Be Afraid! Be Very Afraid...

Before we get into today's post, there are a couple of things I want to mention.  In Tuesday's posting entitled It's Game Time I left out one of the more popular games we played over the years.  It was called Current, but almost no one knew that.  You would simply remember it as the game where there were two teams, I sat at the end of the rows and flipped a quarter, and the teams would race by squeezing hands.  Several e-mails pointed out my oversight...  Speaking of which, PLEASE keep the comments and e-mails coming!  I love knowing who is reading and what you think.

Over the years I had at least as many bad ideas as good ones.  We tried all sorts of things in an effort to keep from being boring and predictable, which is often how people think of the church.  One idea that I refused to give up on was the early morning student kidnapping (It just sounds like a bad idea, doesn't it?).  Here's how it was supposed to work:  We would announce to the youth that they needed to be at the church at a very early hour on a Saturday morning, and we would not tell them why.  We would just issue a warning:  If you were not there, then you should be afraid- be VERY afraid!  I would then arrange with some parents of youth who were almost certain not to show up for our group to come to their homes and kidnap their child and take them to breakfast.  The deeper idea- and it was a good one- was to find creative ways to get kids more involved.  We would certainly at least get their attention.

The first time we tried this was early in the Springfield years.  We rented a gorilla costume, dressed Jamie Robinson in it, and set out to do damage!  I really remember very little about it, except that we caught very few people by surprise- the parents had ratted us out.  One who we did get was Keri Vinson who was not only surprised, but violent, ripping the head off our gorilla (see picture)!  I have no recollection of what we did for breakfast or anything else about that morning- but Keri stayed involved with our ministry for a few years after that...

After arriving at Kissimmee in 1994, we decided to try it again.  This time we dressed Jerry Hanbery as Chewbacca.  He was so excited he arrived at our house next to the church at 5 AM- we weren't gathering until 6.  Marilyn still brings that up with him from time to time...
Anyway, he did his thing and again I really only remember really surprising one person- Erin Augenblick.  Chewbacca yanked her out of bed and threw her over his shoulder.  She was more confused than scared, but it was still hysterical.  Again, Erin was a longtime regular in our youth programs after that morning- and Jerry had fulfilled his dream of being a Star Wars character!

The final time was the most eventful, as a Pink Gorilla (see picture) went on a rampage in Tampa.  But that is a very long story best saved for another time.  Like the other two events, it didn't go as planned.  I always thought I had it all set for these to be amazing mornings, but they never happened the way I envisioned them.  But you know what?  They still had some very positive outcomes.  In many ways they accomplished what we set out to do.  Just because it didn't happen the way I had it planned didn't mean God couldn't use it for His glory.  Somewhere in that last sentence is one of life's great lessons...

Because of Jesus,