Morning's Light

I met John Williams through the youth group at church. He's now away at college but has posted some beautiful photos on facebook that I had to share with you..with his permission!

This image sums up our winter in Wisconsin.  Cold, icy, yet beautiful.

John, Andy, Bobby, Katie and Elena helped me paint words on boxes for a sermon by Bryan Roe one morning.  John turned the boxes into art. 

We had to unwrap the giftwrapped boxes before painting them but took a break to wrap Katie up in the ribbons as if she were a Christmas tree.  Rather, she was a Christmas faerie.

We had youth group last night, but before it started, the youth pastor surprised me with a gift of The Office game– a DVD game focused on the show.  It has little Dwight Schrute money and tiny figures of each Office character.  Cannot wait to play the game!

When Bryan ushered me into our leaders meeting to give me the game, he asked me a question:

BRYAN: "What are you addicted to?"

ME: "Email and blogging."

B: "What else?"

ME: "Reading"

B: "What else?"

ME: "TV shows"

B: "What else?"

ME: "My youth group girls"

B: "What ELSE???"

ME: (catching a glimpse of The Office Game):  "OOooohhhh…The Office Game I almost 'borrowed permanently' from you on Sunday!"

B: "Exactly!"

[Hmm…addicted to a lot of things. Darn it!]

Then it was time to meet with the girls.  We met as a "small" group of nine girls to discuss the topic of karma vs. grace.  (Karma = transactional – if you do good, good will be done to you.  Grace, however, means that you receive something you don't deserve.  Thus grace is transformational: you receive God's love and grace at the start – not having had to do anything to deserve it – and then you go from there.  No "transactions" necessary.) 

I asked the girls to be creative, so in groups of 3, they came up with a song, a drawing, and a story that was acted out.  I was impressed by their creativity!

If you're the praying sort, I'd love prayer for some leaders to help me with the 15-20 7th and 8th grade girls on Wednesday nights.  It's a bit overwhelming (but still rewarding!) at times for me as one person leading all the girls. Thanks!