Week 18 was all about the coffee. Two different students in two different coffee houses. The first student is an AVID coffee drinker, and after asking him where he would like to go for the BEST coffee, he suggested the local 7/11. Wow. We went to Starbucks. Not that 7/11 would have been bad, but it wouldn't have a place to sit and chat (at least that is what I said...). My high school students and I are going to a national youth convention called CIY MOVE and this student had some reservations regarding going. From doubts that he would have fun to speculation that it was much like church camp, this student was very uneasy about going to CIY. However, I REALLY wanted him to go because it is unlike anything he had ever experienced, so we drank some coffee while discussing it like velociraptors. I just wanted him to know that I was his biggest fan and that I thought the trip wouldn't be the same without him. I really like this dude and hope that our relationship continues to flourish - especially through CIY...  My other student was just a casual coffee with not much direction other than just spending time together. Sometimes it's just good to check in with my students...

Week 17 was probably the best find of my entire Youth Pastor existence. I was taking a student out to have some chips and soda at Moe's and he suggested that we go to this new restaurant called "Pizza-Go-Round". Sounds dumb. Whatever, I caved and we went. At first it looked like a pretty lame pizza place that had very little decoration. But what we found at this hole in the wall pizza place was far from lame...

Orlando. Did I expect to get anything accomplished? No. Did I? Absolutely. Even though I wasn't at home with the students, I did get some work done on the outside... Andy Stanley says sometimes you need to work ON and not IN the ministry. And that is exactly what I did. I decided to invest front end into some of the materials for the upcoming discipleship class. I wanted to make sure that everything not only looked good, but functioned well. My intentions are to have the students pay $15 for the program, which should cover the costs of the materials, binder, and flash drive. By the way, do you know how hard it is to find a A5 paper size transparent binder? Ya, don't even try it. Anyways, I purchased all of those materials for a starter booklet to begin putting the program materials together. Hopefully things will begin to take shape and when I start the video part of the program i'll be moving along like a steam engine. I hope this program changes lives...

PS: the program is called up*.

Week 15 was definitely the last week before spring break for me... Mike and I were traveling to Orlando the following week and we were so pumped up about the trip that it was hard to focus... However, I still had enough focus and time to meet with one of my students. We went to Moe's and enjoyed some chips and queso together, chatting about "the weather" and other random junk. One thing I found important that I was able to chat with this student about was his involvement in our student events. It had been a concern of mine for a while now that he did not like to attend or support the events that we did... From lack of attendance to sometimes even commenting on things he would be doing instead, it was a little frustrating that I did not know what was going on. I did come to find out that it was just a transitional phase and that he was feeling left out based on his age and maturity. I encouraged him to focus on hanging out with the older students and focus on spending time doing events they would be doing. I feel bad for him, but unless he invites his friends or chooses to fit in, he takes part of the blame. Hopefully our conversation ended well and he went home with a slightly better perspective... We'll see....

Week 14 was one with not much going on. We had just rebounded from two weeks of group being in different locations and having  two completely different objectives or "focuses", everything gearing up for spring break, and a furious work ethic involving the new discipleship program. And did I mentioned that I moved, painted my new apartment, and set up the new office as well? Needless to say, I didn't get much of an opportunity to spend my $25. However, my goal was to use it for food for one of the Sunday nights in which we grilled out at my new apartment and in a sense "united" as a youth group. That intention was plundered in the check-out line when another volunteer swept in and paid for food before I could quick-draw with my wallet. Moral of the story? I have GREAT volunteers and SLOW reaction time. So, for now we will chalk it up as $25 in limbo and I'll look for another great avenue to invest it... Possibly into the new discipleship program... Until then, peace!

Catching back up... Two weeks ago I finally made it back to FCA at Broad Run High School after what seemed like an extended stint of business... All of the moving and shifting and painting and installing had me - in a sense - brainwashed and mummified into doing all of the menial tasks around my new apartment and somewhat abandoning my students for a week. However, I was able to make it back to FCA - like I said before - and I took donuts for everyone. Even though the turnout was small that week, we were able to accomplish so much just with the crew that we had. First of all, we acquired a new in-school sponsor to aid us in the gaining of a new space to meet... My Kyger helped us to reserve the auditorium for the remainder of the year. Great guy. Secondly, I convinced them to let me design some T-Shirts since things weren't going well on their end. Here is what I came up with:

Last week I met with five students on five separate days - for lack of better words, it was insane. However, none of them made me go to the same place as the others and they all were entirely different than the last. Probably the best part about the situation was that my entire schedule was dominated by student meetings - so much that I lost track and didn't seem to get much accomplished on the admin or creative side of my life. It made me feel like a legitimate youth pastor though... So, I'll just give a quick run through since it is so much information...