skirr

This past weekend was my annual pilgrimage to Green Bay for the Evangelical Free Church Teen Conference (short name: Districts). This year was quite low key, though no less impactful (is that a word? I've seen it used, but I don't know...). The main speaker lives in Wisconsin, the band originated in Wisconsin and we only took 4 teens (one who is a college student, thus technically a leader).

The main idea for the weekend was to discover who we are, and that means who we are as identity, not as reputation. It also means going a little deeper into your idea of who God is and how big you think He is. Chances are, you're not going big enough. 

The whole thing went really fast and most of us got enough sleep to function pretty well!

We had some fun outside of the seminars and main sessions. There's always something unique at whatever hotel we've been assigned to...

Saturday morning we woke up to snow! The last time we saw snow was before Thanksgiving, so we were pretty excited. After the morning session and before lunch, the teens stayed outside and had a snowball fight. Sorry, no pictures of that...

Saturday night we went to Noodles & Co. for supper and rather enjoyed the bathroom signs.

The girls sat at one table and the guys at another, so I don't really know how this happened... I'm going to guess it's all on Kevin.

[note: video coming soon]

Something that struck me on Monday was that group feeling we all experience at Districts is nothing new. There's a lot of talk at the Sunday morning session about how the teens have to go back to 'real life' and school and how tough it's going to be.

My Bible passage for yesterday happened to be Exodus 24: Moses, Aaron and the people meet together and worship God before Moses gets the 10 commandments. There is incredible unity and everyone promises to honor and obey God in that moment. Then Moses goes up the mountain to get instruction and the 'real world' hits the Israelites. A few chapters later we read about the golden calf and 'wonder how on earth?' 

But if you've ever attended a camp or a weekend conference, I think you can relate. And I don't think we as a Church talk about this enough--we like to focus on 'mountaintop experiences', but what about the ones where we're at the foot of the mountain and surrounded by other believers? These are just as powerful and I think a very important reason why we should attend church and participate in Bible studies, no matter what our age.

extract

Here's the video I promised in the other post about the AZ mission trip! It's a bit more encompassing than the one I had shown in church, as there were folks from the trip speaking befoehand, so this one is longer. 

And includes part of our theme song.

recapitulate

Our mission trip was a success, despite the daily thunderstorms!

We arrived Wednesday afternoon, assessed our projects, did some initial shopping and started working. Most help organize and paint trim, while Jessica and I worked on our first meal.

Then, Thursday through Saturday we painted, sawed, painted and scraped to get our projects done (in between thunder, lightening and hail)! 

Saturday night saw a carpetball tournament to test out the new tables; Graeme put together the brackets so the pairings would be random. This did put Chip (the tallest of the group) against Laura (the shortest)... But it was a blast and a great way to relieve the stress of frantically working for three days straight.

Sunday was reserved for visiting the Grand Canyon. When we first arrived, our hearts sank:

Fortunately, the skies cleared and we were able to see the magnificence of the rocks, the chasm and the layers of beauty. We also ate at a Harvey Girls restaurant there at the park. I felt accomplished, as I had seen the movie a few years ago.

Monday was pack up and clean up before heading back to Phoenix to catch our flight home. On the way down, we stopped in Sedona to see the famous red rocks and swung by Montezuma's Well and Castle.

I only have three regrets:

1. We didn't spend nearly enough time together as a group just hanging out.
2. We never made it to the top of the mountain just behind the camp.
3. We ran out of time to go to In-n-Out.

expedition

Some of you know that Chip and I are participating in a mission trip at the end of July/beginning of August. We'll be heading down to Flagstaff, AZ to help spruce up The Conference Center at El Nathan Ministries. This is through my church and several teens are going along, hence my interest. 

We also have to cook for ourselves, so I was roped in right from the beginning, as I've been cooking for a small crowd every Tuesday for the past couple of years (summers off). It shall be interesting, though, as Flagstaff is at 7,000 feet, whereas Wisconsin is only a few feet above sea level...

