This last Monday night youth group, the topic of the message was wrestling with God. We discussed the passage of Scripture where Jacob wrestled with God, and then talked about what it meant for us to wrestle with God. All too often, we feel guilty for having doubts or questions about God, His character, or what we believe in general. It isn't often discussed that it is okay to ask the hard questions; to pursue the doubts we might have. Wrestling can be a nasty process - you come out exhausted, sweaty, covered in your opponents sweat, and during the match you have to get way too up close and personal for anyone's comfort. It's never easy, there is a high risk for injury, and there is never a guarantee that you will win. Similarly, this is how wrestling with God feels (only He always wins, which can be very frustrating in the moment). When we wrestle with God, we must be willing to put in the effort, to experience exhaustion, to risk getting hurt, put in the time, and get up close and personal. We have to be willing to come out drenched in the sweat, or essence, of God. These wrestling matches are never enjoyable in the moment, but our faith will always be strengthened and grown through these experiences. But we have to be willing to ask the hard questions, and we have to be willing to receive the Truth.
At the end of the night, I left a white board in the back of the room, and invited anyone to write down things that they wrestle with regarding God. In return for their honesty, we will be addressing each of those issues throughout upcoming youth groups. Here's what they wrote:
Things we wrestle with/don't understand:
-Why does God send people to hell?
-Why do we experience emotional pain?
-How do you serve and unpredictable God?
-My dad passing away
-How can God sit by and watch His children suffer so much if He loves us?
-If God loves everyone, how can he not just keep them from eternal life, but condemn them to eternal torment in Hell?
-Nearly 1/3 of the world's population are "untouched" places, and if you don't believe in Christ, you go to Hell, but how can they believe in what they've never heard of? How is this just?
-Birth defects - what did the kids do?
-If Jesus says that His people were Jews, then why are we called Christians?
We certainly have our work cut out for us in the next several weeks as we address these topics. It is so exciting to see kids growing in their relationship with Christ. I hope that throughout the next several weeks they learn what it truly means to wrestle with God, and that through their experiences they become closer and closer to Him.
Please continue to pray for our ministry!
Thursday, October 20, 2011
Friday, July 29, 2011
Beyond Malibu - Practice Hike
Beyond Malibu is just around the corner. There will be 10 of us venturing out into the wilderness of the Canadian coastal mountain range, where we will spend 8 days hiking, rock climbing, rappelling, and attempting to sleep on the hard ground. In preparation for our trip, our group (most of us) went on a 10 mile practice hike in the Olympic National Forest. We hiked along the Skokomish River for the majority of the time, and found the biggest, most loaded huckleberry bush any of us had ever seen! And of course, our trip wouldn't have been complete without a flat tire when we arrived back at the car. We weren't tired enough from the 10 mile hike, apparently... Our ability to work as a team was put to the test, but we prevailed! One of us found the tire, one found the van manual, one found the tools (seriously, who hides the jack and the wrenches between the driver seat and the passenger seat?), one jacked, one read the directions, one wrenched, and one stood back and cheered. Oh, and of course it was late in the evening at this point, and there weren't any tire shops open on the way home... But we all survived, and everyone was in agreement that the hike was worth the time, energy, and flat tire. It was a good day, and it got everyone even more excited for our trip!
