Golf, Broomball, and Hockey. OH MY!

Yesterday was a very long day, but a very fun day. Although it was a very fun day, I am indeed feeling the physical effects from being active for 7 straight hours. Therefore, I am sore. Since it was a longer day, this entry will be longer as well. But I promise you, it'll be worth the read.

Part of my responsibilities as a Program Director is to organize and facilitate a team of Program Team members. These members are comprised of teens from grades 8th-10th. As of right now, I have 7 team members. They are a great bunch of kids eager to learn the ways of youth ministry (from a guy who is also still in the process of learning youth ministry). This summer I want to dedicate some time spent with these members; to get to know them, to see who they are, their likes and dislikes, their talents and abilities, etc. So yesterday, I asked Graham to go play some golf. Graham is a great kid who loves to be involved, so it wasn't a surprise that he said yes when I asked him to golf.

Also joining in our golfing endevour was Adam Jackley. Adam is the new Youth and Young Adult Pastor at New Community Church. He is a great guy as well that I was eager to build a relationship with. He also earned himself some points with me when he mentioned having lunch with Timothy Keller (one of my favorite authors) and having met Francis Chan (also another one of my favorite authors). Adam and I got caught up on where we came from, what we did growing up, what school we went to, and the journey that brought us to playing golf together on this day. As the day went on, not only was it cool to see Graham and I getting to know one another, but also to see Graham and Adam chatting it up. When Graham and I talked a little, I found out he is a huge The Dark Knight fan. I proceeded to do my nearly flawless impression of The Joker at which he was quite impressed by.

We all had some laughs, we all took some mulligans, we all had a great time. As far as performances went, it was a very good day for us all. It was cool to see Graham evolve (in a good way) in his abilities as the day went on. I happened to get a Par on a hole for the first time in my life! And Adam ended the day by winning the first ever New Community Student Ministries Open. It was the most fun (and best round of golf) I've ever had.

Here are some action shots for the day:



What a great day!

Now on to BROOMBALL


Earlier in the week when I was in the office, I was having a conversation with Mike and Adam Jackley about Broomball. Adam wasn't really sure what it was, so we explained it to him. "It's where you play with sneakers on the ice, with a broom and a small soccer ball, and try to put it into the net." To this statement, Adam replied "why would anyone ever wanna do that?" That's a great question Adam.

This was the first time I had ever played Broomball. My first reaction when it was over was "Are you kidding me?" I have never seen so many bodies flying and sliding across the ice. I have never seen so many broom parts explode before your very eyes. I have never heard so many thuds from bodies hitting the ice. I have never played a game quite like this.

Last night, we had about 20 middle school boys from our Edge ministry show up for this. Mike had also contacted another church to play against our boys. So there was about 27-30 people on the ice at once. All with brooms, all swingin' em. The reality was that we had more players than the other church did. Let's just say that we were on an overwhelming power play. It took the longest time to score a goal, but when it finally happened, it was a pretty sweet moment. There was a scrum in front of the net between 5 of our guys and 2 of theirs, and then a good bounce and a good timed swing resulted in our guys scoring the first goal. It was a great moment when all the kids tackled the goal scorer. Friends celebrating with one another in victory has always been a cool thing to be a part of. After a couple switches between who was on what team, the score became 5-5. An hour later, the kids from our Edge ministry sealed the deal with a last minute goal to put them up 6-5, then they ran out the clock from there.

You shoulda seen the look on their faces when you asked them "did you have fun?" There is no doubt in my mind that if we did this again in the near future, not only would the same kids returned, but I wouldn't be surprised if they brought 2 new friends with them. What a great place and a great activity to connect with kids.

Not only was Thursday a golf and broomball day, but it's also my favorite day of the week. It's my favorite day because:

IT'S A HOCKEY NIGHT IN PITTSBURGH!

Every Thursday night I gear up to play goalie for our youth ministry Hockey night. We are on week 3 and it's been a blast every week. This week we even had some new kids. And one of those new kids happened to pretty much be Sidney Crosby in middle school form. Apperently, this kid had 7 goals alone on me. I only counted two but after two everything just got blurry. Last night was an off night personally, but after watching the film, I'll readjust and get em' next time. The kids had a blast though. It was great to see kids out there who had never skated before. Some kids are apprehensive to do events like this because of the lack of confidence in their abilities. But some kids, like some of the kids last night, could care less about whether they fell every second, they just wanted to be there. And that's what we want to do with an activity like this; we want for it to be a place where kids can be. Where they come and meet new kids, get to know their leaders, and have fun doing it. It's also great to see kids who aren't that good at hockey score a goal (even if it's on me). All the other kids huddle around them and congratulate them on their goal. As a leader, it's among the many things I live for. One of things I wanted to do for my readers is connect them to some of the stuff that goes on at Hockey.

Since it'll be a constant thing throughout the summer, I want to give you some idea of what it looks like. So last night I had a kid shoot a video of two things. The first is of Adam Swiger (the Worship Pastor at New Community Church) taking slapshots at me. The second is of the kids, in constant attack, shooting pucks at me.

Even though I appear to be defeated at the end of this video, I can't help but say: I LOVE THIS STUFF!