Happy Birthday Brent, Sept 20th, Entry #90.

Sara: One of our favorite parts about Prayer and Action are the relationships that are built between the students and the seminarians.  In what other context can a high school student spend time, sometimes hours, painting a house, playing an intense game of Chutes and Ladders, listening to discernment stories, having deep one-on-one conversations, or plotting water balloon attacks on and with young men studying to become priests?  I can't think of any other place.

The impact that these men have had, just on my teens, cannot be replaced.  The students get the chance to see these guys as real people, not just pictures on a poster.  They get to know them and then think, "huh, maybe being a priest wouldn't be all that bad, I mean, these guys are pretty cool".  It is invaluable.  I cannot express my gratitude enough to the fine young men of the Diocese of Salina and the Archdiocese of KCK.

So, with that being said, I just wanted to give a shout to one of these seminarians on his birthday.  I met Brent 3 years ago in Manhattan when he was on staff.  He was a young guy that was more prone to get in trouble from Gale than deliver a heart-rendering speech to the students....but that is exactly what made him accessible to the kiddos.  He was like them, they could relate to him. 

They could follow him up the tiny stair case of an old church bell tower...

...or paint the side of a house (and each other) with him and talk about faith for hours....

....or learn about all of the many things that Brent has learned in seminary thus far...

....and make us laugh really, really, really hard. (notice the look of suprise and subtle disdain on Fr. Peter's face in the background)

So Happy Birthday to you Brent....here's hoping that you touch many more lives and learn many more things in seminary.

Because nothing rhymes with orange. Sept 18th, Entry #89.

Sara:  Last night at FLOCK we talked about the 5 Love Languages: Words of Affirmation, Acts of Service, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts and Physical Touch.

Let's look at a few highlights:

Words of Affirmation.
Our lovely, and brave, friend Brandon was selected by Aaron and I to be the subject of 5 poems about him.  They were awesome.  And he was a champ.

Your hair flows in luscious locks every time I see you at FLOCK.
You like the Rams but that's OK, the Chiefs will kick their butts someday
From the way that your trousers sag, I can tell you are full of swag.
From all these compliments I hope you can see that we all think you are extremely tasty.

His hair flows like a Ram's fleece.
His dance moves prove that he is a beast.
His kicks are as smooth as the rocketing passes from Sam Bradford.
When he's around there is no chance of being bored.

This goes out to our dear buddy, Brandy. 
You think the Rams are positively dandy.
Dear Brandon, why can't you see,
you hair reminds us all of JB.
Your Taekwando skills give you fists made of brass,
And I'm sure you kick all your opponents in the ...face?
We love you with the passion of a thousand suns,
Sometimes we love you so much it gives us the runs.

I met a man at FLOCK, he looks just like a jock.
With muscles like a rock, and eyes like a twinkling star.
His hair is like a chocolate bar....mmmmm, creamy.
And BTW, he likes the Rams....OH YEAH!

B is for the brown hair that sways to and fro
R is for the Rams that gallop across St. Louis
A is for the affirmation that flows from my being
N is for the narly behavior that comes from your behalf
D is for the day I saw your tae-kwon-do
O is for the oranges b/c nothing rhymes with orange
N is for the ninja that lies within.
Brandon.

Physical Touch.
Oh, Jimmy the Overly-Touch Orderly, how awkward you are. 
Don't be like Jimmy....you won't have any friends.

Quality Time.
We asked each group to come up with a list of ways to spend quality time with family, friends and someone you are dating.  If you're looking for some great (or even decent) ideas on how to spend quality time with loved ones...this is not the place to look.

QT with your family
Hockey, dinner, board games, Mass, football, TV shows, canoeing, drinking egg nog, eating pineapple, folding socks, burning stuff in a fire, watermelon seed spitting contest, peachwave, scream at bad drivers, scream at NFL refs, scream at telemarketers, scream at spiders in your house, dress 1 person as a gorilla-dress another as a banana-have gorilla attack banana, go to a Chiefs/Royals game, make cookies for Santa, mission trip, camping, table tennis tournament, write grammatically correct sentences and then check each other's work

QT with your friends
XC meets, eating, movies, chillaxin', XBox, bungee jumping, play chubby bunny, watergun fights, planking, staring contest, being classy, smiling, peachwave, scream at scary movies, scream at waiters, scream at pet rock, run in the rain, run to the pool, run at the gym, racing, jokes, coneing, go to peachwave and get a cup with just 1 sprinkle, bonfire, Rock Band, Just Dance 2, petting zoo, karaoke

QT with someone you are dating
Movies, XBox, walks on the beach, getting your nails done, ice cream, playing on playground, football, Sporting KC, Royals, FLOCK, Church, Adoration, skipping, jumping through sprinklers, walking backwards, scuba diving, scrapbooking, peachwave, run into each other, have Nerf gun wars...while screaming, Homecoming, hour-long gazing session, read a book out loud to each other, learn Braille, go to the library, meet their mom, meet their twice removed cousin, meet an old person, talk about morals in an elevator, ride up and down an escalator

Middle Schoolers say the Darndest Things. Sept 14th, Entry #88.