Friday, July 22, 2011
Surprise Cake of Doom and Awesomeness
Jello cake. I didn't know jello cake was a real thing. I thought it was something that Emily Simons, had made up in a moment of brilliant creativity during a brain storming session for the menu for our leader dinner meeting. If you Google Jello Cake you will get 1,700,000 results. I don't like jello. I don't like cake. And I don't like Swedish fish either. Anyways, I asked Emily what we should have for dessert at our leader meeting, and the first words out of her mouth were, "Jello! Oh, jello cake!" It sounded interesting, so I told her to role with it. We decided a cake made out of jello, with a cool whip frosting would be fantastic and out of the ordinary. The day of our meeting I received a text from Emily saying "Someone gave me an awesome idea for the jello cake! I can't wait to show you!" Three hours before our meeting, Emily showed up at my apartment with a baked chocolate cake, four boxes of jello, a bag of gummy bears, a bag of Swedish fish, plastic army men, and three very happy looking toy people. I was excited. Apparently a relative of hers had told her about a cake that they used to make, where you take an actual cake, and pour jello over the top of it, and then frost it with cool whip. We decided to go for it (this was still before we knew we could have gotten 1,700,000 different recipes for jello cake). We made all four boxes of jello, poked a few holes in the cake for fun, and timidly poured the jello over the cake. What happened before our eyes made us slightly terrified, and quite a bit curious. We were like 2nd graders doing our first science experiment. Every last bit of the jello soaked into the cake. You couldn't even tell that we had poured jello on it. We thought we must have not added enough jello, so we went to the store and bought 8 more boxes. Upon arriving back at my apartment, we proceeded to make the 8 boxes of jello, and then poured it over the cake once more. With approximately 3/4 inch of standing jello above the cake, we decided that was adequate. Next came the gummy bears and Swedish fish, which quickly sank to the top of the cake. Running short on time, we put the cake into the freezer to try to get the jello to set in the little, precious time we had before the rest of the leaders were to arrive. 30 short minutes later, the jello was set, ready for frosting. After a thick layer of cool whip, we proceeded to place an army of plastic soldiers on one side of the cake, the three happy people and an army of gummy bears on the opposite side, with the armies facing each other. We were quite proud of our creating. A little frightened, but quite proud.
I made a pan of back up brownies just in case...
After everyone had arrived and dinner had been served, Emily and I were antsy to see everyone's reaction to our "Surprise Cake of Doom and Awesomeness." We brought it out, set it on the table, and looked around the room to observe the reactions. At first everyone was silent, and looked confused. Then there were murmurs, whispers, and finally someone said "what the heck is that?" Without missing a beat, Emily explained the two armies:
"The plastic army is going to attack the happy people and the gummy bears. The people are happy because they know that the gummy bears are ferocious and about to eat all of the plastic army people. This one (pointing to a headless plastic army person with a gummy bear standing close by) got his head eaten by the ferocious gummy bear. That's all."
Before waiting for any responses, I began to cut and serve the cake, plastic army men and all. Everyone looked scared. When everyone had a piece in front of them, and no one was eating, I informed them that they were all obligated to take a bite of cake. Everyone started to slowly eat a bite. I nervously put a large bite in my mouth.
...
The jello cake was an explosion of flavors and textures. The chocolate cake combined with the raspberry jello tasted something like stale chocolate raspberry candy that you might get for Christmas from your Great Aunt's second cousin twice removed (you know, the one that doesn't like you but thinks she has to buy you something every year). It was awful. But the texture is what really took the cake (yes, pun intended). It was soggy. It was spongy. It was cold. The more you chewed, the more it grew in your mouth. Then there was the layer of jello on top; the texture of jello is strange enough on its own. And seriously, the Swedish fish? They were the kicker that the cake didn't need. A mouth full of soggy, spongy, sticky, cold, gooey nastiness that multiplied as you chewed. I couldn't handle it. I attempted to swallow, but it didn't go so well. I managed to mumble "Oh, it isn't that bad", as a tried to inconspicuously walk into the kitchen and spit into the garbage can. By this time everyone had taken a bite of the cake, and no one was swallowing. They continued to hold it awkwardly in their mouths, then managed to choke it down as they set their cake down and pushed it away.
The room erupted with laughter, and we began to talk about how awful the cake was. Emily and I were still a little bit proud of our creation, despite how horrible it had turned out (deep down in our hearts, we knew it was going to be one of the worst ideas we had ever had...). I brought out the pan of brownies I had as Plan B, and we all continued with our meeting while we ate.
As I thought about the creation of the Surprise Cake of Doom and Awesomeness, I couldn't stop thinking about how much jello the cake soaked up before there was a standing pool of jello on top. It's kind of like when Christ pours His love out on us. Christ pours and pours and pours, filling us until we are overflowing with His love. Sometimes it's hard to remember that it takes more than just a little bit of His love before we are at a place in our lives where we can love others. We can't receive a little bit of love, and think we can begin to pour love out on other people. We can't expect just four packets of jello to be enough to have a standing lake of jello on top of our cake. The cake continues to soak up the jello, just as we need to continue to receive and soak up Christ's love for us. It isn't until the cake isn't physically capable of holding any more jello that it is finally able to overflow and create a lake of jello. It isn't until we have been filled to the fullest with Christ's love that we are finally able to pour out love on other people. We can't serve unless we completely filled by Christ. When we give out of ourselves when we haven't been filled fully with Christ's love, we are going to be giving what we aren't supposed to give; we are going to to be giving ourselves, not giving Christ's love. And when we give of our self, and not of the overflowing love of Christ, nothing we do will last, because nothing we have to offer that lacks Christ's love is going to be able to accomplish anything. But all we have to do to be completely filled is to receive. God doesn't run out of jello for His jello cakes. He will fill us until we are completely overflowing with His love, and when we are overflowing, then we are able to pour into others the way He intended.
