Monday, December 10, 2012

be original


Last night at FLOCK we had a night I liked to entitle: "be original"

The night coincided with what has come to be known as "sex and dating night". A night where the focus of FLOCK is about the truth regarding our human sexuality in the way God created it and how we are called to live out relationships between the opposite sex. I always like to joke when Sara says "next week we're going to have 'sex and dating night'!" that it's purely theoretical and not at all practicing... Haha, get it? Kind of funny?

Anyways, I decided today to write a blog about what we talked about to share that with those who weren't there and at the same time, further encourage the ones who were. So, here we go...

The idea behind "be original" is that when Pope John Paul II (from here on out he shall be referenced as JP2) came out with his "Theology of the Body", he started it off in a way that Jesus Himself approached the topic of relationships and sexuality. In Matthew 19, some Pharisees approached Jesus and tested him by asking about divorce and why Moses allowed people to do so. Jesus responded: "Because of the hardness of your hearts Moses allowed you to divorce your wives, but from the beginning it was not so." It is this beginning that Jesus mentioned that caught the attention of JP2. From this beginning he came up with what he liked to call "the original experiences". These original experiences are what Adam and Eve went through before the fall that disordered our true desire for sex and relationships. The ones we specifically referenced were "original solitude", "original unity" and "original nakedness". If we look at these original experiences, if we go back to the beginning as Jesus and JP2 did, we can get a better grasp of how we are to go about relationships, especially those that involve the opposite sex.

Original solitude: this is when God first created Adam using the account of creation from the second chapter of Genesis. God created Adam alone. Not with Eve. Not even with animals. Just man and God. When Adam was alone with God in solitude. Why was it this way? Why did God create Adam without Eve first? Why not just create them both together? Maybe God wanted Adam to be alone... Maybe God wanted Adam to realize who he was and what he was created for without any other distractions... Maybe God wanted Adam to see his true identity, his primary reason for being before he had the chance to live it out... Maybe God wanted Adam to see that He alone satisfies, that Adam can only be truly fulfilled by God His Creator and that it is in God He will find his ultimate happiness... It is in solitude that we come to know who we are and God can truly reveal to us what we are created for. We are created for God. In original solitude we recognize and claim our identity.

Original unity: "The LORD God said: It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suited to him." Genesis 2: 18 God Himself states that it is not good for Adam to be alone. Although he was created in solitude, he was not meant for it. So God creates all the wild animals and brings them before Adam so that he could name them. Yet, it states "none proved to be a helper suited to the man." Why does God do this? If none of these animals provided Adam a suitable helper, why does He create them first? Maybe it is so that Adam realizes and recognizes what he was created for... Maybe it is in naming these wild animals and birds of the air that Adam understands none of them are suitable to help him live out who he is... Maybe in bringing them before him first Adam sees that they don't help fulfill his innermost being, one that is relational and that is meant to love in God's image who is Love... Then God creates Eve from Adam's side and how does Adam respond? "This one, at last, is bone of my bones and flesh of my flesh" Gen. 2: 23. Adam sees in Eve that she is like him. He sees that in Eve he can live out what he was created for. He sees that in Eve he can fulfill his innermost being which is to image God's love which is relational. He can now love as God loves with a total gift of self to another. This is original unity. It is man recognizing that he was made for relationships so that he can image the love of God.

Original nakedness: "The man and his wife were both naked, yet they felt no shame." Gen. 2: 25 This is where Adam and Eve, together living out what they were created to be, were able to do this in such a way that they felt no shame. They could live in unity with each other without being afraid of who they were created to be. Why was this the case? Why was it important to mention that they were naked and yet felt no shame? Maybe this is because when you know your identity and know who you are and what you were created for you have nothing to be ashamed of... Maybe it is because when you are able to perfectly live out the image of God with another, this image that is a sincere gift of self to the other, you have nothing to fear... Maybe when you see others as the persons that they are, as the children of God that they are, there is no reason to cover up... This is original nakedness. Living in the reality of who God created you to be and not being ashamed of it, afraid of what others think, or feeling like you need to cover up so others don't see you for who you really are. Original nakedness is all about interior freedom.

