Advent is over and Christmas is here

The presents have all been opened, we enjoyed our stockings, and Christmas dinner was delicious. Now we can all relax right? Nothing more to do right? Nothing except enjoying in the wondrous thing of Jesus's birth! For whatever reason we seem to lose that in all of this. We get so focused on other things that after all the gifts have been opened, stockings delighted in, we seem to sit back and sigh as if it is all over now. Isn't this really the time we should be celebrating? Now that Jesus has been born? (albeit many years ago but we are celebrating it now anyway) I think it is party time myself! Now is the time to bring out the egg nog and light up the lights. For without our saviors birth and his ultimate sacrifice (that is a story for another time) he gave us we would not have the joy we have today.

Blessings

Just when you are not sure of things God always seems to provide you with many blessings. Sometimes it comes in ways that are not what you would expect either. Before I took my current job as a youth director I had some serious debate on if I could do this. Would I be good at it? Would I be able to do all the stuff I had not been doing as a volunteer? Is this really where I was being called? Then one night on a mission trip a really good friend of mine stayed up chatting with me. She told me that God was not asking me to jump off a cliff but to step off a curb. I took those words to heart and stepped off the curb. It was after thinking on those words that I decided that I would become the next youth leader at my church if they chose to hire me. Fortunately they did.

When you are in the throws of your job there are times that you question what you are doing. Am I making a difference in their lives? Am I reaching anyone? Are those looks of boredom or are they just tired? Are they whining out of love? That and so much more will go rambling through my head. And sometimes it feels like no matter how hard you pray you still feel like you are walking alone. That is when God smacks ya with the blessings that have been right under your nose the whole time. Sometimes I think he has to smack ya in order to get your attention. He has to kind make you realize that yes indeed he has been walking with you the whole time. That you should always keep your faith. And that those looks of boredom really are looks of boredom but that they still love you. Youth can be way more forgiving than we sometimes give them credit for. Good golly I have a great job and to top it off I have a great God who loves and cares for us all!

Shocking

A funny thing about me is I tend to be full of static electricity. And it especially seems worse in the winter time. So every day I sit in my office unknowingly building up static charge. Then when I least expect it I will touch something metal and wowzer! I get quite a shock. It is especially bad when I turn off my lights. I have seen a blue spark fly when I do that. If anyone out there knows of a way to stop this from happening I would be eternally grateful. But until then I hope that I do not shock myself to hard.

Games, games, and more games....

Some days I feel like I have the coolest job in the world. Where else can you play with the most random things and have everyone leave with a smile. Today I gave teams of youth random objects and told them they had to create a game for everyone. One group I gave plastic hockey sticks, a couple of nerf footballs, and they could use any folding chairs in the gym. When all was said and done they had chairs stacked two high, hockey sticks stretched across them to make hurdles, and we played a very interesting version of hockey. You have not lived until you try to make a nerf football work like a hockey puck. The youth played that game for quite a while. I should let them make up their own games every week. One less thing for me to plan ; )

Little did they know...

When my church hired me they had no idea what they were getting. I look like a mild mannered person but really deep down I am as accident prone as the best of them. Since being hired I have managed, with the help of the youth, to put three holes in the wall (4 if you count where I gouged the wall), broke two lights, and gave myself two possible broken toes that looked oh so lovely. All of which happened at work. And ohh I managed to put a cut in the linoleum. The crazy part is I have only been there for a year and a couple of months. The good news is they keep letting me come back. So at this moment I have been accident free for about 2 days, 22 hours : )

Ahhh the church kitchen

So anyone who has spent anytime in a church kitchen understands how strange and interesting it is. Don't deny it you know what I mean. What is even crazier is the church fridge. Where else can you find a giant tub of mayo along with about 10 other containers of mayo. Now if you are like me every time you open that fridge you go through a debate. Do you toss some of those old containers of mayo and risk making the ladies of the church mad or do you leave them in there even though no one is going to even come close to touching them because who knows how long they have been there? But in case you ever decide to chance one of those containers of mayo to make a sandwich, well you are in luck because there is just as many mustard containers to go with your mayo. Then there is the mysterious jars of jam, string cheese from who knows how long ago, and the one giant tub of butter that seems to be never ending.

