Three sleepovers in less than 2 weeks...

...again I wonder, what was I thinking...but then after I have caught up on my sleep, I realize that I loved every minute of it!

I love being able to hang out with kids and walk life's journey with them, I love it when they feel comfortable enough to share their problems and questions with me, I love being able to point them toward Jesus and the hope we have in Him, I love seeing them grow and learn, I love being around teenagers!

First I had my girls over for one last sleepover (most of them are 10th graders and will start their exams soon). I have been working on making little scrapbooks for each of them from the last 2 years and I wanted them to have a part in it. They loved it and had my scrapbook things scattered all over the living room. I think that they watched 5 movies throughout the night and did not finally fall asleep until 3am...needless to say their faithful leader was in bed long before that!

Then a mere 4 days later, I once again found myself getting ready for another sleepover. This time it was a student council event and was at school. It was a pool party/bbq/sleepover for the grade 9 and 10 students and student council (which means me!) did all of the planning for it. It turned out great and all the students enjoyed themselves...although the sleeping on the floor was not the most fun thing I have done...I did get smart and decided that there was no way we were going to try to do a sleepover for the younger grades...75 6-8th grades...at school...all night...no thank you!

Finally a short week later, I once again found myself trying to sleep on the floor at school for our youth group 30 hour famine. Last year we did this for the whole secondary school, but since we did not have a team of volunteers to come out, we decided to just do it as a youth group this year. It was great...we had about 20 students participate and we had a great time playing games and learning about poverty around the world. Each of us were given disabilities that compared to things that children in Indonesia (the focus country) suffer with - some were blind, some had to carry heavy bags as burdens, some had lost their arms or legs, some (like me) had trouble breathing so they had to cover their nose. It was great to watch the kids work together as teams and learn as they went. We had some good talks about poverty and fasting and it was interesting to listen to their observations about it. We have all been blessed with so much and were able to break our fast with a fun celebration but this was just a reminder to all of us of how much God has given us and how He provides for us.

So when all is said and done, although it was a very long and tiring week, it was all worth it!