Our group is still raising monetary support, so if you're interested in helping, please let me know! Otherwise, we certainly can use prayer support, which is no less important.

Please be praying for the following things:

• Pray for traveling safety and safety as we work.
• Pray for funds to come in to cover the trips expenses.
• Pray for health as we get ready and while we're there.
• Pray that we will be an encouragement to the Dudenhofer's and their ministry.
• Pray that we will be able to minister to and with our Native American Christian friends.

delish

Amazingly enough, none of these recipes originated on Pinterest! Everything came from my blog roll.

We're still offering a full meal to our teens that come to youth group and I love the challenge of figuring out what to prepare each week, especially since we have so many teens this year!

This past Tuesday I went the Mexican route and had a couple of different things available for dinner. Large-pan-type-dishes* seem to work best, so I made a Mexican Lasagna for the main dish, then also had guacamole, chips, taquitos and salsa on the side. 

Quick note: I used hamburger rather than turkey in the lasagna. I also snuck in 1 tsp of cumin. And those taquitos? AMAZING. I should have doubled the recipe. 

Dessert was Mexican Hot Chocolate Brownies. A little spicy, but very delicious, as you can see by this photo:

I have to point out that it's important to let these cool completely before cutting, as the Foodie Bride directs. I used ½ t of crushed red pepper in these and my ganache was a 50-50 mix of bittersweet and semi-sweet chocolates (pantry difficulties...).



*Yes, yes, the proper word here is casserole. But that sounds stuffy and like I've made something awful. Maybe the Minnesotans have the right idea calling it 'hot dish'.

troth

This post is quite overdue. But don't worry--I've got another that's even more overdue than this one coming up in the next week or so!

My first weekend of each new year has been blocked out (for the past several years) for this:

This year was quite good. The music was familiar (and not overdone--my biggest pet peeve), the main speaker was funny (as well as able to connect with teens) and the mini seminars were enlightening.

I went to two for leaders and they both seemed to have the same theme: let your teens learn to grow apart from you (meaning parents, but could apply to any adult role model). This means both spiritually and socially, so that when they do leave the home, they're well on their way to being responsible adults. Then they won't go to college, their job or tech school and freak out because they've never had to act like an adult.

Then Jen Hatmaker did a wonderful post on a similar idea. Here's an excerpt:

We are on a spectrum as parents, aren't we? At the beginning, it is full control, total adult responsibility. At the end of the main session, when they crush our hearts and leave for college, we they need to be weaned off. Somewhere in the middle, the needle has to move toward launch. What better place to practice growing up than under our roofs, still protected from total self-destruction by the safety net of childhood? 

I’ve seen older kids babied within an inch of their lives, headed off to higher learning with no clue on how to be resourceful, how to figure it out, how to handle life’s knocks and bruises. Over-protection has its place for, say, kindergarteners, but at some point we need to put down the bumpers on the bowling lane.

A lot of this actually gets started when the kids are young: teach them to start making small decisions for themselves so they understand that they can't live in a vacuum. But this is a side note here.  :grin:

Bottom line? We need to be training. We have to be disciple makers, so that they in turn will become disciple makers. And the phenomenon will continue, making generations of mature, responsible adults, ready to live for Jesus!

refection

We held our next-to-last youth group meeting last night. The next meeting will be more like a party, though we'll still ask for some group participation. The last lesson set we did was about listening to whispers from God (by Bill Hybels) and it was a bit of a challenge for the teens. Very few could list times when they felt God was telling them to do something. But they are still young and just now starting to claim their faith as their own. We hope it has planted a seed, at least, for when they get a little older and more in charge of their own lives.


BUT, the point of this particular post is about eating. Each week I make food for the group (something we set up last year as an incentive to come regularly). The meal I made last night was yummy: teriyaki chicken. I wanted to share it with you guys.

