High School Lock-In

There are several amazing things about my call - in fact at the moment I can't imagine doing anything else. However with my call (associate pastor for children, youth, & family ministries) there are several "job hazards" one of them is lock-ins - the other which is often closely associated with the previous is pizza. This past Friday night I got the joy of both.

Really I do enjoy spending time with my youth because they are amazing to say the least however, I really like my sleep too - I enjoy sleeping - lockins = no sleep. This last lock in however a colleague and I wised up and partnered up so that we could be locked into the church with both of our sets of kids and a couple of other adults and that together we could get through it - it worked - it made life much more happy to have a friend alongside me. I honestly have the world's best colleagues.

Anyways, our evening was filled with pizza, games, movies, laughter, worship, prayer, games, and we did a service project for a neighboring ministry who helps youth who are often marginalized. We went over to their building from 10:30 pm - 3:00 am and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and organized and organized and organized. I fear people could smell the cleaning products miles away. It was a gift to be able to help another local ministry, to have our kids helping kids much like themselves, kids who just need a little extra help. It was wonderful to be able to free up some of the people who work at this ministries time to do other things than clean - it was great to be able to help take inventory for them and come alongside them.

Here are some highlights from the night:

• never ending games of Romans and Christians
• several rounds of sardines
• helping out a partner ministry and cleaning their building until it shined
• amazing conversation with the youth
• yummy pancake breakfast
• laughs, laughs, and more laughs
• Brave (the movie)

Sometimes I think I am far too old for these sleepless nights. I came back to my house and slept for a couple hours and then I went out to camp to haul beds. Blah. I was then in bed that night by 9 for sure and passed out as soon as my head hit the pillow.

I hate missing a nights worth of sleep but love the relationship aspect of lock-ins - I guess for now I will keep doing them until I really can't stand it any more. The youth love them. They nearly drive me crazy.