Many Hands Make Light Work?

Every week, there is some variation on “pick up all of the toys before snack” on Monday nights (some weeks they have been offered unlimited snacks for cleaning the entire room in less than 80 seconds – unlimited meaning anything they can eat in the fifteen minutes before their parents show up…).

This week, it was a good thing that we didn’t time them.

They came inside, shed shoes and jackets, and ALL “helped” to put away the bucket of Legos that had been dumped across the floor. You can only see about half of the crew in these pictures, but they had very much crossed the line from “many hands make light work” to “too many cooks in the kitchen.”

One of them probably could could have picked up everything in less time than it took all of them to do it (very noisily and exuberantly)! But, the Legos are no longer on the floor, so, it’s all good.

Sharefest

This morning was Sharefest, which meant that churches all across town got together volunteers and literally inundated the area with spring clean-up projects. There were something like 1,700 people from my church involved in everything from landscaping to laying gravel on trails and from ripping up carpet to painting, with plenty of hauling things, cleaning things, and sewing quilts for RFKC thrown into the mix.

And, because we’re Americans, there were plenty of Spudnuts and coffee thrown into the mix to lure people out of warm beds way too early on a Saturday morning.  

My parents and one sister cleaned and rearranged a Habitat for Humanity ReStore, while I painted paneling outside of the Union Gospel Mission offices with some of the youth group girls. We were slightly convinced that our fingers were going to simply freeze and fall off in the morning air, but cold was better than the rain that was forecasted (and never came).

Still, it was a good chance to hang out with the girls as they served alongside adults from the church, making this something that was not only bigger than them but also bigger than the youth group. The first, is not so unusual. The second… tends to come far more rarely.

But, we’re working on it!

Not Everything That Looks Like Food Tastes Like It

We’re getting closer to the end of the school year for the homeschool co-op I teach at (next week being the last week), so, today was official let-the-kids-use-up-all-the-leftovers day. I ran through all of the ingredients with them to make sure that they each knew what each thing was, what it did, and what sorts of ratios it should be used in.

Then, I let them go at it.

They came up with their own “recipes” free of gluten, dairy, soy, nuts, and eggs, substituting things as they ran out of certain ingredients.

It was hilarious and messy and chaotic (so much so that I didn’t get any actual pictures of the process), but they had fun, and, surprisingly, most of the “recipes” came out looking at least vaguely like food. I’m not sure that the taste like food – as I’m not sure what exactly did or did not going into some of the mixing bowls – but, that was up to them to decide once they got out of their last class.

(Things were still bubbling ominously in the oven at the end of our class period, so I told them I would leave everything in bowls once it all looked a little more solid.)

Daylight

I love the fact that it is suddenly light out, even during Monday evening childcare, and that we can take the kids outside to play.

Of course, somewhere within the checking in of twenty six children last night, we all forgot to pay attention to whose coat was whose – and the two year olds weren’t particularly helpful in the picking-out-which-one-was-theirs department. 

We thought that we had it more or less figured out, until one of the moms came in to pick up her kid…and we realized that the little boys were not wearing the right coats at all. Meh. They all stayed warm.

The bigger kids stayed warm by running in circles and pouncing on whichever teacher they were sent after next. Which meant that more than one teacher claimed, “I have a baby!” as protection against the swarm of K - 4th graders. And…it worked…every single time.

If all else fails, pick up a two-year-old.

And then, feed the children plenty of snack, because, guess what? It’s eight o’clock at night. They’ve been running in circles for two hours. And. They. Are. Hungry.

(Well, minus the one who puked about forty-five minutes later – about twenty minutes after he fell and bit his lip. He wasn’t so hungry. Poor kid had a rough night.)

 

Hiding?

I walked downstairs during youth group tonight to find this. Two of my cabin girls, crouched under the kitchen counter, eating snacks. There was no particular reason for being under the counter…other than that they discovered that they fit.

They’re ridiculous, but they’re also ridiculously in love with Jesus, so, I guess it all evens out. Lol!

This was also their first large group meeting since getting off the buses from camp. Any time that there are multiple new people, it tweaks with the balance and the energy of the youth group, so I’m interested to see where this post-winter retreat high takes us, interested to see if the kids can keep a hold of their new friends even in the “normal” world.