Burnout doesn't come from us giving too much; it comes from when we try to give something that we don't have.
That's what Young Life is all about. Being filled by the love of Christ until we are overflowing, in order that we may pour Christ's love into the kids in our community. And we do this so that all adolescents will come to know and follow Christ. The next time you make a jello cake, make sure that you have enough jello to create a lake with the overflow; its just better that way.
By Bethany Hutson
I made a pan of back up brownies just in case...
After everyone had arrived and dinner had been served, Emily and I were antsy to see everyone's reaction to our "Surprise Cake of Doom and Awesomeness." We brought it out, set it on the table, and looked around the room to observe the reactions. At first everyone was silent, and looked confused. Then there were murmurs, whispers, and finally someone said "what the heck is that?" Without missing a beat, Emily explained the two armies:
"The plastic army is going to attack the happy people and the gummy bears. The people are happy because they know that the gummy bears are ferocious and about to eat all of the plastic army people. This one (pointing to a headless plastic army person with a gummy bear standing close by) got his head eaten by the ferocious gummy bear. That's all."
Before waiting for any responses, I began to cut and serve the cake, plastic army men and all. Everyone looked scared. When everyone had a piece in front of them, and no one was eating, I informed them that they were all obligated to take a bite of cake. Everyone started to slowly eat a bite. I nervously put a large bite in my mouth.
...
The jello cake was an explosion of flavors and textures. The chocolate cake combined with the raspberry jello tasted something like stale chocolate raspberry candy that you might get for Christmas from your Great Aunt's second cousin twice removed (you know, the one that doesn't like you but thinks she has to buy you something every year). It was awful. But the texture is what really took the cake (yes, pun intended). It was soggy. It was spongy. It was cold. The more you chewed, the more it grew in your mouth. Then there was the layer of jello on top; the texture of jello is strange enough on its own. And seriously, the Swedish fish? They were the kicker that the cake didn't need. A mouth full of soggy, spongy, sticky, cold, gooey nastiness that multiplied as you chewed. I couldn't handle it. I attempted to swallow, but it didn't go so well. I managed to mumble "Oh, it isn't that bad", as a tried to inconspicuously walk into the kitchen and spit into the garbage can. By this time everyone had taken a bite of the cake, and no one was swallowing. They continued to hold it awkwardly in their mouths, then managed to choke it down as they set their cake down and pushed it away.
The room erupted with laughter, and we began to talk about how awful the cake was. Emily and I were still a little bit proud of our creation, despite how horrible it had turned out (deep down in our hearts, we knew it was going to be one of the worst ideas we had ever had...). I brought out the pan of brownies I had as Plan B, and we all continued with our meeting while we ate.
As I thought about the creation of the Surprise Cake of Doom and Awesomeness, I couldn't stop thinking about how much jello the cake soaked up before there was a standing pool of jello on top. It's kind of like when Christ pours His love out on us. Christ pours and pours and pours, filling us until we are overflowing with His love. Sometimes it's hard to remember that it takes more than just a little bit of His love before we are at a place in our lives where we can love others. We can't receive a little bit of love, and think we can begin to pour love out on other people. We can't expect just four packets of jello to be enough to have a standing lake of jello on top of our cake. The cake continues to soak up the jello, just as we need to continue to receive and soak up Christ's love for us. It isn't until the cake isn't physically capable of holding any more jello that it is finally able to overflow and create a lake of jello. It isn't until we have been filled to the fullest with Christ's love that we are finally able to pour out love on other people. We can't serve unless we completely filled by Christ. When we give out of ourselves when we haven't been filled fully with Christ's love, we are going to be giving what we aren't supposed to give; we are going to to be giving ourselves, not giving Christ's love. And when we give of our self, and not of the overflowing love of Christ, nothing we do will last, because nothing we have to offer that lacks Christ's love is going to be able to accomplish anything. But all we have to do to be completely filled is to receive. God doesn't run out of jello for His jello cakes. He will fill us until we are completely overflowing with His love, and when we are overflowing, then we are able to pour into others the way He intended.
