Make you think this, doesn't it?
The youth group from our church had a lock-in Thursday night. No school yesterday, so it made a REALLY good time to do it. We took them to the Baptist Associational office (my every Monday hangout)and let them sort through donated clothing that is made available to people coming into the ministry center for help. They ended up working through five rather large storage containers. Folding, sizing, hanging. They worked in the shoe room, too....matching up pairs, sizing and sorting. The ministry center director said he'd not seen a bunch of kids work the way ours did...heard the same thing when we went to Mississippi. Good news is, at a place like the ministry center...and a place like Lakeshore, MS...there is always something else that could be done.
What did I do? Can you guess? I was in the kitchen, of course. I must have baked seven or eight dozen cookies. We got about 2000 pounds of frozen foods donated to the food pantry last week. Lots of appetizer/party food items...and SEVERAL boxes of cookie dough...God is the BEST provider. The baking cookies made the whole building smell delicious. I fixed a roaster pan full of nacho meat/cheese that the kids snacked on at about 12:30am. Looked like liquid nightmare to me, so I abstained from that particular snack. LOTS of coffee was consumed...LOTS of caffeinated carbonation, too.
About 3:30am, the group took a break to watch a movie. As you can imagine, many of the kids fell out. Some wasted no time in deciding that it was nap time! Y1 lasted about forty five minutes and decided he was going to lay down in the hallway....I cannot tell you how many times I had to tell him to move his head out from the direct path of the doorway! Y2 would have happily sat through the entire thing if I had let him. Not that he was that entranced by the movie...he was playing the extra Nintendo DS that Youth Pastor's #3 child/#2 son had brought for him. Something about my kid playing video games at 4:30 in the A of M was very disturbing to me. So, I made him shut it off and found him a free spot on the carpet to lay down...within about three minutes, he was a still as a stone. I know some of you are asking why Youngling2 was at the Youth Lock In. It was PURELY selfish and self serving on my part and I am not the least bit ashamed to admit it. I knew that Y1 and I would need to sleep when we got home Friday morning. I knew there was NO way I would be able to rest with Y2 roaming about the house, so I took him with me. That way, when we came home, we ALL went to bed!
Most of them had long since passed tired and had moved straight into the land of the Slap Happy and Punch Drunk! The dvd wasn't cooperating with computer. It was skipping and freezing up as they tend to do, sometimes. Remember that show...Mystery Science Theater?
Mr. Snark LOVES that show! Wonder why? Anyway, that what it was like. I'm standing in the kitchen, watching the kids watch the movie and listening to all the strange, extremely sleep deprived comments as the movie freezes and skips. I stood there, with my Youth Pastor's Wife, and we just nearly laughed ourselves breathless. Random....off the wall...utter and complete nonsense. And it was FUNNY!!!!!!!!!!!!!! One of our girls...sweet as she can be...kept saying, "OH MY GOD! OH MY GOD!" This would not be something that she normally said, but I think her filters had shut down several hours earlier. Youth Pastor's Wife finally said, "B-honey....are you praying? Do we all need to pray?"
The movie, after several seizures and restarts finally ended...I think it ended...not sure if credits rolled...but it was time for us to roll. Woke sleeping teenagers and made quick work of putting the conference room back together. We were happily ensconced in the local burger joint, just around the corner from the center, by 6:30am. I wish you could have seen the faces of the old men as they came into the store. They were completely bewildered by the presence of so many kids...and some of the kids had clearly taken roost in the seats of the "regulars." COMICAL! I found the salty tater tots to be restorative and delicious. The coffee....notsomuch! Bar none...that had to be the worst cup of coffee I'd ever had. Old grounds, old water...BLECH! It tasted dry...can coffee taste dry? And this is after three pods of creamer and two packets of sugar. After taking her first sip, YP'sW looked at me from across the room and signed "BAD coffee!!!" AH! It wasn't just me!
We got back to the church by 7:30...I did NOT stay in the caravan...I guess I should have. But I was tired and cold and had a carload of teenagers...and only one of them was mine. As soon as the other cars arrived and Y2 was strapped in, we left. No need for us to wait around...buh-bye! Y2 was certain that he'd had enough sleep...all of maybe 2.5 hours and didn't need anymore. WHATEVER! Home and in the bed by 8 (both boys passed out by 8:15)...ringer off and Thursday afternoon, we had informed OurOtherSon (neighbor friend from across the street) that there would be no ringing of the doorbell until after 12pm. He's a good kid...the doorbell rang at 12:45. Y1 and I were up. I woke Y2 up at 1pm and when I told him what time it was, he sat straight up in the bed with the weirdest look on his face. I'm quite certain that the child had no idea what time it was at any point during our adventure.