So... Why does this matter? How does this relate to high school students? The answer:

be original.

Be original in your solitude. If you are single and not dating anyone at the moment, GOOD! Take this time of solitude as an opportunity to work on your identity. Take this time to really come to know who you are and what you were created for. DEFINITELY use this time to realize that God alone satisfies! That God is the one who brings you ultimate fulfillment, happiness, joy, and peace and nothing else can! Be in relationship with HIM for that is what you were created for! Truly high school and even college are meant to be times of solitude. Times in which you come to know who you are and what you were created for and to realize that God is your ultimate end and greatest relationship. Who cares if it seems like every one else is dating right now. How many of those people that you know are dating, whether they are your friends or not, claim their identity as their relationship with that person? That's not true! That's not real! And how difficult will it be for them to find out who they really are when they no longer are dating that person? Our identity comes from solitude, not from another person, and those people who never let themselves be in solitude will never truly know who they are. This is your time to become the BEST POSSIBLE GIFT YOU CAN BE so that the day you realize what you were created for, and who you were created for (as in a future spouse) you can offer it to them in all sincerity! Use this time of solitude as an opportunity to enter into relationship with God, to grow in prayer and virtue and to become the best possible gift you can be.

Be original in your unity. Realize that you were meant for relationships. JP 2 says
"Man, who is the only creature on earth that God willed for its own sake, cannot fully find himself except through a sincere gift of self.”
It is in the sincere gift of self to another that we come to fully find ourselves. Our identity in who we are and what we were created for is found fully in a sincere gift of self. In high school and even in college, you are best able to practice this in friendships, not in dating. We practice this gift of self in sincere friendships so that we can live it out in our vocation. Every relationship's most solid foundation is in friendship. This is where unity grows. This is where unity flourishes. Now's the time to practice sincere friendships. Focus on your friendships now instead of putting all your attention into a boyfriend or girlfriend. We all know those couples who put all their energy into each other and spending time with each other, and then when that relationship is over they no longer have solid friendships any more or even know how to create solid friendships. Practice the art of friendship so that when you are ready to embrace your vocation, when you are able to live out Gen. 2: 24 (which states "That is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife, and the two of them become one body." And I sincerely doubt that any high school student and very rarely are there college students who are able and ready to "leave their father and mother"...) then you will be able to experience the unity that you were originally created for in a more perfect way! And truly, the epitome of experiencing intimacy within a relationship is not the sexual embrace. So often our culture today is telling us that the highest of intimacy between people is sex, but this is not true. This is only true if it is a sincere gift of self. And a sincere gift of self cannot happen without commitment, without totality, without faithfulness and without the openness to new life. And this can only happen within the confines of the Sacrament of Marriage.  This is where original unity is in its perfect form. 

Then you will be able to be original in your nakedness. No, I'm not talking about throwing off the clothes and going streakin' (bring your green hat!). The nakedness I'm talking about is to live out who you are, who you were created to be, the VERY CORE of your personhood in all transparency without any shame, fear, or feelings of wanting to cover up. You will be able to be your true self. When you know your identity, and you surround yourself with people who you not only practice gift of self with sincerely, but they return this as well, then you are able to truly be yourself. You are free. You are not worried of what others think of you or if someone else is judging you. You don't care if you'll get backlash for living out the purest desires of your heart (and I do mean pure desires of your heart. There are still very disordered desires of our heart that if we live them out, they don't bring freedom, they only bring slavery to sin). And this comes from the knowledge of being a child of God. If you know that you are a child of God and that it is God who fulfills you and satisfies you above all else and you know that all others are children of God as well, then you will do all that you can to live out who He created you to be and to accept who He created others to be. This is original nakedness. And this is what we all want. To be completely ourselves without fear, shame or worry.

So, as I just rambled on for way too long, and knowing that many of you, more than likely, probably quit reading this by now, I end by stating that if a high school student were to ask me for my advice regarding sex and dating in high school I would simply tell them:

be original.

Tuesday, October 30, 2012

Suuuuperman! Oct 30th, Entry #111.

Sara:

In case you ever wondered how they did the special effects in the Superman movies.

Nailed it!

