5th Quarter Recap

What a night!

It was supposed to start at 9pm, after the basketball game. Well, we had people showing up at 7:50 and still showing up closer to 10. The basketball game went long, so that put a wrench in the night.

a few highlights.
1. we had lots, I mean lots, of giveaways. Gave away 6 really ugly orange baseball hats. The hats that look like they have padding all the way around :)
2. Gave away some of the Book of John Message Bibles. the cool thing was that the first few people who got one were people we would have wanted to give them to. :) Now, I don't know if it made it out the door or not, but I'm praying it did.
3. Speaker did a great job. And the students seemed to really be listening.
4. My youth ministry team leaders really stepped up to the plate Friday night. One of them told me about a conversation he had with one of the students. (It was funny b/c I sent this student to this adult about the question). The conversation started b/c the student wanted to know how to "get a girl to like him" and ending up being about God having a plan for the kids life. Obviously there is a flow and process from pt. A to pt. B, but that is not necessary. It was cool to see the conversation and to focus on connecting with this student in the next few weeks for follow up.
5. Had over 8 feet of sub left over
6. I was reminded that even to the "cool" middle schoolers I am a dork. Most of them would not even acknowledge I talked to them. Now the rest of the students it was a different story. I was able to connect with quite a few new faces.
7. The adults really did a great job at "being present" with the students. I was encouraged to see them step up and show what great adult helpers can do.
8. The last kid was getting picked up like at 11:45 (we ended at 11). I think I'm going to start charging for babysitting :)
9. I'm glad we did it, but I am also glad its over. No major issues, so that is good. Now we just work on follow up and seeing the students at school and around town and trying to reconnect with them.