Back in the saddle again. August 21st, Entry #82.

Sara:  It's time for FLOCK again.  Oh what a long summer it's been without you.  Among the many things we did at FLOCK last night, each group came up with captions to 7 different pictures.  Some of them were a bit FLOCK inappropriate, but for the most part we laughing....really hard.  I thought I would share my favorite ones with you.

Picture of Jordan and moldy strawberry
Are you a parking ticket?  Cause you have fine written all over you!
I have gas
Jordan is hanging out with a fun-gi!
The rare "Jordanese species" was captured on camera the other day.  She has reportedly been in the storage room for over 18 months.  She scavenges for any food available, including year-old strawberries.  The mold cannot deter her.  Her hunger is great.

Picture of Sara and Aaron being ridiculously good looking.
We think we have a real job
"Power in its most elegant form....FIERCE by Calvin Klein"
We thought Brian and Joe looked good
The only non-Eddie Bauer clothes in Brian Witt's closet

Picture of Annelise with crazy make-up and hair
Born this way
Ready for prom!

Awkward picture of Lucas and Max in prop box attire
Lucas' AWKWARD first and last date

Picture of Hailey and Mallory spitting water out of their mouths
We can pee out of out mouths
Gatorade - $2, Stainless steel water bottle - $10, spitting your way to a new world record - PRICELESS
Hey Talls McGee, is your pee clear?

Picture of Jane hitting Joe over the head with a blow-up shark
Shark bait - hoo ha ha!
Ello, my name is Bruce.  Today at "Fish are friends, not food" I brought my new friend, Joe.  Joe is a friend, not food.

And a drawing, I have to share the drawing.  It's so pretty.

Yay for FLOCK.  I'm glad you're back.

More Construction. August 11th, Entry #81

Aaron: So, you may have guessed we have been continuing construction here, but alas, I have not updated lately! Well, let's fix that problem. Here are some updated pictures of our new youth room!

Also, we have been tasked to come up with a name for this new room, so we need some ideas! Let us know!

 A view of the front of the room, not much has changed except for the ceiling on the right side, and the removal of whiteboard/cabinets.

 A similar view,but a better view of the new ceiling work.

 The start of the new bar area, we will be adding more cabinets and bank seating, very cool things!

 A view of the back of the room, notice the absence of doors! The door on the right leads into our new office!

A different view of the new office, look at those huge windows!

Well, we hope you like what you saw! We went out and bought a few surprises yesterday, get excited to see them!





And the Construction Continues... Entry #80, July 26th

Aaron: So, sorry it has been over a month since we have updated this deal, but it's been a crazy month with mission trips and such, but now that things have calmed down a little bit I have some time to update all 9 of you that read our blog.  Construction on our new youth room was moving slowly for awhile, but things are finally starting to speed up, here are some recent photos: (Expect some more recent pictures later on in the day/week)

 The new office space

 A view from the front of the room, note: the wall is gone!

 another view of the now absent wall

 looking towards the front of the room

what will soon be the kitchenette area

Things that only happen when you're a youth minister. Entry #79. June 17th

Sara:  It's been a fun, albeit LONG, week up here in the SMTA.  It's been VBS all week, which means it's been Get REAL for a lot of fab high schoolers.  I can't even being to extend my gratitude to the 15 high schoolers who showed every morning at 8:30am to spend their morning (and free time) with 70, count 'em 70!, 5th and 6th graders.  Now, while Get REAL is a ton of fun, it's just darn exhausting.  When I finish this post I might lay on the ground and put my feet up on my desk, like pregnant ladies do when they're 9 months pregnant and have swollen feet.  But the work that Aaron and I did for Get REAL is nothing compared to the small group leaders that did the day-in and day-out work with their 10 kiddos.  Thanks be to Jesus for you guys.

But, there are a few things I noticed about this week that I thought needed to be put into a post.  I noticed some things that we were doing at work this week and I thought, "man, no one else would be doing these kinds of things and calling it 'work'".  And then I remembered, "but wait, we're youth minsters, this is work for us".  So, I thought I should share:

Things that happen only when you're a youth minister and it's considered work:

wearing t-shirts, gym shorts and flip flops to work
filling up 1500 water balloons
holding a "red carpet walk off" for 6th boys dressed as girls
arranging with the Fire Department to send a fire truck to come and spray down the kids
doing the "Istanbul, not Constantinople" dance
watching a kiddo walk in dressed as Ronald McDonald

It's a fun thing when you think about it.  I mean, c'mon, some people might do this for fun, but we get to do it for work!

Youth Room Construction, Entry #78, May 31

Aaron: So, we are finally starting construction on the youth room! in the coming weeks we will be updating with photos and any other exciting information that may be happening.  We are both beyond excited about this, this has been many years in the making and we know it will be amazing when it's all finished!