Franciscan Blessing

May God bless you with discomfort. Discomfort at easy answers, half truths, and superficial relationships, so that you may live deep within your heart. Amen

May God bless you with anger. Anger at injustice, oppression and exploitation of people, so that you may work for justice, freedom and peace. Amen

May God bless you with tears. Tears to shed for those who suffer from pain, rejection, starvation and war, so that you may reach out your hand to comfort them and turn their pain into joy. Amen

May God bless you with foolishness. Enough foolishness to believe that you can make a difference in this world, so that you can do what others claim cannot be done. Amen

And the blessing of God, who creates, redeems and sanctifies, be upon you and all you love and pray for this day, and forever more. Amen

As one of my friends said, “No wonder those monks were so legit!”

Winter Camp

 

Winter Camp was - as suspected - amazing and ridiculous and contained less sleep in two nights than we ought to have gotten in one. The top picture was our cabin before the girls knew each other, but something about it still manages to completely capture everything that was the wildly mismatched group of twelve girls. 

 

Even before we got on the bus the different groups of kids (two different churches plus two school groups who were only vaguely connected with either youth group) were doing their best to break the ice high school style, which, in this case, meant the largest game of ninja destruction that I have ever seen.

Contrary to tradition, there were no broken down buses or flat tires on the way to camp, and, aside from the one bus taking a short initial detour in the opposite direction intended, everyone got there in one piece and in generally a good mood - although far too tired for how young the night was.

After dressing up in cabin "uniforms," though, and playing a few games (which actually turned out to be the only games of the weekend...) they were significantly more awake and ready for a short concert, a message, and the chance to stay awake getting to know each other until 2:00 in the morning.

Which...wouldn't have been so bad, except that morning Bible study was at 7:00am and basically the entire cabin decided to wake up for it. 6:00 alarm anyone?

My lunch table

After Bible study was breakfast, then worship, a message, cabin time, and lunch. Cabin time was one of those events filled with many tears that seem to occur on Winter Retreats and some ministry trips. Which...is not Jessica's forte. I would much prefer to fix problems and give advice! Lol.

We had split the cabin six and six, so that everyone would have a chance to be heard, and, while not all of my girls were the type to just throw their heart thoughts out there on the table, we listened to the few who had something they wanted to share and then jumped on the opportunity to be a body and minister to each other - in this case by writing notes: prayers, verses, things that the girls heard from God for each other.

Probably not quite what the girls were expecting to do, but, meh, they already know that I'm crazy.

(Random aside, but... I was not the only leader there from my class, which was mucho exciting. I love the fact that some of the same leaders are around from when I was in high school, but it's also really cool to see people come back and pour into a new group of kids who are just young enough to have never been in youth group with us - or to only have been there during our about-to-leave-for-college summer months in the case of the seniors.

The afternoon was free time, which meant hiking a hill that was FAR steeper than it looked from the valley but definitely worth it at the top.

Clearly I did not learn my lesson the first time around, though, because, at 6:30 the next morning, I was awake with three of my cabin girls, the other leader, and a handful of additional crazy folks to hike the hill again. Again, worth it for the view and the people connections, but, seriously, twice within twenty-four hours?

One of my freshman girls told me later that she stopped halfway up the hill and told the sky, "I'm right here God. I'm listening! What do you want!?" as if she might get a pass out of climbing the rest of the trail!

In between the two hikes, though, I taught a breakout session on the Biblical background for social justice, we ate dinner, heard another message, something like a DOZEN kids committed their lives to Christ (!!), we worshiped together - and, oh, I have never seen that many smiles in one room before! Talk about watching kids get happy high off of God and life!

Then, we headed back to our cabins, where all of the girls wanted to hear stories from the THREE new family members in our cabin alone. More tears. Much smiling and bouncing. Much, "What am I going to tell my mom?" Etc.

Then, just to make sure that the night ended on a ridiculous note, we gathered everyone back together for more hyper, high-off-life-ness and a chance to see their leaders preform ridiculous skits. The one pictured above is entitled, "People With Shirts on Their Heads."

Once again, we were up until 2:00 or so in the morning. :D

The last morning (post hike) was clean up, breakfast, picture taking, and some just-our-church wrap up time. By the end of the weekend, these pictures describe our cabin best. New friends or better friends, crazy hyper, and just this side of about to fall over exhausted.

