Pixiemom

Those who have been reading my blog for a while know that I was a youth leader at our church before we moved up here near Chicago. Here is a link to one of the posts I asked for prayer for that group. Anyway, to share with you this answered prayer… one of the youth boys was saved last night. The youth director got in touch with me this morning. He couldn’t wait to share with me because he knew how awesome this news would be for me. I am crying tears of joy still. I continue to keep that group in my prayers. They are always in my mind. I put so much of myself into my work down there and I really miss it. I ask that you keep them in your prayers. There is a lot going on down there that is rough stuff to handle. Also, rejoice with me over this one whom I know I will see again in Heaven.

Here is my salvation testimony for those who haven’t read it.

I had a Girls Night for our church youth girls last night here at my house. Only two showed up, but that was fine. We had some good conversation and talked about forgiveness. After the lesson, we just talked and ate pizza for a little while. For the last 15 minutes, my co-leader gave her testimony. I think it was a good time.

As I said in my previous post, I went with our church youth group to Acquire the Fire. Despite the sleepless night, it was a pretty good weekend. We had some teens affected by the message taught. I pray they remember this weekend and that they apply what they learned to their life and keep continuing to do so.

We also had some good talks with some of the kids. I talked to two of the girls after the first night and we got a bit deep into it. My co-leader also contributed to this conversation and she helped because she can relate to one of the girls much better than I can. We had another girl come in for a little while and talked with us as well. It was nice to be able to do that. On the car ride, both up and back, we talked with a new guy that recently joined our church. He seems very eager to talk about the Bible and learn more about God and Jesus.

I know I asked you to join me in praying for these kids. I know some of you are praying. I have been less frustrated and have been able to reconnect with two of the girls. I thank you for those prayers. I ask you to try and keep these kids in your prayers. We picked up some new curriculum and I would love to have it make a big impact on them. I have really come to love these kids so much. It is hard when I know they are having trouble.

I don’t remember if I mentioned it, but the youth group did a Parents’ Night Out this last Friday night.  I worked it since I am a youth leader.  It was a lot of fun.  We had crafts, games, movies, snacks, coloring, and a table of shaving cream which two of the teen boys enjoyed quite a bit themselves.  The only youth we had that really helped out were those two teen boys.  They had a lot of fun.  Two girls showed up, but they didn’t come until movie time upstairs which was also quiet time for the kids.  They decided to stay downstairs to talk and listen to music, so they didn’t really help out any.

I think the kids had a lot of fun and enjoyed themselves.  The hours were from 6-11pm, but all the kids were picked up by 10pm, so even after cleaning up, we all got to go home earlier than we were expecting.

Wednesday night was fun. The trivia game was questions from the books of Matthew and Luke that had to do with the Christmas season. Whoever answered the question correctly got to get a gift from under the tree and they weren’t allowed to answer anymore questions.  Some of the questions were harder than I had thought they were going to be when I made them out.  The kids seemed to have a good time.  We had lots of cookies and brownies to eat and I was hyper from it all by the end and still had a quick practice for the adult christmas program for Sunday evening. The adults got their first view of me hyper and I don’t think they were prepared.

Yummy chili, Bible trivia, and a white elephant gift exchange.  FUN!

I am not as young as I try to be.  On Friday night we had the youth lock-in.  We had a concert which was too loud for me.  We played Sardines, which only one other person and I even knew how to play.  We played hide and seek.  We played tag and I had to take many time-outs for rest.  We had a “dare you to eat this” contest and I was a judge.  We had sodas and cookies and I opted for water and a sandwich, though the chips and salsa were a nice snack.  We sat around talking and I brought up an issue that gave the opportunity for a small Bible study.  We sang old songs and I knew them.  We stayed up all night and I suffered for two days… wait, no I’m still suffering.

It was a great night, but I realized I’m not as young as I act sometimes and I’m glad.  I don’t want to be going through the things those kids go through.  I’m done with that age and I do not want to go back.  I was glad to have my five young children around me again after being surrounded by 8 teenagers all night.  Of course, I do realize that coming home in about 10 years will be to a house full of teenagers anyway.  I doubt I’ll be up all night in 10 years though and if I am, the teens will probably be more likely to let me sleep than they do now.

Being a youth leader is fun at times, but lately, it’s been very trying.  We have some things going on at the moment and it’s really trying to my spirit.  Of course, as you all know, I’m not going to reveal anything of what’s going on.  That’s part of the “Being in Leadership” role.  I have to keep secrets.  Just pray for the whole youth group.  I feel like we are going through a fire at the moment.

I can tell you what we are trying to do with the youth.  We are trying to teach them how important memorization and meditation of scripture is to being a Christian.  This last month we’ve been working on memorizing Psalm 1 and what it means.  This next Wednesday, we’ll be asking questions pertaining to that piece of scripture and they have to answer word for word.  This next week, we’ll be picking another chapter to do.  Once the kids have gotten used to this, we want to challenge another church.  We have four kids who are very eager to do this and that is encouraging, but what is going on under the surface has really been tiring me out.