Affirmations

Last night I met with my senior youth. We have been wanting to paint the youth house so that they can have some ownership in the house, and make it a more pleasant place to be. The mass majority are really excited about painting the room really fun colors, while one youth is very adament about the room being like "home." She has been trying to convince the youth that they should paint the room beige or another equally neutral color. Needless to say that this didn't go over very well on either end. The group is seeing her as manipulative and pushy, while she is seeing them as trying to overlook the past. Let me tell you... if she's not Lutheran, I don't know who is. :)

Anyway, last night I had the "decision makers" from the group present minus one or two, PLUS a couple of kids who only come on Sunday mornings! They were there wanting to paint and get things going. Instead they showed up for a Bible study and games focusing on affirmations and building each other up. It was awesome. We taped balloons to our feet and then tried to stomp on each other's balloons and then talked about how we feel when people put us down. Then we each got another balloon and put our names on them. Now, since I was feeling flighty last night I forgot markers so that we could write affirmations on each of the balloons for each person. So instead we randomly passed them around and then went around the circle and said an affirmation about whoever's balloon we had. This went really well and the youth wanted to do it several times which was awesome.

Afterwards we picked out two main colors for the walls... a blue color and a green color... and then we'll do handprints of each youth in various colors. The handprints will also become the initiation into Sr. Youth. Now, because there were some key kids missing... and the girl who is the most upset missing... we won't make the final decision until Sunday during Sunday School.

We then went around the room and did "Tales of Woe" and "Tidings of Joy" where each kids gets to talk about the downs and ups of their weeks. It was originally started years ago as a way to break down cliques in the group and is still great for getting them to share with each other as a group instead of just with their close friends. Praise God for small victories! Please keep my group in your prayers as we try and head forward!

My favorite part happened as we were getting ready to pray and depart. One of the guys asked if we could pray for each other since we'd been doing affirmations last night. What a GREAT idea! So each person said a special prayer for the person to their right. It was one of the greatest things because they are starting to bond as a group instead of simply being there. It was awesome to hear them say positive things about each other.