Today I thought I would be brave and toss out the opened block of cheese that had been there for about a month. Unfortunately someone saw the cheese in the trash and questioned my tossing it out. I tried explaining how old it was, that it had been opened and not covered but it seem to fall on deaf ears. Oh well it is all part of being a church.

The bigger debate is how to wash the dishes. We have a sanitizer. Not a dishwasher. And while that might not seem like there is anything to debate but ohhh you have not lived until you have listened to people debate on how to clean dishes with a sanitizer. Do you wash it with soap first? Do you just have to get all of the food off? Do you add soap to the sanitizer? And if you run out of powdered dish detergent can you still run the dishes through the sanitizer and get the dishes clean? These are things that I think keeps some people awake at night. I know it has caused me a great deal of consternation at times ; )

While I may not understand the mysterious of the church kitchen I know that it will always provide me with endless hours of fascination.

They grow up so fast...

It is still hard for me to believe but my nephew is 12! 12 I tell you! I still remember him being 3 and doing things like eating dental floss (a story for another time). And not he is in middle school. 6th grade! eeek. If he lived here in town with me he would be in my youth group. That is a scary thought. Probably better that he does not live here because this way he can an experience without his Auntie Meg at youth group with him.

Unlike my brother who has always had his sis at youth group with him. He two has gotten older on me. 17 going on 18 and graduating. Ugh all of this also means that I am getting older. Guess that is part of life. The crazy thing is my brother is graduating from the same HS I did only 12 years later. Who would have thought that to happen? Not I that is for certain. But I love him and am proud of him.

There will be many graduating from youth group this year. I will miss them all but at the same time wish them all the blessings God has to offer them as the move forward in life.

Messy games are fun!

When I was a youth one thing that we did every now and then were messy games. Usually they ended up being pretty funny as well as messy. Now it is my turn to make messes with the youth and laugh at the silly things they do. Like shaving cream hair that you have to stick fruit loops to. Or cracking an egg from the balcony. I have to admit though that I am nicer than the previous youth leaders. They would have someone lay down and then someone try to crack an egg from above and have it land on their face. And this was a raw egg too. For me while the evil youth leader side of me is half tempted to do it I chose to have them crack it and try to make it land in a container. It is just a little bit more sanitary. And still funny to watch them try. Plus the youth love being able to say such things and I put shaving cream on someone and cracked eggs from the balcony. Oh how I love having a gym to play such games in. Who knows what I will do the next time. : )

The Joys of Being the Leader

There are times when I really love being the leader. Tonight was one of those nights. Part of the joys of my job is getting to plan wacky games that others have to play while I watch. The first activity required them to take pictures of themselves doing various activities. It was a picture scavenger hunt. One group managed to take all of their pictures in the girls bathroom.

The next game required people to run through the church, someone to walk around blindfolded, and someone to have to drink sugar water colored with food coloring. The kicker was the person who had to drink the sugar water was fed the water by someone else. They could not use their hands. It was hilarious.

What was even better is when I had them write down questions they wanted answered and as a group they discussed what they thought the answer was. I just got to sit back (although I did add my two cents here and there) and listen to them discuss such matters as how do we know Christianity is the right religion vs other religions. It is so cool to watch them grow and learn with each other. Life is such a wonderful blessing sometimes. So is being the leader : )

Tennis Shoes vs Flip Flops

Top Five Reasons to wear Tennis shoes vs Flip Flops to Youth Group:
5. It is easier to run when playing games
4. If you have not clipped your toe nails in a while no one will know
3. No one has to smell your feet unless you take off your shoes
2. It is not as easy for anyone to try to take your shoes
And the Number One reason to wear Tennis Shoes vs Flip Flops to youth group is....

1. When you and are another person are both going for a Frisbee and their shoe runs into your toe you are less likely to have a black and blue, swollen, possibly broken toe!

Danger Will Robinson

Whew so much has been going on. Yesterday was the HS kick off and Wednesday is the MS kick off. And just last week we added a new youth service on Wednesdays. Plus add a parish picnic and planning a 3 day conference for the whole diocese I am feeling a little bit on overload. A good overload but overloaded none the less. Ohh wait as if I did not have enough on my plate I am now officially the head of the Youth Ministry Commission (YMC). Maybe that is why I felt the need to stick my face in a pie at our parish picnic.

