Wednesday, November 09, 2011

One hour & counting...

Wednesday usually ends up being my longest day of the week. Erin takes Becca to soccer during the supper hour and Aidan then heads off to his practice, so I just camp out at the office all day.

I eat at my desk and finish any prep work that needs to be done. (Which reminds me that I need to run to the photocopier.)

I've got just under an hour until the crew starts to show up.

Leaders will be pounding down the door.

Students will wonder in, bypassing the sign-in sheet and heading straight for the box of leftover candy.

Stories will be shared.
There will be laughs.
And high fives.
And hugs. (But not from me because I'm not much of a hugger.)
We'll play a couple of silly games that can't compete with anything in the entertainment world.
We'll give away a few prizes that won't compete with anything most of these kids will get for Christmas.
We'll tell them about our special events.
We'll take a few phones away.
We'll pray for some of our crew that are away on missions trips.
We'll read some Bible.
We'll talk & write notes.
I'll tell them they are loved.
We'll all go home.

That's a typical Wednesday. No bells and whistles. Just some simple things that allow us to be present with one another.

I'm not sure why they come sometimes. We don't have thee coolest youth group. We don't have the coolest building. We aren't oozing forth with students from all over the city. We don't have some sweet band that rocks it out every week. We don't throw live animals from the balcony. And I'm not thr most captivating teacher in the world.

We have a Wii in the corner that hasn't been turned on in months.

We have a rickety old sound system with speakers that make iPod tunes sound like it's played in a tin can.

We do have some beat up furniture to sit on.

And we have some leaders that love to be around the students.

I'm 36 minutes away from it all and praying like crazy that something tonight will sink down into the hearts and souls of our students.

Monday, November 07, 2011

Comment of the month...

One of the great joys of working with middle school students is the things they will say.

A few weeks ago we were studying Luke 7:36-50 and there is mention of "a certain immoral woman".

"We all know what that means, right?"

But I was met with blank stares. (Uh oh...I should stop making assumptions about the base of knowledge that a 12-13 year will have. You'd think I'd know this after 11 years.)

"You know what a woman of the night is, right?"

One grade 7 boy shoots his hand up before answering, "Nocturnal?"

Dust it off...

Time to dust off the old blog.

Stay tuned...