Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Lock In

At our church, the girls and boys in 1st through 6th grades participate in GAs (girls group) and RAs (boys group). These are the classes where we learn about participating in missions, and we have a well-rounded program of work projects and fun projects.

Last night was one of the "fun" projects ( fun if you were a 1st-6th grade girl, not if you were a 40-yr-old chaperone). We locked in with a sister church, Union Grove. So, last night Ms. Sherry (the other GA leader) and I (the Union Springs GA leader) combined resources and gathered our precious angels together in one place. They hosted this time (it'll be our turn in the fall if I actually live that long).

Basically, a lock in is where you cram 35 girls and three chaperones (because that's the maxium number of adults you can trick into this deal) into a church facility all night and see what happens. It's like Thunderdome out of Mad Maxx.  Who is the sick person who first said, "I have an idea--let's feed 35 elementary school aged girls pizza, cokes, chips, cookies, cupcakes, candy, chocolate, (and did I mention coke), and let them run crazy through the gym for 7 hours. Then we'll try to make them settle down on the FLOOR and go to sleep at 2:00 a.m. It'll be fun."

Now, we did do some good things--we wrote letters to the soldiers (which were entertaining in and of themselves.) The girls were told they could draw a picture if they couldn't write enough. On little girl had a mmorable letter. She wrote, "Thank you for fitting (sic) for our freedom. I love you. Thank you for being a soldier. Etc." Since she was out of words, the baby girl drew a photo of a man with a firearm and a dead guy bleeding out. (And I tried really, really hard not to laugh out loud when I saw it. I'm good that way. I can absolutely guarantee that one's going to be passed around and posted somewhere. See letter.)

We made missions money boxes for collecting tithe and missions money. We also played The Amazing Race (Sherry rocked it!), where the kids had to get into teams and do roadblocks and tasks before going to the next clue. It was organized so that each member had to participate equally. Clever, clever. This was a huge hit. However, in spite of all of those fabulous things, this morning, at 9:37 in the a.m., having been awake since yesterday morning at 6:00 in the a.m. I have compiled a list for your review.

Why I Shouldn't Participate in Lock Ins:

1) I am old. I am too old to sleep on a floor (or not sleep on the floor, but rather toss and turn on the floor, as the case may be). I am too old to be in a sleeping bag in the floor.

2) There isn't an air mattress that will adequately support 300 lbs. (well, close enough).

3) It never gets quiet enough at a lock in to actually sleep. Someone is snoring, pooting, giggling, whispering. Give it up. It's like some sort of sick survivor sleep deprivation endurance test.

4) If I have to watch Aquamarine or Disney animation or Emma Roberts or or Life Size any kind of remake of Cinderella ever again it will be one day too soon.

5) I ate an entire bag of Dorito Late Night Cheeseburger flavor chips. I would never, ever have done this if not for the lock in. I'm not even sure that I liked them. (curse it)

6) The Husband was a youth pastor for several years. How much purgatory is one person required to suffer?

7) I fed everyone popsicles for breakfast and was totally good with that.






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