This Wednesday was our first "teaser" for our new youth program, Indignus. At the moment, our ministry team includes Sherry Long, Ryan Dennis, and myself (Lisa Long). Most of our night came together exactly how we wanted. However, for some of the minor details, God had other plans.
We spent hours pouring over song lists, practice, lighting, sound and other technical details. On Monday and Tuesday, we began to wrap up the details. I made a flyer and a program list. Ryan and my dad set up all the sound equipment. My mom made sure she knew all the sign language and cooked us dinner. And finally, Ryan and I found black plastic to tape to the windows in order to keep out light. For next week, we will be making frames for the windows and actually keeping the plastic in the frames, but for this week we had to do the fastest thing we could. So we cut all the plastic to size and went and bought duct tape.
We spent what seemed like forever taping plastic to the 12 windows we had to cover. Just when we thought we were getting something accomplished, the duct tape would begin to peel off of the brick walls. We would go back and tape some more and they just continued to fall. So, at about midnight we decided there was nothing we could do, and we would just have to sacrifice the lighting for this week. That's okay though. This was just the teaser.
We got up to about an hour before the program and realized, "We don't have anyone to run sound!" Thankfully our song director, Mike Williams stepped up to the plate and volunteered his services. The sound is pretty complicated so I had to make up an instruction list and run through everything with Mike. He was great and ran everything without a hitch. Thanks Mike! You are amazing.
At the last minute, we decided to run a video between songs. The video we wanted to run is called "Breathe" by Rob Bell. However, as much as we tried to get the internet up and running on the projector, we just couldn't with the little time we had. We will probably try to run it on another week. It is an amazing video so if you get a chance, look at it...
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=4657662595934098105 .
In spite of all of our setbacks, I am thoroughly convinced that God used us. Next week we have another teaser on Wednesday and then on Thursday is our big event where we will have games, food, worship, video, a speaker and the whole kit-n-caboodle. Please pray for us that this will reach our youth and grow into something that will eventually be an outreach for our entire area and more.
If you scroll to the very bottom of the page, you will find a flyer that we are handing out for next Thursday. Please print and pass out as many as you can. We can use all the help we can get with this ministry. Bring everyone you can. Even though this is geared toward the youth, adults are welcome to come listen and participate. If you feel as though God could use you in any area of this ministry, please let us know. Currently we need people for set-up and break-down, for keeping an eye on the youth and helping with the games and activities. You are the backbone for the growth of the next generation of witnesses.
God Bless,
Lisa Long