Monday, October 29, 2012

Selfies. Oct 29th, Entry #110.

Sara:

Oh selfies.  Slightly annoying when they fill up all the space on your phone, but really, they're usually just funny.  And the most funny part is that the people who typically take them don't assume they'll end up anywhere but on someones phone/camera.  Haha....wrong!  If you're going to take them, I'm going to put them up.  So maybe next time, think before you shoot.  (Or don't and then I can just add more to the blog)

Enjoy world.







What happens at AP FLOCK. Oct 24th, Entry #109.

Sara:

Really, I don't have anything to add to this video or any qualifications.  I can't even say that this night was different than normal.  I really do try to lead the youth of our parish to Christ, but sometimes there is only so much I can do to keep from laughing at them or stopping them.  Eventually we can reel them in but some weeks are kind of hopeless, this being one of them.

So, if you've never come to AP FLOCK, I bet you want to now!

 
 
#iphoneprobs (working on getting a better video)

Monday, October 8, 2012

Oh, what's in a name? Oct 8th, Entry #108.

Sara:
Last night, as I was venturing back towards the front of the room to get things started, I noticed 3 kiddos drawing on the board.  As I was about to tell them to move it so we could pray I looked at their drawings and learned that they were drawing their last names.  Yes, drawing their last names.  All thanks to one kiddo who had drawn a cloud on his name tag next to his name, because his last name, cleverly enough, is Cloud.  Well, these other kids wanted to do the same even though their names were not nearly as easy to draw.  Did that stop them, or the rest of the kids, from trying anyways?  Absolutely not.  Hilarious.

Check out their artwork.

The big picture.

 


Some of the easier ones.

Yup, just like it looks like.
Actual name = Lock

Horn + ung = Hornung

D + haze
Actual name = Dehais

Some of the more difficult ones.

Mac + n + cup of tea
Actual name = McEntee
Bush + angry/rowdy eyes and arms
Actual name = Roudebush  (hahaha)

Rowboat + back + er
Actual name = Robacker

Glee + s + man
Actual name = Gliesman 

Totally the hardest one and I would never have been clever enough to come up with this.

M + eyes + z + in (the box) + Bach (the musician)
Actual name = Meinzenbach


Now for Chris and I, because hey, it our blog so we can do what we want.

Brick wall + crying tears.
Actual name = Walters

Scissors + sheep.  What do you call it when you cut the hair of a sheep?  Shearing. 
Actual name = Sheerin.  Get it??  (I'm sooo clever)
 
And now, for the ones that just cracked me up.


Wonder + lick
Actual name = Wonderlich  (YES!!)

Yup, it's just what it looks like.
Actual name = Hickey 

Things like this have become some of my favorites parts of this job.  When random stuff like this happens organically and everyone gets into it.  I couldn't have planned an activity like this.  I wouldn't even have thought of it.  But these kids are so stinkin' clever and funny that incidents just like this one happen all the time.  And then, even more than anything else, these kiddos take ownership of this place and this youth group and these people.  It becomes theirs in a way that I could never make happen.  One more reason why we have the best job ever.

Thursday, October 4, 2012

"So call me, maybe" - Jesus. Oct 4th, Entry #107.

Chris:

So, here I am world. On this blog entitled "We have the best job ever", writing to you all for the first time from this avenue. And the first thing I'd like to say is: you're welcome...

That's right! You're welcome...

With this first post that is truly the 107th from the blog, I'd like to share with you an adventure, nay an excursion, better yet, a divine experience that I had from yesterday's preparation of GIFT our middle school youth group.

The purpose of the night was to talk to these 6th, 7th and 8th graders about how we were all created by God and for God. (It's in the Catechism. Check it out! CCC# 27 You've just been Catechized!) We are all created for and called to relationship with God. At every moment of our lives, from the very first moment of our existence, God has been calling us to a relationship with Him.

Of course, as we brainstorm how to make this theme relatable to our teens, the hit pop song "Call me, maybe" comes to mind. (I don't know if you've heard of it. It's by Carly Rae Jepsen. It is quite fun to dance to and sing along with. Many people have made their own videos to this song. Take for instance: Harvard baseball team, Olympic Woman's swim team...) Our theme for the night then takes on the title; "Call me, Maybe".

