An Action Packed Weekend

As I set off with my youth and chaperones for a weekend event at Jamestown State College, I felt the traditional jolt of adrenaline as I prepared for a weekend with lots of activities and little sleep. I wasn't disappointed!
Registration is always a bit chaotic, as both Conference buses and 14 vans arrive at the same time and attempt to check in. These events are planned down to the smallest detail, but as with most things that involve more than 10 people, it can be a bit wild. Our Conference Conference Council on Youth Ministry adults and youth are some of the most patient on the planet, always willing to help carry bags, sleeping bags and other assorted accessories that are deemed necessary by junior high girls. They did a fine job getting us through the hubbub and escorted to the sleeping areas. The girls sleep in the old gym area with two locker rooms in the basement. One locker room serves as the girl's shower area and the other locker room is dedicated to the adult women. Our Safe Sanctuary policies dictate that youth and adults cannot use the same shower facilities at the same time. Safety first, convenience second. The girls got the girl's volleyball locker room with two couches, candles and a flat screen television. It smelled of girls ~ powder, fruit scented grooming tools ~ and was as clean as a whistle. The women's locker room, however, is the boy's wrestling locker room and it did smell like boys. No offense men, but girl's are just prettier smelling. There were no doors on the bathroom stalls and it had half-open locker room doors with various male sports equipment.
The weekend went very well. The worship band was fantastic and the speaker had a great message that tied into our Conference Youth theme very well. He had many interesting stories about various youth and adults going on mission trips to build homes for people that lived in cardboard boxes or had no shelter at all. Those stories always made me feel a bit inadequate as traveling to an underdeveloped county is so far outside of my comfort zone that I need a satellite to see it from here! God bless those called to this ministry field. I'll pray for you and support you financially, but I'll do it from home!
The first night in the sleeping area is always a little loud. It's the first night away from home and whispering soon turns to giggling, which turns to chaperone's instructions to pipe down. I slept pretty well, waking up early enough to get out of the showers before the majority came down.
Saturday was beautiful in Jamestown and the afternoon was spent playing in the gym, walking outside, and, if you were under the age of 15, throwing snowballs at unsuspecting people as they walked outside. This melt would provide hazardous later!
I spent a lot of my weekend doing CCYM tasks ~ helping with paperwork, fielding questions from adults and junior high kids, helping with worship planning, writing a melodrama and praying throughout the weekend that the adults and kids from my church would stay healthy and safe until we returned home. I spent time with my church people and we were enjoying our time at The Crossing.
Saturday night after a beautiful communion service, the EMT taking care of our group of 250 mentioned that we had girls in the sleeping area who were green and throwing up. I warned my girls to stay far away from them as their fate would be similar. An female chaperone walking back to the sleeping area slipped and broke her ankle. She had an open fracture, which is pretty ugly, especially because she is a brittle diabetic. They had to flight her out to Aberdeen, SD by helicopter Saturday night. I was awakened at 4:15 a.m. to run to the grocery store to pick up Pepto Bismol, Gatorade and Sprite as we had more green, vomiting girls. By morning, some of the women in our sleeping area were sick and praying for death. I really pitied them, as they had a 6 hour charter bus ride to get home. We got our kids up, gathered our stuff and fled the sleeping area for the refuge of the vans. Hosed down with hand santizer, we cautioned them to stay away from anyone turning any shade of green.
We took off after a wonderful closing worship with a message reminding us to be salt and light to a world in need of God's love. Amazing!
The weekend, despite all of the unexpected drama, really was refreshing for me. I love to worship with youth, especially junior high youth who aren't too inhibited to be silly. I felt myself being filled up in order to be a more effective youth worker and a more effective Christian in the midst of youth and adults who need to understand that God loves them, and there is nothing they can do about it!