Week 4 (3:15-5:00) Afterschool program

3:15-3:45 - Organized and played dodgeball game in gym
3:45-5:00 - Split into small groups; helped Bruce with his group.

Due to our flag football team making the playoffs, I had to skip out a little earlier than usual from my practicum. On arriving at JC, I went into the gym as usual and played some basketball with the few kids who were there. Eventually a whole bus load of kids arrived, and it was my job to keep them all entertained and out of trouble until Pastor Mike came back from picking up some other kids. So with the help of Kyle, (a fellow practicum student), and another JC Sponsor, we got a huge game a dodgeball going in the gym! After playing boys vs. girls at first (dumb idea), we counted them off onto separate teams randomly. I was on a team with a bunch of the guys I usually played basketball with. We had a great time together and I started to feel a hint of respect and friendship coming from these kids. In Intro to Youth Ministry class, we had just been learning tht middle school age kids usually focus on events as their means of relating with people or learning. I realized there in the gym that day that I had gained a lot of respect with these kids because I was having fun with them in an event type setting, and because we were having fun together, not just them having fun and me monitoring them. That was the main lesson I learned that day... Youth Ministry is not about organizing fun activities for teens, you have to be in there with them, practicing incarnational ministry.

I realized that on my syllabus, it says that I have to give a "Spiritual Reflection" on how I've been doing spiritually over the last week. I have to be honest, this week wasn't the greatest for me spiritually. I've been really, realy overloaded with homework and books to read, and I haven't had that much time to read the Bible or spend time alone with God. I know I have to do a better job doing that. It's just so hard to set apart time to just relax and sit at the feet of Jesus when there is so much other stuff that needs doing. I'm praying that God would give me the will power to break away from everything for just 15 minutes a day to have devotions.

JC Bodyshop after school program and Blockparty Week 3 (3:30-8:30)

This last Thursday, I came to the after school program at 3:30 and stayed all the way through the Blockparty, because I needed more hours for the practicum. The way I understand it, the afterschool program is a federally funded program that is geared toward keeping kids in school and away from drugs, so this event is not quite as overtly Christian as the Blockparty.

When I arrived I started out playing basketball with the kids like usual, then we were called into the main auditorium. From there, I helped some kids with their homework. After they were finished, we made some paper airplanes and played hangman. After I stumped all the poor 5th graders with "kayak," Pastor Britton called our attention a skit to illustrate making good choices. When the skit was over and they had a short discussion about what the kids learned from the skit, the after school program concluded and the Blockparty began.

This week at the Blockparty, we were having a kind of "kick-off" party complete with skateboard, dunk and guitar hero competitions. The winners of each competition would receive some pretty nice prizes, so there was quite a bit of motivation to participate. The biggest draw-in though, was a drawing for a brand new Nintendo Wii! We had to monitor the kids pretty carefully to make sure they didn't register to win multiple times.

Pastor Mike put me in charge of the Guitar Hero contest. 12 wannabe "Slashes" lined up for the ultimate classic rock showdown. Although there were many aspiring guitar-heroes, only one could emerge from the pile victorious. A highschool girl walked home with the title of guitar hero champion and a verbal IOU from Pastor Mike for Guitar Hero 3 which comes out sometime in the next month. She hit 495 notes in a row!!! It was insane.

After a moving message from Pastor Mike about standing up against peer-pressure and being strong for God, Pastor Mike called my up onto the stage to draw for the winner of the coveted Nintendo Wii. I handed Mike the slip of paper I had drawn and he read the name of one of the kids I had been helping with his homework during the after school program! YOU SHOULD HAVE SEEN HIS FACE!!!! It looked like the poor kid had seen a ghost! He went home that night one happy camper.

Overall, it was a really good experience last Thursday. The one thing I learned more than anything else was that it is okay to just have fun with your youth group sometimes, because it builds a strong community. This last week, because they were busy having a blast, they were actually very well behaved and were much more receptive to Pastor Mike's sermon when it was time for everyone to calm down. If I become a youth pastor, I will definitely have some days set apart just for fun like we did last Thursday.