Let Us Not Love With Words or Tongue...: Better is One Day in Your Courts Than Thousands Elsewhere.

Week one working with our youth and kids has come and gone! It was eventful, it was tiring, but even more than those things, it was inspiring.

My youth are AMAZING. Yes, all caps lock amazing. I didn't know what I was getting into on the first day. I know from working with Club Christ that every group of pre-teens and teenagers is so different from one another. They don't always have the same chemistry, they aren't always interested in the same things, and the length of time for which they can manage to sit still varies greatly. I didn't know what to expect. Our planning and theme and hopes and ideas could only work if they wanted it to work. Our wants for them could only be achieved if they were interested in making them happen. And they are more than anything I could have ever asked for.

The group isn't perfect.
They don't always sit still for as long as I'd like them to.
They sometimes fight.
But they give me hope.

There is so much promise in each and every single one of them and I can't wait to spend the summer helping them realize it.

Since I'm not allowed to post pictures of them, the best I can do is display what our youth room looks like!

As for the logistics of the week, our day for youth looks like this:
Start with Ice Breakers (fun games, silly games, active games, whatever we think will get them going in the morning)
Move on to TAG Time. (TAG stands for Talk About God - it's a bible study type deal)
Book Club - Our youth is reading The Count of Monte Cristo for their first book of the summer, and I have been pleasantly surprised to discover how much they are engaged in the book and don't mind reading out loud. I'm so excited to see them improve.
Lunch Time
Afternoon Enrichment - For the youth this means different things each day. This could mean a lesson, an activity, an adventure.. Just something educational that we think they'd enjoy. This was the component that I was in charge of this week.

Our afternoon enrichment this week included: Team building activities (Human Knot, playing Capture the Flag), stress management, setting up for newsroom, and implementing newsroom.

As part of stress management, we played a game where different bean bags were used to represent different stressors in life. They included school, friends, extracurricular activities, relationships, and family. The bean bags were then tossed around the circle, getting more and more difficult each round as additional bean bags were added. (We originally started with one.) The goal of the game was to represent how it's hard to keep the balance when you're adding more and more stuff to the balls you already have to juggle. After that we talked about healthy ways to manage stress and unhealthy ways that they've seen others manage stress, such as yelling, hitting others, destroying property, and hurting themselves. One thing I love about our youth is that they are willing to participate and share stories and a little bit about themselves. I love getting to know them.
As a final aspect of stress management, I set up a maze in the room, and they each had to go through it while keeping their cool. If one person touched the maze, everyone that was in the maze at the same time as them had to restart back at the beginning. The game focused on both teamwork and maintaining composure.

The maze!

The next day after that we started setting up for newsroom. For newsroom our youth get to put on their own broadcast. They decide the stories, the roles, the costumes, the commercials, and etc. Nic, Kendra, and I are there to provide basic ideas, but other than that we really just let them run with it and create a broadcast that suits them. It turned out so well! One of our youth students possesses such leadership qualities. Everyone elected him director of the news broadcast, and when it came time to actually film it, he was so amazing! I can't wait to see the way that God uses him this summer to lead and guide the others in the group. Even though it was only the first week, it is so apparent already how much of an influence he has over others.

He inspires me in that he doesn't use this power and influence to his own benefit or advantage. He gently guides the other students to stay on track and to give it their all. I have so much hope for his future after only getting to know him for one week!

That's the funny thing - I can't believe I've only known my youth for one week. I already feel so close to them and that I know little things about their personalities that sets them apart from one another. This came out especially during newsroom. When someone didn't know what to do, Nic, Kendra, and I would ask them what they love to do, and then found a task for them based on that. It is only through knowing bits and pieces of their personalities that I am able to keep them engaged.

On the elementary side of things, it was an interesting week for them as well. I was only in elementary to help with Bible study, but we get to see the younger kids at lunch as well. This first week was, as we have so lovingly nicknamed it, the "Noah's Arc of Incidents".

On Monday two kids wet their pants.

Tuesday two kids threw up.

Wednesday two kids got bloody noses.

And Thursday.......

Managed to go off without a hitch, thankfully! :)

These kids are so easy to love. They have already captured my heart.

In order to maintain some sort of order in the elementary, we have implemented a points system for each of the groups. It's pretty simple - start with 5 points at the beginning of the day, if they're doing what their supposed to and not running down the hall, etc., they earn a point. If the group isn't performing the task they're expected to perform, they lose a point.

Miss Bailey, leading the purple pirates, who are 1st and 2nd graders.

I wish I could tell you all every single cool and God filled thing that has occurred this week, but that would take far too much time. For now I'll post a few pictures, with another entry to come later!

One of the reasons why the youth love Nic so much is because he's so weird.... Haha!

This is Katie, my site coordinator, working the check-in table for our amazing kids.

This is Ken and Kristin! They are going to be doing mountain biking this summer, taking youth from various sites on mountain biking trips. All of our youth are SO excited. :)