Pics taken with my iPhone, as my 'real' camera suddenly decided it didn't want to communicate with the lens... grrr... I think this is the second time that's happened.

I must admit, I do have some tweaks I want to do, though I've not figured out what they may be. If nothing else, sprinkling of green onions at the end would have kicked it up a notch.

redirection

Raise your hand if you like teenagers.

No, really--I'm curious.

I've been a co leader for our senior high youth group at Faith Chapel since 2002 and sometimes feel like I'm getting off easy when it comes to helping out in the church. This ministry (though it has ups and downs--I didn't say it was easy) is enjoyable and I think I learn just as much as the teens do!

Something we've been doing the past several years is take our group up to Districts. This is an annual conference for all the youth groups in our district (hence the title--catchy, eh?), which is actually the whole state of Wisconsin. It's huge. It's loud. It has great growth opportunities. It means little sleep. It's a great weekend for bonding. It's a chance to get away.

And it's a time to confront some tough issues. The theme this year was listening to God's heartbeat and our teens began to wonder how do you know you've accepted Christ? How can you get that feeling again, like when you first surrendered to Jesus? Why can't we just see Jesus? These are hard, deep things and we're glad they finally came out in the open. One of the hardest things for me and my co leader is the teens' commitment--to Christ, the church and each other. It hurts to see former (well, and current ones, too) members of our group turn away and give up on Christianity. 

Part of the reason teens leave the faith is that 'feeling dilemma': why can't I feel Jesus all the time? I distinctly remember getting the euphoric feeling in college--sometimes chapel services were fabulous and I felt really close to God. It was then I could do anything and was certain that the Holy Spirit was present. But when the music wasn't spectacular or the message was ho-hum, going to church (or any special services) was a lot more along the lines of just going through the motions. Fortunately for me, I didn't get so discouraged that I stopped going to church, Bible studies or vesper services. But if I had decided that no feelings = no Jesus, I really hope I would have had someone to set me straight. I told our group of teens that the feeling is fleeting--don't rely on that to let you know if you're saved or not. Part of faith is the fact that it isn't easy and visible. Sometimes it will feel like a chore to go to church. Sometimes doing devotions will be just something you have to do. For many, it gets easier as you become an adult. We encouraged them to keep talking about this stuff--if not with us, then with their parents or another trusted adult. 

Speaking of parents: don't ever give up talking about the hard stuff of walking with Jesus. Don't let your teenagers feel like they're sinning if they have doubts or questions. As the speaker for the weekend said, ask them often how their heart is. Encourage them to have daily devotions. Let them find their own faith--not continue to cling to yours. Be open and willing to talk (especially if they are questioning their faith). And pray for them all the time.


Oh, and if you want to see a small taste of what I'm talkin' about:

equipped

Another year of senior high youth group is drawing to a close. This past semester we've been going through the Vintage Jesus series and it's been really good: a lot of basic knowledge, but several points for even the more mature believer to get his or her teeth into. Some of the lessons sparked quite a bit of discussion and some really were motivating.

Tonight, for example, was about Jesus' return (I know, ironic, right?) and what that means for followers of Jesus and non-believers. The part that was most motivating was the thought that God has laid out plans for all of us, if we wish to follow Him. They are good plans and can lead to rewards in heaven (when we get there). Before dinner, Chris threw out the idea of going down to help with the cleanup in Missouri. The teens had several excuses about why they wouldn't be able to go. After the lesson (which is after dinner), one of the teens piped up that he'd really like to go help the tornado victims.

Very cool.

cluster

We're coming to the close of another year of high school youth group. It's been a small year, as far as attendance is concerned, but we've hit some heavy topics, so perhaps that's for the best. I've noticed the more teens in the room, the more tangents we take...


