"all by myself...!"

Last night!  Was great.  First I'm going to give you a quick basic rundown of what a BUgirl Beach Party looks like, and then I will get to the exciting part. :)
So... event registration starts at four-thirty.  I help with registration, typing in girls information. :)  I love doing registration because... it's like instant ice-breaker and for someone shy like me it creates such an easy atmosphere to be like "HEY! :) Welcome here, what's your name?..."  So that's a good time and I establish instant connection with every girl.  Five o'clock (or shortly after, depending on whether the majority of the girls are there or not) we welcome them into the beach room congo line style!  (Originally the congo line was my job BUT... our first event it was a major, major, MAJOR fail as our first event was in the inner city and rough all around and I have yet to feel the confidence to lead it ever again.  Kylagh has graciously taken on this task for me. :) Love her.)
Once all the girls are settled in on the beach mats and have grabbed a pillow (ps. if you haven't seen them yet look up on my facebook the beach party set - it's like the best.  We create a total atmosphere with great music, lights, decoration, comfy pillows, and we always spray the room with coconut spray so we can appeal to all the senses.) then Kylagh and I introduce ourselves and lead the girls in limbo and a beach miming game... its hard to explain but it's such a blast to watch and be part of when the girls get into it.
After games we have supper - pizza, munchies, carrots and celery.  This is also the time we as a team take turns eating whatever meal the church prepares for us in a seperate room.  Following supper Linnea does a song and session on creation, emphasising how we are created "very good", ten out of ten, perfect as we are.  And then Kylagh lead a discussion with the girls talking about different messages we recieve (where they come from ie. advertisments, friends and what they say ie. you need to this product to be like this, you are so encouraging) that sometimes cause us to not believe or emphasis that truth that we are created "very good" by God.  Then the girls are given a green and a pink piece of paper and on the green they write lies and/or negative messages they've believed that have been holding them back and then on the pink they get to brag a big... writing out everything they like about themselves and/or positive words others have spoken about them.
Once it looks like they're about done with that I gracefully interrupt the seriousness and we do nail painting!  Fingernails, toe nails, hand massages... it's just a great sociallizing time with the girls.  And then we make smoothies for dessert - strawberry and strawberry banana.  And we throw in boosters and umbrellas and straws and it's like a big deal.  We've got a whole tiki bar set up thing too, it's epic.
Then Linnea draws the girls all in with another song and shares her testimony and then she invites the girls to throw out the green pieces of paper and by throwing them out that's making a statment that the girls are choosing not to believe those lies anymore.  Following that the girls are given paper and envelopes and they write their "I Am Free" letters (since the theme of the night is freedom to be ourselves) and it's really cool because the letters will get mailed back to them in six months! :)  As the girls are finishing those up Linnea just invites the girls to take the time to just pray and welcomes them to talk to any of us or their leaders and then about five minutes into that - or earlier depending on how chatty and restless some of the girls get - I invite the ones that want to stay to stay and just let everyone know that we're going to respect that space and keep the room really quiet and if they'd like they're welcome to go back into usually the church foyer where there is a snack of nachos and cheese prepared so that the girls that want to talk and pray have the space to.  And it depends on the group but TYPICALLY there's anywhere from one to maybe ten girls that stay behind... and then either Linnea or I go out to run merch for the girls that went out for snack and the other gets to stay back and pray with the girls.  And then we pull them all back in once more for two more of Linnea's songs and then "Here I Am to Worship", Linnea reads Pslam 139 and prays.  And then I come out thank the girls for coming and they're dismissed!  And then I run back up to merch since end of the night is when that's the busiest.
So now that you know what all goes down in an event night... LAST NIGHT's blessing...  The girls were amazing.  You could tell it was one really tight youth group and they got pumped up for everything.  There were only nineteen there (we're usually averaging about 35-40) but they were probably our loudest group and they cheered for everything.  Shoot, I love them.  And so they were having a really great time and at the call to throw out the green pieces of paper I don't know the whole situation but one girl started crying and her friends just surrounded her and prayed and cried with her - and that's always so awesome to see because... it's great when they can talk and cry to us but even greater when you can see how great their support system is just among their friends.  And then when it got to prayer time, I did my usual thing - made the announcement for snack and then headed upstairs to the merch and snack because it's usually crazy busy up there when girls are eating snack.  And so I went up there and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  And then someone came up... and it was a leader.  Never, ever, ever have I stood out by the snack by myself.  And at first I was like... shoot I'm really missing out on something spectacular - I wish it was my night to pray with the girls... but then I realized... I'm witnessing something just as awesome... No girls coming out for snack means each and every one of them connected with the event, are connecting with God back in the room. :)  So that was super exciting :)  Just wanted to share :)

Ps.  the title of this blog... will make sense very very soon... keep checking the facebook...!