Youth Ministry - It's a Vivas Thing!

Sep 25 2010

Teenagers!

More than a few times this month, I’ve had others tell me how they just don’t understand teenagers; aren’t comfortable around them; don’t know what to say to them; and how they just can’t relate to them.

I think they’re great! I had a chance to get to know more of them this week at my work; Loved it!

This weekend we had some fun teen time! Friday night was spent at the homecoming game watching B-boo perform at half-time. Then it was food. I’m sure I got several looks as I walked in with a group of them. And then we had fun playing hearts until I just couldn’t stay awake another minute!

But, what people may not know about *my* group of teens is how awesome they really are! You see, their purpose for spending the weekend at my house? It was to give up their Saturday so they could come help clean up my back yard. And it’s a HUGE back yard.

We had fun raking leaves, trimming rose bushes, digging up stray palms and using a chain saw! Oh..and breaking the chain saw. Which led to the following video!

They were trying to break off the dead branch without a chain saw! Hubby did get it going again, but not before the above incident! LOL

After several hours of work, I finally asked them to pose for a group picture. And I got this:

The first was too dark, because they were in the shade.

So I asked them to pose in the light. Notice the three on the right doing what I asked; but the other three..not so much.
So I ask them again, to pose. The three on the right….still posing.

B-Boo & Twin are goofing off & causing problems.

Notice the girl on the left…she’s getting irritated!
And the next thing you know….

WHACK! This was the best picture I could get.

Teen on left looks triumphant…three on the right are still posing…

And I gave up on B-boo and the Twin!
BTW-My back yard looks beautiful! Thank you!

Aug 22 2010

So Much!

There is just so much I could share from the past few days, I don't know where to start! I think I'll break it down into phases! You see, I just spent three fabulous days on a retreat with some of our youth and the youth leaders…amazing! It was so full of planning, resting, laughing, and hanging. Hmmm…what shall I tell you about first?

I know…I'll start with nature!

Something you may have gathered from the pictures I occasionally post is that the Talented One is not only an amazing pianist…he also has a love for…er…wild animals. And on this retreat, he found someone else to share this passion with. It's probably not a coincidence that this person also shares the same name as my son. Ha Ha!

It started out simple enough. My goofy friend and I were sitting on a swing, enjoying our peaceful moment, when I happened to glance over and see the two boys lifting up a massive rock together. I said to her, "They must be after a lizard."

I was wrong. Because a few moments later, they came over to show us this:

A few hours later, we were relaxing in the cool waters of Sedona, when my friend came up to me to inform me that the boys were pretty dangerous. HUH?

It seems they'd been exploring again, and came across a cute little baby snake. The Talented One knew it looked different, but didn't realize at the time what it actually was. Apparently they came back to the group with this cute little baby snake crawling between their fingers and such. That is, until one of our fearless leaders (because by this time, most of our leaders were fearFUL) explained to the boys that they needed to get rid of it and get rid of it now. Turns out, it wasn't a cute little harmless baby snake. It was a baby rattlesnake. (BTW…the fearless leader's son was my son's twin adventurer!)

We thought they'd manage to stay out of trouble for the rest of the day. We even managed to make it to the dark with no more wildlife incidents. For the most part. There was the moment they showed up to share another creature with us.

Before we got a good look at it, one of the leaders asked if they'd caught a scorpian….nope. It was just a little crawdad, thankfully!

It seemed their adventures were coming to a wind down…but apparently, they had enough energy for one more adventure. They came in asking for a flashlight. Ok.

And then, they came back in hysterics. Apparently there was a certain smell in the air, so they decided to investigate. See, personally, I would have gone the opposite direction, but not these two adventurers. They went after the smell…and shined their light upon…you may have an idea where I am going with this one. They stayed long enough just to snap a picture and then RAN as fast as they could!

I'm glad they were smart enough to know what a raised tale on a skunk means, because we didn't have any tomato juice!

Thankfully, we were headed home the next morning because I am not sure what kind of trouble these two would have gotten themselves into next!

Jul 13 2010

Camp, Day 2

Day 2 of camp was probably one of , my favorite days. It was our first official full day, so we really didn't know what to expect. There were however, two things, that would happen this day. The first was that it was one of our girl's birthday; the second was it was water day at rec…and we were told to be prepared to get soaked.

Ok then!

At breakfast, birthday girl needed a little glamour to get the day going. In order to get her day started out the right way, we announced her birthday to the dining room and had a combined effort of singing, "Happy Birthday!" We also made sure her birthday was announced in front of the 1900 teens attending worship, although they did say her last name wrong. (I'm sorry for laughing, dear.)

