the adventure begins

I am exhausted. I know I am staying waaaay too busy right now, but today was a doozy. This new endeavour is far more work than I thought it would be. Last Wednesday was scheduled to be my first time leading youth group, but it was cancelled because of the threat of Tropical Storm Ernesto. I feel like that was a blessing in disguise because it gave me some much needed extra time to try and get things together.

So tonight ended up being my first time to lead a youth group meeting. I spent pretty much my entire afternoon making last minute preparations including coming up with some back-up games I could do inside since the possibility of rain was very high. I felt overwhelmed, but suddenly got excited...like first day of camp, I can't wait to see these kids I've not seen in a year excited. It took me by surprise. All of the anxiety I had been feeling for a week was replaced almost entirely with me looking forward to the evening. What a gift!

When I was thinking about taking this new job one of the first people I spoke with about it was my friend Kim, Ru's wife. She was unbelievably encouraging and I remember saying to her that one of the things I needed to remind myself regularly is that I'm not so big that I can screw up what God wants to accomplish. He's going to do it no matter how much I mess up. I think that might have finally sunk in because when I got in front of the kids to lead games and then give them a short lesson, I didn't even feel nervous. I wanted it to go well, but I wasn't freaking out and my heart wasn't going crazy. Just a few weeks ago when I had to introduce myself to the church my heart was pounding so hard I thought it was going to bust right through my chest. But tonight no heart pounding.

Did the evening go perfectly? It went well, but there was room for improvement. I definitely need to work on my speaking skills (one of the kids told me, "It's not a sermon unless you sweat."), but I feel God was there. And that's excitement. I also threw some shout-outs to places I love that have helped me get where I am now, which was a lot of fun for me. For our games I totally stole some of the Friday night games we do with adults on Family Weekends at Circle F. And while people were arriving I played a cd by 10th Avenue North, a tribute to my TNL days.

Here are a few photos from the evening:

Oh, yeah. Chick-fil-A before getting to the meeting.


So I'm pretty sick of pizza, but love it for pictures like this one.

Funny girls.

In unrelated news, I picked up the 2nd season of Lost last night and have watched the first two episodes. I'd forgotten what a great show that is. Speaking of, I think I'll go unwind by watching that 3rd episode.