small groups

Since I've been back to youth group I have been with the grade eight small group.

When I was first placed with them I was actually kind of disappointed. The youth I already know pretty well are all in grade seven. So I wanted to be in the grade seven small group so I could build off those already built relationships. I wanted to stay with the ones I already know and feel comfortable with. But that not what ended up happening.

So every Tuesday I'm chilling with the grade eight students. There are only one or two of them that I really know pretty well. The others I only know just from me weeks going to youth group this year. Even in the fall when I was helping out the small groups were made of a girls small group and a guys small group. Now they are grouped by grade level.

Even though I really wanted to be with the seventh graders, I have actually been surprised by how much I enjoy being with the grade eights in small group. These pre-teens can say some pretty deep stuff and although they act immature and play and have a lot of fun during game time, they can also be super mature when we are having group discussions.

This week we were talking about what it's like to feel empty and how sometimes we will try to fill ourselves up with stuff that only makes us feel empty again. Ultimately we talked about how only Jesus can truly fill us up. When we asked the youth what it means to feel be empty, one of the grade eight girls said, and I quote: "Feeling empty feels like you want to do everything but you also want to do nothing, and you're just really bored through it all." When she said this, all the leaders were just like whoa, that's deep.

This young girl was able to put into words a feeling that is so hard to describe. I was astonished by her ability to do so.

Every week at youth group I'm surprised by something new. This week it was the eighth graders. What will it be next week? I can't wait to find out.

Until next time,
Em

On the first night of youth group

Tuesday has come and gone.

Youth group has come and gone with it.

I'm officially back as a Transformers leader!

There is something about middle schoolers that I love. They get such a bad rep. Not many people like middle schoolers because of their awkwardness, their sassiness, their laziness, their attitude of entitlement, the list could go on and on as to why people say they don't like middle schoolers.

I, on the other hand, love middle schoolers. I love their awkwardness, their vibrantness and their energy. I find middle schoolers are caught in between innocence and experience. They are still so young, but they are also starting to grow up.

I like the conversations you can have with middle schoolers. You can talk about deep stuff like a family issue or their relationship with Christ and talk about bodily functions, like burping all in the same conversation.

Middle schoolers are like wild cards you never know what you are going to get from them. They keep you on your toes. And I love it!

I am so full of joy when I'm leading at Transformers. Pouring into the youth at RiverCross fills me up to keep me going for the week. I'm so grateful to have the opportunity to do so!

So first week back as a leader after two months off for school.

All the youth are the same as before Christmas (except for one or two - yay for bringing friends to youth group!) which is nice because I can continue to get to know them.

The structure of the night is similar, although a little different:
Hang out
Group games
Worship time
Large group discussion/teaching time
Snack & Small group discussions (small groups by grade level)
Large group games if time allows

They have also finished Alpha, which I expected and we started a new series that I do not know the name of - but after one night it seemed really good.

This week the series talked about walking away from Jesus, and when Jesus asked his disciples "are you going to walk away from me too?" and Peter replied by saying "Lord where would we go."

I feel like this is such an important topic for middle schoolers because so much is thrown at them at this age, they have plenty of opportunities to walk away from Jesus, there is so many other things they could walk towards, but we need to teach them to walk to Jesus and keep walking to him!

First night back at youth group was a success! I'm so so so happy to be back! I cannot wait to see what God has planned for the next few months at Transformers.

Until next week,
Em

It doesn't happen the way you hoped

The first day of Transformer (for me and) after March break was this past Tuesday and it was also storming. So my long awaited return to youth group has been postponed a week.

I was so sad when I got the message that Transformers was cancelled due to the storm. Although it was a good decision because the roads were messy and there was so much snow. But still, I really had wanted to get back to spending my Tuesday nights with the middle school group from my church.

I feel like through this storm and youth group cancellation and through some other current events in my life, God is teaching me that he is in control.

Even though I really wanted to start back at youth group, I had no control of the weather; I couldn't stop the snow from coming.

Also happening in my life this week, my grandmother had a triple bypass done yesterday. As she awaited her surgery I had asked her if she was scared - it would make sense if she was, she's 81 years old and it's a major surgery. She told me she wasn't scared because there was really nothing she could do about it. She had faith that God was in control and whatever was going to happen was his will.

Wow, what a lesson she taught me through her bravery and her faith.

The storm was a little reinforcement of the lesson. God is in control, whatever happens is his will.

I didn't get to youth group like I had hoped this past Tuesday, but here's hoping that the snow is done, there won't be anymore storms, and I will get to return to Transformers this coming Tuesday!

Jumping back into it

Other than one weekend when I was home in February, last Sunday was my first week (physically - thank God for livestream) back at my home church.

One of my favourite parts about moving home is that I get to go back to my home church.

As soon as the service was over on Sunday I looked for Matt to confirm my coming back to Transformers. We talked for a bit and I'm good to go for this coming Tuesday. I can't wait!!

Matt and I also talked about some exciting upcoming opportunities that I could possibly get involved in - Journey to the Cross (a really cool interactive Good Friday, family experience), and the One Conference were a few of the things we talked about.