Then, LIGHTNING STRUCK! Sitting with Sara in our office, laughter ensued as the divinely inspired thought of creating our own "Call me, Maybe" video was epiphanized. We contacted our GIFTed Leaders (our high school helpers for GIFT), bought a Jesus beard and wig, and this is what happened:



As humorous as it is, there is a deeper theme. Certainly we can all laugh at the thought of Jesus dancing and singing with angels to the lyrical genius of Carly Rae, but even further is how our hearts may be touched by this message. Jesus is saying to all of us at every moment "Call me, Maybe". He longs to be in relationship with us! He wants us to call Him and talk to Him so that we may get to know Him and be known by Him. Yet, Jesus is God and God is love, and God's greatest act of love towards us His creation is the gift of free will. We are free to choose God's love and we are free to not choose God's love. We are free to call God and have a relationship with Him. But we are also free to not call Him. 
 
This is the love of God in that He created us out of love and created us to know His love and be in His love in relationship with Him, yet He allows us to choose it. It is our choice. That is love. St. John even says in his first letter: "In this is love: not that we have loved God, but that he loved us and sent his Son as expiation for our sins." (1 John 4: 10) He loves us first. He calls us first. But He gives us the freedom, out of love, to call Him.
 
God wants us to call Him! At every moment of every day of our entire lives ever since we came into existence God is calling out to us, yearning, longing, desiring deeply to be in relationship with us! But, He loves us too much to force this upon us so He gives us the freedom to choose it.
 
God is always saying to us "Call me".
But He always leaves at the end "maybe".
Because it is our choice.
 
So call Him.

Maybe.
 
It's your choice.


Tuesday, October 2, 2012

He is jealous for me. Sept 30th, Entry #106.

Sara:
This past Sunday at FLOCK our focus was "Jesus".  Yeah, ok, good luck explaining that in an hour and a half.  What was I thinking trying to break out this ginormous topics from the Nicene Creed at FLOCK this semester??  But, Chris has done a good job of reigning me in each week when I have a mountain of ideas for the topic but no flow.  He asks, "what do you want the kids to walk away knowing?".  Well, if I can only have one thing it's that Jesus loves you.

The worst thing is, that just sounds like every Religious Ed class you ever had in 3rd grade.  Jesus loves you.  But the truth of it is hard to ignore.  The hard part is convincing teens that it's true.  Totally, wholly, unbelievably, unshakably, unchangingly TRUE.  How many people really believe that?  How many people even think about that on a regular basis?

And that got me thinking about the song "How He Loves" by the David Crowder Band.  The first line of the song is "He is jealous for me".  He is jealous for me.  Jesus is jealous for ME??  really?  me?

So not only does he love you, he is jealous for you, he doesn't want to share you, he is selfish for your time.  Wow.

Our God, the creator of the universe, the founder of our Church, the maker of all things good and holy....wants nothing but to know us and to be known by us.  Personally.  Each one of us.  All the time.

He is waiting for us.

Yikes.

We ended the night with about 20 minutes of adoration.  We don't do adoration very often at FLOCK, but tonight was definitely the night to do it.  I always hope it will go over well.  That the teens aren't secretly texting or just trying to stay awake.  I mean, I don't really care b/c you can't underestimate the power of Christ sitting in front of you and what he can do.  But you never know what's going on in their brains.

After the night was done and during the next day, I got about 5 different texts telling me how much they needed that prayer time, or how great the night was or asking if they could get the code to the adoration chapel.  They all thanked me.  Me?  I didn't do anything?

Thank the Holy Spirit....it was his idea.  I just followed his lead.

PIC (Partner in Crime). Oct 2nd, Entry #105.

Sara:
Wow.  I'm really bad at blogging.  Not like, "I could do better", more like "if the world hinged on your ability to blog regularly the world would have ended 9 months ago" bad.  That's really bad.  I don't even have a good excuse.  There have been times when something really cool happened and I think about writing about it but that's about as far as it gets.  And then when Chris started working here I thought, "hey, he likes to blog, maybe we can resurrect this thing".  Nope, still hasn't happened.