Burnout doesn't come from us giving too much; it comes from when we try to give something that we don't have.
That's what Young Life is all about. Being filled by the love of Christ until we are overflowing, in order that we may pour Christ's love into the kids in our community. And we do this so that all adolescents will come to know and follow Christ. The next time you make a jello cake, make sure that you have enough jello to create a lake with the overflow; its just better that way.
By Bethany Hutson
Wednesday, April 13, 2011
And the Grand Total is.....
$9091!!!!
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Onalaska Young Life Fundraiser Banquet! We can't believe the amount of support that the community has given for the youth of Onalaska! Our total is over $9000, and the donations are continuing to come in. We have not yet reach our financial goal for the year, but we are so blessed to have such a huge jump start on our fund-raising process!
We have also received many responses from community members who wish to become involved in the programs Young Life has going in the community. We are taking the first steps towards getting the High School Club started before the end of the school year, and are planning on having a Middle School Club started by the beginning of next school year! It is very exciting to see the community come together to meet the needs of the youth.
For those who were unable to attend the banquet, it was filmed and we are working to have the footage edited and posted on the blog as soon as possible (speeches, skits, songs, etc).
A big thanks to everyone who participated in making the banquet happen, to all who attended, all who donated, and all who are continuing to support the youth in the community. We couldn't make any of this happen without each and every one of you!!!
Interested in helping us get even closer to our financial goal? Contact Bethany Hutson: 360-880-7701 or onalaskayounglife@yahoo.com
Thank you to everyone who participated in the Onalaska Young Life Fundraiser Banquet! We can't believe the amount of support that the community has given for the youth of Onalaska! Our total is over $9000, and the donations are continuing to come in. We have not yet reach our financial goal for the year, but we are so blessed to have such a huge jump start on our fund-raising process!
We have also received many responses from community members who wish to become involved in the programs Young Life has going in the community. We are taking the first steps towards getting the High School Club started before the end of the school year, and are planning on having a Middle School Club started by the beginning of next school year! It is very exciting to see the community come together to meet the needs of the youth.
For those who were unable to attend the banquet, it was filmed and we are working to have the footage edited and posted on the blog as soon as possible (speeches, skits, songs, etc).
A big thanks to everyone who participated in making the banquet happen, to all who attended, all who donated, and all who are continuing to support the youth in the community. We couldn't make any of this happen without each and every one of you!!!
Interested in helping us get even closer to our financial goal? Contact Bethany Hutson: 360-880-7701 or onalaskayounglife@yahoo.com
Tuesday, January 25, 2011
Letters From Students
Sometimes we just need to hear it from the kids...
"I'm a sophomore at Onalaska high school. Before I met God I drank a lot and was badly influenced by my friends. Since attending youth group and getting closer to God I have learned that drinking is not a good choice. Thanks for supporting our youth group and helping kids turn their lives around."
"Dear Young Life Supporter,
I grew up going to church but when I started going to our youth group in 6th grade I really started my relationship with God. I am now a sophomore in high school and still going to that same youth group. I have been involved in many Young Life events that have helped my relationship with God grow. Thank you so so much for all that you have done, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today without Young Life. Thank you for all your support."
"I'm a sophomore at Onalaska high school. Before I met God I drank a lot and was badly influenced by my friends. Since attending youth group and getting closer to God I have learned that drinking is not a good choice. Thanks for supporting our youth group and helping kids turn their lives around."
"Dear Young Life Supporter,
I grew up going to church but when I started going to our youth group in 6th grade I really started my relationship with God. I am now a sophomore in high school and still going to that same youth group. I have been involved in many Young Life events that have helped my relationship with God grow. Thank you so so much for all that you have done, I probably wouldn't be the person I am today without Young Life. Thank you for all your support."
Saturday, January 8, 2011
12 Days of Christmas Madness Meltdown - In Retrospect
The new year has come. Christmas is over, and the kids will be back in school and the kids are back in school. I hope they are able to look back on their Christmas break and remember some good times. The 12 days of madness went better than I ever could have expected. I was so blessed by the amount of food that was donated for the events. The generosity of the churches in our area has blown my mind; it's awesome to see them working as Christ intended, meeting every need that they see. Every day during the last two weeks God proved His awesomeness. We had just a few goals for these events: give students something fun and safe to do over break, and give students who normally won't attend "religious" functions a taste of what Young Life is all about. God has bigger goals than I do, and He never ceases to go above and beyond my comprehension.
