Any Youth Event I Survive...

Is a good event...

Youth events (fun nights, game nights, movie nights, lock in, etc) are a very small part of what we do as youth leaders but they do seem to be the "epic" moments the kids are talking about for weeks to come. The format we inherited with the youth group was the weekly Wednesday two hour youth group and one monthly event. I don't think I can handle more then one a month, but some months we do push it to two. We have discovered that we grow by one person for each one we hold. From the seven-ten kids we inherited we are up to about twenty kids, with an average attendance of fourteen at our weekly youth groups.
Frankly this stymies me... Paul and I are chronically uncool... I am not saying this for you to reassure me differently... It is a fact. He tends towards cranky and I am dorky... I have little idea who half the singers are they talk about and most of them are Christian bands! We do genuinely enjoy their company and make it clear that all of them are welcome in our home pretty much anytime. We also truly love each of them and spend time praying for each of them. They are all unique and it is neat seeing their gifts develop... We are truly honored to be able to come beside them during these transitional years...
That being said this post is about youth events... Also known as "What doesn't kill you, will most certainly leave a big mess for you to clean up!" Lets discuss the one that almost did kill me first... The (infamous) Lock-In... If you are a parent of teens who have been to a lock-in or if you went to one as I teen, close you computer right now and write them a little thank you note... Seriously, Why are you still here... Go on, I'll wait... Oh your done, great... Now why did I make you do that? Because I can tell you from experience that planning and living through a lock-in is a herculean task.... We did ours back in October, during our second month with the youth and while we were still in our trial period... Are we nuts, I think so... But all summer while the teens were pestering us to take this role their desire for a lock-in came up again and again, so we just did it...
Here is a peek at the schedule I did up for our 12 hours of non-stop frivolity...


7:00-7:15 Arrival

7:15-7:45 Welcome Prayer, Welcome, go over rules, opening “guess my line” skit,

7:45-8:15 Food:  Pizza, soda, chips, veggies

8:30-9:00 Ice Breaker Games: Aardvark Relay, Order in Chaos, sticky buns, Brain Freeze
9:00-9:30 Food Ice Cream Sundaes
9:30-10:00 Worship/Prayer

10:00-10:20 Group Devotion

10:20-10:45 Male/Female Devotions/Prayer

10:45-11:00 Free Time/food/game “I Never”, Fly swatter soccer

11:00-1:00 Movie (To Save a Life), Discussion & Popcorn
1:00-2:00 Games: Post It's Obstacle Course, Whatever It Takes, Train Wreck, Covered,
2:00-3:00 Skits (skits printed up)

3:00-4:00 Worship / Prayer

4:00-4:30 Youth Mad Libs (Mad lib sheets)

4:30-6:00 Board/Card Games Apples to Apples/ Cards/ (catch phrase) cards

6:00-7:00 (Wake up) Breakfast Cereal, milk, oj, fruit

7:00 GO HOME ALREADY!

Are you exhausted just reading it? Well take a look at some shots from our night...

First up... Sticky Buns...

Then the Aardvark relay..

Then "Brain Freeze" The premise of it is teams race to build Ice Cream sundaes in their team member's mouth... Good, not so clean (hence the tarp) fun...

(Yes, that's a banana stuck to his head!)

Prayer and worship...

And some random early morning shots...

Nothing like melted ice-cream sundaes at 4 AM...

I took a lot of pictures early in the night but as it went on I took fewer and fewer... We did have quiet rooms set up for each gender and of the nineteen youths we had only six who stayed up all night... But Paul and I did the full twelve hours... From there we dragged ourselves home (I don't remember the ride...) and I woke up around 2 PM. Being Maine, things are pretty spread out, and about seven of the kiddos had thirty or more minutes to drive home, so we arranged to have someone with a mini van pick them up at the church and transport them to our house (about 8 minutes from the church) so we were wall to wall sleeping bags and blankets in the living room... It didn't stop me from crawling into my bed and not waking up until after the van came back at noon to transport them back to their cars in the church parking lot.

Tonight was just a "Fun Night" at our house... Games, snacks and general frivolity... In the grand scheme of things it was no lock-in, but twelve teens in my living room always feels like a big event. So that's what I've been up to...

Thanks for listening,