Stuff going on

OK, so I'm really excited because I finally get to go out of town somewhere. I wish my wife could go with me but there's the whole "kids and teaching" thing. oh well. Tomorrow after lunch I'm taking three students to the Student Leadership Conference in central WV. We'll be there until Thursday morning. I started with about 15 interested kids, then went to 7 who wanted to go, then down to 5 signed up and now because of sickness and other stuff I have three. We'll see when I pull out of the church parking lot tomorrow if I still have three going. Here's hoping. I'm trying not to be negative because I originally planned this to be a side trip thing for the Next Step class. Then I found out none of the public school kids can miss any days and most of the Christian school kids couldn't either or didn't have the money. I tried to make it more affordable for my youth ministry kids be paying for half of the cost if they were part of my youth group but that still didn't help much. But hey, God knows and i hope it's a great week for the teens who are going as well as for myself. Talk about changing the whole goal of an activity but as a youth pastor, I'm learning that comes with the territory.
Had fun at a party Saturday night. A family from the school who has 6 kids had a harvest party and invited pretty much all the Jr. and Sr. High students and teachers. I had fun running around with the kids and goofing off as well as playing with the bonfire. I know I was a pyromaniac in a previous life. Then today at church we were supposed to have a group from Northland Bible College be here in the evening, and they showed up for S.S. this morning. So my family and I took the six in the group out for Chinese after the morning service and then I came home and finished watching the new Indiana Jones movie because it had to be returned tonight. Then choir practice and the special service with the Northland group, and afterwards we had pizza and drinks and stuff while the teens hung out with the college kids. There were around 25 kids and I was glad to see a couple returning visitors and a couple kids come back that had missed a bunch of weeks. We played a game and then I just came home a little bit ago and packed for the trip.
I would like this week to be 1. a chance to get to know better the three teens who are going, 2. a good relaxing yet challenging retreat, 3. a time to challenge my ideas and info about leadership, 4. a challenging time for the teens, 5. the start to a closer walk with God in these teens lives and in turn, in this Christian school. I would really like to get some good, practical stuff to pass on to the Next Step kids. We'll see. God is in charge of my ministry and I need to trust Him to do what is best.

Weekend in Review

Well, it was going to be a busy weekend in the youth ministry but God used the weather to change things. (Proverbs reminds us that we can plan things exactly how we want but God brings everything to pass how He wants.) Anyway, I had a trip up to PA planned to go to a corn maze/hay ride/farm trip thing. But it rained all Friday night and into Saturday morning so I had to cancel it Sat. morning. That was a bummer because everyone was looking forward to it, including yours truly. But the worst part was when I called the corn maze place and found out that this weekend was the last shot at the activities. So i couldn't even reschedule which is what I was going to do. So I watched football and spent time with my family which was good, but Michigan lost again, which wasn't good. Oh well. Then Sunday came and I had a pretty good, interesting lesson on obedience in respect to Noah in Genesis. Youth group in the evening turned out great. We had 23 in attendance which was the most we've had since the youth group meeting right before the Cedar Point trip in August. Plus, we had a couple new girls visit and they seemed excited about what was going on. In fact, they came to the afterglow afterwards when I invited them. But back to youth group. We had prayer and split up into smaller groups to pray and share requests. Then we sang a couple songs (I'm getting better at the guitar thing, believe it or not) and I challenged the kids again this week on the idea of our lives and why we are here. I made the point it is only for God's pleasure and glory that He created us and we need to live for His glory only. Who do we worship? It comes down to ourselves or Christ. Then I gave them 3 examples of how to tell who they were truly worshipping. They need to examine what they spend their time, money, and thoughts on. I hope the points took hold because I could see some of the wheels turning in their heads. After youth group, we went over to a family's house for the afterglow. We had snacks and drinks and then everyone ran around outside or sat around the bonfire roasting marshmallows. I had a great time of just fellowship and "hang out" time with the teens. And here's a bonus, I even had them back to the church before 9:00!!
It was just a good weekend of ministry even though an activity got cancelled. Now I'm finishing details and plans for the Student Leadership Conference that I'm taking some of the teens to next week. I think it will be great for the youth ministry. Our second Next Step is tomorrow night. I hope it's as good as the first.
And I early voted today. Talk about feeling like a good citizen but helpless at the same time!