shine like stars.

wow. what a weekend. I really feel like I have my work cut out for me--but at least I can see it. You know how sometimes it seems pretty clear that if you just did this, this and this then this other thing would happen/be fixed/whatever? Well, that's how I feel about my youth group. And I already feel like I've made a difference for one youth in particular, just by being nice to him.

and I gotta admit, it feels kinda good to know that I can make an impact. also, here's the group. that's middle and high school.

the weekend was really fun though, and the speaker was hilarious! the comedian was too. and over the course of 16 hours I was told that I had the best laugh ever by one person and the worst laugh ever by another. yeesh.

oh AND. I now understand why Matt doesn't talk about his personal life with students. The freshmen girls wanted to see a picture of him, and for the rest of the weekend would say "he's hot" whenever the name Matt was said. And then they started saying over and over "Matt and Carrie F*y, Matt and Carrie F*y" in a sing-song voice. yeesh. At least the sophomores asked questions instead of taunting! (ps, gotta delete the name so his students can't google and find him!)

I slept about five hours a night, laughed a lot, got mooned by one of the youth in my room, and ate at two of my least favorite restaurants in one day--red robin and mcdonald's. at least I had lunch at Chili's. And it was so neat to be the "cool" adult--I def liked that. Oh, and at Chili's (while monitoring the game, go State!) we played "tongues"--a card game like spoons, but instead you stick out your tongue. It was too funny.

red robin was pretty hilarious--our group was GIGANTIC. I wore a balloon as a ring. We had them sing Happy Birthday to Chris, whose birthday isn't until next month, and Amos and I were terribly amused by the "grr yum" on the gift cards. We also made a house of coasters and I played my straw-lemon-slide-whistle, see?

all in all there were over 5800 youth in attendance at the weekend, with something like 288 churches and all twelve districts represented. so very very cool. it was amazing how many people were there!!!

the topics covered that I thought were pretty cool...

1. some pigs are gonna die. it was about legion, and the speaker said he thought this was the weirdest passage in the whole bible. i think I might agree. anyway, jesus cast the demons from the man into a herd of pigs, and the pigs drowned themselves. the whole point of the story was that the pigs represented how if jesus is going to be a part of your life, then some pigs--some bad things, some things keeping you from being a good christian/person--are gonna have to die.

2. about the woman who was accused of adultery, and how jesus told them that the one of them whole was blameless should cast the first stone. and then he talked about that zipper ride at the fair (I still can't believe I ever rode one of those) and about a girl who was riding that, but who
had eaten two corndogs, a fried snicker and a funnel cake beforehand, and who ended up getting sick all over the place. and how when she came out everyone backed away, since she was covered in puke. but how a lady broke through the circle of onlookers, and came and cradled the girl and started to hold her and wipe her clean because she wasn't just a girl, this was her baby girl. and how that's how jesus feels about us.. no matter what situation we're in, we're still his.

3. my favorite one. i'm going to remember this for a long time. it was about zacchaeus climbing up the sycamore tree so that he could see jesus better, and how jesus was going to stay at his house. of course there was the whole thing about how jesus was going to associate with an outcast everyone is important. but the most profound part for me was a role that no one ever talks about--the role of the tree. this tree had been growing for years. many years. god had made it grow just so that it would be there so that one day a tax collector could sit in it, so that the messiah could come and fetch him out of it. and it made me think about how thought it's really important to act and do, it's also crucial that sometimes we're just the facilitators, the backdrop that makes things possible.

and yesterday, after the closing session with the banners and once everyone was gone I went home and took a nice long nap. and then matt and I ate at Vincent's (yum!) and he let me watch last Thursday's Grey's even though he kinda hates the show.

and um, you know how sometimes people's animals sometimes look like them? well, gobi doesn't look like me, but he sure does take after his momma! I had some of my yummmmy birthday bluebell icecream (thanks again, nick!) and gobi would not leave me alone--he simply doesn't ever stand on my lap for that long, nor does he ever try so hard to get my food. he really wanted that icecream!!! I had to give him a little bite, and of course matt had to take a picture of gobi and his efforts. :) oh, and--last night I slept like a log. honk-shoo! thank goodness for sleep! like real, actual, not-waking-up-ten-times sleep!

two other things I forgot:
a) shine like stars--I ended up telling the girls in my room about my tattoo. and one of the middle school leaders, too. about how it's for philippians 2:14-15. "do everything without complaining or arguing, so that you may become blameless and pure, children of God without fault in a crooked and depraved generation, in which you shine like stars in the universe..." and about how I used to put star-shaped beads on the used-for-a-loopie part of my tennis shoes, so that when I saw it I would remember that I might be the only Christ anyone ever saw. I realized I'd never told y'all why I got the star tattoo. and now you know. and knowing is half the battle.

b) kaydee--I made a point of wearing one of my KD shirts while we were there. it's not the first time I've done it. a few of the girls noticed, and one said "cool!" and another said "so, you regret ever doing that, huh?" It was nice to get to tell her of the common misconceptions about being greek (though admittedly there are some chapters of all sororities that really are the bad, fat-circling kind) and of how being greek is one of the very best decisions I ever made in my whole entire life. Since I'm not the stereotypical sorority girl, it's refreshing to re-cast that mold a little, you know? :)