At least I have people watching out for me at church. I have gotten a gold star from the front desk for my ability to sign in and out on the sign board. Someone else has taken on making sure people are not wearing high heels that are to high... Yes you read correctly the height of peoples shoes are of debate among some people. Then there was the nice parishioner that found the boxes of condoms in the kitchen that removed them before any of my youth could find them. So many nice people so little time to get out all of my thank you's. It has been a fun couple of weeks and I know it is only going to get crazier, busier, and a whole heck of a lot more fun.

Being reminded of how to be a good steward

I will say that my last few posts have been a bit more on the negative side. Or a lot more on the negative side. For many reasons that I will not get into nor would it be appropriate. What I will say is that I was not being a good steward nor a good christian for that matter with my posts. This blog should not be for me to go on rants about my church. As much as it might not seem like it I DO like my job, coworkers, and parishioners at my church. Even those that I have ranted about lately. Thank you my wonderful friend for reminding what being a good steward is about. : )

In a time of transition...

Currently my church is without a permanent Priest. Instead we have what we call a priest in charge. This means, at least in our case, acts as if they are our permanent priest but is only contracted for so much time. Meanwhile we are looking for a permanent priest. Well as permanent as they get. I have noticed that in this time of transition people are trying left and right to "get away" with things that they might not try if there was a permanent priest. Funny thing is that we still all have to be a part of one community so for me I do not understand it. If you know a priest would normally tell you no, because of the effect it would have on others in the church, why you think it would not have the same effect now that they are gone? Maybe it is the rule follower side of me but I just do not understand it. What is worse is that one of my coworkers is doing it too. The even worse part is our priest in charge is doing nothing to stop him. So maybe they have talked before staff meeting and I just do not know it but it is frustrating to have him running the show when he is just our music person. There are some things that he should run the show on and I do not mind suggestions and ideas. I think there is a difference between suggestions and ideas and just plain ol' taking over. I think we are running a thin line at my church in some areas but at the moment I am just going to pray that it will all work out for the better in the end.

Wondering what is going on in peoples heads!

I have the feeling that no matter how long I work at the church people's thoughts and opinions about what is going on at the church is never going to cease to amaze me. Like the other day. I was talking with a parishioner who mentioned that she knew of someone who was going to apply for our financial administrator position at our church. We recently cut the number of hours from full-time to 25 hours (due to budget reasons) and well our current administrator needs full-time (it is a crappy situation for her). Anyway I mentioned how the whole situation was to bad. This is when the parishioner informed me that our financial administrator spent more time working on other things for the church that she did finances. Hmmm Last time I checked our financial administrator did our finances first. And the other duties she does we told her to do. At any rate when I told the parishioner that she did indeed spend most of her hours on our finances, she was a little surprised, but glad to hear it. I mean really who did she think was doing our payroll, budgets, reimbursements, paid our bills, etc. It certainly is not me!

Then as the week progresses I got hear all about how dirty our kitchen is by another parishioner. Now granted there was things that need to be cleaned but he and I were cleaning them at the time. What was interesting to me is as he is complaining about how dirty things are he chose to focus on the floor and never wiped down the counters nor cleaned the grill. Since the parishioner cooked in the kitchen earlier, used those things, and was complaining how dirty the kitchen was, I thought he would also take care of the rest. I assumed wrong. I guess this is all a part of being in ministry. Listening to the gripes and wondering what is going on in their head.

Always think twice

I chose to house sit for parishioners at my church. And they are a lovely couple. But I have learned something. I would never want to live in a really small old house with two dogs and 4 cats. All indoor animals. Not to mention that every time I see them all I am going to think about is their small house with all those animals. Really I think part of what it comes down to is I am not an indoor cat person. I do not like cleaning their litter box and nor do I like the kitten attacking my foot every time I move it at night. All I am trying to do is sleep and all it seems to want to do is bite and scratch my foot. It has definitely taught me to think twice before saying yes to things.

How do you get them there???