And, my cabin weren't the only ones. My little sister and her friends, just like the rest of the camp, exuded happiness and peace and radiant joy as well. (Which was made more impressive by the fact that the weekend wasn't really aimed at them at all.)

No older brother to the Prodigal Son status here. They were just satisfied to be invited to the party.

Have I mentioned that these kids are awesome?!

We got together and the kids (and leaders) got to share stories from the weekend. Each and every story or thank you was met with a loud - and by that point well practiced - "Welcome to the party!" from the entire group.

Names and stories are personal property that I won't share, but, suffice it to say that I was/am incredibly proud of all of the kids, but a few of them very much in particular.

And then... we stuck all of the newbies in the middle of a giant group hug, in the youth pastor's words, "to awkwardize everyone equally."

Lunch was out on the grass - where the sun had finally come out full force - with just enough time for a couple of large group pictures and for the guys to get out some energy parcouring over anything that they could reach. Luckily, they tend to be less accident prone while doing so than my fourth and fifth graders!

The bus ride home was uneventful (in a good way) and largely consisted of way to many games of catch phrase. One of my words was "Nelson Mandela" - South Africa, fought against apartheid, first black president of South Africa, etc. A sophomore guy looked me straight in the eyes with that "Ooh, I know the answer!" look and blurts out,

"Morgan Freeman!"

Haha! Nope. Not quite. Clearly we need to pay more attention is history class.

Some of our new family members (who all happen to go to school together)!

Definitely a worthwhile use of a weekend!

Welcome to THE Party

One of the freshman girls from my cabin wrote this poem to describe Winter Camp, and I felt like it summed it up very well. (and my brain is too much tired happy mush right now to write an actual post!) More pictures to come tomorrow, but, for now…

Are there words to describe

this unspeakable joy inside?

Gleefully soothing my broken heart

God's work has come and I can't wait to take part!

From confessing pain to seeing joy

Walls we built now we destroy

God is here and He is moving

With Him on our side, we can't be losing

We faced challenges and fears

Slaying demons with falling tears

These days are insane, but so beautifully complete

(What makes better best is the food that we eat!)

We've learned that the world ain't all that you see

And we all carry pain, no matter who we might be

We've also heard that when you're tardy

It's never too late to be welcomed to the party

Life is hard, God is good

Celebrate this? Yes, we should!

At His throne more souls have knelt

And icy hearts have begun to melt

Joy and pain

Love like rain

Shockingly sweet

Is this Wildhorse Retreat

WELCOME TO THE PARTY!

Getting on a Bus

Tomorrow afternoon, about sixty of these oh-so-normal teenagers and a dozen leaders are getting on a bus to head up to winter retreat. It should be amazing and ridiculous and full of more strange games than I have played in a few years. ("Toss the Candle" and "Sit There While Warren Throws a Pen at Your Face" don't quite count.)

Of course, as per normal, there a billion and one things that need to get done in between now and then...packing, work, a meeting about more social justice stuff, cleaning the disaster that has become my apartment before my mom has a chance to see it, getting cabin things ready, the rest of my mommy's birthday, and writing a breakout session for during retreat - on, of course, social justice and its reality in our lives.

I think that God must have taken me seriously all of those times that I said that I worked best under last minute deadlines. The call asking if I would teach a breakout session came today, on the way to my mom's birthday lunch!

Quite frankly, I'm just excited about the weekend - and about the girls who are going to be in my cabin. If God does half of the things in their lives that I am expecting Him to, it will be an incredible way to have spent all of our time.

Prayer for Forgiveness

God... Thank you that you are in the process of restoring your kingdom, and invite us to participate. We confess that we often rebel against your best hopes and dreams for the world, both in the things we do and in the things we leave undone. Give us your grace to sustain us as we learn to live and act in sync with what you are up to in the lives of individuals, in the lives of people groups, in our institutions, and among your creation.

This prayer was written in the context of a specific interaction between two Christian "celebrities," but the entire thing is worth a read, any day, under any circumstances. There is power in confessing, out loud, that we are messed up human beings and that we mess things up on a daily basis.

Part of that power lies in realizing that we do not have to be perfect, that we do not have to have all of our stuff together in order to be used by God.

