Kind of Glorious

I have to admit.  Youth Group at the beach on Wednesday nights are kind of glorious.

The company is great.

It’s possible that we actually have the best 7th-12th graders on Long Island.

And when you mix that with fun games and gorgeous lighting… You get this beautiful kind of glorious.

Tonight, we had a fun group and a tiny volleyball net which made for some hard to play volleyball as well as some exciting games of Nuke ’em.

On a side note, I love these girls.

And these kids too.

Thanks to Hannah’s mom, we all enjoyed some nice cool ice pops right before our lesson time.  It was the perfect treat, since the weather all week has been hot and humid.

Another side note, I love that I have taught Christian’s friends to just smile automatically for my camera.  They’ve gotten so used to it, they just do it without me saying a word.

This amazing man shared some great encouragement for our teens tonight.  Our series has been “Choices” with the goal being to encourage our kids to make great ones.

Our night ended somewhat bittersweet, with us saying goodbye (for now) to our amazing friend Brian.  This was his official last Youth Group for the year, as he is heading off to Southern Wesleyan University to pursue Youth Ministry.  He’s been a part of our Youth Group pretty much forever and we prayed for God’s rich blessing on this new journey.

That has been the fun part lately with working in ministry for so many years.  It’s such a joy to get to be an influence in the lives of so many amazing kids and an even greater joy to see them pursuing God’s plan for their lives.  It’s a big part of why we continue to do what we do here.  And that wraps up tonight’s post.  I imagine I’ll have time tomorrow to share more about our VBS Kid Camp but for now am heading to bed so I can wake up nice and refreshed for another fun day.