Several years ago, I had a 7th grader attending the youth group I helped Levi Althauser with. After a few years of involvement, this particular student decided that Atheism was the direction that they wanted to go, and has not been to a church function since then. In fact, has become a very outspoken Atheist, and has been known for outwardly expressing that they don't want to have anything to do with God. This student attended multiple events over Christmas break, hearing the Gospel message more than once, and still choosing to come back to the events. Throughout the weeks, I was able to reunite my relationship with this student. Young Life has a saying, "As long as you love kids, they will respond." I don't know how any of the messages she hear affected her, but the fact that she returned to our events was SO AWESOME. God is so good.
Another student had been very uninvolved throughout the last year, and was pretty much drug to one of the events. After attending several events over the 2 weeks, this student expressed gratitude for being forced to the events, admitted that they had fun, and committed to coming to our Campaigners group every week (our more intensive Bible study group).
Literally every single one of the events, there was total confirmation that God was present and working mightily. It was very clear that each day, the students who attended the events were there for a reason. One day we had 45 students, another day only 10. And each day, God knew exactly who needed to be there.
Breakdown of the 12 days:
Day 1 - Dive-in Theater - We went to Thorbecks pool to see The Polar Express while we all swam in the pool. 2.5 hours of swimming is so exhausting! Kids had a great time, and were definitely wiped out by the end of the night.
Day 2 - Halo Tournament - The Onalaska Community Youth Center put on the event, we just showed up. Huge turnout! The winning team came from the losers bracket and worked their way up through the final rounds, beating the team who was in the lead twice in a row. It was a pretty exciting night!
Day 3 - Christmas Movie Marathon - We watched Elf, The Grinch (origional/animated), Rudolph (claymation!), and Charlie Brown's Christmas. It was nice to have a chill afternoon.
Day 4 - Surprise Christmas Party! We didn't let the kids know what was going on until they showed up! Food, fun games, dance party, and the Christmas Story.
Day 5 - Gingerbread House Making Contest - We split the group into 4 teams. They were judged on 3 things: Stability, creativity, and the story that went along with their gingerbread house. I was blown away by the creativity! One group tore the roof off of their house and decorated the inside of the gingerbread house. They made up a story about how the Godzilla of Christmas Past had attacked the house. Another group built a catapult onto the roof of their gingerbread house, to protect it against the Christmas Killer. One group decorated their house very sweetly and made up a story of a newlywed couple's first Christmas together (they named the people in their story Bethany and Nathan Hutson). The final group was the leaders (the students wanted to compete students against leaders). We had a 2 story gingerbread house built on a lilly pad in the middle of a lake, complete with a diving board off the second story in the shape of a Christmas tree, and a Christmas tree slide out one of the windows. You really don't want to know the story. Lets just say that we are going to make a movie out of it, and it will be released this Spring.
Day 6 - Bonfire - One of my favorite events. I talked more about it in one of my other posts...
Day 7 - Photo Scavenger Hunt - EPIC. We had two teams, and each team had a list of photos that they had to take of their team doing specific tasks. These tasks included: Pumping someone else's gas, your entire team upside down, dunking a team members head completely under water, tying a stranger's shoe, combing a strangers hair, singing happy birthday to a stranger, the entire team in a small place, an image of diversity, God's beautiful creation, an image of peace, and so much more. There was a time limit, and everyone had to be back at the youth center at a certain time, or their team would lose points. My favorite pics included: an entire team squished into a honey bucket, and an entire team doing handstands against a tree. It was a pretty entertaining afternoon, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.
Day #8 - After Christmas Christmas Party - complete with a white elephant gift exchange. Surprisingly, the most popular item in the gift exchange was a coat hanger. ??? Sometimes I don't understand high schoolers.
Day #9 - CHILL TIME - Watched movies, ate food, and played a fabulous game of Cranium. It was a good time, and nice to have a day where we could all just relax.
