Life is exactly where you want to be.
One of my favorite parts of being a Wyld Life leader is getting work side by side with friends like Cassidy and Kaylee. These HS Juniors are two of the most beautiful, authentic pictures I know of love in action. They both exude positivity and when you're around them you feel like you can just be yourself. It's the best to get to see them loving on these Junior High kids.
Most of our Club themes are decided by the kids in a Twitter poll. These time they voted for Fear Factor Club. We later discovered that these kids all thought Fear Factor meant Halloween... little did they know Fear Factor used to be a television show of the most insane, disgusting, heart-attack-inducing stunts of all time.
Spider pits...
Jumping from heights, holding on while swinging through the air over water, carrying eels and other weird, gross things...
Being buried in worms or eating cow brains. Nothing was off limits.
Tonight's Fear Factor contestants came from Riverside Junior High...
HIJH...
Fall Creek Junior High...
and Fishers Junior High.
We had a whole night of Fear Factor inspired "fun" in store. The most interesting part might have been that while some tasks were terrifying for some kids, they were no problem at all for kid beside them.
Our first relay was a bit slimy, squirmy and fuzzy.
Runner #1-- ran to the other side of the room, got a worm and brought it back to their team
Runner #2-- returned the worm, got a cricket and brought it back to their team
Runner #3-- returned the cricket, got a mouse and brought it back to their team
Runner #4-- returned the mouse and ran back to finish the race
We ended up running the relay twice because so many kids said they weren't afraid to hold the worms, crickets or mice.
The next game was Jimmy Fallon inspired. We played hot potato in a giant circle. If the object stopped in your hands when they music stopped you went to the middle of the circle. Next you smashed an egg on your head-- hard boiled eggs didn't do much, raw eggs left a runny slime behind.
Next was an individual game of suspense. 10 kids lined up with balloons across the gym. They inflated their balloon until it popped in their face.
The last game would have been the worst for me. 5 volunteers represented each of the 4 Junior Highs. Each team opened up an unlabeled can of food. They opened them up to each find a different flavor of beans and then raced to eat their can first.
Riverside dominated and finished their can of black beans significantly before anyone else. Max would not have faired well in this game, but he was willing to help a pal out by holding back her hair from that bean juice.
Tonight KCraig talked to us about fear, about being far from home, about feeling like there's nothing left to do. She told us the story of the Prodigal Son who had left his family and tried to make it on his own. He ended up throwing away everything he had, finding himself in bad shape and having no one to turn to. He headed back home, but when he was a long way off his father saw him and ran to him. His father was waiting for him. He was looking for him. And then he ran to him. KCraig told our friends the good news that they can come home too. God loves them so much that he will never make them do anything, but he is waiting for them, looking for them and ready to run to them and welcome them home.
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