Wow... as I laid there in my apartment, exhausted from a night of programming, music, games, skits, kids and more kids with never-ending candy-infused JR-high-type energy and thought to myself, "This is great!" Unfortunately my wife wasn't able to be there to rejoice in this with me since she's back in Santa Barbara, CA working, but I called her right away to share how the night went.
Can I share a bit about the night with you?
If you're reading this, then I assume you've given me permission... if you didn't give me permission then WHY ARE YOU READING THIS? :)
It was 7 o'clock. The Hip Hop music was loud, the lights were off in the gym and the kids were outside wondering what was going on as they have not experienced the craziness that is a Young Life Club. We snatched a kid (Gio) inside and locked the door to the other kids. They went crazy trying to come in, but couldn't. All they wanted to do was come in a see what was going on in there. We had them just where we wanted them.
Once we instructed Gio to go outside and have them all run in screaming we let him loose. We gave it 30 seconds and let them in. They came in running and screaming into the loud darkness as they got pelted with candy, inflatable balls and more candy. They didn't know what to do except run around, find us (all dressed in military fatigues) and tackle us. It was a great start!
We had a whole military theme that first night. We did this to show them that they were on a mission that night to make it through basic training, on a mission for the next week to bring kids in order to make it more exciting, and on a mission for the school year that end with Young Life camp. We showed them the YL camp video and they could not contain themselves in thinking that they would get to do all the things at camp. A handful of kids throughout the night asked me where they need to sign up to go to camp. Perfect!
So we started with a skit where I was Col. Temper, a colonel that's always mad because a volunteer, Matt Sollie, aka Private Goofs, always messed everything up and was not able to to salute correctly, do a pushup correctly, or anything. We had kids participate and get prizes to encourage them to participate. They all wanted a prize and all wanted to participate.
We move on to a game of duck, duck, goose, which we renamed Navy, Navy Seals. Instead of touching the kids' heads, we gave them a cup of water and on “Seal!” the kids sitting down got wet and they ran around trying to catch the person that got them wet. While this game took place, we had music blasting, and we had 2 of us running around, jumping and diving into the kids yelling things like, “I'm training!” and “get down!” I felt that I might be having more fun than the kids themselves!
Then came Skydiving. This is a classic YL game where we blindfold 2 kids and play a joke on them. We told them that they would be blindfolded and jumping off a table that Matt and I would lift up above our heads. However, the screaming kids and the wobbly table that was only 2 inches high tricked them into thinking that they were indeed up about 8 feet! Haha. When they jumped off they were super scared. Just think back of those times when you think that there was an extra step as you walk down the stairs and how awkward you look and you'll get the picture :) We of course gave them prizes since they were a good sport about it. They loved it.
Once Skydiving was over, Private Goofs grabs the microphone and starts telling his “military stories” and in the middle of that I chuck a rubber ball from behind the crowd and smack him really hard. Private Goof falls and the machine gun sound blasts off of the speakers. All the leaders yell, “get down get down!” as we grabbed youth and pulled them to the ground. We directed kids to low crawl to two different sides of the gym in order to get them to play Prison Ball / Dodge Ball. The only 2 things that were different was that when you got hit, you staid dead on the spot. All this happened while the leaders continued to run around and dive into “fox holes,” screaming military type commands and doing emergency field treatment on the wounded soldiers. It was great. Kids yelling for us to heal them, kids running all around trying not to get hit while trying to not step on us and other fellow team members.
We then calmed them down... at least a bit... since we wanted to remind them about the missions. Once private Goofs reminded them of the missions and gave them more candy (sorry parents for the super hyper kids that night :-) ) he introduced me as Pablo instead of Col. Temper and I gave the talk. The kids listened and I know that 2 of those kids heard of Jesus for the first time. We have a pretty diverse group as we have some church kids, some kids getting to know Young Life, and some kids that have never heard of Jesus nor want to. But they were all there listening intently because we have started to be their friends and they care about what we say.
I am really excited about next week, more contact work, and bringing more kids to Christ. Please pray that the LORD reveals Himself as He gives us vision as to how to integrate church and un-churched kids together into Young Life. Please also pray as we plan out our first Benefit Dessert this upcoming November 16, 2009. And also please pray as we seek God to give us vision of how this ministry in NW Chicago YL Humboldt Park - Hermosa should look like.
