10 Youth + 3 Leaders + 25 & 25 hours of driving + 5 days of crazy Youth Camp = My Week
One of the glories of being a youth leader is called, "delegation." I'm not very good at that, but I was smart enough to delegate the task of driving a big white van + UHAUL trailer from central Pennsylvania to Dallas, TX. For some reason, I am usually relegated to driving that van only when it's dark and raining... which is enough to freak me out. So for the safety of all involved, I enlisted the help of two wonderful other leader/drivers and I just "supervised." Supervised the youth---not the drivers! And since the youth slept for the majority of the trip down & back... so did I!
I know you are thinking... well then, why is sleep overrated? Because for days before our trip to Texas commenced, I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep per night and the night before our trip... it was more like 2 hours. As I like to say, "El stupido!" (murdering another language besides English is always fun). I was one MESSED-UP and sleepless individual.
So we depart from State College, PA at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning. At 6:00 AM, I am rudely awakened by some idiot honking and waving at us... The youth painted up the windows with cool stuff like our youth group name, Scripture references and one long window of "TEXAS OR BUST!" I'm thinking that the weird honking guy was expressing joy at the sight of our colorful and original window art. But just to be safe, the driver pulls over to the side of the road and does a walk around the van + trailer. She comes back totally alarmed---the back door of the luggage trailer was open!! I'm having visions of a week of wearing the same clothes every. single. day. Ahh! So we drag all the youth out to confirm that their luggage was still intact.... In the end, the only thing we lost was a cooler with a watermelon. God's mercy is great! We had prayed for our protection---but sadly neglected to pray over the watermelon. Oh well. I'm sure somebody got a kick out of seeing a watermelon rolling down the highway! :)
Anyway, our halfway point was at our family friends' house in Ste. Genevieve, MO. They were COOL enough to welcome a group of teenagers who ate tons of pizza, climbed into a little kids' treehouse, spent hours straightening each others' hair (the girls), playing Skippo, listening to music and generally laughing ALOT. Remember that I wasn't driving? This is an important fact. We arrived in MO about 7 pm. Ate dinner, had a youth group meeting--talked about the Word and had some time in prayer, and then just chilled out. The other leaders went to bed.... 10 PM rolls around, it's the youth+me+two very cool Missouri friends... Midnight rolls around... we decide that sleep is pointless. Because we are leaving at 3 AM. It was a night of laughter, playing music, silly songs, worship songs, jokes, meeting a new friend, serious conversation, more hair straightening and then finally saying goodbye.
Our time in Texas didn't yield much sleeping time, either... Crazy schedule, stupid (bright) city lights, loud ghetto noises, wide-awake because of what God was doing, etc... One night I found myself twirling a stuffed bear in the air at 2 am and rambling endlessly. (The bear is another story). But it was a fruitful time of ministry and besides, we could always catch up on sleep during the drive home, right??
More stories to come.... :)
One of the glories of being a youth leader is called, "delegation." I'm not very good at that, but I was smart enough to delegate the task of driving a big white van + UHAUL trailer from central Pennsylvania to Dallas, TX. For some reason, I am usually relegated to driving that van only when it's dark and raining... which is enough to freak me out. So for the safety of all involved, I enlisted the help of two wonderful other leader/drivers and I just "supervised." Supervised the youth---not the drivers! And since the youth slept for the majority of the trip down & back... so did I!
I know you are thinking... well then, why is sleep overrated? Because for days before our trip to Texas commenced, I was only getting about 4 hours of sleep per night and the night before our trip... it was more like 2 hours. As I like to say, "El stupido!" (murdering another language besides English is always fun). I was one MESSED-UP and sleepless individual.
So we depart from State College, PA at 5:00 AM on Sunday morning. At 6:00 AM, I am rudely awakened by some idiot honking and waving at us... The youth painted up the windows with cool stuff like our youth group name, Scripture references and one long window of "TEXAS OR BUST!" I'm thinking that the weird honking guy was expressing joy at the sight of our colorful and original window art. But just to be safe, the driver pulls over to the side of the road and does a walk around the van + trailer. She comes back totally alarmed---the back door of the luggage trailer was open!! I'm having visions of a week of wearing the same clothes every. single. day. Ahh! So we drag all the youth out to confirm that their luggage was still intact.... In the end, the only thing we lost was a cooler with a watermelon. God's mercy is great! We had prayed for our protection---but sadly neglected to pray over the watermelon. Oh well. I'm sure somebody got a kick out of seeing a watermelon rolling down the highway! :)
Anyway, our halfway point was at our family friends' house in Ste. Genevieve, MO. They were COOL enough to welcome a group of teenagers who ate tons of pizza, climbed into a little kids' treehouse, spent hours straightening each others' hair (the girls), playing Skippo, listening to music and generally laughing ALOT. Remember that I wasn't driving? This is an important fact. We arrived in MO about 7 pm. Ate dinner, had a youth group meeting--talked about the Word and had some time in prayer, and then just chilled out. The other leaders went to bed.... 10 PM rolls around, it's the youth+me+two very cool Missouri friends... Midnight rolls around... we decide that sleep is pointless. Because we are leaving at 3 AM. It was a night of laughter, playing music, silly songs, worship songs, jokes, meeting a new friend, serious conversation, more hair straightening and then finally saying goodbye.
Our time in Texas didn't yield much sleeping time, either... Crazy schedule, stupid (bright) city lights, loud ghetto noises, wide-awake because of what God was doing, etc... One night I found myself twirling a stuffed bear in the air at 2 am and rambling endlessly. (The bear is another story). But it was a fruitful time of ministry and besides, we could always catch up on sleep during the drive home, right??
More stories to come.... :)
Friday. An afternoon at the lake. The Little Bro fished. I read and hid under the bridge as a thunderstorm passed over us. I wasn't hiding because of fear--I LOVE summer rainstorms!--but rather because I don't like getting books and expensive cameras and food to be wet. That would be icky. Fishing wasn't too successful... even with this nifty little bait thing... If I was a fish, I would definitely bite that! Or wear it as an accessary.
And me wandering around the party with a camera. Because that's what I do. Still loving the silhouette pics. In case you are wondering, I try to avoid posting pictures of people unless they are silhouetted or darkened. Maybe I'm paranoid. Or protective of my friends. But it helps that I love the dusky evening light...
And then darkness fell and the REAL fun began. Gathering around the bonfire for warmth, smoke in our eyes, throwing marshmallows and making s'mores. And the brilliant contribution from The Butterfly Girl---Glowsticks! Yes, we are easily amused! 
And more fire... the more dangerous kind! Pushed into the ground, and lit with a blow torch.
And the evening just kept going and going. With some time with our feet in the hot tub. Talking about what we are believing God for. Then spontaneous prayer and worship. What a sweet sound of praise. The Church is not a meeting! It is a Body of people who love Jesus!
And the end. Alot of BOOM! and BANG! and ridiculous amounts of light!
