Random Youth Group Babbling
Oct. 17th, 2005 01:27 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lls_mutantHeh. According to a newsletter, I am now involved in the Shoebox Project.
Obviously, this is not anything to do with Remus and Sirius. This is a project my youth group kids do every year. It's proper name is Operation Christmas Child. They each get a shoebox, and they fill it with little items for a kid in a poverty-stricken country to recieve on Christmas. It's a pretty neat project, and really appropriate for the age level I work with (6th-8th grade). We usually take them to the Dollar Store so they can get more bang for their buck, and they usually do a great job on it.
I'm also very amused at what it sounds like my youth-group-oriented baby shower is going to be like. The kids don't have much money, for the most part, and the youth pastor assumes we'll have everything we need at that point. (Not at the rate we've been moving, but it's not an assumption I'm challenging in this scenario! :) ) So what she wants to do is have a shower, but have the kids actually buy baby things for charity. I then open them, so they have the fun of buying the gifts and watching me open them, but it incorporates charity, too. I'm actually really pleased about the idea in a lot of ways. Hubby and I aren't what I'd call rich, but we were a dual income family with no kids and two Ph.D.s. Our town is really weird, too, in that there is a huge economic divide. There's a lot of people in our tax bracket, and a lot of people right around the poverty line. Most of the kids in my youth group come from the second class. I love giving showers, but I always feel very awkward about getting them, because I just hate that expectation that people are going to give you gifts and such. I especially didn't really like the idea in this scenario, because hubby and I are one of the wealthier families in our church. I mean, if people want to give us something and chose to do it because they chose to do it, that's one thing. Showers... I just don't like getting them. I feel like it's a more coerced gift.
Besides, what I REALLY want from this youth group is a good babysitter! :)
(Apparently, they're also going to make me a booklet of parenting advice. This should really be a hoot, and I will treasure that far more than an outfit or a bib or whatever. I love that sort of thing.)
I'm also looking forward to my core group this year. I've got the junior high boys, who seem to be pretty low and easy in the drama department. WHOOHOO! They're an interesting group, because there's such an age difference. Two are in sixth grade, and two are in eighth. They all seem to come from strong, good families, and at least two of them are not at all into girls yet. (The other two are, but I think at least one is too shy to do anything about it.) So instead of dealing so much with social issues, I asked them what they were into. The answer was pretty quick and unanimous... STAR WARS! They thought they were joking. Well, two years ago we did Christian messages in the Lord of the Rings. I have NO PROBLEM with doing messages in Star Wars!!! The big problem is going to come when they insist the prequels are cool and I keep arguing that the original trilogy was far better and that Anakin is a total whiner. (To be fair, so is Luke.) I think we'll start out with Yoda's speech to Luke in Empire Strikes Back about the Dark Side, and what leads to it (the Dark Side, I mean). Then we can talk about each of those emotions. I've also been asked to incorporate some stuff about honesty, but that's really not all that hard to do with Han Solo wandering around.
Okay. Must get my walk in and get going on the zebra for Toby's room. I actually wrote some today, but man... my brain is just atrophied. Too much wedding stuff, I guess. I am SO glad we're done with weddings!
Obviously, this is not anything to do with Remus and Sirius. This is a project my youth group kids do every year. It's proper name is Operation Christmas Child. They each get a shoebox, and they fill it with little items for a kid in a poverty-stricken country to recieve on Christmas. It's a pretty neat project, and really appropriate for the age level I work with (6th-8th grade). We usually take them to the Dollar Store so they can get more bang for their buck, and they usually do a great job on it.
I'm also very amused at what it sounds like my youth-group-oriented baby shower is going to be like. The kids don't have much money, for the most part, and the youth pastor assumes we'll have everything we need at that point. (Not at the rate we've been moving, but it's not an assumption I'm challenging in this scenario! :) ) So what she wants to do is have a shower, but have the kids actually buy baby things for charity. I then open them, so they have the fun of buying the gifts and watching me open them, but it incorporates charity, too. I'm actually really pleased about the idea in a lot of ways. Hubby and I aren't what I'd call rich, but we were a dual income family with no kids and two Ph.D.s. Our town is really weird, too, in that there is a huge economic divide. There's a lot of people in our tax bracket, and a lot of people right around the poverty line. Most of the kids in my youth group come from the second class. I love giving showers, but I always feel very awkward about getting them, because I just hate that expectation that people are going to give you gifts and such. I especially didn't really like the idea in this scenario, because hubby and I are one of the wealthier families in our church. I mean, if people want to give us something and chose to do it because they chose to do it, that's one thing. Showers... I just don't like getting them. I feel like it's a more coerced gift.
Besides, what I REALLY want from this youth group is a good babysitter! :)
(Apparently, they're also going to make me a booklet of parenting advice. This should really be a hoot, and I will treasure that far more than an outfit or a bib or whatever. I love that sort of thing.)