So I have a MS beach trip tomorrow and in the true tradition of my church I have 1 count them 1 MS that goes to my church coming. She is bringing a friend so that brings my grand total to 2. I am planning on going to go and have a good day with them but man it would be nice to have more coming with me. The good news is when there is less of them I get more one on one time with them. Someday I will have many, many youth on an event with me but at the moment I am happy with 2.

Plus I love the leader coming with me. She is the nicest person ever and the youth all seem to like her too. Yeah for Mother Hen filling in for me! She thinks that she is getting the better end of the deal by having me house sit for her and I get to have her on my beach trip. Trust me I am getting the better end of the deal!

So while I have not found the recipe for getting 100's of youth at an event with me but tomorrow I am going to go have fun with 2 and my leader.

Camping with the youth

Recently I went camping with some boys from my youth group at Beverly Beach. It was a fun time but full of some firsts for me. I had never been camping in a campground before, been camping without my parents present, cooked a full meal in a cast iron pan, set-up the Coleman stove, built the best fire of the bunch, and been in charge of the whole camp trip. Overall I would say that it was a successful one. It rained the first night and most of the next day. I spent the night trying to avoid the drips in my tent. (Time to get some new tents) But when I got up in the morning I realized I had it lucky. One of the boys was drenched on his backside. Little did I realize he did not have a mat and as water ran into the tent he just got more and more wet. For the second night my other leader gave him her dry sleeping bag and extra pillow. I made sure he had a mat under him and that he would stay dry. This meant my other leader and I got to snuggle all night under my sleeping bag. Let me tell you Kristen and I know each other really well these days ; ) Good news is everyone was dry the second night. Next year I am going to make sure everyone has a mat, there is an extra sleeping bag packed, and that I learn to put the tarps under the tents better!

I did it!

Yesterday I did it! I got up and preached at three services. It is the first time I did that. My only downfall is that I could not seem to talk slow enough. Although if I did it might have lasted 10 minutes. There was a lot of good feedback for me and I did what I set out to do. I managed to educate my church on what the HS mission trip is really about. That while it is about the fun it is also about the connections you make with God, each other, and getting that chance to be the hands and feet of Christ. This year more than other years I think that the holy spirit was working through us. It was the best YouthWorks staff and the other groups were the best that we had. All of which helped it to be one of the best trips. So when I got up to talk to the parish I held my head high and told them how much God has blessed us with amazing youth that went on an amazing mission trip.

Sermon

So I opened my big mouth and told my rector that I wanted to speak in church about the HS mission trip I was just on. Here I was thinking I would get to talk for about 3 minutes or so. Something brief and people could ask me more questions later. Little did I know that my rector was thinking of giving me the sermon slot. Wow the whole sermon slot?!?! So it is not as bad as I thought. I am only getting about 8 minutes of the sermon slot and he will talk for about 4 minutes before that. Still that is a lot to fill. The good news is that I was a communications major and at times I have the gift of gab. Especially when I am passionate about something and I am definately passionate about this.

Bulletin Boards and Spiders

Today was a productive day. Not only did I manage to redo my youth bulletin board but I managed to kill the big, huge, ugly, gigantic, brown spider in my house. I am not sure which one I am more proud of. While the bulletin board is more showy I think I am more proud of the spider. I already have like 4 bites on my foot I do not need more. Granted there could be more in the house but I am pretending that is the only one in the house. That there is no more to be found because otherwise I would not be able to sleep. It was tough though. The first time I tried to kill it I was not able to. I had to move around furniture and everything. Not to worry the bulletin board was not harmed in the killing of the spider : )

Mission Trip

This past week I was given the privileged to take HS youth from my church and 2 from Idaho on a mission trip. It was the kind of trip that was life changing. The more people ask me about it the more I find I am at a loss of words to describe the trip. We to Heart Butte, MT which is on the Blackfeet reservation. YouthWorks put the week together which is nice for me because then I just have to worry about getting there and back and spending time with my youth. It takes some of the guess work out of it for me. But only some because in youth ministry you never know what to expect. I have been on two YouthWorks mission trips before but this was the best one yet. The staff was the best that I have been around, the other groups were better than ever, I connected with other leaders better than before and it was just all around pleasant. Part of what made this such a good trip for me was the connections that I made with my youth. Both on the surface I want to have fun level and the really deep spiritual level. I came away from the trip with many inside jokes like "I have to pee so bad I am going to wet my face", "Where's Jon?", and "What made you get up this morning and take these boys to breakfast?". And yet I also came away with youth that dedicated their lives to Christ. I mean how can you top that? It is what I always want for my youth to know God's love and his grace and mercy he can give us. Really who doesn't want someone in our lives that will forgive us for all of our sins and love us unconditionally. I know that is something I always want in my life.