When you have a few minutes, read through this prayer outside of the context of any fights over who is a heretic and who is not. Instead, allow yourself to think through each line and remember places in your life where you need that sort of forgiveness right now, today. Allow God to come into those messy (stinky) places and show Himself glorious.

Justice starts with us and the way that we treat others, not just across the globe but also that person who is driving so close behind you that you can practically feel them breathing down your neck or the one who forgot (again) to do the thing that they said they were going to do.

Vegan Wedding Mints

For the last several weeks I have been wanting to try something "moldable" with the kids, and, for several weeks, they have been asking to make some sort of candy. Solution: Wedding mints.

Problem: Wedding mints are traditionally made using powdered sugar and cream cheese.

So...we went the way of in class experimentation (which is generally what happens when I try to modify a recipe).

I found a recipe here that calls for butter and Crisco, rather than cream cheese, so we simply replaced both ingredients with equal amounts of coconut oil. It required a little more working and warming than the original recipe (too much working for some of our smaller four-year-old hands), but seemed to work out in the end.

The secret to avoiding the more crumbly status seemed to be extra water and extra handling of the dough (and no sensory issues that make getting your hands in deep seem "yucky"). Of course, extra water means extra drying time, but I doubt that our mints lasted until they were dry either way.

The kids were in charge of their own food coloring, but the mints could be just as easily made paler or even pure white to skip out on some of the extra toxins.

How To: Mix 5 cups powdered sugar with 4 tbsp of coconut oil and 3-4 tbsp of water. Add mint extract to taste.

Get your hands in deep and work the dough. (Be patient. This part takes a while.) Your body heat will be what melts down the coconut oil, so don't try to cheat and use a spoon unless you are looking to create powdered sugar crumbs.

Add food coloring if desired. Form into shapes and let sit until dry (several hours).

Swords

One of the four-year-olds brought a “shield’ and several foam swords to childcare this morning, and they went after each other for probably a good forty-five minutes. Best part was that they were almost more interested in “killing” each other than they were in “killing” the teachers.

  For some reason, though. it is only the teachers who have to fall over and stay there for “fifty years” (or thirty seconds) after being stabbed, poisoned, or blown up. Children. apparently, are indestructible.

Case in point: the little girl in this picture is fending off two boys with her hands – without dying or losing limbs. Something about the whole scene just made me think, “Peter Pan!”

Then, three toddler sized children tried to sit on me at once, and I had other things to think about.

Cooking and Cleaning

All of this lovely mess...

...resulted in these (drenched in food dye) wedding mints. Good thing they were tasty, because it took one of me almost as long to clean it all up as it did twelve of them to make the mess in the first place. :D

God Grew Tired of Us

God Grew Tired of Us is a documentary that was filmed as several of Sudan's "Lost Boys" resettled in the US and learned their way through a culture that was, in nearly every way, different from what they had known.

One of the "boys" talks about how, at thirteen, he had been put in charge of hundreds upon hundreds of younger children, simply because he was one of the tallest, and there were no grown-ups to shoulder the job.

12,000 children survived a march from Sudan to Ethiopia, and then back through Sudan, from Ethiopia to Kenya. On their own. With no grown-ups. With little food. With no medicine. While soldiers shot at them from the sky.

They deserve for their story to be seen. Do one thing. Carve out the time to watch this documentary.

Running in Circles

As one of the dads came in to pick up his kids last night – and they proceeded to continue playing, completely unaware of his presence – he shrugged at me, “Well, I suppose it’s a good thing that they never want to leave.”

Every week, we hear from parents that their kids, “look forwards to it all week,” which might have something to do with the fact that we spin their kids in so many circles that they don’t remember anything but a dizzy adrenaline high!



Okay, so, we do things besides spin the kids in circles. We also run in lots of circles, playing various forms of tag and catch and monkey in the middle. (Yes. Even monkey in the middle manages to involve running in circles, because we’re skilled like that.) And, we play “ninjas” in circles around the church. And, there are basically a lot of circles.


We decided a few weeks ago, though, that two of the high school teachers seem to inspire relative calm, while the other two seem to inspire circle running and jumping and pouncing. (The fifth teacher and I also tend to create controlled chaos.)

Case in point: the above picture is two of them playing with a group of kids.

The bottom picture is the other two playing with a group of kids (and is incredibly blurry because a four-year-old was tugging on my hand to, “Spin me! Spin me!”).

Notice a difference?