It's been a rather long time since I've updated hasn't it? Sorry about that, first there was this nasty paper about the character of Satan in Paradise Lost (it was a rather demonic time to say the least) (pun definitely intended). Then a crazy portfolio demanded all my attention like a needy boyfriend. Now we're onto finals week and while it's been chaotic, I think I've just gotten used to pandemonium in my life.
But let's move on to the fun things that I've been managing to squeeze in, shall we?
A few weekends ago, I was able to lead a D-NOW weekend with my very own youth group back home and wow, what a blast!
D-NOW weekends are youth group retreats that last a full weekend. A short glimpse of what happens goes like this: eat junk food, talk about Jesus, eat more junk food. Go to a church service, go sleep at a somebody's house, get in our jammies and eat more junk food. While talking about Jesus. Wake up at an ungodly hour after getting <4 hours of sleep and pretend to be hyped up for life while trying to wake up seven-ish teenage girls. Go back to church, eat junk food, play some ridiculous games and talking more about Jesus. Repeat for another full day. Sunday morning challenge: staying awake throughout the entire church service while only getting seven hours of sleep during the whole weekend.
No joke, D-NOW weekends are the highlight of my month. Ultimate party.
While I work at an incredible ministry where I lead DNOW weekends once every few weeks, to come home and be able to do this was incredible as I got to be with my Jesus family!
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Jesus Family (noun): In the Bible, Paul talks about how once we accept Christ, we become sons and daughters of God and all other believers are our brothers and sisters (Galatians 3:28). A Jesus Family is merely the group of fellow believers that meet with one another and encourage/love/sometimes rebuke each other. Yes, basically this is a church but I prefer Jesus Family for two reasons: - Church has become a tainted word in that it no longer means 'the body of Christ' but rather a building. I don't love a building, I love people. It's hard to communicate with someone about the intimacy of God's love when they're constantly thinking of a building or even worse, a group of distant cold-hearted people that judge a person once they step through the door.
- I like the word family because it's real. Coming from a family who's experienced brokenness, I love seeing groups of people practicing true love in encouraging one another, seeking advice from each other, and merely asking how one is doing without simply taking "fine" as an answer. Of course there's fighting, just like a real family. There's arguing, disappointment, and jealousy as we're still human but there's still love that transcends all of that, as families do (Romans 12:5, Hebrews 10:25, Matthew 12:50, 1 TImothy 5:1-2).
I like to think of this as my Jesus Family's awkward family photo
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So anyways, back to my adventures. At one point in the weekend, we played a game called "Bigger or Better".
The rules of Bigger or Better are simple. Each team is given a small object like a golf ball. They then have a certain amount of time to go to random strangers and ask if they would be willing to trade for the golf ball that's bigger or better than the ball. Whoever brought back the best thing won.
So with a 1.5 hour limit and a group of middle school girls to join me, we set off to auction off our ball.
I was expecting to come back with some cheesy item that even Goodwill wouldn't accept, but boy was I wrong!
Our first trade happened in a random neighborhood as we saw a man unloading groceries. Luckily for us, he loved golf and traded us the golf ball for...
A blue velvet sombrero!
Then we knocked on the next door and tried to convince the lady to take our sombrero. At first she thought we were crazy, which was acceptable, and said she didn't have anything to trade. But as we were walking away, she stopped us and said that she did have something:
Elvis. Cardboard, life-size Elvis. Who was motion-sensored and spoke Elvis-y sayings.
Oh the things people have in their houses.
Although we knew that we would definitely win with Elvis, we decided to keep on trying since we had a good hour left in our adventure.
Then we arrived to another house who's garage door was open. We tempted him with motion-sensored Elvis and although he didn't want Elvis, he did have something to give away:
We hit the mother lode.
Unfortunately, I don't have the picture with us and the piano as another girl took that photo but there's nothing better than calling your youth pastor and asking to borrow his truck. "Why?" "...because we found a piano". I bet he wasn't expecting that one.
So we did win, but here's the kicker:
We got back to the church to show off our goods and between the nine groups that went out, this is what we acquired:
- 1 piano
- 5 couches (yes 5!)
- 3 various other pieces of furniture
- 1 bunk bed
- 1 horse from a carousel
- 1 laptop missing its battery
- an old xbox
- a firepit
- 1 puppy (turned out that that group went to their house, no worries he has a good home)
- Various other things like: a dollhouse, a Predators hockey stick, a punching bag, other stuff that was found in people's garages.
Turns out many of these people had these things for a long time but just never had the transportation or manpower to get rid of the big objects like the piano so when a group of teenagers came knocking on doors to take anything, it was more of a godsend than to them than anything else.
*Note to self: when furnishing my first apartment, play Bigger or Better first before buying anything!
(also, sorry for the long post! Like I said, it's been a while!)
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