I have a love-hate relationship for children and children's ministry. Every year when I worked at camp in the summers, I so looked forward to going to camp and acting like a child for a few months, but by the end of it I would decide that I hate children. Actually after about 2 full days of children I decide that I dislike them quite alot. And this week has proven no different than usual. I was kind of excited for the children's programme because I enjoy acting like I am a ten year old again. And just being silly and wearing rediculous costumes. But man, children are exhausting. But I do love them. The only reason that I bother with it is not for anyone but the children.
The week has been quite stressful. I had a mental breakdown on Monday because I was coming down off of a two/three day migraine of death and then I had a bit of a stressful time at the program and got kind of discouraged. I just needed to hear momma Reyns' voice. But I couldn't get on a computer at the library and everyone on the team was using their own computer. So I tried to phone home on a pay phone. Since when are pay phones so hard to use?!?!?! Like really, can't a person just put some money in and dial? Ugh. It took me so long to figure out how to dial collect to Canada, and then my parents weren't at home :( and my mom's cell doesn't accept collect calls. Poop stain. And then the stupid pay phone wouldn't accept my credit card, so I couldn't even pay for a call. I was so mad. I cried.
But then Dave took pitty on a poor crying Steph and let her use his MacBook to skype Momma Reyns. Thank God for Dave and his MacBook. And I let all of my frustrations out, and Momma Reyns encouraged me. And then I was good to go for the rest of the week. I think the theme of the week for me is remaining unoffended no matter what, and holding my tongue... a lot. I tend to be pretty opinionated and argue a lot if I don't agree with something. But I have held my tongue all week. Go Steph, Go!
This week I have been leading one of the age groups, I got the 9 and 10 year olds. They are hilarious. And they have a LOT of energy. We call ourselves the Knights of Ni (from Monty Python) and whenever we switch activity stations we hop around yelling "NI NI NI NI NI NI!" It's pretty fun and we have been successful in annoying EVERYONE. Score one for Knights of Ni.
The kids are super crazy all of the time. At the beginning of the week most of the girls were too shy to participate in games, but today was the first day that they ALL participated and it was awesome! They are loud and crazy (especially the boys) everywhere, except for the throne room. In the throne room, Beth teaches about the memory verse and the theme of the day. And it is so amazing. The second the kids step into the room, there is complete silence, and all of the kids eyes are on Beth as she tells the bible stories and gives them different types of puzzles about memory verses to help them learn the verses. It is amazing. And ALL of the groups are like this.
At the end of the day each day, the Jolly Jester MC (me), quizes the kids on the memory verses. They pretty much all know all of them. They even remember the ones from the first few days, and it was day 4 today. The kids are awesome.
My group is the loudest, and we have the most fun. In snack time it has become a tradition to tackle Steph and all of the youth helpers to the ground. So they tackle us. Jump on us. Sit on us. Fart on my head. And yell "Tell me everything you know!" or "Give me all of your money" or something to that effect. Then I get hulk like strength yel; "ARRRGGGG" and get up with all of them hanging on, and then they repeat the cycle. It's fun for them, and I don't have to plan or lead games or anything, so it works for me. But they do also ask really good questions about the lesson of the day, and stuff like that. They are a bunch of sweeties. I think everyone, including my helpers, are a bit afraid of the boys. But I love my boys. They are so much fun!
The other day when we got back from a long hard day of prepping crafts, we celebrated by jumping off of the upstairs landing in our complex. We stacked all of our mattresses at the bottom, and fell from the railing. It was awesome. Everyone else did belly flops onto the mattresses, but I was too chicken. I kept sticking my feet and arms out at the last minute. It was awkward. But so fun!
I think this week has been a big growing experience for our team, and we now have more unity than we have all of outreach. It is us against the world. And we are winning. Awe yeah. As much fun as the program is, I am excited to be done. I am exhausted from being pinned to the ground and from endless piggy backs and yelling "NI NI NI NI NI...." I think I will lose my voice if this goes on for much longer...
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