Youth Ministry Projects: We've Got Opinions
We spent the weekend helping out the Youth Ministry program over at our parish, for reasons I'll explain later in the entry. Today, for instance, we picked up the poinsettia and evergreen wreath we'd ordered from them. Excellent items. Sam's got the poinsettia on the dining room table -- we have to move it when we eat, as otherwise we can't see each other -- and I'm going to glue Lady Apples on the wreath and stick it on the front door.
We're not the most decorative house on the block at Christmas. The most decorative house on the block will put your eyes out, I guarantee you. We're not even in the running. We have little electric candles in the front windows, in case the Baby Jesus should need a place to stay during the season, and we've got some large but very simple wreath stuck on the front of the house, with a light shining on it, so that the neighborhood won't miss it. But we're not really lit up for the holidays. We're never lit up for the holidays.
But we bought greenery from the Youth Ministry program, as I mentioned.
Also, on Saturday morning we went to the annual Youth Ministry Pancake Breakfast. We did this last year, and we find this touchingly hilarious, so we go out of our way to attend.
The edibles are ok -- canned fruit cocktail, microwaved pancakes, sausage, some sort of plasticy fake maple syrup -- nothing to get excited about, but edible, though only just. (Sam REALLY likes the sausage, though, I should mention.) The treat would be in the form of the Youths. There are a lot of them. They all want to help out at the Annual Breakfast. There are not enough jobs to do, not nearly. So they fall over themselves, helping out. I got asked three times, separately, if I wanted coffee. I could have cleared them out. There were three of them taking tickets, when one would have been more than enough. About five of them were bringing out the orders. Another five were wandering around, detecting trash and throwing it away. You had to look sharp, or you lost things.
Then there was the entertainment. The Youths were all set up to take care of Younger Kids, of which there were not that many, when we were there, though maybe things picked up later. There were three Youths manning the crafts table; there was one lone Youth sitting in a circle of chairs, waiting for little kids to come sit down and hear stories; there were another three Youths standing behind tables with games -- pin the something on something else, I think, and a toss game.
We've trained up the child in the way he should go, so he knows all about charity. "Child," I said, "can you go and look like you want to hear a story?" He sized up the situation right quick, and got over there. Heard a story. Then he consented to make crafts --- this involved a lot of glue and glitter -- though when urged to make yet further crafts he declined. He went and played games.
So we were very helpful and good, and supported Youth Ministries. That is, we SUPPORTED Youth Ministries.
We'd like to be REAL clear about this, because we've had some dealings with Youth Ministries that were not so pleasant as the dealings we had this weekend. Once, in the long ago, around about Halloween, we received a notice that for Halloween fundraising, Youth Ministries was selling Trick Insurance, so if anybody came and did Bad Things to our house, Youth Ministries would come clean it up.
Well, nobody, ever, in the history of the house, had done Bad Things to it at Halloween, so we declined the insurance.
And on Halloween somebody did Bad Things, and messed up our garden and our windows.
So it turned out, doncha know, that Youth Ministries was not selling Trick Insurance at all, really, it was shaking us down, only we hadn't realized that, since they hadn't quite gotten the Mafia act down, so we weren't on our guards.
I believe that there must have been quite a little showdown over at the rectory, when the pastor realized what had happened. Youth Ministries never tried to shake us down again.
We appreciate that, we really do. We hate getting shaken down by Youth Ministries. It causes us to be even more cynical than we are, which I'm sure you'll agree is not good.
So we like to support Youth Ministries in their LEGAL activities, like selling microwave pancakes and amusing our child with Elmer's glue and glitter.
On the knitting front (no, I didn't forget; it's a knitting blog; there has been some knitting going on), here's what happens if you buy a couple of balls of Eros and knit them up into scarves:
So easy! So quick! And I'm SO not telling what I'm doing with them!
Cause, there might not be a whole lot of decorating going on around here, but we're clear that Christmas is coming.
We're not the most decorative house on the block at Christmas. The most decorative house on the block will put your eyes out, I guarantee you. We're not even in the running. We have little electric candles in the front windows, in case the Baby Jesus should need a place to stay during the season, and we've got some large but very simple wreath stuck on the front of the house, with a light shining on it, so that the neighborhood won't miss it. But we're not really lit up for the holidays. We're never lit up for the holidays.
But we bought greenery from the Youth Ministry program, as I mentioned.
Also, on Saturday morning we went to the annual Youth Ministry Pancake Breakfast. We did this last year, and we find this touchingly hilarious, so we go out of our way to attend.
The edibles are ok -- canned fruit cocktail, microwaved pancakes, sausage, some sort of plasticy fake maple syrup -- nothing to get excited about, but edible, though only just. (Sam REALLY likes the sausage, though, I should mention.) The treat would be in the form of the Youths. There are a lot of them. They all want to help out at the Annual Breakfast. There are not enough jobs to do, not nearly. So they fall over themselves, helping out. I got asked three times, separately, if I wanted coffee. I could have cleared them out. There were three of them taking tickets, when one would have been more than enough. About five of them were bringing out the orders. Another five were wandering around, detecting trash and throwing it away. You had to look sharp, or you lost things.
Then there was the entertainment. The Youths were all set up to take care of Younger Kids, of which there were not that many, when we were there, though maybe things picked up later. There were three Youths manning the crafts table; there was one lone Youth sitting in a circle of chairs, waiting for little kids to come sit down and hear stories; there were another three Youths standing behind tables with games -- pin the something on something else, I think, and a toss game.
We've trained up the child in the way he should go, so he knows all about charity. "Child," I said, "can you go and look like you want to hear a story?" He sized up the situation right quick, and got over there. Heard a story. Then he consented to make crafts --- this involved a lot of glue and glitter -- though when urged to make yet further crafts he declined. He went and played games.
So we were very helpful and good, and supported Youth Ministries. That is, we SUPPORTED Youth Ministries.
We'd like to be REAL clear about this, because we've had some dealings with Youth Ministries that were not so pleasant as the dealings we had this weekend. Once, in the long ago, around about Halloween, we received a notice that for Halloween fundraising, Youth Ministries was selling Trick Insurance, so if anybody came and did Bad Things to our house, Youth Ministries would come clean it up.
Well, nobody, ever, in the history of the house, had done Bad Things to it at Halloween, so we declined the insurance.
And on Halloween somebody did Bad Things, and messed up our garden and our windows.
So it turned out, doncha know, that Youth Ministries was not selling Trick Insurance at all, really, it was shaking us down, only we hadn't realized that, since they hadn't quite gotten the Mafia act down, so we weren't on our guards.
I believe that there must have been quite a little showdown over at the rectory, when the pastor realized what had happened. Youth Ministries never tried to shake us down again.
We appreciate that, we really do. We hate getting shaken down by Youth Ministries. It causes us to be even more cynical than we are, which I'm sure you'll agree is not good.
So we like to support Youth Ministries in their LEGAL activities, like selling microwave pancakes and amusing our child with Elmer's glue and glitter.
On the knitting front (no, I didn't forget; it's a knitting blog; there has been some knitting going on), here's what happens if you buy a couple of balls of Eros and knit them up into scarves:
So easy! So quick! And I'm SO not telling what I'm doing with them!
Cause, there might not be a whole lot of decorating going on around here, but we're clear that Christmas is coming.
<< Home