'Ello all,
I have been having all kinds of fun adventures through my internship at church, but most recently was the Christmas party we had yesterday. All of the church staff, including interns, were rounded up and thrown into one of our small auditoriums for 'forced fun'. In other words, we all were required to eat sweets and play games. Terrible, I know. Nevertheless, we divided our group into teams, and I found myself in a group with the senior pastor and my best friend's mother, an interesting group to say the least. Our first game was 'Fill in the Carol Lyrics', and we started off on the wrong foot. An obnoxious group behind us whooped and hollered every time they won a point, mainly because they were winning. The final question, however, was worth three points, and the carol? Mr. Grinch. Who knew the missing lyrics? This guy. Surprisingly, we were the only group to have the correct lyrics too! The best part was that those three points boosted us past the team in the lead (the noisy ones) and allowed us to win that round!
One other round that I must add in, although I hesitate to, involved a cookie. We had to place the cookie on our foreheads and work it down to our mouth, chew it, and prove that we had done the deed...without hands. I myself am a pro at this game, or so I thought. In previous games I had been either the winner or a fraction of a second from winning. Only this time, my nemesis was sitting next to me. I put on the war paint. Go! was shouted, and I did my regular routine of winking at the ceiling; winking provides fast results in any circumstance. I got the cookie to my mouth and locked on to the edge of it, but I decided to stand up because I was the first one done...it was a bad choice! The cookie decided to take a hike, and I had to start all over. I could have won! Instead, I got third out of the 7 or so groups.
While we are on the topic of games, I would like to share with you a sneak peak for tonight! I have been brewing a good idea for a, well, messy game; I feel I have found my answer! Tonight, we are going to play "Dig Through the Whipped Cream and Collect the Most Gummy Bears" game. Like the title? I came up with it myself. I may shorten it to "Diggin' for Bears" though, because it takes less effort to say or write! You guys will never guess how to play this game, however! It is quite complicated. All you have to do is dig through whipped cream pies to collect as many gummy bears as you can, and whoever has the most wins!
Tonight shall be a lot of fun, but with much fun comes great mess-making responsibilities!
It shall be messy!
Wednesday, November 30, 2011
Wednesday, November 23, 2011
Missionaries and Hot Wings
Buenos dias!
There is a lot to share since the last time I wrote! Last Wednesday we had guest speakers for Revolution: the Benefields. The Benefields moved to Mazatlan, Mexico to be missionaries a few years ago, and have been growing a strong church ever since. They come back here to Champaign to see family, and we decided to ask them to speak while they were here. A lot of the students really enjoyed their story, as well as the pictures of tarantulas, snakes, and scorpions they brought along.
One of the most impacting stories of the night, however, was about a teen boy from their colonia who had experienced a lot of rejection from home. The young man in the story could not find attention through good, beneficial ways, so he took to inhaling paint. Their story continued to say that, while building their new church, the same young man came along one day and decided to graffiti the newly painted church. Instead of scolding him, however, they asked him if he wanted to help finish painting the church. After finishing their painting, they had the opportunity to pray for him and tell him that God, as well as everyone there, loved him very much; in response he broke down. I feel that it was a powerful story for our students to hear; just the fact that even though we will do things that are wrong, there is a God who loves us extremely much, as well as people who wish to do the same.
I also got the chance to go with our Family Life pastor, and a few other youth pastors and interns, to the Heartland Vineyard in Iowa during the weekend. Basically, it was a conference for the region's youth pastors to come together and talk about how their ministries were doing and offer advice and encouragement, as well as cast vision for where they were heading. Now, if you are not from a church background, imagine having a bunch of people who work with middle school to high school youth in the same room, and how all of their personality types are geared towards that age, and you will see why this was such a good time! We were pretty crazy: at a gas station just inside of Iowa, one of the other interns and I were playing catch, and I decided to punt the ball...against the wind. My brilliant idea swept the ball way over our heads and landed it directly on the roof of the gas station, a good 25 feet above us. If you check Google maps a year from now you may see it up there, still. Other adventures included a late night of hot wings and m&ms, as well as roaming the streets of Waterloo, IA. During this roaming adventure we stopped by a PetSmart, and I almost convinced myself to buy some frogs (animals are a weakness of mine, especially if I can take them home).
Overall, last week was a huge success, and I feel revived and re focused as an intern. In this refreshed state, I feel like throwing out a thought, to which you can ponder and mull over to your hearts content, or throw it out completely and simply think I am crazy:
Is society's 'fear' of, even their animosity towards God fueled by the thought of losing control of their lives because God sets rules to live by? Or does it stem from people who claim to love Him withholding their love and understanding of others and their feelings/lives and choosing to act out in unspeakable mannerisms? I feel that there is a lost connection to the love that God has for us and the amount of free will we DO have, because there are those who don't represent those in their everyday lives. God doesn't have a rule book that He checks every time someone does something wrong, because of something called grace. Likewise, there is no call for people to hate others, to fight wars in his name, or to choose what party in politics is 'Godly': He only asks us to love Him and to love those around us.
Anyway, this was just a thought, if you have any questions or want to talk over it, feel free to! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
There is a lot to share since the last time I wrote! Last Wednesday we had guest speakers for Revolution: the Benefields. The Benefields moved to Mazatlan, Mexico to be missionaries a few years ago, and have been growing a strong church ever since. They come back here to Champaign to see family, and we decided to ask them to speak while they were here. A lot of the students really enjoyed their story, as well as the pictures of tarantulas, snakes, and scorpions they brought along.