One of the things Matt said was "I don't want you to think that I'm like Oh Emily's back lets get her to do this, this, this, and this, but if you want to get plugged in again, let me know I have lots of ideas." So I'm excited to get plugged in again. I definitely will be cautious to not take more on my plate than I can handle, but I will definitely be getting involved as much as I can.

I'm excited to be back, I'm excited to be getting plugged in, and I'm SO excited to go to Transformers on Tuesday night.

That's all for now!
Until next time,
Emily

two weeks til Transformers

After a long two months of a crazy busy schedule of classes and school work it is time to take a break, relax, and refresh before I jump back into teaching.

With teaching, I'm moving home and I'm starting back at youth group again.

I'm so excited to get back to my regular routine of Tuesday night youth group. I miss the hype and excitement that comes from playing games and learning about Jesus with middle schoolers.

As I'm preparing to head home and take my reading week break, I'm also preparing my heart for youth leadership. It has been almost three months (two while in school and a little less then one for Christmas break) and I have not led a devo or small group of middle school students.

As much as I love youth leadership, whenever I take some time off and then start back into it I'm always nervous for the first week back. Nervous that the youth will forget who I am, nervous that they will question why I am there, and nervous that they won't like me anymore. I know I'm over thinking but those thoughts will run through my head at least once between now and my first week back.

So I'm trying to prepare my heart. I'm prayerfully asking the Lord to prepare me to serve him through serving youth. I ask God to use me as an example for these young people. I ask that he will make my love for him evident through my actions. I ask that he will give me the energy and enthusiasm to keep up with the business that comes with middle schoolers.

I'm so excited to get back to youth group, it gives my heart so much joy to see young souls learning and loving Jesus. I cannot wait! Most posts to come about youth group very soon.

Until next time,
Em

Faith and Friends

There is a girl who goes to youth group. She doesn't seem really loud, but she does have friends in the group. She's not someone I knew before two weeks ago. She isn't one of the girls who grew up going to the church, she just comes to youth group. Her older brother had gone to youth group when he was in middle school and high school because a friend had invited him and he told his sister about it so now she goes.

Last week I wrote about how I want to build relationships with the kids who go to youth group. I want to be a role model for them and I want to be a friend for them.

So this week I started working towards that goal. At the beginning of youth group the kids have free time and I saw this girl sitting by herself instead of playing soccer with some of the other kids so I went over to sit by her. We talked for a little bit and I got to know some more about her school and some of the projects she's working on for class.

It's super cool talking to some of the youth group kids because they are so much younger than me, but not only that, their experience in middle school is so different but yet so similar to my own experience. Some things they talk about I can relate to and remember from when I was in middle school, but other things go right over my head and I have no idea what they are talking about. It's definitely an interesting experience.

This week for Alpha our topic was all about faith. The video and questions brought about some really good conversations, I was with the middle school girls for small group time and there was one girl who kept amazing me with her answers. She seemed so mature in her answers it was so cool!

One of the questions after the video was asking us which character we would be if a relationship with God was the pool. The courage the girls had to tell us that they were just dipping their toes in or that they were the girl with the towel who was scared made me admire them so much. To be honest, when I was in middle school, I probably would have said what everyone else was saying, but these girls were not afraid to say where they were at in their faith.

Pool photo from Alpha "If a relationship with God was the pool, which person would you be?"

Going to youth group every Tuesday really fills my heart. I love spending time with very active young people and I love learning with them and leading them closer to Jesus Christ!

Thanks for reading,

Em

the time has come

So I'm finally home for my teaching practicum and I'm so excited!

Being home also means that I can (finally) start leading at youth group!

So Tuesday night I made the very familiar drive to my home church and prepared myself to jump back into the youth leading game. It was both awesome and a little weird being back. It was awesome because I love youth - especially middle schoolers - and I'm so happy to be back. It was a little weird because all of a sudden these kids who I have known since they were babies are now in middle school going to youth group every week.

The middle school youth group is called Transformers, because it is a place for middle schoolers to go to have their lives transformed by Jesus.

The schedule of the night is a bit different from when I used to help out at Transformers 4 years ago.

Transformers nights in a nutshell: The students come in, mingle and hang out for a while. Then they have a warm up game, we played human tic-tac-toe. After the game there is snack. Following snack we split up into small groups for devo time. We are currently doing Alpha which is super cool because I have always heard of Alpha but I have never done it before. After devo we head back into the gym for big group games - we played life size hungry hungry hippos this week. Finally the night is over and it's time to go home.

If you can't already tell I'm so excited to be back at youth group. Seeing young people on fire for Christ fills my heart and inspires me to draw closer to Him.

Since I have finally started my time at youth group I figure it would be a good idea to make a goal for my time here. My biggest goal for the next few weeks is to get to know the kids. I want to really build strong relationships with the kids at youth group, I want to be someone they can trust and come to if they have any problems or questions. So over the next few weeks I am really going to focus on talking to each of the kids. First I'll start by asking them how their day was or how school is going. I'm going to start small and build up from there.

I can't wait to tell you more next week.

Thanks for reading,
Em