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!
