In case you ever wondered how they did the special effects in the Superman movies.
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!
In case you ever wondered how they did the special effects in the Superman movies.
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.
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!
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.
Some of the more difficult ones.
Totally the hardest one and I would never have been clever enough to come up with this.
Now for Chris and I, because hey, it our blog so we can do what we want.
And now, for the ones that just cracked me up.
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.
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) |
 |
| 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:
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.
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.
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.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)