Day #10 - Cookie Baking Blizzard - The guys outnumbered the girls for this event, something I wasn't expecting! Judy Hansen was gracious enough to let us destroy her kitchen for the day. We started the day off with home made lattes. After 8 hours of baking we had a batch of sugar cookies, 2 batches of gingerbread men, 2 batches of shortbread, 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies, 1 batch of Mexican wedding cakes, and 2 batches of giant ginger cookies, totally approximately 30 DOZEN cookies. The day wouldn't have been complete without being decked out (guys included) in aprons, and having an intense flour fight. It was a really great time to just hang out, have fun, and consuming way too much sugar and caffeine.
Day #11 - Originally this was going to be the Mud Olympics, but the ground was frozen solid, so we did an spontaneous movie day with a trip to Dairy Dan's for some ice cream.
Day 12 - New Years Eve Party - By the time this day arrived, I was completely exhausted. I was excited for the event, excited for the week to be over, and relying completely on the scripture that reminds me that God's grace is sufficient. Ken and Jennifer Zandecki were gracious enough to allow us to use their shop for our event. We had the Wii, Xbox, and Nintendo set up, a stack of board games, and a handful of group games. We had a great turnout for the event, and it was pretty hilarious watching some of the guys in Wii Dance. At about 11:30, we lit some candles and turned off all of the lights, and circled up for some God time. I had the students reflect back on the last year, and think about the good times, the bad times, the weird times, and the blah times. Then we thought about the times that were going to matter 10 years from now - what did we do in the last year that truely mattered? What should we have done differently, how should the next year look differently? I used the first part of Hebrews 12 which reads:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
I then asked the student to think about what things they need to throw off, in order that they may run with perseverance the race marked out for us. What did we need to do to make it so everything that we did in the next year actually mattered? We had a giant wooden cross, and I challenged the kids to come up and write down on a piece of paper the things that they needed to throw off, and then nail that piece of paper to the cross. So many students came forward, making commitments in order that they may run towards what Christ has planned for them without hindrance. God worked in the hearts of many students that night, and it was so exciting to be a part of.
I am so grateful for all of the things that God did over Christmas break. He never ceases to amaze me, humble me, and challenge me. I am also so very grateful that the 12 days of madness is over. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. You will never know the extent to which God uses your prayers and actions to further His Kingdom.
Grace and Peace,
Bethany
Several years ago, I had a 7th grader attending the youth group I helped Levi Althauser with. After a few years of involvement, this particular student decided that Atheism was the direction that they wanted to go, and has not been to a church function since then. In fact, has become a very outspoken Atheist, and has been known for outwardly expressing that they don't want to have anything to do with God. This student attended multiple events over Christmas break, hearing the Gospel message more than once, and still choosing to come back to the events. Throughout the weeks, I was able to reunite my relationship with this student. Young Life has a saying, "As long as you love kids, they will respond." I don't know how any of the messages she hear affected her, but the fact that she returned to our events was SO AWESOME. God is so good.
Another student had been very uninvolved throughout the last year, and was pretty much drug to one of the events. After attending several events over the 2 weeks, this student expressed gratitude for being forced to the events, admitted that they had fun, and committed to coming to our Campaigners group every week (our more intensive Bible study group).
Literally every single one of the events, there was total confirmation that God was present and working mightily. It was very clear that each day, the students who attended the events were there for a reason. One day we had 45 students, another day only 10. And each day, God knew exactly who needed to be there.
Breakdown of the 12 days:
Day 1 - Dive-in Theater - We went to Thorbecks pool to see The Polar Express while we all swam in the pool. 2.5 hours of swimming is so exhausting! Kids had a great time, and were definitely wiped out by the end of the night.
Day 2 - Halo Tournament - The Onalaska Community Youth Center put on the event, we just showed up. Huge turnout! The winning team came from the losers bracket and worked their way up through the final rounds, beating the team who was in the lead twice in a row. It was a pretty exciting night!
Day 3 - Christmas Movie Marathon - We watched Elf, The Grinch (origional/animated), Rudolph (claymation!), and Charlie Brown's Christmas. It was nice to have a chill afternoon.
Day 4 - Surprise Christmas Party! We didn't let the kids know what was going on until they showed up! Food, fun games, dance party, and the Christmas Story.
