Sandy's Sayings

Ohhhh April

I'm reminded daily about how much I love Jr. High students. I know I'm a strange and rare breed, but so are Jr. Highers. 

Last night was our Riot Night. Riot Nights are designed for crazy fun, bring a friend, kind of nights. We do them once a month. Last night we were supposed to play the "Amazing Race." Due to bad weather we had to go to "plan b" with "Night Game Riot Nite!" Needless to say it was a crazy, dark, stormy night at the church. Jr. Highers were running up and down the hallways trying to find their leaders who were hiding in the dark. Two of my eighth grade boys would swagger their way down the hall to the Jr. High Room, playing it cool, only as eighth grade boys can do. I commented on their swagger and this one particular eighth grade boy said, "Running is for chumps!" At this line, I burst out laughing.

Although spring is in the air and we are winding down the school year, this is the time of year our eighth graders get a little antsy. Ohhh April! Most of our Jr. Highers are ready to move onto high school. They are excited, nervous, and some of them admit they are scared about new schools, new friends and moving to our high school ministry. As their pastor, I'm excited for them, but a little sad to see them go. In June, they will face a whole new world and my prayer is that we as a jr. high ministry have helped prepare them spiritually as they enter high school. They will mature and get wise to the world and will start to lose the innocence and quarkeyness (is that even a word) that I so enjoy about kids in Jr. High. 

Love Works Is Funner Than Video Games

This was our annual Love Works Weekend. We canceled church services and encourage our body to serve the community this weekend. I think this is our third Love Works Weekend. We had a ton of projects ranging from serving the homeless, doing repair and cleaning projects with different shelters, serving schools, helping out with beautifucation projects in different cities and much more.

Last night we had our celebration service where we had the opportunity to share how God moved while we served! There were some amazing stories that were told! Although, my favorite quote from the serivce came from a little boy who shared, "Love Works is funner than video games." There were some good laughs at his comment, but what this little boy was trying to say is that he had fun being the hands and feet of Jesus! He enjoyed interacting with those in need! My hope and prayer for our kids and students is they would continue to be broken–hearted over those in need and would be spurred on to continue being the hands and feet of Jesus. 

Here is a short little video our high school pastor put together for our project!

 

Heard In My Life Group

Once a month our Jr. High Life Groups go and do something fun as a group! So tonight as we were finishing up our discussion, I asked the girls in my group what they would like to do for our "play night." Mimi answered out of the blue, "shave a rat!" Then Cailin responded, "and die it pink!" Claire chimed in with "draw on it with a purple sharpie!" And I didn't catch who said, "we have to give it a mohawk!"

First, I had no clue you could shave a rat! Second, should I be concerned that 1) they want to shave a rat, 2) die it pink, 3) tatoo it with a sharpie and lastly give it a mohawk? 

Winter Olympic Riot Nite 2010 Highlights

On Tuesday our Jr. High Ministry held our own Winter Olympics! It was a fun night with lots of great fun and competition! We even had a Norwegian Curler show up in her crazy pants!

Age of a Jr. High Leader

 I'm very thankful for our Jr. High leaders, actually for all our leaders who serve in student ministries. They are impacting students for the kingdom! I love that in our Jr. High Ministry we've got a wide range of ages for our leaders. We've got leaders from 18-50+. Last Sunday one of our, mmm lets say, "older leaders" was asked by one of our jr. highers, "Howie, how OLD are you anyways?" Howie, sitting in his beanbag chair with a group of jr. high boys, smiled and laughed. Before he could answer, another Jr. High boy chimed in, "Howie is old enough to have babysat baby Jesus!" 

You Won't Want To Miss This Book

I'm so excited for my friend Wanda! We were sitting around the table at our staff meeting when our lead pastor pulls out this new children's book called Christmas Is A Birthday Story by Wanda Roane.  I was like NO WAY!!  Wanda is a fantastic woman of God and an incredible writer and poet.  So I'm going to shamelessly plug her first children's book!  Go over to Amazon and pre-order it!  You won't be disappointed! Congrats Wanda!

Jr. High River Rafting Highlight

A little highlight reel from our rafting trip.

What Would You Do For A Klondike Bar

It's a simple question that we asked our Jr. Highers at Park Riot Nite on Tuesday!

what would you do for a klondike bar from sandy hughes on Vimeo.

Two-Weeks of Craziness is Over!

I'm breathing a sigh of relief as the two weeks of craziness are over. I have a love/hate relationship with the month of May!  I love it because summer is coming!  I hate it because I feel my life is not my own!  The ministry school year is over and our summer program starts in two weeks.  High school graduations and grad parties are over, Jr. High graduations start on Tuesday!  This was our largest senior class we have had, and it sure was fun to see this class graduate!  I'm so excited to see where God will take them.  It was a bittersweet good-bye to our 8th graders!  This was one of those really special classes.  All awesome kids who have been such leaders in our ministry, who love the Lord and one of the few classes who really cared about the younger kids in our ministry. I will miss them in our Jr. High Ministry but look forward to see how they will shape our high school ministry. In all the craziness, our summer intern also started.  I love having are summer interns around.  This is our second summer having interns.  I'm looking forward to spending time with them and doing ministry with them.  We've got a fun week planned with them as we leave on Thursday for Mammoth Base Camp, to go check out this ministry. Four days of mt. biking, rock climbing, hiking and adventure!

And The Winner Is.......

I loved all the captions, but Jessica you are the winner with your comment!  I'll have a little something for you when we start Jr. High back up!