Things we do for youth ministry

Last night was the kickoff for Ignition for the new school year! I cannot believe that this marks five and years with this ministry. This was a special milestone since this year we have a youth pastor again for the group and the energy and momentum are really working in our favor. We are starting the year off with a series called Identity Crisis. The concept is that we all struggle with the pressures both internally and externally to fit a certain mold or behave in certain ways. This can make life very complicated and make it very hard for us to have a clear picture of who we want to be and even harder to see the picture of what God wants us to be. In order to introduce the leaders for this year and for entertainment value the leaders opened the service with an alter ego fashion show.

We had all kind of alter egos: a ghost buster, Pocahontas, an army captain, an older cat lady, a colonial mother of 9, a redneck trucker, a hipster, etc. My costume was a Louisiana beauty pageant hopeful named Gracie Lou whose platform is to beautify the people of the world for Jesus. My husband was a Mexican wrestler who wrestling name is el feugo de pantalones. It was goofy and mildly embarrassing but overall it was a lot of fun. It is proof that when you are part of a ministry you will often end up doing plenty of things you never expected. My southern belle and homespun beauty queen act now has me slated to dress up as honey boo boo for the next skit. All kidding aside I feel so thankful to be able to spend another year working with these awesome students. My girls are now upperclassmen and it is really sinking in how much they have grown since I started working with them two years ago. It also marks the fact that some of my previous girls are entering their last year of college and my heart swells with pride at their accomplishments and their potential for the future. It is nice being able to stay part of their lives and become a friend as well as a mentor. It gives me hope that even as this group of girls head to college in 2 years that I know I will always get to be part of their lives! God is writing some amazing stories with these students’ lives and I am just amazed to get to witness it.