Day 5 - Gingerbread House Making Contest - We split the group into 4 teams. They were judged on 3 things: Stability, creativity, and the story that went along with their gingerbread house. I was blown away by the creativity! One group tore the roof off of their house and decorated the inside of the gingerbread house. They made up a story about how the Godzilla of Christmas Past had attacked the house. Another group built a catapult onto the roof of their gingerbread house, to protect it against the Christmas Killer. One group decorated their house very sweetly and made up a story of a newlywed couple's first Christmas together (they named the people in their story Bethany and Nathan Hutson). The final group was the leaders (the students wanted to compete students against leaders). We had a 2 story gingerbread house built on a lilly pad in the middle of a lake, complete with a diving board off the second story in the shape of a Christmas tree, and a Christmas tree slide out one of the windows. You really don't want to know the story. Lets just say that we are going to make a movie out of it, and it will be released this Spring.
Day 6 - Bonfire - One of my favorite events. I talked more about it in one of my other posts...
Day 7 - Photo Scavenger Hunt - EPIC. We had two teams, and each team had a list of photos that they had to take of their team doing specific tasks. These tasks included: Pumping someone else's gas, your entire team upside down, dunking a team members head completely under water, tying a stranger's shoe, combing a strangers hair, singing happy birthday to a stranger, the entire team in a small place, an image of diversity, God's beautiful creation, an image of peace, and so much more. There was a time limit, and everyone had to be back at the youth center at a certain time, or their team would lose points. My favorite pics included: an entire team squished into a honey bucket, and an entire team doing handstands against a tree. It was a pretty entertaining afternoon, and the kids seemed to really enjoy it.
Day #8 - After Christmas Christmas Party - complete with a white elephant gift exchange. Surprisingly, the most popular item in the gift exchange was a coat hanger. ??? Sometimes I don't understand high schoolers.
Day #9 - CHILL TIME - Watched movies, ate food, and played a fabulous game of Cranium. It was a good time, and nice to have a day where we could all just relax.
Day #10 - Cookie Baking Blizzard - The guys outnumbered the girls for this event, something I wasn't expecting! Judy Hansen was gracious enough to let us destroy her kitchen for the day. We started the day off with home made lattes. After 8 hours of baking we had a batch of sugar cookies, 2 batches of gingerbread men, 2 batches of shortbread, 3 batches of chocolate chip cookies, 1 batch of Mexican wedding cakes, and 2 batches of giant ginger cookies, totally approximately 30 DOZEN cookies. The day wouldn't have been complete without being decked out (guys included) in aprons, and having an intense flour fight. It was a really great time to just hang out, have fun, and consuming way too much sugar and caffeine.
Day #11 - Originally this was going to be the Mud Olympics, but the ground was frozen solid, so we did an spontaneous movie day with a trip to Dairy Dan's for some ice cream.
Day 12 - New Years Eve Party - By the time this day arrived, I was completely exhausted. I was excited for the event, excited for the week to be over, and relying completely on the scripture that reminds me that God's grace is sufficient. Ken and Jennifer Zandecki were gracious enough to allow us to use their shop for our event. We had the Wii, Xbox, and Nintendo set up, a stack of board games, and a handful of group games. We had a great turnout for the event, and it was pretty hilarious watching some of the guys in Wii Dance. At about 11:30, we lit some candles and turned off all of the lights, and circled up for some God time. I had the students reflect back on the last year, and think about the good times, the bad times, the weird times, and the blah times. Then we thought about the times that were going to matter 10 years from now - what did we do in the last year that truely mattered? What should we have done differently, how should the next year look differently? I used the first part of Hebrews 12 which reads:
"Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses, let us throw off everything that hinders and the sin that so easily entangles. And let us run with perseverance the race marked out for us, fixing our eyes on Jesus, the pioneer and perfecter of faith. For the joy set before him he endured the cross, scorning its shame, and sat down at the right hand of the throne of God. Consider him who endured such opposition from sinners, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart."
I then asked the student to think about what things they need to throw off, in order that they may run with perseverance the race marked out for us. What did we need to do to make it so everything that we did in the next year actually mattered? We had a giant wooden cross, and I challenged the kids to come up and write down on a piece of paper the things that they needed to throw off, and then nail that piece of paper to the cross. So many students came forward, making commitments in order that they may run towards what Christ has planned for them without hindrance. God worked in the hearts of many students that night, and it was so exciting to be a part of.
I am so grateful for all of the things that God did over Christmas break. He never ceases to amaze me, humble me, and challenge me. I am also so very grateful that the 12 days of madness is over. Thank you all so much for your prayers and support. You will never know the extent to which God uses your prayers and actions to further His Kingdom.
Grace and Peace,
Bethany
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