As we final arrived at Comicsons' (a nickname for the family that I spent the weekend with) I had a killer headache and a prayer to help me get through the weekend. I have been praying for God to take me out of my comfort zone and help me be better at bringing up God in conversations. Once I was taken away from everything I know and love, I wasn't so sure if I wanted my prayer to be answered.
I had gone to Ashley's (a friend of a friend) Sixteenth birthday party, which is about five hours away from where I live. I had been getting to know Ashley but it was through emails and what not. Well, for this party I would be spending three days, sort of, with her family and friends. I wasn't ready what so ever but its where I was suppose to be.
I was there hanging out with Ashley, Heather ( Ashley's sister), Natalie ( other sister), and all the cousins. There was a total of 17 people, five dogs, a fish and a cat all under the same roof. The first night we were the, which was a Friday, their youth group had a movie night. They called it FNL for Friday Night Live. When we first got to the church, I was a little nervous, who wouldn't be though? I was with people I had just met hours before and now I was in a place that was filled with people I didn't know and was five hours away from my comfort zone it felt like. Being there for about 45 minutes to an hour, I was tired of not talking to tons of people and laughing and enjoying this time to be able to fellowship. Livy ( a cousin of Ashley's) and I had been keeping to ourselves for the most part and talking to each other. Every once in a while one of the Comicson girls would come and check on us, kind of anyway, and it was super sweet.
I finally convinced myself to rely on God to help me through my trouble, which was being shy. The only thing in the whole room that I recognized was Foosball. There were two tables and different types of people playing them. One table had older kids like Junior/Seniors and the other had what looked like Middle Schoolers. I just walked off and went to play Foosball with the older kids. I was sorta nervous about walking over there but was almost laughing because I am truly the worst person at foosball ever. It was like, "okay God, do you want me to connect with these teens or work on my Foosball skills." It happened to be both. I kept score for the first two games and then was not really asked but told to play. It was girls against boys and it was close for a while but the boys won. Ashley and Heather kept coming over to talk with me and stuff.
I noticed that Livy was talking to a few people but she was staying close to the people she knew, which was not bad at all. If it wasn't for God, I would have been following the people I knew like a lost puppy dog. I also noticed that a game of Ninja was about to start. Ninja is a game we play often at the Grove and is fairly easy to play and to get to know people. Well, I didn't know that they played theirs a little different. At the Grove you can't move out of the circle, your turn in one fluent motion and if one hand gets hit your out. The Axis youth group played the rules differently. You can move out of the circle, not everyone made just one move and you had to get both hands hit in order to be out. I played one round and have gotten to be one of the last two standing once and it was not this game.
Afterwards, Ashley waved me over to listen to one of her friends singing and playing guitar. She had such a beautiful voice and played quite well. I remembered Nikki and missed her more than I normally do during any given week. I went back to playing Foosball, but this time the best player there helped me. This person that helped me is like the best player ever and was now helping me. I was smiling, even though losing, because God found a way from me to connect with the teens and help my awesome skills, even though I'm still horrible at Foosball.
The movie they played was "Oceans 12" and I wasn't too thrilled when I first heard that it was that movie but told kept telling myself to have an open mind. Being that there was at least an eight year old there and younger kids, I was almost blowing my top anger. I really wanted to ask their youth minister why he would even think about playing that movie. I never did and wish I had but I was really upset with it. I noticed that there wasn't any prayer said before everyone hung out or anything. A few of the leaders didn't even know that I was new, which I thought was odd. But they did have a fun game they did which was why I think they choose the movie.
Seeing how they did things and then how the Grove does things really changed my heart. I've heard that a group of kids playing video games and stuff isn't a youth group even if they call themselves a youth group. Yes they are a group of youth together but they aren't doing for God. I never really paid much attention to a group of kids playing games or a group of kids learning about God. After seeing the first scene of the movie, I was like really?!?!? You are going to play this in a church for a so called youth group?!? Even when the Grove just hangs out, also know as fellowship, we pray and talk about God. I don't think I heard anyone speak about God while I was there but then again I don't think I really talked about Him either.
Really trying to not let this movie get to me, I thought about the Grove a lot and just how we do things. Jason does so much for us all and the way he does youth group is so great but I would have never realized it if I didn't change something in my life. Well, you could tell that no one wanted to watch the movie and I knew of at least one person who fell asleep during it. When the movie was over, you could hear everyone complain about it and how it was a poor, boring choice. I was still anger but tried to let it go. Although this one question came to mind that really helped knowing I wouldn't be there forever," Well you not looking for a youth group but if you were, would you come back after tonight?"
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