I'm also looking forward to my core group this year. I've got the junior high boys, who seem to be pretty low and easy in the drama department. WHOOHOO! They're an interesting group, because there's such an age difference. Two are in sixth grade, and two are in eighth. They all seem to come from strong, good families, and at least two of them are not at all into girls yet. (The other two are, but I think at least one is too shy to do anything about it.) So instead of dealing so much with social issues, I asked them what they were into. The answer was pretty quick and unanimous... STAR WARS! They thought they were joking. Well, two years ago we did Christian messages in the Lord of the Rings. I have NO PROBLEM with doing messages in Star Wars!!! The big problem is going to come when they insist the prequels are cool and I keep arguing that the original trilogy was far better and that Anakin is a total whiner. (To be fair, so is Luke.) I think we'll start out with Yoda's speech to Luke in Empire Strikes Back about the Dark Side, and what leads to it (the Dark Side, I mean). Then we can talk about each of those emotions. I've also been asked to incorporate some stuff about honesty, but that's really not all that hard to do with Han Solo wandering around.
Okay. Must get my walk in and get going on the zebra for Toby's room. I actually wrote some today, but man... my brain is just atrophied. Too much wedding stuff, I guess. I am SO glad we're done with weddings!
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
no subject
Date: 2005-10-18 04:55 am (UTC)I, personally, have a hard time balencing Church and fanfic, esp. slash. I am at the mother of all conservative churches in the mother of all conservative cities though, so possibly it's just me.
And Anakin is very much a whiney baby. I despised Luke in the original trilogies because Mark Hamill can't really act, and GL doesn't seem to care. Anakin was like "same song, second verse, a little bit louder and a
little bitlot worse!"On the other hand, for at least the first two movies, Amadala kicked butt. Also, Ewan. Yes.
Oh, and PS
I adore your series. It's one of the best R/S series I've ever read, mostly because it's very character driven and I love your characterization.
no subject
Date: 2005-10-18 12:47 pm (UTC)My youth group doesn't know about my LJ as a rule, and they aren't going to know if I can help it! But pre-HBP, I had a lot of fun trying to convince the kids that Remus and Sirius were a couple. A few actually believed me.
The slash part in terms of two gay guys wouldn't get me in trouble- or I'd raise a lot of hell if it did! I really don't want the kids stumbling on anything I've written that's explicit, though- that's more my main concern. A few of them have even read some of my work- I printed out Deny Thy Father in hard copy to let them read it (with my author name removed!). If I had one that was really interested I'd certainly let them read Mentors, and I'd even remove a few key scenes from Accidentally In Love and let them read that. It's those little PWPs they don't need to be reading!
My church is kind of divided on the homosexuality issue, but open enough that if a same-sex couple walked through the doors, they'd be treated with kindness and respect by most of the congregation... I think. We're also small enough that that hasn't happened yet. I'm waiting for the day when one of our kids comes out of the closet, but so far, that hasn't happened. The funny/sad thing is that the stereotypes sure exist... one of the adults that works with the youth group is CONVINCED that one of our boys is gay, because he's into theater and speaks rather flamboyantly. Me, I'm more worried about this one and girls, let me tell you! (Actually, I'm more worried about this one and drugs and alcohol.)
But I'd really rather they didn't see my journal! :)
Amadala did kick butt for the first two movies, but boy, she turned into a whiney dishrag in the third. ::Sigh:: And Ewan... yeah. You gotta love Ewan. My only complaint was that Jedis don't wear leather more often. George Lucas should have realized what an opportunity this was.
The annoying thing about Hayden Christensen is I've seen him in Life as a House, and he was really, really good in that. His character was annoying at first, but completely meant to be, and he did the transition well as well. I think the kid can act (I need to see Shattered Glass at some point)- it's just that George Lucas can't direct actors. (Although I agree about Mark Hamill)
And thanks! That's actually why I wouldn't mind some of the kids reading Accidentally In Love. Except for one scene, it tends to be focused on the relationship and plot and not the sex. MUCH more fun that way!
no subject
Date: 2005-10-19 05:34 am (UTC)Didn't Harrison Ford directly tell GL once that "you can write this stuff, but you can't direct it" or something?
I totally understand about the not wanting to hand them smut thing. I'm the same with my little sister. She's not in the fandom (or the multi-verse, or whatnot. It's beneath her.) but I know she'd like Shoebox, and someday I'll get her to read it. She's not anti-homosexuality. She's not necessarily pro either, but at least not anti.
My church, however (which is more of my parents church, actually) is very much against it. I don't think they'd start throwing stones as soon as a couple walked through the doors, but they would force an ultimatum if someone in the congregation was homosexual. And they also have questions about it on thier forms for applying to work with the sunday school program (along with questions about things like "Do you masturbate?"). They believe in 'curing' homosexuality.
Bleh. I'm rambling. Sorry. It's just that I've never met (on or off line) anyone else who's a Christian and still supports slash.
And I completely agree about the quality over pure smut. Not that smut's not fun in it's own way, but character driven smut is, in my opinion, both much hotter and much better than purely aestetic smut. I prefer a UST --> RST over a PWP.
Thank you for replying.