"Kickball" and BBQ
I wanted to share about my youth and student ministries event that I hosted at our church today. About a month and a half ago I reached out to our pastor to see if there was anything that I could do for our middle school and high school students who attend the church since our church does not have a youth group. We only have about 6 students who are in this age range so it doesn't make sense to have a group that meets on a regular basis because that would not be sustainable (I was in this situation growing up in one of my churches and it was not enjoyable as a participant, so I would not want to subject others to that!).
When Ryan told me that he had prayed just that week for our kids and how to reach them, we got excited that he was interested in entertaining the idea of creating something for these students. But I also got a little bit nervous since he said he wanted to meet with me! It went fine, though. I met with Ryan and our "equipping ministry director," Karen, one Sunday and he expressed that I could host an event for our youth, but that he did not want it to be a gathering that happened on a regular basis. He also strongly wished that event would happen in April as it was almost the end of March and that by May, many families would be busy with summer plans, graduation, and getting outside. We decided on the end of the month in order to hopefully get the best weather.
Well, today was that day. I am not one who enjoys organizing and coordinating other people to create an event, but I knew that I could not put this on alone, for multiple reasons. The first being that no adult at our church has permission to be the only adult with any children. The second reason being that I am newer to the church and would need help finding supplies and putting things away. I also needed other people who could help because while I have lead youth events in the past, I have never put on one. I was fortunate to have Ryan agree to purchase the food for the event, have a man named Rod be in charge of the grill, have Karen and her husband show up to engage with the kids, as well as her son and daughter-in-law, and then our "KIDMin Director," Kathy.
I was worried that we would only have one student show up, but then a family with a fifth grade student asked if he could stay, which the answer was, of course, absolutely yes. We ended up having around 10 students who stayed for the event, and multiple adults helping. It went great and all had fun.
While it wasn't nice enough for kickball in today's Oregon weather, I had multiple back-up plans for being indoors. We played a game that I learned from working at a school in which everyone writes a story that really happened to them on a notecard. I then took four people's notecards and picked one to read aloud to the whole group. Then, each of the four people had to pretend that the story that I read was their story. At the end, the audience votes for who they believe the story actually belongs to. It was really fun and I think the group enjoyed it.
Then we moved to possibly my favorite game ever: Do you like your neighbor? This game is an absolute blast. We had one guy fall on his bum out of a chair and plenty of others sliding on the floor. It was quite enjoyable and the kids really liked it.
My favorite part of the event was when two of the kids told me that their favorite part was the Do you like your neighbor game that I chose. I think that as a team, we built some connections between kids, got them to learn more names of others in the church, and encouraged a friendly dynamic between our youth and the adults in the church (something that our Church body strives for-- intergenerational relationships).
At the end of the event, one of the pastor's kids (who is younger than middle school age, but I was glad to have stay) asked, "Do you guys do stuff like this all the time?" I told him no, but that I would like to do it more often and wondered if he thought that was a good idea. His response? A big, definite "yes."
I started this blog as a memoir to share some of my life stories with you. My goal is that these encourage and educate you on how to live a more joyful, healthier, full life; one of hope.
When Ryan told me that he had prayed just that week for our kids and how to reach them, we got excited that he was interested in entertaining the idea of creating something for these students. But I also got a little bit nervous since he said he wanted to meet with me! It went fine, though. I met with Ryan and our "equipping ministry director," Karen, one Sunday and he expressed that I could host an event for our youth, but that he did not want it to be a gathering that happened on a regular basis. He also strongly wished that event would happen in April as it was almost the end of March and that by May, many families would be busy with summer plans, graduation, and getting outside. We decided on the end of the month in order to hopefully get the best weather.
Well, today was that day. I am not one who enjoys organizing and coordinating other people to create an event, but I knew that I could not put this on alone, for multiple reasons. The first being that no adult at our church has permission to be the only adult with any children. The second reason being that I am newer to the church and would need help finding supplies and putting things away. I also needed other people who could help because while I have lead youth events in the past, I have never put on one. I was fortunate to have Ryan agree to purchase the food for the event, have a man named Rod be in charge of the grill, have Karen and her husband show up to engage with the kids, as well as her son and daughter-in-law, and then our "KIDMin Director," Kathy.
I was worried that we would only have one student show up, but then a family with a fifth grade student asked if he could stay, which the answer was, of course, absolutely yes. We ended up having around 10 students who stayed for the event, and multiple adults helping. It went great and all had fun.
While it wasn't nice enough for kickball in today's Oregon weather, I had multiple back-up plans for being indoors. We played a game that I learned from working at a school in which everyone writes a story that really happened to them on a notecard. I then took four people's notecards and picked one to read aloud to the whole group. Then, each of the four people had to pretend that the story that I read was their story. At the end, the audience votes for who they believe the story actually belongs to. It was really fun and I think the group enjoyed it.
Then we moved to possibly my favorite game ever: Do you like your neighbor? This game is an absolute blast. We had one guy fall on his bum out of a chair and plenty of others sliding on the floor. It was quite enjoyable and the kids really liked it.
My favorite part of the event was when two of the kids told me that their favorite part was the Do you like your neighbor game that I chose. I think that as a team, we built some connections between kids, got them to learn more names of others in the church, and encouraged a friendly dynamic between our youth and the adults in the church (something that our Church body strives for-- intergenerational relationships).
At the end of the event, one of the pastor's kids (who is younger than middle school age, but I was glad to have stay) asked, "Do you guys do stuff like this all the time?" I told him no, but that I would like to do it more often and wondered if he thought that was a good idea. His response? A big, definite "yes."
I started this blog as a memoir to share some of my life stories with you. My goal is that these encourage and educate you on how to live a more joyful, healthier, full life; one of hope.
I write about my fascination with whole foods, my love of Jesus, my struggles, my childhood stories, my passion for education, and my devotion to creating a healthy life (body, mind, and spirit) for every person in the world.
Comments
Post a Comment