Oh. My. Lawn. I don't think I can adequately tell you how busy today was. I'm going to try, but I doubt you'll fully grasp the busyness. That's ok though. Just know, after you read everything I post, even though it was busy and I'm tired, it was SUCH an amazing blessing from start to finish and it took me until that finish to finally receive the blessing of it. Let's start at the top.
I woke up at 3 o'clock this morning, because Noah woke up with a low. I've had some anxiety lately (a long story that I won't get into), so I was unable to fall back asleep. With a day like I knew I had coming, being unable to sleep was NOT something I could afford to deal with. It definitely put me a bit off my game for a good part of the day. Noah and I left for church around 7:45, so we could run to Kroger and get some balloons and put the finishing touches on the kick-off for ZONE. We had a carnival theme - snacks, prizes, games, etc..
They each got a bag with some goodies inside about Jesus and our program, and they were able to add prizes, crafts, and snacks to their bag as the morning went on. Some of the games were a spinning wheel game and a can game, where they tried to knock down all the cans.
Every time they played a game or took their photo at our makeshift photo booth, they got tickets. They took the tickets to the prize table and got prizes. Noah and Livie helped Pete and I set all of this up Saturday morning, while Madie was at dance, so they both knew exactly what prizes they wanted - and they got every single one! :-)
At the Snack Table, we had water bottles, with the information about our program on them. We had popcorn and animal crackers and hot dogs too! The kids really seemed to enjoy the free treats!
Pete helped lead this bean bag toss game. The kids loved it! Especially the older boys, who enjoyed trying out their baseball skills. :-)
Madie is old enough now to be a helper and did the ring toss game. She was giving out tickets left and right! I think this was the best station of the morning, since the kids could win so many tickets at a time.
We had crafts they got to do and many times I saw kids standing around, going through their bags, to see what goodies they had collected. I was seriously so tired when this was going on, I really was in a daze. I had so many people come up to me both during and after to tell me how much fun the kids had, but I was so disconnected at that point, wallowing in my anxiety, that I wasn't able to receive it. I went home, tired and overwhelmed, because I knew that I had another kids' event to go to just an hour and a half later. I was not looking forward to it to say the least.
Well, after that hour and a half passed, I loaded up Madie, Noah, and our neighbor Jade, and headed out to pick up two more kids and take them over to a place called the "Enchanted Forest" over in Utica. Our brand new Jr. High Youth Group was having their kick-off event here and I had promised to take my kids and their invited friends. We were there from 2:30-6 and during those 3+ hours, my attitude completely changed. I'll tell you why.
When we got there, the adults were there to greet the kids and we got them their ride bracelets and tokens. Doesn't this look like a great group of kids?!
My kids weren't interested in riding the rides. They wanted to play arcade games and win tickets. Guess the theme of the day was "TICKETS"!
Madie and her friend Katie played lots of games together, putting their ticket winnings together to make it a larger bundle. :-)
See all their winnings??
Watching Noah go up this ride, screaming and laughing, is when my attitude started to turn around. I started to come out of my exhausted, stressed haze and start realizing what was happening all around me. You see, over 2 yrs ago I joined our pastor to try and get a youth program started in our church. Our youth program died when our youth pastor left about 5 yrs ago. I knew my kids were going to get to the age where a youth program would be important to them and we didn't have anything like that in our church at that time. I started going to monthly meetings with John and other area ministers as we tried to create a city-wide group. Month after month, I went to these meetings, with nothing to show for it. Everything fizzled out when John was faced with his dad's failing health. He came back from that and his Sabbatical with renewed interest in starting something up again. I was kind of over it at that point and didn't want to start a new cascade of meetings that would result in nothingness again, but I went. I wanted to support it, even if my heart wasn't in it. But, what I wasn't willing to look at, at the time, was this wasn't meant to be on MY time table, but God's time table and HIS time table is what matters in all of it. After 6 months of talking about it, I begrudgingly went to one more meeting and a gal, who had never been to the meetings before, got teary-eyed and said, "God wants me to do this." WHAT?! After all this time, was I really hearing this? Fast forward to today, 6 months later and I found myself, staring into the laughing, screaming face of my 10 yr old, while my 12 yr old was running from game to game, and I realized.... It's happening. All that work, all that prayer, and the youth program was happening right before my eyes. My exhaustion fell away and excitement came in its place. I was too tired to appreciate the joy in the eyes of the kids during our ZONE Kick-off, but I was awake and able to receive the joy that the kids had during the Youth Kick-off! A day that began with me feeling overwhelmed and under-rested, ended up being one of the biggest blessings of the year for me! God does that too. He likes to turn things around, when I least expect them too, and remind me that He is in control, always. And, I needed to hear, and know that today. So, the rest of the afternoon went a little something like this:
Tickets were cashed in.
Prizes were bought.
Laser Tag Annihilation occurred - which was, hands down, everyone's favorite!
We adults (and later the kids) all sat around and chatted and had some delicious pizza.
All the kids, except Madie with her fear of heights, tackled the rope course. Noah powered through it, after some nervousness crept in.
Noah discovered the joy of the Tilt-O-Whirl and, after much convincing from my peers, found me at his side for one quick go-around (though that's Madie's friend, Katie, in the picture above). :-)
New relationships between adults and kids were formed. And, this makes me happy, most of all. So, today was jam-packed with activities for the kids, both young and younger still. I wasn't able to receive the blessings of the first event, at the time, but I WAS able to see the blessings of the second event and receive the joy of what it meant to my kids, their friends, and our church. :-)
So, you see, that is the story of how God changed my heart today and reminded me that I don't need to hold on so tightly to my worries and concerns. I need to trust Him more and know He's in control. I know in my own failings, that I will continue to fight my own need to control, instead of giving it to Him, but it was something I needed to be reminded of today and He did it in the best way possible - through the completion of a long-held journey. What a great God we serve!
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