Good Experience FIVE

After moving up to Kirkland to attend Northwest University last fall, I immediately got involved at Timberlake Church in Redmond.  After a couple months of volunteering my team in the high school ministry by just helping out with miscellaneous duties on Sundays, I got the opportunity to become one of the high school group's "Roots" leaders.  Justine was the sophomore girls' leader and she was leaving the country to go to a DTS (Discipleship Training School) through YWAM.  Paul, the (now ex) high school pastor, asked me to take over the group.  It was a weird transition time because Paul was leaving Timberlake to plant a church in Seattle and the new pastor from California was literally just getting settled in.  I, being connected with Paul and his family, knew that I too would be leaving Timberlake to be a part of the Ballard Church launch team once school got out in May.  I wasn't sure how comfortable I felt with pouring my life into a group of girls when I know that it would be fleeting.  However, after a lot of prayer and consideration, I felt like it was the right thing to do; the girls needed a leader ASAP and I was a familar face, available to serve in that way.  I began my own Roots group with them (which is a fancy way of saying weekday small group) and it has been going really well.  Last weekend was the high school winter retreat called Snowdown over at Double-K Ranch in Eastern Washington.  It was an amazing opportunity to invest in the lives of others, especially my small group girls.  Five of them were able to make it: Alison, Ali, Kaylie, Jasmine, and Danny.  I was a little nervous going into the camp that they wouldn't be open during small group time since two of them were new and a little bit shy.  However, after the first session of worship and message, we broke up into our small groups and the girls really opened up which demonstrated that they trusted and respected me.  Not only was it an awesome opportunity to take responsibility of a group of girls for the weekend, but I got the chance to create and help lead the games for the whole camp of 80 students.  My favorite game that I came up with was one that I had lead for another group of students in the past, it's called Baby I Love You.  For the game we took 10 students (5 girls and 5 guys) and had them line up in two single file lines facing each other.  The first guy and girl walk up to each other, look into the others' eyes and the guy must say without laughing: "Baby I love you, would you please please smile?" and the girl must respond "Baby I love you, but I just can't smile." If either contestant smiles at any given point during the game, that player is out.  The students enjoyed it very much, it was a great success!  In hindsight, when all the glamour of camp is stripped away, all the games, music, snowball fights, what it really boils down is what kind of an impact was made for Christ.  I am so glad that I took on the role of being the girls' small group leader and that I get to invest into their lives and make a positive impact on them.  They say that when you serve and bless others it turns right back around as a blessing itself, and that is SO true.