The work being completed now is pretty much all demolition, tearing out walls, cabinets, sinks, etc etc...
We have pretty much picked out everything that will be going into the room with wall colors, carpet colors, cabinets, counter tops, furniture, all that fun stuff!

So, here are the pics of the demo so far, let us know what you think!

                                                                  old, stained carpet...

                                                       Last GIFT ever in the old room!!!

                                                                      no more wall....

Well, that's about it for now, check back soon for more updates!!!!

L is for the way you look at me. Entry # 77, May 15th.

Sara:  So, Sunday was Sex and Dating night at FLOCK.  Rad, I know.  Our topic for the night was love.  Just love.  We were made for love.  Seems kind of broad, I know, but it's where my heart was at and since I'm in charge I get to talk about what I want.  I love being in charge.

Anyways, it was a great night, much better than I anticipated it to turn out.  I just didn't feel that I  had everything together...more like a bunch of thoughts instead of a well-put-together plan.  But, well-put-together plans leave no room for the Holy Spirit to work....and the Holy Spirit definitely came through on this one.  It was a simple message, but really all I wanted the kiddos to get out of it was that #1 God is love and #2 Love is a choice, to desire and choose the good of another.  So simple.  So huge.  So missing in our culture.

Just a few thank yous. 

To high schoolers that are not too cool to play "Honey if you love me".  That might have been one of the most epic rounds of that game I have ever seen.  I thought you all might think it was a bit too cheesy for you and not want to play.  Thanks for proving me wrong. 

Brian, thanks for scandalizing a few of us.  Even with the "Brian rule" for this game, you still managed to be extra creepy....especially with the southern accent.

Jane.....I can't believe you didn't crack at all!!  So proud.

Kevin, your excitement for the faith and you desire to "get it" is so stinkin' cool!  You hit the nail right on the head when you said right away that love is sacrifice.  Holy cow man, well done.  I wish you weren't leaving FLOCK so soon after starting.  But I'm excited to see where your new faith takes you.

Justin...I still can't believe you came to FLOCK the day of your graduation.  You are a superstar.  Always have been.

Favorite quote of the night. (thank you Jane)
We were talking about the 4 Fs of authentic love. (free, full, faithful, fruitful).

Sara: love has to be freely given.  It can't be forced. Like back in the day when people were forced into arranged marriage.
Jane: Yeah, when a girl was traded for a pig.
One of the boys: well, hopefully it was a really nice pig.

It's ok Jane, I think you're worth way more than a pig....I mean, at LEAST 3 pigs, really nice ones too.

And my favorite after-FLOCK comment.

Yesterday Mrs. McEntee told me what Jordan and Olivia said when they got home from FLOCK.
Jordan & Olivia: Sara and Michael are totally going to get married.  He took care of her all day on Saturday when she was sick.  They're totally going to get married.  And we're going to be the flower girls.

Really, 17-year-old flower girls??  This I cannot wait to see.  But don't worry, I've already picked out the dresses.

And I request that you skip down the aisle while tossing rose petals.  You're welcome.

Free Thugs. April 27th, Entry # 76.

Sara:  You know, I'm not going to lie....I've said in this blog before that sometimes middle schoolers drive me nuts, make me want to pull my hair, and make me that much more thankful for high schoolers.  But lately it's been the other way around.  Some of my high schoolers are going through some tough stuff, dealing with some real issues and bringing the drama....so these little middle schoolers, they're kind of a nice break.  The ones that are GIFT regulars are just fun and light-hearted and make me laugh with their delightful immaturity and innocence.  I am loving it.  (who knows if I'll be singing this same tune next month!)

Last week at GIFT it was game night.  Aaron told the kiddos that we weren't actually going to have a game night this week, but that he really felt called to talk to them about the obstacles in their lives.  But really he was just messing with them.....we went into the gym after that to build giant obstacle courses.  Ha.  Seewhatididthere??  But it was a fun night all around.  See below for some examples.

Before we got started we were just talking about our favorite TV shows so Aaron decided to make a list.  If you ever wondered what middle schoolers, 1 high school leader and 2 youth ministers like on TV:

Quotes of the night:
Aaron to David: you're the only dude here....well, 'cept me.

Becca: I'm allergic to Bieber Fever.  It's a deadly disease.

Erin: I want a shirt that says "I'm so fabulous I fart glitter".  (I am not making this up)


David wanted to give away free hugs.  He and I practiced Virtus appropriate hugging such as the side-hug and the tush-out hug.  Then Aaron went and gave it a whole new spin.

Aaron's not very good at hula-hooping.  But he's much better than me.

Part of our sweet obstacle course.  I think my favorite part was where they had to maneuver over the "dead body" (Erin laying in an awkward position) and they couldn't touch it or else they would get leprosy.  Not making this up.

Oh middle schoolers....thanks for being awesome lately.  Keep it up.