I love my youth group

oh my.
where to begin? I'm at home, tired and smelling like campfire smoke. The sure sign of an awesome weekend. Which it was.
I went on a leadership retreat with all the sites of St. Luke Lutheran church, meaning it wasn't just the youth group from SLAA, but it was the majority.
We left on friday at 6 (ish) to drive up to Hale, MI to a Lutheran camp that was on Loon Lake. It took about 3 hours but it was fun. I think we took four or five cars, including the people from Living Water (our other branch). There was a van, as usual, filled with mostly Jr. high kids and Byron was driving, the Jeep that Susie was driving that was filled with Finks, the Living Water cars, and Alaine and Rick's car, which Mitch and I rode in. The ride up was ok, but the ride back was better. We tried to think of as many games as we could to play in the car, but that lasted for about an hour...and we mostly just talked a lot. Eventually, Mitch laid down sideways with his head resting next to my leg and his legs basically up on the window...apparently it was comfortable because he fell asleep but I plugged his nose so he sounded funny. After a while, we stopped at this little ice cream shop in the middle of nowhere. It was awesome because it was like a swarm of kids going into this tiny shop and the people there were very confused. I had some sort of caramel brownie type ice cream and Susie had a flavor called Play-doh and that's what it looked like. It was bright yellow with little chunks of cookie dough that were colored blue and red. Also, there was a crane machine and Mitch won an elephant, so of course Ike had to try, but he lost twice.
When we got to the place, which was back in a wooded area with lots of little cabins and such, it was all muddy and rainy. We unpacked all of our stuff and went into a big building. It had a kitchen and then a main rec. room with ping pong, air hockey, and fooseball, and tables and couches and stuff. The girls' room was on one side, the boys ' on the other. We just hung out for a while and my friend Emily and I looked around because we'd never been there before, but apparently St. Luke's went several years ago because Susie says that she remembers going when she was younger. So then at around 10:30, we started to play Animal Crackers. If you don't know how to play, then too bad because I'm not explaining, but if you do, my animal was a Jellyfish and my sign for it was I would dangle my hand so that my fingers looked like the tentacles and then make it swim. It was awesome. Emily was roadkill, so that was just clapping your hands together really loudly like you hit something with your car, and Susie was a kitten, so she had cat ears. That lasted for a while, and apparently we used Ike's pillow, but then he complained about us abusing it, but he was the one that had brought it out in the first place, so it didn't make any sense. Also, Ryan Sikorski was a fish, and every time someone called on him, he would say "Fish, jellyfish!" because apparently it's easy to say right after you say fish. So I got called on a lot. Everyone liked mine though, so it was all good.
We had a little devotion and worship time after that but we went to bed at around 11:30. I didn't get a lot of sleep because I was cold and kept waking up. The next morning, we woke up at around 7:15 for people who wanted to take showers because breakfast was at 8:30, so I took a shower. Breakfast was provided by the camp, and it was cereal and sausage and eggs and ... I don't remember what else because I didn't have much. After breakfast, we did personality tests because we were learning about different personality types and how they work together (and don't work together). The biggest group was the Expressives, the loud and obnoxious and fun ones, which was my group. Then the Amiables, the friendly, peaceful ones were pretty big. Then there were the Drivers, the ones who want to get the job done even when it's not fun, and the Analysts...or something like that, the ones who are quietly brilliant and think things through before they say something. Also, I was a teller, not a follower.

one annoying thing about the weekend was that every time that someone said "Mitchell" to say something to Mitch, I thought they were saying "Rachael". One time, I said to James, "Can you please just call Mitchell....Mitch? Because I keep thinking that you're saying my name, but he was like "Nope, I'm probably just going to call you Rach...or dumb butt." and of course, Ike had to chime in "or fartface". I hit them with pens. I felt that's what the deserved.

