:D Yaaay, Youth Group!

Hahaha. Okay, so today at youth group we played this game where we had, like, twenty balloons per team, and you had to try and pop other teams balloons and guard your own. Only my team abandoned me to guard while they ran around and popped balloons, which is not good considering there are a lot of guys in the youth that are, like, two times stronger than me.

Well, except for Caleb. He and I are a pretty even match. He only got to one balloon. But, heck. Then Conner just storms in with Steve, and, woah. I...can't even begin to guard. You just hear this chaotic pop! pop! pop! 'cause I have to stand aside. Or get bloody flattened.
But it makes me happy I can hold my own against Caleb and Alex. XD

Then we watched a movie about following the steps of the rabbi. Like, in the old Jewish days, young boys studied the Torah, having Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy completely memorized, until they were ten, and then most went on to apprentice to the family business. But the best of the best continued, memorizing and studying --

(Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1st and 2nd Kings, 1st and 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Job, Psalm, Ecclesiastes, Song of Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obediah, Jonah, Miccah, Nehem, Habakkuk, Zepheniah, Haggai, Zachariah, and Malachi) --

They had that much memorized. And then the best of the best of the best would look for a Rabbi to follow, to be a disciple of. They would tell the rabbi, "I want to do what you do! I want to be like you!"
So the Rabbi would drill them on questions about the Torah, about the Bible, and about God. If he was dissatisfied, he would say, "You know, maybe this isn't the best thing for you. Go, continue your family business."
But if they passed, the Rabbi would say, "Come, follow me."

Now when Jesus went out to find deciples, he went to look amongst those who didn't make it. Those who didn't make the cut. Jesus saw two brothers fishing, Peter and James. They were fishermen, the lowest of the low. Then Jesus said, "Come, follow me."
And they dropped their nets and followed him. This has always sounded wierd to me, 'cause, like, why would you just drop everything and follow a stranger? Because he's a rabbi and he thought that they could do what he did.
They had missed the cut, and yet they'd been chosen to follow.

That's what we are. We have been called by the Rabbi, the BIG one! Even though we didn't make the cut (by any stretch of the imagination). We. Are. Not. Good. Enough! And yet God says he wants to hang out with us, and he wants us to follow him! He thinks we could do what he does!

And then after the lesson, we had a tickle war. Kathy, the asian girls, Makayla and I stuffed Kristen in a trash bag and dumped her by the trash can. Then Kathy tickled her. XD
And then someone found two finger blasters, and we shot those at each other while tickling the ticklish.
Did anybody know that Caleb is, like, really ticklish? Neither did Blacklock.
And then a few kids broke out of the fight into a social circle. It was me, Kristen, Steven, Josh, Chris, Conner, and Kathy.
Josh thinks we should name one of our horses Josh Jr. And one Steven It.
Haha.

So yeah, that was one of the more eventful and fun days at youth group!