The Snowball Syndrome

You know those old cartoons we watched as kids and how there was always that one episode where one of the characters goes sliding down a snow covered mountain and ends up a giant snowball? Life is so easily like that sometimes.

Sunday I was informed that Youth group was starting up at College Heights. I thought "hey that's cool the older kids will love that!". Then I was informed in front of the kids that all of them could attend. Suddenly I went from 5 kids to 13 that wanted to be at youth group every Wednesday. Still a very great idea, but not as easily managed as I thought it would be. Now I would have to find a van to transport them all in, someone to help corral them at the church, and most importantly get enough sleep Tuesday night to make it all the way through work from 8-5 and 13 kids till 9. Work was crazy this week and instead of letting Jay know what was up I just totally forgot about Wednesday until Wednesday hit, full on. Tuesday had been quite possibly the hardest day at work to date in four years in this office and so sleep was slight for that evening. I managed to get a van, but no help. Once again, probably could have been remedied, but after a while of people giving you the run around on being able to help or not you just stop wanting to call. That doesn't defeat the fact that I should have though. Because me not calling meant I ended up with 13 kids and a very tired me. I survived, but it was rough. They yelled the whole way there various forms of "he's touching me", "she looked at me", and "he started it" and then on the way back had to explain to three 7-8 year olds that flirting, kissing, or any other form of relational behavior between the three of them would not be tolerated. I was overwhelmed. I didn't even see it coming is the worst part. While I was there, people would ask if I was able to do this every week, help with some new idea for God's Resort, or some other completely unrelated activity. I can't and I won't I have decided.
I went to Randy's leadership class last night and he talked about three modes of leadership. I am tired of the Disneyland/funnel mode where all I am is personable all day and exhausted form activities at the end of it. I want to be relational, personal, and awake enough to be compassionate. That's why Megan and I moved down to God's Resort. Not to coordinate more activities, but to open the avenue to be more intentional in our relationships with the children and their families. We want to lead by example and by being around for the messy stuff, not constantly out running events. We want to live life with these families. So this means saying "no" to a lot of things people want us to say "yes" to. I hear that people say "no" all the time, and yet I still get a look of shock whenever I do. It's like the whole world might come crashing down on their heads, but honestly we live in the buckle of the bible belt here, if we can't find someone else to help we have more to be concerned about then the planning of another event.