It’s been quite a full couple of weeks for me, and I’ve just wrapped up with a pool party and the RCC annual street party this weekend. On the bright side, I enjoyed a glorious sunny day at the beach last weekend when I skipped posting here.
I had some really beautiful celebrations this weekend amid the chaos of our now annual pool party as we welcomed some new young people to our youth group and made positive connection points with extras over the course of the night. I was debriefing with a couple of leaders at the end of the night about different conversation attempts with youth less eager to engage, and I know it still matters they had someone talk to them no matter what the initial response was.
Today at the street party, a couple of youth who’ve not attended regularly for a long time turned up and joined me at the candy floss station. I put them to work since I was down a lot of volunteers, but I also had a chance to chat with them. One of them mentioned he’s got to look after his siblings a lot, and Friday nights aren’t as free anymore. I told him we also have church services on Sundays at 9am and 11am. He perked up when I said there was no small group time where people asked him to share his thoughts. “We have a longer talk time, and you can just think about it on your own. You’re open to hearing about that God stuff, right?” He nodded and agreed to consider making the trek next week. “You had me at free coffee,” he admitted after I told him first time visitors get a coffee voucher.
Another one of our long absent kids was joining in the nine square across the car park, and I was elated to see him stuck in with his small group friends. These touch points matter as we pull into community with one another, and I loved having two of my small group girls launch the day with a couple other volunteers in bringing joy to hundreds of people as they passed out candy floss and grew increasingly coated in sticky sugar. My hands have been dyed neon pink, and despite several washings this afternoon, remain quite vivid.
I kinda love the reminder that I got to be a part of something awesome.
I get to be a part of something awesome.
I’m praying I see a lot of return faces next weekend.
