It seems that 2008 has been busier than ever! Tobin and I assumed leadership of our youth group, Illuminate, right before the end of the year and man there has been a lot of responsibility that has come along with that. More meetings, more activities - you name it! But it’s been good.
The same week we had our first youth meeting we also took the kids to a Winter Camp with Angle Lake’s youth group. Fortunately Pastor Mark Miller had done all of the planning, and really all we had to do was supervise the kids (and I played on the worship team). The camp went well, and the last day I snapped some pics (OK to be truthful, I snapped tons of pics the whole weekend - but those can only be found on the Illuminate site - whereas these pics were a bit more serene and artistic). The camp was at Lakeview Retreat Center in Auburn, WA, on Five Mile Lake.
Anyways, Tobin and I are pretty excited about being in charge of Illuminate. It’s really scary but also very cool. We both work full time, so coming up with the time to devote to youth has been a bit challenging (we’re getting really good at scheduling). :) Also as if it weren’t daunting enough taking on a youth group on top of our other commitments, our youth facilities are also moving (we found out last night). Yep, we’ll be gone out of our current facility at the end of THIS month (originally it had been set for the end of Feb.). We’ve got a lot of work to do between now and then getting everything prepared for the move…
Anyways, when we found out we were going to be in charge of the youth, I rushed to CBD and ordered several Youth Ministry books. The first one I read was Contemplative Youth Ministry. It was a great book! Exactly what we needed to hear for where we are right now. The basic premise of the book is that if you’re going to have an effective youth ministry, the leadership must be on fire for God - and to do that they need to make the time and effort to spend time with God. Pretty obvious - but I really liked the way it was presented. Mark Yaconelli specifically talked about a few different ways of getting close to God - Lectio Divina, and Centering Prayer. I’m pretty interested in the Lectio Divina (probably have my Baptist roots to blame for that), and the cool thing is that I also picked up a book 30 Days of Silence that focuses on the same thing. I’ve just started going through the 30 Days of Silence and am considering having a group of Illuminate students go through it when we finish Experiencing God.
Tobin and I have felt burdened for some time that our church doesn’t have a Sunday School-type program for middle and high school. We have youth group on Tuesdays but nothing specific to this age group on Sunday mornings. Both of us had such positive experiences with Sunday School when we were growing up, we wanted to provide something similar for the students. So we decided to start a series on Experiencing God. Now I don’t know if you’ve gone through that before - but if you have you know it’s quite intensive! It doesn’t just consist of a meeting once a week - the kids actually have to work through a workbook during the week and then come back and discuss it the following week. Again, Tobin and I both did this course when we were in High School (Tobin did it again in college), and it was a super positive thing. So yesterday we had our first class. I thought it went really well. Although we have the leader guide we didn’t really use it, rather we just did an overview of the first unit and worked through Day 1 together. I’m really looking forward to next week when we can get together and talk about what we learned during the week.
Oh and while I’m on Sunday, the church needed a bass player, so… For the past two Sundays I’ve been playing that for worship. :) I can’t say I’m very good - but it sure isn’t as complicated as the piano - I only have to play one note at a time with the bass. lol
So that’s what’s been going on with our lives… Really - a lot of 2008 has been focused on Illuminate. The awesome thing though is that we’re doing what God wants us to - and we know it. Pray for us if you think of us! :) Especially on Tuesday nights and Sunday mornings.
Here are a few of my favorite pics from the walk I took Sunday morning at Winter Camp.
