Friend Makin' Monday: Travel!

How was your weekend?  Mine was awesome--I got to go up to Cran Hill Ranch for a weekend retreat with my youth group kids.  We had an incredible time, growing closer to God and to each other.  I'll be sharing pictures later, but now I'm exhausted and not feeling 100%, so I'm just doing a quick Friend Makin' Monday post.  Feel free to play along!

If you’ve taken part in FMM then you know the rules. If you’re new, please take a moment to answer this week’s question on your own blog then add your link in the comments section here at: http://www.alltheweigh.com/ so we can all see your FMM questions and answers. Please invite your blog readers to add their links here too so everyone has to opportunity to be seen. The idea is to connect with other awesome bloggers so take a moment to post your own FMM post and comment on a couple of other posts. Now it’s time for this week’s topic!



FMM: Travel

Where did your most recent trip take you? I just got back yesterday from Big Rapids.
Is there a place that you’d like to visit that you haven’t yet? If so, where? There are so many places I'd still like to go!  Mike and I hope to someday do a mission trip to Haiti, and I'd love to visit the Holy Land someday. 
Do you travel lightly, or do you cram as much into your luggage as possible? Funny--we just had this discussion this weekend.  I'm a pretty light traveler.  I've learned to bring just 1 or 2 extra outfits (depending on the length of my trip), but to always put as much necessary stuff as possible in my carryon (if I'm flying)...I've had my luggage lost too many times!
Do your eating and exercise habits change when you travel? If so, how? It really depends on where I'm going.  This weekend I did a lot of walking but I had little control over my food.  When I have the chance, like when we went to Chicago or Canada last year, I did exercise when possible.
Tell us about a place you’ve been that you’d like to go back to. I'd love to go back to both Romania and Jamaica.  I want Mike to experience Romania and we'd both love to get back to Jamaica.
Do you prefer to travel at a certain time of year? No, it makes no difference to me!
If you had to choose, would you go to the beach or the mountains? I love warm weather, so I'd definitely pick the beach.
Have you ever needed a passport to travel? Yes, to Canada, Romania, and Jamaica.
Do you collect anything in your travels? Mike and I buy a magnet every time we go somewhere together.
Where do you plan to go next? We are going on a family vacation to Hawaii with Mike's family in May. 
Now it’s your turn! Don’t forget to come back to share a link in the comments! Happy Monday friends!

New Opportunities

I started leading middle school youth group the year I graduated from high school. I started with a fabulous group of 6th grade girls. Each year, I moved up with them as they grew older. And each year, our small group has gotten smaller.

This year, I made the decision to move up to high school with my girls. I was disappointed to find out only 2 of my girls would be attending this year. From what I hear, our youth group "wasn't cool" enough for the other girls, and we "had too many rules". I'm sorry, but if learning about Jesus isn't cool enough for you, you're tough out of luck. And if your leader (me) requires that you not text on your cell phone during discussions, I guess my group just wasn't for you. (Please note, the last 2 statements were meant to be sarcastic!)

So here I am with a very small small group. And to top it off, one of my girls is going through a tough time right now and hasn't attended but 2 meetings all year. So it's just me and one other girl. We do the Bible studies our youth pastor prepares for us, but 1 person doesn't lead to much conversation and we usually finish in about 15 minutes.

You can imagine that I am frustrated with the dwindling interest in our youth group. Now, I did have an opportunity to combine small groups with the other group of freshman girls, but they meet on Sunday nights and that often doesn't work for me. We came to the conclusion that one of their two leaders would step down from the large group meetings, so our groups would combine for those, but she would continue to co-lead the small group since I was unable to.

So this morning, I approached the one girl in my small group. I had full intentions of telling her that we just weren't going to meet for small group anymore and I would just come for the large group nights. She attends the other small group's meetings on Sunday nights so I knew she wouldn't be missing out on the Bible studies. I wasn't ready to quit being a youth leader, I was just feeling like the small group times weren't worth our time anymore.

As soon as I mentioned it to my girl, I knew it wasn't going to go over well. We have a very close relationship (we've been together since she was in 6th grade), and she told me she still wanted me to come on the small group nights. One of her friends was standing there and jumped into the conversation, "the rest of us girls all just hang out on Wednesday nights, so why don't you lead another Bible study with us?" Out of the mouths of babes!!! (Well, if you consider 15 years old a babe still!!!) Now why couldn't I think of something like that? Here I am ready to throw in the towel and these girls are just aching for someone to talk to and spend time with. We came to the conclusion that they would talk with their friends and let them know of the plans, and I would find some good books for us to consider going through.

I'm so excited about this new opportunity and I just can't wait to see what God has in store for this incredible group of girls!

Cran Hill Ranch

This weekend I went up to Cran Hill Ranch with the middle school youth group from church. I wasn't sure what to expect, and it was a little strange for me to be going as a leader when I'm used to going as a student the past 7 years! But it turned out to be a great weekend! We left around 5:30 Friday evening. When we got to the ranch, we unpacked and then met for our first large group meeting. The topic for the weekend was "God made you for this". We discussed how we're all made for a purpose and what we're here on earth for. Then we did a small group response and then free time until bed time.
Saturday morning, we had a personal quiet time. This was interesting, because quiet for middle school girls is different for quiet for adults! :) Then we went to the work project. We had 3 groups. Mine was assigned to move firewood. We had to separate it, move it, stack it, carry it, etc. The other two groups did scrap metal and moving the woodshop to a new location. I didn't take any pictures of the work for fear of damaging my camera. We worked before lunch and after lunch. About 5 hours or so, which was long enough to be cold and tired and a bit sore. Then we had a long free time. Some went tubing, some slept, some played games and just hung out. I was in the latter group :) After dinner, we had another large group meeting and talked about how we are made to serve. We had a time of Servant Commissioning, washing of feet, which was a neat experience. Then we had free time until bed time. It was neat for me because some of the girls wanted me to hang out with them during free time. We painted nails, sat on Kaylyn's bunk for "girly talk" and had a great time. The highlight was getting attacked by silly string, but I'll let Tori or Anna tell you about that! Bed time was a different story though. The girls told a scary story after I had left the room. Then when they found out that the doors didn't lock, they got scared. So they asked if I would sleep in their room that night, instead of with Patty and Jennifer. I said sure. So I moved in there. We said a quick prayer and went to bed. 2 seconds after laying down, I heard "Melissa, I'm still scared" So I crawled up into her bunk, turns out she was homesick, so we talked for a while, and I went back to bed. A few minutes later another girl was scared. So she went to sleep with a friend, and I crawled up there too to comfort them. I guess we learned not to tell scary stories any more!!
Sunday morning we had our last large group time. We talked about ways to live out God's plan and ways to serve Him. We kicked off the fundraising for 30 Hour Famine (details coming another day). We also had a personal quiet time and then packed up and cleaned the cabin. That being done, we had some time before lunch so we played some games. After lunch, we headed home. It was a great weekend but it sure wore us out!!!
I let Kaylyn use my camera...but I'll spare Jennifer the embarassment by not putting most of the pictures up! :)




Drying our clothes by the fireplace











Breakfast group









Breakfast










Some of the adults






More people eating