Youth Weekend!

Chad & I were graciously invited to be responsible adults at a retreat that our friend Jason (& the youth ministers from a few other churches in the Amarillo area) conducted in mid-May. And we agreed.

The day the retreat was scheduled to begin, it rained. And rained. And a little more rain, with some thunder & lightning thrown in for good measure. The campground where the retreat was meant to take place cancelled on Jason & the rest of the gang. Rather than postpone this retreat for a second time, they opted to use a church building in Amarillo, for which I was very grateful.

Unfortunately, this last-minute change of plans really cut into our numbers; some kids decided not to come when they saw the rain, and others just didn't turn up for one reason or another, leaving us with 36 teens for the weekend. And did I mention that there were six sponsors, and only one of us was a woman?

The first night, we played "Minute to Win It" and Capture the Flag. In the dark, with glow bracelets. It was fun, but eventually the kids started getting too rough in their quest to conquer the game, so we called a halt at around 2 PM. A bunch of the girls were complaining about not being sleepy, so I laid down my usual rule: I don't care if you stay awake, as long as you are quiet. No prizes for guessing how many of them fell asleep in five minutes.

The next morning, Jason told me about some of the girls asking him one favor or another, and that he directed them to ask me. Apparently, they were reluctant to do so because I seemed unapproachable. Yep, scare 'em before they can ask any questions, that's me.

Anyway, the next day was filled with more games, more free time, more fun, more getting to know each other, and... an injury. Yep, there was a head-on collision-- quite literally-- during a game of freeze tag. One girl went to the emergency room, the other went home early. (Both girls are fine, although one of them is now minus a couple of teeth.)

These two dressing alike did not work out well for me. I just decided to assume whichever one I could see out of the corner of my eye was Jason so I didn't do one of those "hugging-the-wrong-twin" kind of things.

And, we got to see all the Kites on Sunday. It was a fun weekend.