Saturday, November 14, 2009

At the trampoline place

Today was the Middle School groups turn to go on an adventure. We headed over to the local trampoline place. It's basically a warehouse with a bunch of trampolines, a foam pit and a dodge ball area. The kids love it. I love watching them love it and laughing with them along the way. I was reminded, as we were driving home, why we do these things in youth ministry. It's not really about the place we go to, it's about the car ride, the time in a small space where the youth have to relate to each other. R-girl was my chaperone this time. I think it was good for her to see the other side of youth ministry as well.

The hard part, though, about going out in public is, well, the public. There were two mom's at the trampoline place that were so rude. At one point one of the mom's was berating a child (not her own, not with her, didn't know him at all) for not waiting in line. Didn't matter that she had just walked up and decided there should be a line or that this child had been jumping on the trampoline for awhile without many others around him. Then mom number two yelled at another child for the same thing. Again, the child had been jumping, no one was there, how were they supposed to know? Both kids walked away from the trampolines with a stunned look on their faces.

I'm pretty sure the mom's had no clue about their rudeness, nor did it seem like they would care very much...but I'm willing to bet if someone had treated their child that way there would have been hell to pay! I warned my group to stay away from the mom's and to make sure they waited in line, which they did. It was a good day.

1 comment:

Song Friend said...

The car ride. Absolutely. Half of the stories from a missions trip are about the car ride. Some of the most poignant, honest, and eternal conversations I ever had with students were in the car. An unsuspected bonus to buying a car with just 2 seats was I had a lot of opportunities to spend time with just one kid.

I love that you're still finding things about youth ministry to love. If you're called to it (and you don't make it anywhere close to 10 years if you're not), it's the best job in the world.

Keep it up, my friend. I'm living vicariously through your blog.