A few topics covered recently: abortion, civil disobedience, capital punishment, cloning and lying. Some of the discussion was interesting and some of them were inconclusive (e.g. I don't know what I think of capital punishment), but it all was couched in terms of what God's character is like so we had a baseline. These are things that don't always come up in conversation and you can't find a straight-up answer about some of them in the Bible, so it was good to take some time to figure out the why and what of some of these controversial issues.


To round out the year, though, we're going to tackle Francis Chan's book Crazy Love. Each chapter has a video introduction and questions to go along. It should be good: he's a good pastor, definitely inspired by God.

assembledge

So Chip and I just spent a weekend with 2900 teens...


The Evangelical Free Church has a conference for all the church youth groups in the state once a year and it is fantastic.


What I really appreciated this year was the variety--it's important (and not just for teens, I think) to communicate all the types of jobs you can have and still be able to spread your faith. There was an artist there who painted on stage as we sang with the band, literally filled several canvases over the course of the weekend. How cool is that to see an artist using his talent for God?


Something they improved this year were the number of mini sessions for Saturday afternoon. As one of our teens put it: those are the best part of the weekend. I went to one on worship-based prayer and another on equipping your youth group to share their faith.


So I'm hoping to get some of the pictures from this weekend soon and I'll put them up here when I do...

Chip and I are both zombies today!

Book recommendation: The Tales of Beedle the Bard by J.K. Rowling
Recipe recommendation: Stirfried Cabbage
Music recommendation: Dutton

compassion

For youth group this week, Chris and I held a Compassion night. Our group sponsors a child, so we thought it would be a good idea to give our teens a better picture of what it's like in another country, especially one that has Compassion children in it. The organization sends out quarterly magazines and frequent letters that contain great information, plus they had sent me a DVD with a brief overview of the whole process (when sponsoring a child--it had a LOT of really cute kids featured), so we had lots of good material.




We started off by having everyone pile into a small cardboard hut we set up outside and talked about living spaces in other, poorer countries. Chris read a few Bible verses about how we, God and others treat (or should treat) the needy and poor. There was some good brainstorming about how we can better serve the needy we are surrounded with, such as give more to the local food pantry.


Then we talked about chores and how things are a little different, especially when you don't have running water at your house. Our simulation wasn't exact, but carrying a 2 gallon bucket on your head for the length of the house gave them the idea.

Then we talked about food and water and money. I randomly gave a couple of teens play money and we talked about jobs, cost of living and what's available. I had some dirty water they could have for free, semi-clean water for somewhat cheap and expensive filtered water. And not all of them had money...
Then we watched the video, read the letter from our child and wrote one back to her. We also had one of our teens talk about the mission trip he took over the summer. He gave us a brief overview and some impressions he had.
Hopefully this lesson has a bit of an impact and we'll be able to think about how blessed we are, and what would we hope for if suddenly the U.S. weren't quite so blessed...

Sorry for picture blurriness...I had to move fast!

Book recommendation: The Adoration of Jenna Fox by Mary E. Pearson
Recipe recommendation: Super Crisp Oven-Fried Fish
Television recommendation: Fringe

juvenescence

Working with teens is a great challenge. Christopher and I have been enjoying the youth group this year, which was switched to Tuesday nights. Last year, we were Monday, the junior high was Tuesday and the younger kids (Awana) were Wednesday. Some parents were having to go out each night!

Anyway, we've got a few new faces this year, but only a couple graduated, so many know our format and what to expect. Generally, I handle the opening games and record prayers. I also make sure to talk about Vicky, our Compassion child, who we've been sponsoring for about a year now. Chris takes care of the lesson and filler, if any is needed. He's quite good at coming up with fun questions to answer on the spot. 'If you could live anywhere in the world, where would it be?' So far this year, we've been covering The Jesus I Never Knew by Philip Yancy. We're using the video series and discussion guide, which is both good and bad. It's good because the video clips are short and provide good visuals for our discussion, but it's bad because...well...let's just say Mr. Yancy isn't very...suited for the camera...