So excited to go....

It is 10:15 pm the night before I leave on the HS mission trip. Man there has been more to plan than I ever thought possible. Well OK there might not have been as much to do as I did but that is a personality quirk of me. I want to be prepared for anything. My binders is full of tabs and papers and money. The van is equipped with saltines and sprite for car sickness, trash sacks for well trash or if someone is going to throw up, and the top carrier is already to go. I guess there is nothing more to do but get some sleep.

Well the excitement is over I think.....

So in my last blog I mentioned that I had no church to stay at. I am happy to say that I found a place to stay. The good Lord came through for me again. Hopefully the major excitement is over. Do you hear that Devil?? Go away! And God please bless this group with easy travels and no more major excitements other than just being happy to be on the trip eating fry bread please! Amen

one week to go and yet....

In one week exactly I will be heading out to Montana with youth from my church on a mission trip. I am uber excited and have been working hard to prepare for to go to the Blackfeet Reservation. I have paid Youthworks, found a van to drive, planned my travel route, worked out cost of food etc. I thought I was doing well. And then this week came. On Monday I was told my male chaperone was sick with something the doctors did not know what it was and I had to find a new chaperone. I was leaving in a week and a half and I had to find a new chaperone??? Holy Moley that was going to be a task. But by the grace of God I found one that day. Phew crisis diverted. Onto the next thing. And then yesterday hit. Earlier I had worked out that I would be staying at a church in Washington along our way. I was told that the youth leader would be gone during that time but she would find someone to let us in. Great! Since I had not heard who was going to let me in I called the church and left her a voicemail. Hearing nothing I called again and got a receptionist who said she is gone on a pilgrimage and they knew nothing of me coming. Eeek! The nice person on the phone said that she would try her cell but could not promise me anything. Oh deer goodness now I might a new place to stay???? Not sure why I am being testes so but aparently God thinks I can handle a lot and the Devil thinks he can break me. Well I am glad God thinks so highly of me and the Devil is sorely wrong. now onto finding a place to stay....

Bullwinkles

Yesterday I took a few of my youth to Bullwinkles (a family fun center that has lazer tag, go karts, etc.). The boys that went had a great time. We rode the go karts, got wet on the bumper boats, and played some lazer tag. Boy did we ever play some lazer tag. I have never played so many rounds of lazer tag in my life. I finally took a round off because of wanting a change of pace. So in my waiting and I thought I would text my friend and whine a little about all of the rounds of lazer tag. To which she promptly replied "Stop whining, kick some ass, and show them what you are made of." Sometimes I think we need friends like that. Friends that will put it into perspective. As a youth leader you do not always get to do what you want but it does not mean that you can not have a little fun along the way and kick some ass : )

Nerf Guns, Nerf Guns, and More Nerf Guns

Who would have thought when I started my youth ministry career how important nerf guns would become to me. Every youth leader should have some. So far in this past year I have used them to defuse awkward situations, get people to stop doing what they should not be doing, help settle down the room, and well just plain ol' have fun. Even the other night the youth entertained themselves for about an hour playing in one hallway simply with the nerf guns. I think it is official. Nerf guns you should never attempt youth ministry without it.

Old photo's and trips down memory lane

The church that I work at has always been my home church. I have many fond memories of being a youth here. Now that I am the youth leader I hope to be able to give other youth many fond memories of being here too. Today I sat peeling old photo's off an old home made poster giving me a chance to reflect on my career with youth ministry at this church. From being a youth, to a youth volunteer, to being their leader. So many good memories along the way like the youth leader who would even unscrew the emergency lights to make things even darker as we ran around the church. That was the same leader that thought he would see how quickly he could go from downtown to our church. The passenger next to me almost peed in the seat. I would not have been thrilled with that. To the leader that played a lot of pull-a-part. Why any leader thought that having all the boys/girls sit on the floor, link up and then have the opposite gender pull them apart was a good thing is beyond me but I played that a lot as a youth. Then there was the time we had pew races in the church and youth group in the columbarium (a place where peoples ashes are put into the wall with a plaque). From wrapping people in plastic wrap to shooting nerf guns I have been a part of a lot here.