Anyway, we also learned how to work together with the different personality types and then started to work on the leadership-type things. We had to make our own devotionals in small groups, so I was with Emily and Niaomi (Thad's sister). When we were first working on it before lunch, we didn't come up with much. Our topic was courage and our Bible verse was Joshua 1:9
"Have I not commanded you? Be strong and courageous. Do not be terrified; do not be discouraged, for the LORD your God will be with you wherever you go."
so...we came up with a few things, but then we went to lunch, which was sandwiches, chips, cookies, pudding, etc. It was pretty good. The weather was ok, so I sat outside with James, Susie, Alaine, Rick, and Mitch. If you don't know, we have our own little church family. So far, Susie and James are married, (but James is a bad father), and Mitch and Elena and I are the children. So Mitch and I always call Susie "mom" or Mother or Mommy or something like that and we always are mad at James because he's an alcoholic, he cheats with a librarian apparently, and he does drugs and we're poor but sometimes he feeds us. So that's our family's story.
Anyway, after we were done eating, it was quiet study time for people that wanted to relax/do homework from 1-2:30, so Susie and Mitch and I went to go find the lake. We did, but it wasn't very exciting. Although we all found our own 4-leaf clovers. Then Sam found a tetherball pole so I watched people play that for a while. Sam is good, Mitch sucks but wins by making people laugh, and Ike sucks but his excuse was "I haven't played this for 3 years but I used to play it at camp blah blah blah". I'm bad but have no excuse. Bad eye-hand coordination? or is it hand-eye?
When the hw time was over, we went into the woods for a challenge course. We split into two teams because we had 24 people total. People on my team were Sam, Emily, Mitch, Ashley, Susie, etc...I don't remember the rest. If you've never been on a challenge course in the woods, then you are missing out. So we did all those team-bonding ones, or rather, you need balance to do ALL of these. Which we don't. So we didn't pass almost all of them, but it was still fun. We didn't pass the one where you have to stand on a little platform and stay off the ground for 3 seconds because you have to fit all of the people on and it's meant for 4 people at best, but it is possible. So we tried a lot of different ways, but we ran out of time. We passed the web one where each person uses one hole each and there's a little bell at the top of the ropes, and if you make it jingle, then you have to go back out. That one didn't take long. Another one looked like a small rock-climbing wall without the rocks. Flat on one side, but some footholds of wood on the other. Sam pretty much did a lot of work on all of the courses lifting people over things or whatever because we didn't have very many big guys. My favorite was when both of the teams came together at the end and had to get across a knee-high creek by swinging on a rope. Also, there were tires on the ground on the other side of the creek, so when you landed, you had to land with both feet in a tire, and only one person per tire. The first 12 people went and then we switched. If people didn't make it into a tire the first time across, the had to swing back, but people don't know how to swing on a rope apparently, so they were too low and got themselves all wet and I laughed. When it was my turn, Nick and Ryan helped me into one of the back tires because you have to fill them all up. The first time, I didn't make it into the tire, so I had to try again, but I got up high on the rope and I didn't get wet. I was one of the few who didn't get wet because most people slipped in because it was muddy, they got pushed, or they're not good at swinging. I think the only person besides me that didn't get wet was Ryan because Ike wasn't wet at first, but then Sam pushed him in and then he got pissed. It was funny.

When I was on one side, and Mitch and James were on the other, I was just standing there when all of a sudden, something hit my jaw at full blast. I was so confused, but then I realized that it was mud. Everyone saw it and I started to laugh and so did everyone else, and Ike and James were just standing there with their mouths open in surprise and I heard Mitch saying "I'm sorry, Rachael!". Apparently, he had been "aiming at Sam" who had been walking past, but it hit me square in the jaw, and I got some in my mouth. I shook it off a spit a lot, but it was fine. When I got across, James gave me a handfull of mud, which he had molded to look like poop, apparently, and I smushed it in Mitch's face. Ah, sweet revenge.
Molding mud into poop...I'm so glad that I have mature group leaders.

After that, everyone was either fully muddy or wet, or both and so we headed back. I wasn't very muddy or wet, although I was probably more muddy than anything else, because it was impossible not to be muddy out there. It was also impossible not to be eaten by mosquitoes. Ugh. We had some free time after we changed or showered, so...we just hung out and stuff I think. Dinner was awesome. It was chicken breasts and thighs and wings, mounds of mashed potatoes, and gravy, and brownies. Delicious. I sat with my "family" and discussed whether or not Mean Girls is a chick flick. I thought it was because I've never ever heard a guy say that Mean Girls is a good movie, but all of the Finks beg to differ, apparently. They like it. I was impressed.

