Summer Stretch

 Last week was our week of Summer Stretch. Here's the basic concept: During the week of VBE (it's called VBS at most churches) we typically have students involved in huge numbers, and have need for lots of teenager helpers. Those teenagers are largely recruited by me, and many of them just because each afternoon (after VBE concludes for the day) we run a program called Summer Stretch. The name is hijacked from a Roman Catholic church in Minnesota, but the concept is an original. The idea is to reward those teenagers who helped with VBE by giving them lunch each day, followed by extreme and awesome events like giant slip and slides, water balloon fights, tie dye tshirts and other service projects. The end result is a beautiful mix of students who spend a week of their life helping others, developing a strong community, deepening their faith, and having loads of memorable fun. Here’s a quick synopsis of the week:

The difference between this year and last year was energy. Last year, I think I was the supplier of energy. Everything was new, kids were being added to our group every day, and there was a surprise factor where kids couldn’t wait for the next day and what crazy thing we would dream up next. A year later, a year with strong ministry, lots of involvement, and plenty of crazy events, it’s safe to say the surprise is gone. Instead there was an expectation and a new form of energy that looks a lot like community and feels like the energy is coming from our students.

This year we had 41 participants in our summer stretch, most of them helped with VBE each day and then stayed for the afternoon. 18 of them were incoming 9^th graders! 6 of them weren’t members of our church. And though many of the kids were core participants, many of them will be on our mission trip in a few weeks, there was a sense about the group that everyone belonged and was included in the community.

I’ll use two students as an example. Lisa is new (and it's not her real name). She joined with her parents a month or so ago, and until last week she was definitely an outsider looking in skeptically. This week she brought Sally to the group as a safety blanket, her best friend just in case it was so horrible that she couldn’t stand it. In fact the first day, as soon as they showed up, both girls came to me and asked if they had to stay the whole time. They wanted to leave before they even arrived. However, as the days went on, Lisa and Sally started learning new names, things they had in common with other students. The eventually began to sit next to other students at lunch, they opened up during group discussions, and they made friends with others in our group (who were trying desperately to friend them as well). By Thursday I had forgotten that the two had even come together, they were so integrated into our group. On Friday, they were both connected outside of our group, writing facebook notes to kids in the group about how they would miss them next week and being pressured (invited and strongly encouraged) into getting more involved.

Last night Lisa signed up for our adventure land trip on Thursday. That might not seem like a life-saving, transformational moment on the outside, but in the span of one week, Lisa experienced the power of community wrapped up tightly within her own church. It’s an infectious power at work inside our group as our students vigorously welcome new students and adopt them into our group, invite them into our conversations, and claim them as friends, brothers and sisters in Christ, and workers looking for more volunteer opportunities, leadership roles, and spaces in our church. We had a fabulous week: the slip and slide, water balloons, tie dye, hostess scavenger hunt, flying chicken, water guns, relays, serving opportunities, dorky name games, weird stunts, Bible studies, skits, and songs were great tools that framed an experience with God and with each other. Lisa and students like her are all testaments to how beautiful it is when you are doggedly pursued by God’s love manifest in God’s teenage followers! There’s still work to be done with these students, but foundation has been laid and they feel like they are a part of something here at this church like they’ve never felt before!

So what is left to say, but thank God for these awesome servants; for the 7 adults who volunteered to prepare meals, lead discussions, drive vehicles, and get wet for God’s sake; and for the support from the congregation who make weeks like this available for our most vulnerable teenagers.