Last Post about Pittsburgh Project

The last 2 days of work is always the hardest because we are tired and we really had not gotten “good” sleep while we were there. Our teens and adults pressed on and most of us finished our projects for the week. Thursday night is always fun because we get to go out for a night on the town and have dinner and relax. After much discussion and head banging, we ended up at Chinese restaurant in Station square, which is on the river. We had a great meal and great fellowship but I was trying to get the teens to share about their week. I got real quiet. I understand its tough to speak in front of peers and to not have a heads up that I am going to ask questions but it was interesting to watch them come up with answers. On the flip side of things, we have a small group time with where we have different work groups mixed together. We had a sharing time and we were talking about the “storms” in our lives that we deal with. I was blown away with what the teens in my discussion group were dealing with and with how open they were with everyone in the group. Two words come to mind when I think about small groups and discussing things in them; vulnerability and trust.
As we head into a new school year, i want our small groups in the youth ministry to get to the point where we are comfortable to share (vulnerable) and not to worry about the people in the group talking to others outside the group about whats been discussed (trust). I am not sure what that’s going to take but it needs to happen because teens need to have a place where they can be vulnerable and trust people. This year our theme is Connect and it is based on a passage in Acts. Acts 2:42-47, please pray for us as we try to be a place that teens can be vulnerable & trust each other.

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