Saturday, January 13, 2007

It's been a year already??


It hangs over my head all year long - the ominous portent of doom. It is the ultimate test of my love for youth ministry. It is the death of my weekend and the birth of many slightly embarrassing stories.

It is the Annual Chapel by the Sea Youth Group lock-in.

My favorite.

And it has come upon me so quickly and now is breathing down my neck from two hours away.

Why, why, why do teens love staying up all night and breathing each other's air? Why do they find it a thrill to accidentally fall asleep and wake up with a magic-marker moustache? What is it about Sponge Bob Square Pants that we all find so terribly amusing?

I don't have the answers, although I've been researching them for three years now. Maybe I will come home tomorrow more enlightened.

But I can say this - they look forward to it all year. They love it and I love them. So I guess I love it, too.

And I am looking forward to laying down some smooth tracks during karaoke.

2 comments:

Katrina said...

Haha! Lock-ins are truly the youth ministry testing grounds, as you try to stay awake longer than the kids, keep the sleepless masses entertained, and forestall brilliant, sleep-deprived ideas like waking up the church minister by banging pots and pans together in his front yard at four in the morning. Ahhh, the lock-in.

Hope you had fun!!!

Madburns said...

Jess,
have you not learned that this is what mentorship is for? Find a person to mentor and make them do it for you.

burns (not involved in a lock-in for over 10+ years and counting)