- A Kind Goodbye Sunday night was my last hurrah at the church. We played CTF 5000 (Capture the Flag insane-o style) and ate too much pizza. And then the kiddos blindsided me with the sweetest surprise: thank you cupcakes. A handful of them stood up in front of the group and said things they’d miss about me, they […]
- Evan Almighty Responses I took the youth group to see the opening of Evan Almighty last night and laughed my little head off. It is a lovely film with simple truths about family, kindness, and God’s love for creation. Morgan Freeman made me cry happy tears at the very end, because he plays a really tender Daddy-God. I […]
- 24-7 Prayer Week Yesterday we kicked off a 24-7 Prayer week at my church. Sunday morning about 10 middle and high school kiddos transformed my office into the prayer room while sweating, laughing, and eating Doritos. We’re about 30 hours into it and we’ve had a pretty much unbroken chain of prayer, much to my surprise. This afternoon […]
- Emo and Walking Awkwardly Well, the girls retreat was a raving success, and I laughed harder than I have in quite a long time. Elise was extraordinary with the girls, as expected. It seemed that the Spirit was a busy-one over our weekend. I waved Elise off at the aeroporto as she is flying back to Portugal tonight. Now […]
- Girls Retreating to Williamsburg Tomorrow I’m taking a couple car loads of teenagers down to colonial Williamsburg for a Girls Retreat. I’m a very happy Nelly that dear Elise is flying across the country to join us, all the way from California, on her way back to Portugal. She’ll do a lot of sharing from her life, from her […]
- Saying Goodbye to Youth Work On June 30th I’m drawing to a close a long stint of youth work. I only recently realized that my last day as youth director at the church stands for something much more significant than a job change. This is a goodbye to an era. I don’t take these things lightly. But I do know […]
- Jesus at the Yard Sale My day was flooded with yard-saledom. Our youth group did one of those insane churchwide junk sales filled with blood, sweat, and sweet old ladies knocking early on the doors at 6:30am. We did the sale to raise money to mostly give away, and made about $1k. It flies in the face of what makes […]
- Stunned Saturday in Sofia Tonight, in Sofia, Bulgaria my dear friend Brooke is reflecting on Jesus with around 250 postmodern teenagers. Brooke is the speaker for Young Life Europe’s annual service project, a week-long camping experience to invite skeptics and non-skeptics into the adventure of serving the poor. Over the next week these international students from all of over […]
- (Re)Imagining Youth Ministry This weekend I drove up to Baltimore for a Young Life staff training day. As a former YL staffer in Portugal, this was a rare treat, ’cause I was invited to teach on contextualizing ministry to a particular youth culture. Humbled and excited, I was also totally knackered/shattered. I arrived completely bleary-eyed on caffeine, having […]
- To Play Like a Child Again – Part 2 Tomorrow morning I’ll board a bus with about 30 folks from our church youth group to go skiing, snowboarding, and snow-tubing in Pennsylvania. I’m going to play in the snow like a child again! I need it. And our group needs it. Communities that play together stay together. I’ve always wanted to snowboard, and in […]
- What the Church Can Learn from MTV Late last night I watched MTV’s Juvies with my Mama. I should have been studying, but I was drawn into this new unscripted series on adolescents in trouble. Juvies began airing in January, and is part of MTV’s “Think” campaign which deals with issues of discrimination, education, the environment, and sexual health. Last night’s show […]
- I’m Not A Big Old Adult (This is Part 2 of the following post: Career Day at the Middle School) It’s official. I may be 27, but, I’m not a big old adult. This week I received a thick envelope from Piccowaxen Middle School. Inside I found 28 full-paged letters from students saying, “thank you” for coming to their school to […]