Sara:  Last night we had GIFT.  Oh GIFT.  Oh Middle Schoolers.  You were cracking me up.

Aaron: how can we differentiate between wisdom and understanding?
6th grade girl: differentiate?  Is that like defrosting the refrigerator?

Are you kidding me??

Aaron: who wants to close in prayer for us?
6th grade boy: oh me, I will!
Aaron: ok, but it has to be an actual, serious prayer.
6th grade boy: oh, never mind.
after prayer
same 6th grade boy: good thing you didn't pick me, I was going to say, "Bless us o Lord..."

Jesus help us.

6th grade boy: Did you know that high rhymes with pie?
Sara: uh, yeah.
6th grade boy: So, you could make a poem about it!!

Wow.  Just wow.

Yoga with Tara Stiles. Sept 11th, Entry #87.

Sara:  Things I love about the new Youth Room, #48.

The On-Demand options through the Blu-Ray player.  Pandora, YouTube, Hulu, Yoga with Tara Stiles.

Wait.  What?  Did I scroll across yoga?  Go back to that.  Aaron, Jordy, let's check this out, we've got to see what this is about.  Oh, it's just a lady making her own yoga videos in her living room, or by a pool on her vacation.  Is there a lady in the background putting her towel on a pool chair?  Wow, this is really kind of bad.  Let's try it!

Downward Dog

Awkward leg-over-head position.  I call it Sideways Ostrich.

Falling after Sideways Ostrich.  It's a toughy.


Yes, FLOCK.  Good for your faith...and your limber-ness.

Slaughterball. Sept 4th, Entry #86.

Sara:  Sometimes I wonder if my grown-up friends (I use that term lightly) think I'm nuts when I talk about all the crazy things we do at youth group.  I tell them about hilarious games or gross games or some game we made up that involved wrapping paper and shaving cream.  I think these games sound fun, but they usually shake their heads at me and say "welll, good thing that's your job and not mine."

But there are some games that we play that are just so darned fun that how can they NOT have fun playing them, like 6-Base or photo scavengur hunts?  I mean c'mon, anyone with at least 1 ounce of fun in them would have a great time.

Well, the moment of truth happened over Labor Day weekend this year.  I was at a giant camp-out with like 120 people.  It was awesome.  But, on Sunday, Kyle, my friend and fellow youth minister, invited a bunch of people to play volleyball at the sand volleyball court.  We started playing but more and more people kept showing up to play...too many people for volleyball.  So I looked at Kyle and he looked at me and we looked at Chelsea (another friend/youth minister) and we all said, "we need to teach them Speedball".

Let's take a step back for those of you who don't know what Speedball is.  I don't actually know the genius who invented this game, but it was introduced to us by the ArchKCK seminarians on our Prayer and Action Mission Trip this summer.  It involves a volleyball, a sand volleyball court and as many people as you want, divided evenly onto both sides of the court.  The object of the game is to be the team with the last person standing.  Basically, all you do is throw the volleyball from one side to the other and try to catch it.  If you don't catch it, you are out.  If it lands on the ground, the person it was closest to is out. You keep this up until one side runs out of players.  Simple.  Yet ridiculously fun!  It's a great youth ministry game because you can involve everyone, no matter of athletic ability and no matter how big your group is.

Ok, back to our overwhelming amount of people wanting to play volleyball.  Well, Kyle, Chelsea and I, being the youth ministers that we are, took charge of the situation, told everyone that we were going to teach them a new game and started playing.  IT WAS AWESOME!!  Everyone loved it.  I think we played for like 2 hours.

I will say though, that playing with a group of 20 to 30-somethings...the game became a little more competitive and forceful than with teenagers.  People were "throwing" (and by throwing I means slamming with all the force they could muster) a bit hard at the people on the front line.  While a bit dangerous, it was hilarious!  At one point my friend Tim said, "I think we shoud rename this game to 'Slaughterball'".  Well said, Tim.

But, overall, I think Chelsea, Kyle and I were most excited that everyone loved the game and that everyone got to play.  So now I have had my chance to play a silly youth group game with my friends...and guess what....they thought it was AWESOME!!  Who think's my job is silly now??  Huh?  Huh?  Ok, I guess it still is, but now you're not rolling your eyes at me are you?  Kinda wish you had my job now, don't you?