Overjoyed

Hey all!

We had our first Jr. Youth Group kick off on Wednesday and it was SUCH a delight.

At first I was feeling apprehensive over some youth leaders falling out and wondering about how to work with the leaders we do have...

BUT all of that dissipated once the night started.

The Youth Pastor and I debriefed our leaders of the structure for the night and I prayed in closing out of Psalm 25 (go and read that Psalm, it's SO GOOD).

As the youth came for the gathering, familiar faces surfaced from earlier in the year along with some new ones.

Once 7:10pm rolled around we all gathered to the youth room and our YP (youth Pastor) lead us with a welcome (saying everyone needs to give out 3 fist bumps...

*Fist bump*

2 high fives, and 1 side hug or bro hug); and announcements after.

I followed up with leading a mixer called "find your match" (Creative Christian Ideas for Youth Groups, Ken Moser, 2008, pg. 21).

Basically, I would say "find some who... has similar eye colour, hair length, etc) and once they paired up I'd ask a question for them to answer amounts themselves like "How was your summer, what is your favourite animal and why, What are you looking forward to the most this year?"

After 4 rounds of that, I prayed for the night and for our youth pastor. Then the YP spoke out of 1 John, focusing on 1 John 1:5-7.

When he fished the talk, he split the youth off into their pods and assigned areas while he and I monitored the halls.

Around 8:15, the youth gathered back and we finished with a game which our YP made sure emphasize to our leaders before that it's not about winning but building relationships with the youth.

By 9:00, we finished the night back in the youth room and said our goodbyes and looking forward to next Wednesday.

We debriefed with our leaders once again and found most of them liked the small group/pod time the most.

I look forward to what the rest of this year God has in store for us as a youth group and for the lives of the individuals.

I know in one of my blogs I asked for prayer before, but I want to take the time to remind that we still need prayer for our leaders (the ones we have and the ones we still need), and for the YP and myself as we guide and facilitate the youth group for wisdom and humility when dealing with everyone. 

Thank you all who have been praying and I encourage you for continued prayer as you are a huge help to this ministry by your prayers alone. 

Stay tuned for updates about Jr. Youth and for the Fall retreat this weekend!

~To God be the Glory