But enough....enough of that hooey.  It's time to commit again.  Like a New Year's Resolution without the New Year's Eve party.  Chris just said "oh, and when we finish making this video (see future post to see it) we can put it on the blog" and I said "yeah, I don't really do that anymore" and he looked at me with sad, guilt-inducing eyes and made me cry a little.  Ok, that's not true at all, but you get the point.

So, I think I'll get back on the saddle by talking about how cool it is to work with Cdub. I've talked about Chris Walters a few times in past posts (check out post #61 for an entire expose on the use of his name) and lots of people know how cool he is.  So when the opportunity arose for us to work together we were both really excited.  And then when it actually happened, well, let's just say it's been awesome.  I joked that we would never get any work done b/c #1 we would have deep theological discussions OR #2 we would have office chair races.  Both great options.

But so far so good.  It's been a lot of fun and a lot of great work.  The best part about working with someone who has past youth ministry experience AND is a friend is that you can bounce ideas off of each other and come up with even better ones.

Ex #1  Sara: I want to focus on the idea of "I believe" for the 2nd night.
          Chris: What about he Sporting KC cheer "I believe that we can win"?
          Sara: YES!  And we can make it a Sporting KC theme night!
          Chris: And we can play human Foosball, like a giant soccer game!
            SUCCESS.

Or, when you know someone pretty well you can kind of start to think like the other person and anticipate their needs.

Ex #2  Sara: thinking to herself during human Foosball "hmm, we should throw out more    balls to make this game more exciting".
10 seconds later: Chris throws more balls out onto the gym floor.
NICE.

Or, they challenge you to be a better person.

Ex #3  Chris: I'm going to go pray in the Church for a little bit.  Wanna come?
          Sara: Yes, yes I probably should.
          THANKS.

Or, when they laugh at the same stupid things as you.

Ex #4  Youtube video that I showed Chris and he watched like 10 times in a row while giggling.  HAHAHAHAHA.

Or, when you work with someone different enough than you who brings in different kids than you would have been able to.

Ex #5   Sara: Trevor, I'm really excited that you're coming to FLOCK now.
           Trevor: Well, I knew Chris from camp and always thought he was awesome so when I saw that he was working here now I wanted to come.
I'LL TAKE IT.

Or, when they come up with ideas that you would never, in a million years, think to do.

Ex #6  Bacon Night.  ENOUGH SAID.

Ahh, life in the youth room is never dull.


Monday, February 13, 2012

Can we go back to toys? Feb 13th, Entry #104.

Sara: Sunday night at FLOCK we talked about the Catholic Social Teaching, Rights and Responsibilities.  This basically says that if we believe that we are entitled to certain rights, like food, shelter, clothing, then we have a responsibility to make sure that every other human also has the same right to those things.  Solid.  Yay church.

So, to start off the night we did a little activity to help the kiddos see the difference between a right and a luxury.  Everyone deserves basic human rights, not necissarily luxuries.  We had a sign that said "Right" hanging on one wall and another sign that said "Luxury" hanging on the other wall.  Aaron read out something, like "toys", and the kids had to decide if that thing was a right or a luxury by standing on the appropriate side of the room.  Get it?  So, as we were doing this and watching the wheels turn in eveyone's heads as they had to think about it, we also got some pretty clever quotes.

Item #2:  Cars
David: that depends if it's a luxury car.

Item # 5:  Entertainment
Everyone except Brandon stood on the "luxury" side.  (we soon convinced him otherwise)
Brandon: I am the 1%.

Item # 6: Friends
David: the TV show or the people?
Then the debate turned to how people need other people because they can't be friends with themselves.  Erica: unless they are schzio"freind"zic.

Item #10: Work
Brandon: Can we go back to toys?  That was easy.

After FLOCK, Feb 13th, Entry #103.

Sara:  Most people leave right after FLOCK.  But every now and then some people stick around and we tend to have a good time.  It's usually pretty ridiculous and dumb but always fun.  Like the one time we had a dance party and the other time when Aaron did the Rubik's cube in under 90 seconds.  You never know what's going to happen if you stay after FLOCK.



Like Emily, you might need to take a nap after the dance party.  And apparently the cabinet is a good place to take a nap.