One of the things that I started thinking about was my missed opportunities. The last two times a youth leader left neither one seemed to have the faith that I could be the leader. They wanted my help but did not really look at what I could do. They let my easy going, willing to be the gopher side of me be all they saw. The first time I allowed it. I let the opportunity to be the leader pass me by. The second time I decided I was not going to let it pass me by. Whether or not the youth leader at the time believed I could do it I was not going to miss my chance. I am so happy that I went for it. While it has been one of the hardest years I have had at the same time it has been one of the most rewarding. Thank you to all of my friends and family that have been supporting me and are continuing to support me.

They drove me to a massage

One thing that I have not done is gotten a massage until today. With all of the stress going on at work I thought it was time to get the kinks worked out of me. It was a wonderful thing. 50 minutes of complete relaxation. So I may have never had a massage before but I am hooked. I already know that after the HS mission trip I am so going in for another one.

Trials and tribulations of being a church

One of the things that my church had been offering was free wi-fi. We have many different groups that come and use our church for the purpose of business type meetings so it was very nice for them to have the wi-fi use. Then the other day the cops came in and informed us that someone was sitting in their car searching for porn using our wi-fi. Yep you read that correctly someone thought a church was a great place to search for porn. So then this week the plot thickens. For whatever reason the news thought they needed to do a story on this. Not sure why they thought it was news worthy but they did. Unfortunately for us even though we said we have no comment, do not want to be filmed, do not want the kids from VBS filmed, the news station decided to film our church, film the kids from VBS, and make it really obvious what church it was. The worse part about it was they stood across the street doing this making sure they were not on our property the whole time they were filming. Churches are supposed to be a safe place and yet thanks to this wonderful news station people are starting to question that. Oh the joys of working at a church.

Chinese food and Chocolate

Tonight I got to have chinese food and chocolate. It was a great evening where I got to hang out with Becky (my biggest parent support) and she had bought me chocolate for dog sitting. The chocolate was amazing. She got it from a nice shop in downtown Salem. So after having Chinese food I got to settling into my night and eat my chocolate. I got to tell you I felt more than a little spoiled.

With the Family Gone

My Family is currently gone on our annual camping trip. I chose to stay behind. With staying behind I had only one request from my parents, "please water our plants!" That is it. Their only request. And so what do I do? I forget to water the plants for 5 days. 5 count them 5 days!!! And it is not like one or two plants that are out of the way so it is easy to forget. No the entire yard is coated in plants. You cannot miss them. And here I was in lala land ignoring the plants. So guess what I did with my evening? I watered the plants. *sigh* I do not think I killed to many plants.

People never cease to amaze me

Working at a church you come across all sorts of interesting things. Both good and bad. One thing we do is collect money for a food bank. Today as we had staff meeting a note was passed around that had been put into our collection plate. It stated that marion county has a high obesity rate according to the statesman journal. The note was passed to make us chuckle but I found myself being more upset by their implications of the note than anything. Who puts notes like that in collection plates??? Well obviously they did but did they really think we were going to stop supporting the food bank?

Texting in Church

When I was growing up cell phones were not a part of our daily lives. If you needed to make a call you either had to find a pay phone or hope someone had a land line willing to let you use. These days it is harder to find a pay phone or a land line someone is willing to let you use than a cell phone. And anyone who has a teenager or simply works with one knows how often they use their cell phone. They can be seen anywhere with a cell phone in their hand texting someone. Even someone in the same room! As I became a youth leader I noticed that my texting use increased by a lot. Somedays I feel like maybe I am texting more than calling or having that face to face conversation. But I think the point that I realized I was crossing over to the world of to much texting is when I got a text in the middle of church and sat in the back pew texting back. Hmmm... Maybe I should put the phone down and walk away. Just because my neighbor in the pew is texting doesn't mean I need to be.