To be mad for my King

Several people do not understand why I love junior high ministry. I'll name a couple reasons so you have a taste:

• They are so forgiving. Obviously, I mess up a lot and say or do the wrong thing. I find that junior highers rarely hold grudges (although I still make sure to apologize for my stupidity), and are just ready to play more games.
• They will play pretty much every game. No coercing necessary.
• They are trying so hard to be cool, and in the process, are some of the funniest people on earth.
• They are about as ADD as I am.

Does that help a little?

This past weekend was our junior high winter retreat called Faceplant. Great name, eh? It was held in Buena Vista, CO at a gorgeous Young Life facility called Frontier Ranch. I had borrowed a student's camera, so as soon as she uploads some of her pictures on Facebook, I will put them onto here. Any way, the retreat started off with the band Everfound, some Denverites who originally come from Russia. So of course, I got to talk to a few of them in their native tongue, but that's beside the point. They were fantastic for the students. Really energetic, and yet serious too. There was even a point when the lead singer, Nikita, waited for the crowd to get silent so he could explain how much a song brings glory to God.

The speaker Kyle was pretty good. He reminded me a lot of the former youth pastor at EBF my sophomore and junior year of college. The coolest moment was when he used flash paper that the students had signed if they wanted to confess the things that got in their way of God. Those papers were then placed on the cross, he lit them, and they made this crazy fire that caused them to disappear completely. It was an awesome and beautiful message that really affected our students.

Which leads me to my favorite part. One student came to me and she just cried into my shoulder. She said she was tired of letting God do His thing while she sat back and watched. She wanted to be a part of His work. She wanted to stand up for Him for the rest of her life. Essentially, she wanted to be in relationship with Him, and not just know about Him. What a cool thing for a seventh grader to recognize. That's proof we serve a very big God.

Later there was another student who came to me who wanted in on God's work too. It was so fun to talk with her, then to hug her and say, "Welcome to the beginning of a crazy journey."
We had a muck war (yum!); I saw a falling star at an incredible moment of prayer; a lot of our student leaders served on work crew and did a wonderful job; we had a dance party post-Everfound concert; and the new youth pastor, Randy, was there for all the shenanigans.

If this is what it means to be mad by serving junior high, count me in.