We are going to do some holiday stuff for the next few weeks, and then in January we'll tackle Biblical leadership. This coming week we'll study Hanukkah, and then we'll watch The Nativity (movie out last year) and discuss Hollywood's take on that event the last two meetings before Christmas.

Clipart from school.discovery.com

Book recommendation: Thr3e by Ted Dekker
Recipe recommendation: Sesame Chicken
New product recommendation: Grate-It-Fresh parmesan cheese (Kraft)

ecclesiastical adolescents

I've been helping with Faith Chapel's youth group for a few years now, and it's often a great blessing. It's so nice to be with kids who take church and God seriously, and want to learn more. My partner in crime is Christopher Fait, who has excellent rapport with the teens, and graciously shares his basement with the group (our current meeting place).

Most recently, we've been studying Romans, but we've covered all kinds of different topics and looked at several books of the Bible, from world religions to spiritual disciplines to real-life scenarios at school and home. The tricky parts have been to balance being interesting, yet stay informative, and fitting ourselves into their busy schedules. We also would love to have a place of our own, but that hasn't worked out yet. I'm hesitant to meet at the church for a couple of reasons: 1. the teens who are coming that don't go to Faith Chapel and 2. many of the teens express their liking the 'homey-ness' of meeting at someone's house.

The general format of the evening is an opening game or hi/lo of the week, and then we have our introductory material. Once that's established we'll dive into the lesson, sometimes using video clips and sometimes breaking off into smaller groups to do some exegetical study. We'll wrap up with prayer and announcements.

There's not a whole lot at the church website yet, but we're still working on it.

Logo designed by Jonathan Hainstock

Book recommendation: Artemis Fowl: the Lost Colony by Eoin Colfer
Recipe recommendation: Sugared Pecans (great for parties!)
YouTube recommendation: Martian clip

cultural dynamism

Otaku Gaijen
(obsessive foreign fan)

Every last Wednesday of the month is the time for teenagers to flood the library to take care of their latest obsession: anime. I started our club the fall of 2004, and it has officially forty one members, 15 or so who attend regularly. We named it a few months after it started, so we weren't stuck with The Burlington Public Library Anime Club (very cheesy), agreeing upon Otaku Gaijen.

Anime is short for Japanese animation, and is pretty much cartoons, though most are a continuing series, not standing on their own. Manga (Japanese comic books) can either inspire an anime series, or be drawn in honor of an anime. True manga fans prefer the ones that have been translated from the Japanese in the original format, which means you'd be reading the book 'backwards'.

Orignally, the format for club was pretty simple: we shared any new acquisitions of manga or anime (personal or what I had purchased for the library), showed off our drawings, made any announcements that were necessary and then watched and evaluated some anime. It's turned into a much less structured event, where we'll have announcements, some chit-chat time and then watch our feature of the month, which usually lasts about 30 minutes. Most of what we watch originates in Japan, and we watch it in Japanese with English subtitles (who says teens aren't reading?!).

After we watch and evaluate, I generally add the disc or tape to the collection. I just was able to get a shelf of anime in the teen area, as DEMCO finally came out with anime sticker labels! There also is a shelf of graphic novels and manga, so everything aimed at teens is in one area.

Some of my favorites that we've watched are Revolutionary Girl Utena, Spirited Away, Record of Lodoss War, and You're Under Arrest. There have only been a few total flops, and generally my teens don't like robot films, which is hard, as that's a large genre in anime. I also have only had a few that were borderline unacceptable to publically show (I preview everything first), but fortunately, my teens are pretty mature about that stuff. Uh, well, sort of. As much as they can be, I suppose. [grin]

artwork courtesy of me! we have a lot of how-to-draw anime books here...

Book recommendation: Olivia Forms a Band by Ian Falconer
Movie recommendation: The Devil Wears Prada
Recipe recommendation: Ricotta Blueberry Pancakes