Thanks to you guys for all of your prayers and for taking the time to read this.
Blessings,
Pablo Otaola
NW Chicago YL
Area Director
Can I share a bit about the night with you?
If you're reading this, then I assume you've given me permission... if you didn't give me permission then WHY ARE YOU READING THIS? :)
It was 7 o'clock. The Hip Hop music was loud, the lights were off in the gym and the kids were outside wondering what was going on as they have not experienced the craziness that is a Young Life Club. We snatched a kid (Gio) inside and locked the door to the other kids. They went crazy trying to come in, but couldn't. All they wanted to do was come in a see what was going on in there. We had them just where we wanted them.
Once we instructed Gio to go outside and have them all run in screaming we let him loose. We gave it 30 seconds and let them in. They came in running and screaming into the loud darkness as they got pelted with candy, inflatable balls and more candy. They didn't know what to do except run around, find us (all dressed in military fatigues) and tackle us. It was a great start!
We had a whole military theme that first night. We did this to show them that they were on a mission that night to make it through basic training, on a mission for the next week to bring kids in order to make it more exciting, and on a mission for the school year that end with Young Life camp. We showed them the YL camp video and they could not contain themselves in thinking that they would get to do all the things at camp. A handful of kids throughout the night asked me where they need to sign up to go to camp. Perfect!
So we started with a skit where I was Col. Temper, a colonel that's always mad because a volunteer, Matt Sollie, aka Private Goofs, always messed everything up and was not able to to salute correctly, do a pushup correctly, or anything. We had kids participate and get prizes to encourage them to participate. They all wanted a prize and all wanted to participate.
We move on to a game of duck, duck, goose, which we renamed Navy, Navy Seals. Instead of touching the kids' heads, we gave them a cup of water and on “Seal!” the kids sitting down got wet and they ran around trying to catch the person that got them wet. While this game took place, we had music blasting, and we had 2 of us running around, jumping and diving into the kids yelling things like, “I'm training!” and “get down!” I felt that I might be having more fun than the kids themselves!
Then came Skydiving. This is a classic YL game where we blindfold 2 kids and play a joke on them. We told them that they would be blindfolded and jumping off a table that Matt and I would lift up above our heads. However, the screaming kids and the wobbly table that was only 2 inches high tricked them into thinking that they were indeed up about 8 feet! Haha. When they jumped off they were super scared. Just think back of those times when you think that there was an extra step as you walk down the stairs and how awkward you look and you'll get the picture :) We of course gave them prizes since they were a good sport about it. They loved it.
Once Skydiving was over, Private Goofs grabs the microphone and starts telling his “military stories” and in the middle of that I chuck a rubber ball from behind the crowd and smack him really hard. Private Goof falls and the machine gun sound blasts off of the speakers. All the leaders yell, “get down get down!” as we grabbed youth and pulled them to the ground. We directed kids to low crawl to two different sides of the gym in order to get them to play Prison Ball / Dodge Ball. The only 2 things that were different was that when you got hit, you staid dead on the spot. All this happened while the leaders continued to run around and dive into “fox holes,” screaming military type commands and doing emergency field treatment on the wounded soldiers. It was great. Kids yelling for us to heal them, kids running all around trying not to get hit while trying to not step on us and other fellow team members.
We then calmed them down... at least a bit... since we wanted to remind them about the missions. Once private Goofs reminded them of the missions and gave them more candy (sorry parents for the super hyper kids that night :-) ) he introduced me as Pablo instead of Col. Temper and I gave the talk. The kids listened and I know that 2 of those kids heard of Jesus for the first time. We have a pretty diverse group as we have some church kids, some kids getting to know Young Life, and some kids that have never heard of Jesus nor want to. But they were all there listening intently because we have started to be their friends and they care about what we say.
I am really excited about next week, more contact work, and bringing more kids to Christ. Please pray that the LORD reveals Himself as He gives us vision as to how to integrate church and un-churched kids together into Young Life. Please also pray as we plan out our first Benefit Dessert this upcoming November 16, 2009. And also please pray as we seek God to give us vision of how this ministry in NW Chicago YL Humboldt Park - Hermosa should look like.
Thanks to you guys for all of your prayers and for taking the time to read this.
Blessings,
Pablo Otaola
NW Chicago YL
Area Director
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