Saturday, May 12, 2012

Exactly what are the Super Random, God-Filled, Crazy People?

Twitch jumping over the sun!

So today I thought I would spend a little time explaining how I became Momma Suz and exactly who the Super Random, God Filled, Crazy People are! Because that is a huge part of who I am!
Twitch is pretty confident in a dress!

About two years ago I kept feeling like God was wanting me to work with the youth in our church. Right about the time I was feeling that, our church had a ministry fair and they were looking for youth workers! Gotta love His timing, right? So of course, I filled out the little paper and promptly forgot about it! Because, after all, I am a busy mom of 4 and at the time one of them was only about 6 months old! What was I thinking anyway? Didn't I have enough on my plate?

Well, of course, Adam (our youth pastor), is not dumb enough to ignore willing workers so he called me! Would I be able to help on Wednesday nights with the youth group? Be a youth sponsor? Lead part of the small group time? See, I knew NOTHING about the youth group because my kids weren't in it yet! So I figured, why not!
Jessica, Jonathan, Sparke, Rebekah and Bethany. Probably all hacking facebook status of someone!

That fall as my Rebekah became a 6th grader, she and I started on the new adventure called youth group together! Whew! Crazy! Our youth group doesn't actually meet at our church (which is full of young people having AWANA and adults having Bible Study), it meets in "town" which is about 6 miles away. They actually bus students there from the church. That was the start of learning new things for me!

Our youth group is great! We meet about 6:15 and have kids trickling in until about 6:45. During that time we are hanging out at a place called "The Center for Whitley County Youth" which factors a lot into my life but I will address that another day! This place offers a gym, a game room with pool tables, air hockey, Foose Ball, etc. I thought it was chaos but the kids seemed to love it! I spent the first few weeks trying to figure out how playing air hockey with kids was ministering to them! Then I discovered that playing forms relationship and relationship leads to ministry!

By about 7 we settle in and Adam leads us in an introduction to the topic for the night, plays some organized games, etc. Then we break into small groups! I ended up with a group of about 12 middle school age kids and a list of 10 questions that pertained to the topic! I was TERRIFIED! But it was amazing!

As the year went on and relationships were formed, I discovered it wasn't only my small group of middle schoolers that I connected with. It was all the kids (and we average about 80 kids each week!). Then my daughter got involved with the school play and MANY of the high schoolers in the play were also involved in the youth group so more connections were made.
Trust me, he was thinking something ornery!

At the end of the year Adam asked the adult volunteers if they would be willing to lead some small group "play" times in their homes once a month. I thought that sounded like something I could do and stepped up! Well, my group kind of made itself! The kids who were in the play decided they wanted to stick together. They also decided I should be their leader! THEN they decided they should meet every week instead of once a month and that while playing was nice, they would REALLY prefer to include Bible study every week! Gee, how do you turn that down? You don't!
Sometimes accidental pictures are the absolute best!

What an amazing summer we had last year! By the end of the summer we took 12 kids and 4 adults to Ohio on a camping trip and water park adventure overnight! We bonded like a family! The kids learned that you don't have to be related to be a part of the family of God and learned what it really meant! By the end of summer, I was Momma! And I LOVED IT!
I wasn't in the pic as I was taking it! YES! Way to maneuver it!


Now, I am not saying these kids are perfect! Oh, they all have their days! I know, remember, I am a parent of a teenager now! WHEW! But overall these kids are amazing examples for my kids! Of course, there is a lot of crazy that happens at my house! As you can see from some of the pictures scattered through the post! But these kids are learning to love each other, lift each other and study God's word together!
"Ahhhh....it's almost time to go home! I don't want to!"

I couldn't be happier! And even though I enjoyed our school year of meeting together as an entire youth group, I am SO glad that we have started our summer group again! And my super random kids are back in my home each week, loving me, loving my family, loving each other and most of all, loving our God!

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