Mid-Marathon

Last weekend was the young adult retreat.  This weekend is the youth ministry retreat.  Tonight I am doing the "Why You Should Come to Youth Group" night for the 8th grade religious education classes.  Yesterday I helped Paul Wilkes download pictures for his presentation at our parish. Thursday I have an online seminar and my monthly meeting with my pastor.  Typical week for ministry.

Oh, and a headache that just doesn't seem to want to go away.  Rather have the headache than the nasty cold I had during this stretch last year (on both retreats I had a fever that the nurses with us though broke 100, it was great).

However, my Disney mug full of Mississippi Mud Pie coffee (fair trade of course) and my iPod playing my favorite playlist of Telemann's flute sonatas, Bach's cello sonata's, and a few Mozart pieces are definitely helping.

As tough an audience as they are, I love doing the 8th grade presentation each year.  Due to late notice (less than a week), I am flying solo instead of bringing in high schoolers with me.  I love getting up there and hearing what the kids expect youth ministry to be like - school, boring, something their mom makes them go to.  I don't win all of them over, but from the minute I step out there tonight, I hope to disabuse them of a few of their misconceptions.  First off, how many of their teachers have red and purple hair (my hairdresser went a bit over board on the highlights last Friday, still like it, just more than I expected).  Second, I bring ammunition from our adventures - go carts on retreat, closing Mass at WYD, and pictures from our other many excursions.  Third, I enlighten those that have never seen the youth room that we have no desks anywhere in the room.  Fourth, I throw candy at them.  Generally helps their mood.  Hey, sugar them up and send them home, right?  Seriously, the candy will help them focus since it is a large group and just me up there.  After all, they get the candy if they answer the questions.

Thanks to the Excedrin with the coffee booster, my headache is breaking.  I need to go through the DVD options to find some possible clips that would work for tonight.  I'm leaning towards X-Men (good things on teams, making decisions, etc) or Iron Man (also good for answering a call, decisions).  Probably go with X-Men as they are experiencing the resurgence thanks to the coming of X-Men Origins: Wolverine.  Though I would love to use one of my many incarnations of Jane Austen's works that I own, I think I would loose the boys.