Hopefully, our efforts will be a blessing to the general workings of things at the ministry center. There are only four paid staff members...the rest of the work is done by volunteers. I hope what we did will make things easier for the volunteers. I hope the kids understand that their sacrifice of a night's sleep is no small thing. Even the smallest thing, done in the name of Jesus, is no small thing. Being the hand's and feet of Christ often comes at a price...one night's sleep is a pretty inexpensive thing to give.
What did I do? Can you guess? I was in the kitchen, of course. I must have baked seven or eight dozen cookies. We got about 2000 pounds of frozen foods donated to the food pantry last week. Lots of appetizer/party food items...and SEVERAL boxes of cookie dough...God is the BEST provider. The baking cookies made the whole building smell delicious. I fixed a roaster pan full of nacho meat/cheese that the kids snacked on at about 12:30am. Looked like liquid nightmare to me, so I abstained from that particular snack. LOTS of coffee was consumed...LOTS of caffeinated carbonation, too.
About 3:30am, the group took a break to watch a movie. As you can imagine, many of the kids fell out. Some wasted no time in deciding that it was nap time! Y1 lasted about forty five minutes and decided he was going to lay down in the hallway....I cannot tell you how many times I had to tell him to move his head out from the direct path of the doorway! Y2 would have happily sat through the entire thing if I had let him. Not that he was that entranced by the movie...he was playing the extra Nintendo DS that Youth Pastor's #3 child/#2 son had brought for him. Something about my kid playing video games at 4:30 in the A of M was very disturbing to me. So, I made him shut it off and found him a free spot on the carpet to lay down...within about three minutes, he was a still as a stone. I know some of you are asking why Youngling2 was at the Youth Lock In. It was PURELY selfish and self serving on my part and I am not the least bit ashamed to admit it. I knew that Y1 and I would need to sleep when we got home Friday morning. I knew there was NO way I would be able to rest with Y2 roaming about the house, so I took him with me. That way, when we came home, we ALL went to bed!
Most of them had long since passed tired and had moved straight into the land of the Slap Happy and Punch Drunk! The dvd wasn't cooperating with computer. It was skipping and freezing up as they tend to do, sometimes. Remember that show...Mystery Science Theater?
The movie, after several seizures and restarts finally ended...I think it ended...not sure if credits rolled...but it was time for us to roll. Woke sleeping teenagers and made quick work of putting the conference room back together. We were happily ensconced in the local burger joint, just around the corner from the center, by 6:30am. I wish you could have seen the faces of the old men as they came into the store. They were completely bewildered by the presence of so many kids...and some of the kids had clearly taken roost in the seats of the "regulars." COMICAL! I found the salty tater tots to be restorative and delicious. The coffee....notsomuch! Bar none...that had to be the worst cup of coffee I'd ever had. Old grounds, old water...BLECH! It tasted dry...can coffee taste dry? And this is after three pods of creamer and two packets of sugar. After taking her first sip, YP'sW looked at me from across the room and signed "BAD coffee!!!" AH! It wasn't just me!
We got back to the church by 7:30...I did NOT stay in the caravan...I guess I should have. But I was tired and cold and had a carload of teenagers...and only one of them was mine. As soon as the other cars arrived and Y2 was strapped in, we left. No need for us to wait around...buh-bye! Y2 was certain that he'd had enough sleep...all of maybe 2.5 hours and didn't need anymore. WHATEVER! Home and in the bed by 8 (both boys passed out by 8:15)...ringer off and Thursday afternoon, we had informed OurOtherSon (neighbor friend from across the street) that there would be no ringing of the doorbell until after 12pm. He's a good kid...the doorbell rang at 12:45. Y1 and I were up. I woke Y2 up at 1pm and when I told him what time it was, he sat straight up in the bed with the weirdest look on his face. I'm quite certain that the child had no idea what time it was at any point during our adventure.
Hopefully, our efforts will be a blessing to the general workings of things at the ministry center. There are only four paid staff members...the rest of the work is done by volunteers. I hope what we did will make things easier for the volunteers. I hope the kids understand that their sacrifice of a night's sleep is no small thing. Even the smallest thing, done in the name of Jesus, is no small thing. Being the hand's and feet of Christ often comes at a price...one night's sleep is a pretty inexpensive thing to give.
Diggin' the music Mik! I might just have to download some Lionel now!
ReplyDelete:) I've been looking forward to this post, Miss YankeeBelle, ever since I read that you were taking on an all-night-lock-in..~ ;) :) *You didn't disappoint!! Sounds like quite the night, lol! :) Hope you're sleep-cycle has recovered by now!!~~ :)
ReplyDeleteSincerely,