One of the most impacting stories of the night, however, was about a teen boy from their colonia who had experienced a lot of rejection from home. The young man in the story could not find attention through good, beneficial ways, so he took to inhaling paint. Their story continued to say that, while building their new church, the same young man came along one day and decided to graffiti the newly painted church. Instead of scolding him, however, they asked him if he wanted to help finish painting the church. After finishing their painting, they had the opportunity to pray for him and tell him that God, as well as everyone there, loved him very much; in response he broke down. I feel that it was a powerful story for our students to hear; just the fact that even though we will do things that are wrong, there is a God who loves us extremely much, as well as people who wish to do the same.
I also got the chance to go with our Family Life pastor, and a few other youth pastors and interns, to the Heartland Vineyard in Iowa during the weekend. Basically, it was a conference for the region's youth pastors to come together and talk about how their ministries were doing and offer advice and encouragement, as well as cast vision for where they were heading. Now, if you are not from a church background, imagine having a bunch of people who work with middle school to high school youth in the same room, and how all of their personality types are geared towards that age, and you will see why this was such a good time! We were pretty crazy: at a gas station just inside of Iowa, one of the other interns and I were playing catch, and I decided to punt the ball...against the wind. My brilliant idea swept the ball way over our heads and landed it directly on the roof of the gas station, a good 25 feet above us. If you check Google maps a year from now you may see it up there, still. Other adventures included a late night of hot wings and m&ms, as well as roaming the streets of Waterloo, IA. During this roaming adventure we stopped by a PetSmart, and I almost convinced myself to buy some frogs (animals are a weakness of mine, especially if I can take them home).
Overall, last week was a huge success, and I feel revived and re focused as an intern. In this refreshed state, I feel like throwing out a thought, to which you can ponder and mull over to your hearts content, or throw it out completely and simply think I am crazy:
Is society's 'fear' of, even their animosity towards God fueled by the thought of losing control of their lives because God sets rules to live by? Or does it stem from people who claim to love Him withholding their love and understanding of others and their feelings/lives and choosing to act out in unspeakable mannerisms? I feel that there is a lost connection to the love that God has for us and the amount of free will we DO have, because there are those who don't represent those in their everyday lives. God doesn't have a rule book that He checks every time someone does something wrong, because of something called grace. Likewise, there is no call for people to hate others, to fight wars in his name, or to choose what party in politics is 'Godly': He only asks us to love Him and to love those around us.
Anyway, this was just a thought, if you have any questions or want to talk over it, feel free to! Have a great Thanksgiving everyone!
Monday, November 14, 2011
Kids: 1 - Pants: 0
Hello again, world!
Don't worry, I'm not dead! It has been super busy on my end of things: classes are entering into their end of the year projects, scholarships are needing to be turned in, and the work load for my internship is ramping up as it focuses more on the holidays and next semester.
My internship has been most enjoyable, nonetheless. We have had several meetings at the HS pastor's house, which we call V2, or Vineyard Values. Basically, it is an opportunity for youth to voice their questions and ideas about their faith, and as a group discuss ways to answer or digest such questions and ideas. These meetings are always well attended, and have an amazing spread of food. Good food. Of course, when you get a lot of young high school kids together in a house (we meet in the basement), there is going to be some rough housing. The back pocket on a pair of jeans I owned fell prey to such rough housing, and was torn clean off as I wrestled three brothers to the ground. Disclaimer: no children were harmed in this take-down.
It has been awesome to gain students respect and trust as I dive deeper into this internship. I have had the opportunity to really mentor these kids, and let them know their worth. That in itself is worth all of the hard work I am putting forth in school and the internship.
On an exciting note, this weekend I am heading to Iowa for a youth pastor's conference! The best part of this is that the company I will be traveling with is, by far, the best. Imagine throwing middle and high school pastors into the same vehicle; the amount of laughs, pranks, and awesome games is going to concoct a marvelous time!
God bless yall!
Don't worry, I'm not dead! It has been super busy on my end of things: classes are entering into their end of the year projects, scholarships are needing to be turned in, and the work load for my internship is ramping up as it focuses more on the holidays and next semester.
My internship has been most enjoyable, nonetheless. We have had several meetings at the HS pastor's house, which we call V2, or Vineyard Values. Basically, it is an opportunity for youth to voice their questions and ideas about their faith, and as a group discuss ways to answer or digest such questions and ideas. These meetings are always well attended, and have an amazing spread of food. Good food. Of course, when you get a lot of young high school kids together in a house (we meet in the basement), there is going to be some rough housing. The back pocket on a pair of jeans I owned fell prey to such rough housing, and was torn clean off as I wrestled three brothers to the ground. Disclaimer: no children were harmed in this take-down.
It has been awesome to gain students respect and trust as I dive deeper into this internship. I have had the opportunity to really mentor these kids, and let them know their worth. That in itself is worth all of the hard work I am putting forth in school and the internship.
On an exciting note, this weekend I am heading to Iowa for a youth pastor's conference! The best part of this is that the company I will be traveling with is, by far, the best. Imagine throwing middle and high school pastors into the same vehicle; the amount of laughs, pranks, and awesome games is going to concoct a marvelous time!
God bless yall!
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