Don't Lose Yourself/Don't Let Yourself Be Lost

I have a love/hate relationship with Wednesdays.

This is fact.

It is easily the busiest day of my week and I mostly love it.

Actually, I mostly love Refinery.
And by that, I mean I love the people at Refinery.

My small group this year is craxy (<- not a typo, btw).
It's just Michelle and I which means the sarcasm is flowing like fresh, golden honey and we burst out laughing at random moments. We have three of our girls from last year, 5 freshmen, an exchange student and a girl who transfered from the other group. I love them all, but putting them all into one room with somewhat stupid questions to discuss is completely insane. CHAOS! Half of our discussion is just getting everybody quiet.
But as I stated before, I love it all. It is probably one of my favorite hours out of the week.

What I don't like about it is this: I feel so inadequate. But in a way, that's good. At a seminar I went to this past spring, the speaker, Chap Clark, stated that we can't be everything for the youth we work with, but we can point them in the direction of someone who can be. (Insert Sunday School answer here) But what do I do when someone isn't sure they even want help finding God anymore, that they don't even want to be here (in a couple senses of the word). That came up tonight.

This girl showed up at Refinery last fall, pretty much out of the blue. Since then, she has grown so freaking much and not just spiritually. She has a really crappy background and even her present isn't all that charming. She went on Deputation and had the mountaintop experience and now she's falling hard. I don't know what to do for her other than pray and be there for her. She's a great girl/gal/young woman and I don't want her to lose sight of herself and value in the influence of others and the world.

Please pray for her, if you would. May God sustain her spirit and place strength and trust in the people around her.

Thank you. I didn't mean to bog this blog down with this issue, but it's weighing on my heart right now.

-KL

NOT JUNK

Only read this if you have 10 minutes and can follow the instructions below. Gracias.

If you're gonna watch this, do it right.

1. Make sure you're in a quiet room, preferably by yourself.
2. Turn off the lights.
3. Press play.
4. Make is fullscreen
5. Watch it straight through.

So Much For So Little

I really love days like today. It's pretty much the epitome of a fall day. The sky is gray, it's sprinkling rain on and off, the leaves are caught half-way between green and orange, it's still warm enough to wear short-sleeves (although I am wearing jeans), class got out early. Love it.



Although I wouldn't want days like this all the time. I'm sure I'll grow sick of them by mid-to-late-October, but for now I really appreciate the beauty that comes with a cloudy day.

I was going to post an entirely serparate blog with the following topic, but now that I'm here, I might as well keep on.
We are two weeks into Refinery/BASIC. It's going swimmingly (<-I don't know exactly what that means, but I felt like it applied. edit: dictionary.com says it does). In other words, it's going really well. After literally TONS of self-debate and going over the two groups I have opportunity to work with, I choose to stick with Refinery for Wednesday evenings. I will be with HS on Wednesdays, but still spend quality time with my mid-highers on Sundays at Sunday School and Catalyst. I think it's working out majestically.
Some small difficulities arise when I get nostalgic and think about my small group last year. That was an unbeatable group. But this year is good too, just in different ways.
However, the real problem I have with Wednesdays emerges with worship. I won't go into the details, because it would be a huge rant full of negativeness. If you would, please pray for it and for patience and understanding. I am facing major burnout with it and I do not want worship to hold that place for me or any of the students.

Well, I think it is now time to watch some ANTM before my next class. Hope you're having an awesome 2nd day of October.

-KL