And then there was recreation. Not sure what to expect, we threw on some shorts and t-shirts and headed over.

Our youth group was split into two family groups. We still did everything together, but for recreation, we were on opposite teams. It'd probably be a good thing to know that we are all pretty competitive. I'll also state, that as a leader, I have the option of not participating, (instead delegating) if I don't want to. Yeah, well, ok.

Our first game was holding a thick pvc pipe full of holes over a bucket. We had to work as a team to cover the holes while other's poured cups of water down the pipe. First one to fill the bucket wins. We didn't do too bad and I managed to stay completely dry.

I may get them a bit jumbled as we went quickly from one game to the next. I'll say this: for the first two or three games, I stayed dry. And then it happened.

We came to a game where we had to run to a trash can and fill our hair with water, then run to our bucket and ring it out. The first team to fill their bucket wins. Ah ha! Birthday Girl has long, thick, hair! She'd also just stubbed her toe and wasn't really up to running back and forth. (She did anyway!) We had another girl who had long hair, so she was up for the challenge, too. Our other family group's team was a bunch of shorter hair, so I thought we had it in the bag. But then, things started to really become well, um, competitive…and before I knew it, I was ducking my long hair into the trash and rining it into the bucket, too! And I was, um, well, rather wet. And laughing.

And we headed to the next game. Which involved a trash can full of water, a bowl, a sponge, and a bucket. Rules: line up up in an assembly. One at bucket, one with sponge, one with bowl. Person with bowl runs to trash can, fills up bowl. Throws bowl of water from designated spot to person with sponge at designated spot. Person with sponge catches water from bowl with sponge. Sponge person then throws sponge at person with bucket. If sponge lands in bucket, person with bucket rings out sponge and they all move forward a spot. If sponge misses, person with bucket rings sponge over head, then moves on. Object: fill the bucket.

I'm sure it all started innocently enough. Our two family groups were standing on the same side, next to each other. In order to get to the trash can of water, we had to pass by each other. And it was a race, after all. And we were wet. And hot. And did I mention competitive?

Somehow, someone's bowl of water was, I'm sure of it, mistakenly bumped into. And then, somehow as we were running back and forth, we just kept spilling each other's water. And then somehow, we all ended up soaked and lost track of what we were supposed to be doing. And then somehow, we were in the absolute best waterfight that we've ever been in! (I felt sorry for the poor referee who gave up on us.) And somehow, we were in fits of hysterical laughter. And boy, did we have fun!

We moved on to the other games and followed the rules. We played water dodge ball and other stuff, and then it ended. And we headed over to the tree to listen to our Red Rumble leader share the Word with us.

And I won't say who, but one of those trouble making teens of ours thought it was funny to toss a bucket of water unexpectly over my head!

Later, we talked about our fun and agreed while it was a great bonding moment, we definately would set the example and follow all the rules the rest of the week.

And much later, we ended the day with hostess cupcakes, hearts, and laughter to celebrate the birthday. And we laughed and laughed at pillows and popping cupcakes and a near food fight.

Yeah, these types of days are just a little part of what makes camp so fun!

Jul 12 2010

Camp Day 1

This week's blog is for the parents of the wonderful teens I went to camp with! I know as a parent, there is nothing greater than your teen coming home from camp and sharing their wonderful stories of the past week. But let's face it, they don't always tell you everything. Ha ha

I thought it might be nice to share some of the things from a leader perspective. So…

On Monday, we finally arrived after driving all night on the charter bus. We were tired, but the weather was beaufitul. I'll have to say, personally I loved the registration process because they were so organized! Anyway, it was a huge blessing to find out our dorms were only a few steps away rather than a trek across the college! We spent the first few hours unpacking and hanging, waiting for dinner and worship.

I tried to take notes during the week of things that stood out to me so I'd remember when I came home. Monday night we were singing in worship. I'm not one that usually looks around while we are singing and praising the Lord, but I happened to have been…well, sneezing. When I was in control again, I looked beside me. What I saw really blessed me. It was a room full of teens just singing and praising in full worship; one in particular struck me. He was standing there, eyes closed, face lifted up, just singing to our Lord. Honestly, he reminded me of an angel at that moment.

I quickly looked away, not wanting to interrupt his moment, and went back to my own singing. I remember thinking later, "What a great way to start the week."

And what a great week I had to look forward to.