Power Bands at Berry Miller - The day of!

It is finally the day of the power bands at Berry Miller JH.  I am nervous, but hopeful and excited.  I am there early. 

I was emailing as late as yesterday morning because I didn’t have the 10 adult leaders I needed.  Today, I don’t know what to expect, but I know that at this point, it is about trusting God.  I’ve done everything I can do.

I end up with 8 adult leaders and 5 youth pastors.  One youth pastor had to cancel yesterday afternoon, so another had brought one of his volunteers to fill in.

I have Kurt, Caleb, Paul, Ronnie and Chuck as the youth pastors.

I have John, Julie, Benjamin, Lee, Alyx, Michael and 2 guys from Life church – I can’t remember their names.  They were all wonderful.  The teacher sponsor takes a group, which makes for 9 groups.

I am in the bleachers, breaking up the rowdy group as planned.  The sponsor opens with prayer, as usual.  I have sent about 20 of the rowdies to 4 different groups.  The sponsor announces that we are doing things differently, that the students need to join a group on the floor and if they don’t want to, they need to stay in the bleachers.

Where did that come from?  Oh, well.  Adjust. 

Paul quickly asked me what those kids were going to do.  I assure him, it wasn’t part of the plan.  He and Tamara get them together and Paul does a lesson for those kids.

Meanwhile, we recruit the choir teacher to do Paul’s part – the white bead.

I float from group to group, making sure that they have what they need, listening, advising, helping, checking, being available.  The students I notice are all very attentive, very engaged, in listening and making the power bands.  The students who chose to remain in the bleachers are giving Paul their full attention.  The choir teacher, quickly recruited to do Paul’s part – the white bead – is doing an excellent job.  The Black bead youth pastor is on group 7, the Red bead youth pastor is on group 5 – there are 9 groups in all.

And suddenly, the unexpected happens.  The bell rings.  The show is not over, but it is over. 

I am mortified, but I start breaking up groups and sending students to class.  Groups tell me:  Please, we are almost done, let us finish, but I send them to class. 

I check with all the adult leaders.  They tell me:  I had the best student leader ever, which makes me feel like I have given each and every adult leader the best student ever.  It is okay that we didn’t have a youth pastor present, I shared the gospel with each bead and every student in my group heard and understood the gospel.  The youth pastors were just re-enforcement. 

It wasn’t how I planned it, but I left thinking:  God is good, the Gospel went out and His ways are always higher and  better than our ways.

Thanks for your prayers.