TBC Youth Group

We went somewhere that cost money last week, so this week it was time to do something free. Which meant falling into the usual default, and having a games night. But we have to stop doing this; half the kids are sick and tired of games nights, and the other half are just in the gym playing basketball, and not being part of the group.

That being said, devotion was good. David used an example from a former atheist who is now a theist; he was convinced by various aspects of nature that the universe couldn’t possibly have formed randomly, there must have been a god behind it. However, he is not a Christian—he believes that there is a god, but doesn’t believe that Christianity is truth. David then read Romans 1:18–23 (which is just part of a larger passage). He said that even though this man was an atheist all his life—he has been very influential among atheists since 1950—and even though it was an amazing thing for him to change his mind, and decide that there is a god, it’s still not enough. This passage says that he is in fact without excuse, if he doesn’t come before God and repent, and accept Jesus as his Saviour. The kids seemed to be paying close attention, and there were a few questions.

We pray that the kids will come to the leaders and ask, if they have any questions. Or, if they’re ready, just go to the Lord and be saved!

Success! We managed to get enough drivers, and get to Laser Quest. (Eventually.)

We welcomed a new leader, named Annesha. We also had another member of the church who volunteered to drive, which was a huge help.

But to start the night, we had our devotion. David found a story (in a book of devotional topics for youth groups) about a man who’d found a cocoon for an emperor moth. He brought it home, and it eventually began to “hatch” (or whatever the proper term is for when a moth starts to come out of its cocoon). However, when the moth got partway out, it seemed stuck, and unable to get the rest of the way out. Thinking he was helping, the man got a pair of scissors and cut the moth the rest of the way out. Unfortunately, the moth ended up deformed, with a swollen body and shrunken, useless wings—it was never able to fly. The lesson was this: The moth’s cocoon was purposely built in a certain way, to be difficult for the moth to get out of; in struggling to get out of the cocoon, the moth builds up strength, and forces fluids to go out of its body and into the wings. By attempting to help the moth, the man actually hurt it—the moth needed to struggle to get out of that cocoon, and because it didn’t, it was not able to form properly. Similarly, although we may not enjoy our struggles here on Earth, we should remember that God is in control, and that if we are going through difficult times, it is because He has deemed it necessary for us to do so. He will use many (most? all?) of our struggles to bring is closer to Him, to make us stronger Christians, or for other uses.

Before, during, and after the devotion, David was constantly counting, over and over, the number of kids present. He kept arriving at a number of twenty-four, which was good because we had twenty-six seats. However, when it was time to go, and everyone went to get into the three vans and one car we had ready, there turned out to be twenty-eight people. Did David miscount? Did four people mysteriously appear out of the ether? We may never know. Luckily, there was another driver on standby, who had agreed to come if necessary. So we called her, and she showed up to take the overflow.

Another good thing happened when we got to the place: Because we had so many people in our group, the two games that we played were peopled almost entirely by members of our Youth Group. (There were three or four other, non-Youth-Group people in each game, but it was mostly us.) It’s always nice to have a game that’s almost entirely your own group.

Unfortunately, on the way home, we got a call. There had been a shooting on Mount Olive, where a number of our kids live, and there were a lot of cops around. A number of the kids in our Youth Group have been in trouble with the police in the past, and we were asked if we can drop the kids off at their doors, where possible, to avoid them getting unnecessarily questioned by the police. (This wasn’t a problem, because we usually do so anyway.) Luckily, none of the kids in the group (that we know of) have bail conditions that set curfews, so there isn’t currently a danger of anyone breaking their bail conditions to come to Youth Group. We got everyone home without incident.

Annesha’s profile coming soon…

Because of Thanksgiving, there was no Youth Group this night.

We did get some good news, though: A new person volunteered to be a Youth Group leader, and she also has a car. Plus, two additional people volunteered to be drivers. So the next time the Youth Group has to leave the church, we should be prepared.

The plan was to go to Laser Tag, but, unfortunately, we didn’t have enough cars to get everyone there. (Twenty-four people, compared to nineteen seats.) So we had to cancel, and settled for a Games Night instead.

Because we’d planned to go out, David didn’t have a devotion planned, so we didn’t have a devotion either. So the whole night was pretty much a wash.

It was decided that the next Youth Group would be Laser Tag again, and that next time we’d strive to make sure we had enough vehicles for the people.