Or, maybe after you've helped wash all the cups, you decide to stack them in a pyramid.  And then we see all the different ways we can knock that pyramid over.

There's all sorts of fun things to do.


Sunday, February 5, 2012

Wise words. Feb 1st, Entry #102.

Sara:  One of my favorite things in the whole wide world to do is listen to Erica talk.  You honestly never have any idea what might come out of her mouth.  I wish I had a recorder in my pocket all time and when I needed to laugh I would just turn it on.  Really, I'm kind of jealous that I'm not as quick witted as she is.  I, by no means, am making light of her talent.  Truly, she is one of the funniest people I know and she doesn't even mean to be.

I first discovered this 2 summers ago after FLOCK.  It was summer time and when FLOCK was over no one really had to leave because there was no school the next morning.  So, after I clean up, I come back outside and Aaron and the remaining kids are playing a very difficult, intense and involved game.  It's so awesome it doesn't even have a name.  It entails, standing in a circle, throwing a ball to someone, and saying something, anything, if the ball is thrown to you and then you throw it to someone else.  That's the extent of the game, period.  Every time Erica got the ball she said the most random, hilarious things.  The only one I really remember was "I'm thinking of growing a lemon tree in my room."  She was serious.

The point of all of this, I wish I could share the love with all of you of the "wisdom" that comes out of Erica's mouth.  But alas, I only have 4 things for you this time.  If you need more, check out other blog posts...she pops up regularly.

#1
Erica: Are you wearing Suchandsuch perfume?
Caroline: Yes.  You can tell?
Erica: I have the nose of a ninja.

#2  talking about soda
Erica: ....you're at a restaurant and you ask for a coke and then say "is Pepsi ok".  No.  Is Monopoly money ok?

#3 talking to Madie
Erica: You know how they say laughter is the best medicine...you're a pharmacy!

#4  Audi Superbowl commercial
Erica: An Audi....as compared to an innie??  Get it?  haha.

Wiser words were never spoken.

Tuesday, January 31, 2012

IHOOP. January 29th, Entry #101.

Sara:  Tonight at FLOCK we talked about old people.  Well, to be fair we talked about 6 groups of people that tend to have their dignity threatened in our culture: the unborn, the elderly, the homeless, prisoners, the handicapped and 3rd world citizens.  While I could go into the depth of the topic and talk about human dignity, that is not the purpose of this post....at all.

We spilt all the kiddos into 6 groups and each group was assigned one of the aforementioned groups to answer some questions about.  One of the questions was: Are there institutions or organizations already in place to help this group?

Well, when Erica's group got up to answer their questions about the elderly, specifically the one listed above, it went like this.

Q: Are there institutions or organizations already in place to help this group?
A: The AARP, nursing homes, and IHOP.

Sara:  IHOP?
Erica:  Yeah, have you seen how old people go there?  The last time I went there everyone in there was old.  They should change the name to the "International House of Old People.

Really?  Did you really just say that?  Well, if that's the case, it really ought to be IHOOP, not IHOP.  Get it right.

Friday, January 27, 2012

Friends by Circumstance, Bar-raisers by choice. Jan 26th, Entry #100.

Sara:  Yesterday we celebrated Kyle's birthday by playing Whirrlyball, only the dumbest and greatest game ever invented.  And kind of painful too....I have one heck of a goose egg on my shin.  Anyways, it was awesome and of course we were all there because we love Kyle.

But it's kind of fun to think about how we all even ended up there last night to begin with.  (This is that part of the movie where the main character sits back, puts their forefinger and thumb on their chin with a pensive look on their face and then squiggly lines are put on the screen to let us know that the person is thinking about the past and then past scenes come up.  You know what I mean?)


I met Chelsea for the first time 8 years ago when we both started working in youth ministry.  We quickly became allies, sounding boards and then friends.  I was thinking a few weeks ago that had Michael had more brothers and I would have needed more bridesmaids, I totally would have asked Chels...she's been a great friend for a long time.