After dinner, Emily and I finished our devotion, made up a last minute story that actually turned out to be a hit, and then played card-version MASH. I went first, and I could have two celebrity husbands and two real people, so I chose Gerard Butler, Jim from the Office, and Susie chose Mitch and Ike. I ended up marrying Gerard Butler, of course, we had lots of love and like 4 girls and we dated for a while but I don't remember how long. Then Susie went but in the end, after all that she had done to play the game, the Joker card was on the floor, thus not marrying anyone. But then it was time for the bonfire/devotions, so she was determined to finish later. The bonfire was pretty cool, but since we showed up kinda late because of MASh, Susie, James and I sat on a bench farthest away from the fire because there was no room. Since it was raining, we had the fire underneath an overhang, but our bench was very close to the outside of the overhang, so my hood was getting wet. Eventually, we moved it up, and James and I traded spots because his legs were too long to sit in his spot. All of us were cold, so Susie and I basically cuddled.

When it was my turn to go up for devotions, I was warmer because it was by the fire. I did the intro, Emily did the "problem" part, and Niaomi did the "solution". So, the last-minute story that I made up went a little something like this.
"You're on a camping trip with you friends. You hear about a guy on the loose with a machete and he wears a hockey mask. When camping, you hear something suspicious outside. You go to investigate, and there is Jason Voorhees himself, about to chop off your head. "Any last words?" he says. What would you say?

This was the part where anyone could answer the question, and, as expected, hands shot up. James' answer was : Your mother never loved you. (also, as he tells me later, Jason Voorhees never learned to talk...like I was supposed to know that. I never even saw the movies)
Ike's answer:......(thinks about it) Do I get a request from him (no)...am I going to die no matter what? (yes)...
then he over-analyzed it so I just went to the next person.
so no exact answer from him, but whatever. There were others, but they were sort of lame. Anyway, the point of the story was, would you have enough COURAGE to tell Jason Voorhees himself about God's love and what He did for us?
everyone liked it, especially Byron and the leaders, and they thought that it was a good story because everyone found it interesting and could relate to it because it was something that they understood. I was really surprised because I thought that it was stupid, but I guess it worked. So I was happy. :)

after devos and worship, Susie and I sat closer to the fire and played hot buns, which is a game where you but your but as close as the fire as you can put it and then yell "who wants hot buns?!" and someone says "I do!" and then they get sat on with hot buns. Then we went inside and played card MASH for James, Susie, and Ryan because Ryan didn't even know what we were doing, so he said that he wanted to marry Nala from the Lion King, but we had to explain to him that he couldn't marry a lion, so he promptly stated "fine, I pick T-Swift" which sounds like a gangster name for her, but whatever. In the morning, we got up at 8, left at 8:30. Mitch and I went in the big van, which Sam was driving. I wanted to sit in the front, but then he asked if I was one of the "expressives" and I reluctantly said yes because I knew that he wouldn't let me if I said yes, so he told one of the "amiable" people to go up. The ride back was a lot of fun because Sam is just a really good leader and nothing is ever boring with him. We played a lot of Would You Rather and a game that he made up, which was he would say a band or a topic and whoever sang (or yelled, in our case) out a song by them first got a point. If it was a topic, he would say "sing a song about trains, houses, etc." and I got a point with the house one because I started to sing "she's a brick house" and he gave me a high five. We stopped at Mickey D's and I had pancakes and a hot chocolate and we also stopped at a gas station and got candy and gas and I got Gobstoppers of course.
In the car, we had balloons, and so we played "blow up your balloon, tie it, put it in your lap, now pop everyone else's balloon!" and whoever had their balloon not popped at the end won. I lost.
Then we got back to church and left and that was pretty much it.

What can I say about my youth group? It's crazy, it's dysfunctional, it's silly, it's amazing, it's loud, it's diverse, it's indescribable. We've grown and shrunk, we've been around for a long time and we have a great group of kids.

One Saturday night, all of the sites of the church split up to talk about upcoming things and what we'd like to see happen in our youth group. We talked about this summer and the fall. Susie and James will be around this summer, but Susie is going back to school in the fall in Wisconsin and James is moving to Boston for...I don't know how long, but to breed dogs with his family or something...I didn't get all the info but it sounded random, but I guess he needs money, which makes sense. In 2-3 years, most of the Sr.High will be graduating, Ike will probably be off in some war, Adalie and Elena...well, I think Elena wants to go into physical therapy and Adalie...I'm not really sure, but I hope she marries Derek. Hopefully I'll make something of myself in photography...I don't want to think about growing up.

I'll just enjoy what we have as a youth group right now. I like it this way.

What can I say? I love my youth group. They're the best, they're my spiritual family, they're my best friends, and they grow along with me in Christ, helping me along the way. :) :) :D

Love always,
~Rachael