I know that it is supposed to be cleanliness and Godliness, but I'm a messy person anyway, so I shanged it to suit me better. I always thought it was just a mean way to get kids to clean their room..."you're not holy if you are messy!" " the devil loves dirty" " being dirty makes the baby Jesus cry!" But I guess it could be about souls be clean or something profound like that. Actually I was just trying to come up with a clever blog title, which has once again eluded me. I quit.
The point is that today is Thursday and its really my mental 'Friday' because in the nature of the Youth Minsitry/DRE game you work every Sunday. So, I have off on Fridays instead. So, in reality this means one thing. I need to get things done today and I start freaking out around um, 4:24 pm, like right now, because I'm not done, which means coming in either earlier on Sunday or not taking tomorrow 'off'. I wino n Sundays because even thoughI work, In inside the church and not in an office, so I feel pretty good about that, its like I've cheated the system somehow. But I think that may be part of why I do what I do. I did the office thing and hated it. I hate office time. The whole office thing just seems so small, like 'petty' small and now that I'm out int he world most of the time rather than in an office, I honestly don't know how I ever lasted three years in one.
Here I wear jeans to work, I'm teh 'director', I make my own schedule, I go to Peru, I go on retreats and ski trips, I make kids do plays and sing songs, I tell peopel about Jesus, I'm in a band and I hang out with teenagers for money. Okay that last part sounds sketchy, but its not as bad when you call it "Relational Ministry"
Example, like yesterday, i recruited help and had a field trip. I am leaving for Peru in one week and I have a ton of things for the orphans that needed to be packaged and...dunt dunt dunnnn, enter four teenagers. So After a two and half hour meeting (argggghhh but necessary for planning/business/'adult annie' responsibilities) bethany and I went to the high school to pick up Elissa, Joe and Dom. We went to Branford to look for guitars (not business related) but the guy was way weird and the store kind of sucked a LOT, and then we went on to Job Lot for boxes for Peru. I don't even want to begin, and I can't remember some of it because my head still hurts, to get into what happened in that store...but about forty minutes later we exited with six boxes, four hundred envelopes, 2 rolls of (not enough as it turned out) packaging tape and a lot of candy that had to be kept away from Bethany so the peanuts didn't kill her. I think someone said something like, "Wow butterfingers for 25 cents!!! Those are like a dollar in the real world!!!!" But I can't remeber who because I was trying to find the exit, which turned out to be quite ellusive. I enjoyed that comment though, because it was funny. Adn teenagers in Job Lot is never short on the funny.
And basically, these teens are funny and fun to be around.
After Job Lot, we returned to my office, and we started sorting through and packing stuff for my trip and it was loud and funny and kind of ridiculously crowded and loud with people and 'stuff'.
Afterwards, Dom and Bethany and I went to Chips for dinner and that was pretty much my life from 10 am until 7:00pm yeseterday.
And I'm glad I didn't and that I don't sit at a desk pushing paper all day, and that I do these type of things instead, because it was fun, it keeps me sane, and it means something. If you look past the ridiculousness (and belive me this is just one tiny glimpse of ridiculousness that IS my everyday life) of what we were doing, and look instead at why we were doing it...its pretty amazing. Its amazing that teens today would take the time to pack boxes of clothes and toys for orphans in South America. And that gives me hope for the future, for the present, for our church and for the world.
And its almost Friday now, which is really my Saturday :) YAY
And we have band practice in three hours, so I'm going to try and get some things done before that time arrives.
And I'm going into NYC on Saturday night to Catholic Underground, which should be cool. They ahva cajun band playing this month, should be interesting.
