Youth Group Kick-Off!

FINALLY! We have been counting down the days until youth group started again for the year! With Jon leaving for the week, we raced to finish the room on Sunday, and Jon got it all set up and I stayed late finishing the painting on the chalkboard wall. The pictures don't look that great, it really does look better in real life! I just really hope that this is a room that is inviting and open and where teens can come and feel safe and have fun. I want it to be cozy and uplifting and allow them to feel a sense of ownership over their room. Is that too much pressure to put on a room? haha! Here are some after pics once we finished... we still have a few more touches to do, but that will have to wait until after kick-off!

Jon came down from camp at dinner time and we went straight to the church and ate dinner there and prepped for the evening! I was so giddy with excitement as the youth started flooding in!! I love seeing this place filled with the laughing chatter of their voices. Such a good sound

They loved the room!! Yay!!! Seeing how stoked they were made all those hours of work worth it!!!

Crazies!!!! Even Tadd has a huge smile on.. thats really saying something! It was fun to walk around and re-connect with them after the summer.

We had a Dodgeball tournament which was perfect because Jon was in the big room running the tournament, and we put a table across to block balls, and then I stayed in the youth room with the kids who weren't playing. He got to have fun and be silly and I got to have good talks... its a good system that works well for us! We are so short on leaders this year... its been a source of stress. But we know that God will work it out and that we need to put people before policy, as hard as that is. Its been quite the up and down journey for us the past few weeks! But then I get to youth group, and I take pictures like this of kids who are being so goofy, and just makes it all seem easier! People just need to get how awesome these kids are and how important youth ministry is, and then they would be aching to volunteer! So how we do make that possible? How do we get people to really see and believe in and care deeply about youth ministry? We need to make our purpose known and we need to pray lots.

Our little cheerleader for the evening! As of right now, I am potentially the only female leader for the year. That is a lot of pressure because I usually have to leave youth early to get this little one to bed! But if we don't have female leaders, I will need to be there every single week and be there for the whole time. Seeing her cheer like this for them is so cute and she loves being there, but having her there distracts me and takes away from me being intentional with the youth. So we have a dilemma there also that we are trying to pray through. We either need to find someone who can consistently watch her every single Tuesday at my house (which is near impossible, no one is able to do that) or we need a few female leaders. So we have been praying over both of those things! But she did love being there, and the kids just love her and are so good to her.

My little Georgia who I love so much :)

First God-talk of the year! Way to go husband! This is the area that I have seen the most growth in him over the past few years. Still lots of more growing to do, but he is so faithful to prayer when it comes to his talks and what he needs to be speaking on. He allows himself to be open and be lead, and I find that admirable. Also note Q being all cuddly on the couch, listening. She knows when Daddy is talking that she needs to sit nice and be quiet and she does pretty good at that! And the girls love when she sit with them like this haha

The chalkboard wall at the end of the night! Our chalkboard challenge of the evening was for them to draw their favorite summer memory. There were five different drawings having to do with Imadene - three Wildside ones, one LIT one and one main camp. I love that Imadene in all sorts of ways impacted their lives this summer and made it onto their top summer memory :)

End of the night selfie! Rebekah stays late because her dad is a leader, and I was driving Hannah and Elijah home so they had to wait for me. Jon is in the top left of this picture but the light drowned him out! So funny. So many big smiles. Such a great night. So looking forward to this year!!