that's what makes me smile

Last night at youth group we were blown away by a senior faith story. When I met with this young woman - we'll call her Sarah earlier in the week I was sure the story would be good, but it was better than that, it was awesome.

We began the evening with normal ice breakers and then proceeded into the fellowship hall for a game called screaming toes. When two people looked at each other and screamed, they became partners, left the circle and were given a few questions printed on postcards to get to know each other better. Included in the questions were instructions to make a secret handshake - so it was fun to watch kids finish this exercise with some fellowship and silliness.

When we headed back to the youth I put up a text poll - but the answers have not been good lately. perhaps we're using this resource too often, or maybe the uncensored answers are getting too silly. it does provide a nice transition and it's collaborative which is nice.

Then we opened the floor for the senior faith story. I prefaced the talk by explaining this would be serious, that we all need to be respectful and show her that we were listening, and that it - including the small group time - is always confidential.

Sarah's talk was a home run! when she spoke her voice was broken - clearly moved by sharing this story - and it drew everyone in. she opened by explaining that the divorce of her parents was particularly difficult for her and went on to say that every person in her family has a lifetime restraining order on him... enough said. Everyone was hooked to this beautiful story about how she has learned to guard herself and not let anyone see who she really is, not let her mom see when she was bothered, or not let her therapist see when she was hurting. If she smiled, everyone left her alone, so she would just smile and people would stop asking. She explained what it feels like to have acquaintances and not have any friends, then she explained her experimentation with marijuana and when her mom caught her and finally drove her back into this youth group. My favorite part of the story was her ending line: I realized that at youth group I didn't have to smile, which is what makes me smile the most.

After the faith story, I addressed the group and retold the story of Jesus meeting the Samaritan woman at the well. This was a great fit as Jesus looks past her guard and sees the real woman - calling her out and to a better life. We concluded by talking a little about how this group becomes a little like a church community before heading into small groups to debrief from the story and/or to think about our church community and what or why we do what we do.