I first met Kyle at our monthly YM meeting when he was introduced to all of us as the new YM at Sacred Heart.  They told us that he was the waiter at Jalapenos and Fr. Craig hired him on the spot.  I was not impressed.  He was wearing holey jeans, had a faux-hawk and looked about 12.  I never thought he would last.  I am soooo glad that I was wrong about everything I thought about it.  See kids, it's wrong to judge.

And Cdub....I really don't remember when I first met him.  Sorry Chris.  But I do know that I liked him from the start and we have collaborated on lots of projects and events from the beginning....and he makes me laugh all the time.  And challenges me in prayer.

I could go on about Mikey, Aaron, and Stacey, but I think you get the point by now.  What is sooooo awesome about all these people is yes, they are a blessing to their parish and to this Archdiocese, but really it's that I am lucky enough to call all of them friends.  We might have become friends by circumstance, but we are definitely friends for real and I could not be more blessed to have such wonderful colleagues AND friends.

The other thing I wanted to point out is that while we have a ton of fun together and work well together on different events...more than anything, they are wonderful friends because they hold me to a higher standard, they raise the bar. 

For example, last night after Whirrlyball, we went to get some dinner together.  When I got back from my honeymoon, I was going through all my emails and I had one that seemed to refer to some incident that had taken place.  So, I'm sitting at dinner next to those 3 and I ask them "what happened to cause those emails?"  I'm not going to lie, I wanted the juicy gossip and details...I wanted to know who said what and what happened.  And you know what they 3 of them did....they told me the story and how the situation was rectified without ANY details.  And while at first I was kind of bummed, I sat back and marveled at their virtue.  They understood that telling ugly stories, even if they were true, is not Christ-like and is not going to fix the problem.  They refrained from gossiping and protected everyone's reputation because it's the right thing to do.  It's really none of my business and they last thing I need is any reason to judge someone.  Wow.  Couldn't we all use more friends that call us to higher standards??

So, thank you all for being my friends and teaching me everyday what it means to live a virtuous life.

And Kyle, guess what?....the 100th entry of this blog is about your birthday.  You're welcome.

Stop doing dumb things. Dec 18th, Entry #99.

Sara:  Last night was the Prayer and Action Extravaganza and it was awesome!!  Any time we can have an excuse to have a little P&A time is good for me!  It was great to see everyone from this summer, especially the staff.  We played some mad Noodleball (which I think ought to be an Olympic sport) and Speedball, had a rousing rendition of the Boogaloo, some great funny stories, lovely music (thank you Caleb), heart-warming GIGs, a great reflection by Fr. Mitchel and some QPT in the church. All, in all, it was a great night and it makes me really excited for this summer.

BUT, that is not really what I want to blog about.  It's all the stuff that happened AFTER the extravaganza that was awesome.  Most of it involved Kyle and Chris (big surprise) and any of us who were lucky enough to still be around.

Instead of trying to explain everything in writing, I think I'll let the pictures and videos do the job for me.

First thing, Aaron and Madeline were sitting in the office and chatting and of course we had to bother them.  So, we drew faces on plates and stood in front of the windows.  We are wonderful artists.




We did this a few times with new faces on new plates, and then Aaron and Madeline had to retaliate.  Which they should.  I would expect nothing less.



And then we had to have ghosts as well.  Not sure why.  But I'll give you 2 guesses as to whose under those sheets.



Now that that was done, we moved on to the next ridiculous thing we could think of involving sheets.  Chris decided it was a cape....and he ran up and down the hall trying to make the cape fly.  It didn't work very well, so he decided to amuse us with window antics.  That definitely did work.  It was very amusing!



After that we stuck with the window theme and moved on to darts.  One of Chris' kiddos gave him 72 nerf darts for Christmas.  They didn't stay in the boxes long and you don't need to have the nerf gun to have fun with them.  Everyone started pelting them at the window trying to make them stick.  They were pretty effective too.



Then Kyle decided to sit in the middle of the window and become the target.  Kyle, even if the circus calls and wants you to be a human target inthe knife throwing show, I think you ought to stick to youth ministry.



Oh, there are always fun times when these 2 are involved.  And when they see me taking embarrassing photos or videos they tell me "hey, don't put this on the blog!" and I say, "then stop doing dumb things".  Hey, it's fair warning.