"Slinky Faith"

This past weekend we has out spring middle school retreat themed “Slinky Faith”. The idea came about when ACYB (Alaska Conference Youth Board) was sitting in a meeting and we needed a theme, Larry has the song “Lions” by Lost and Found in his head. The song has a fun “SLINKY” exclamation in it and we then decided to do a whole retreat based upon a slinky.

The song I wrote for the retreat--the kids liked it and laughed at my "rap skills"

It’s interesting how something so simple as the slinky is so versatile. Invented by Richard James in 1945 and patented just two years later it still remains a source of entertainment. Our middle school boys spent well over an hour of their free time having slinky races down the stairs of the church.

The theme verse for the weekend was Luke 9:23-24 which says “Then he said to them all: ‘Whoever wants to be my disciple must deny themselves and take up their cross daily and follow me. For whoever wants to save their life will lose it, but whoever loses their life for me will save it.’”

The idea is that we must take our faith outside of the church walls and DAILY be disciples for Christ. If you've ever seen the old Slinky commercial it was the base for our Bible studies. The commercial retorts several times “Everyone wants a slinky!” The idea here is we should live out our lives for Christ to make those around us wonder what we have that they don’t.

We may be the only Jesus that some people see so we must live our faith DAILY willing to share the our slinky (contagious faith) at any moment. The different Bible sessions for the weekend were so cleverly entitled as follows…

Upward Spiral-Growing in faith is a journey with the goal of connecting with God.
Back and Forth-The paradox of the faith journey is that we grow most when we give ourselves away in service to others.
Stretched-The faith journey is one that requires being stretched beyond our comfort zone in order to grow. 

Each motion—spiral, back and forth, stretched, are maneuvers that can be done with a slinky and thus serve as a great visual image of an object to explain our Slinky Faith.

In addition to Bible study we also did several service projects in order to give back and live out our faith. It’s break-up in Alaska which means TRASH everywhere! The students divided and conquered the bike path that runs right past the church covering two miles (1 north, 1 south) and picked up 11 bags of garbage in that span. We stumbled upon an entire car wreck, carpet, and a PS2!

The Ford logo from the car wreck remains we found

The kids also went shopping and stocked the food pantry at the church, and bagged rice for clients. They also scooped snow in the back field for ORLC's upcoming 50th anniversary so we can plant trees for use at future Christmases.

Shopping at Walmart at 11:30pm!

Finally they swept out the church parking lot since it had a lot of gravel from this past winter. Later during free time the girls even decorated the parking lot with sidewalk chalk creations reminding those who came of their own “Slinky Faith”

On Sunday morning the middle school students led the 8:00am SONrise service. They picked out scripture readings, songs, wrote a skit, and sang the theme song from the weekend “Lions” by Lost and Found.

Leading Worship

Of course the retreat wasn't all serious we enjoyed an hour and a half of "Minuet to Win It" challenges, sprinting races against Larry, and swimming at the Chugiak pool.

Minute to win it-stack 5 dice on Popsicle stick in held in your mouth.

Minute to win it-shoot marbles through a pool noodle at markers 20 feet away.

Minute to win it-get a cookie from your forehead to your mouth only using your facial muscles.

Minute to win it-knock over cups using a ball in nylons placed on head.

Middle Schoolers vs. old man Larry!

Might I add that I LOVE Middle school students! Well I enjoy all ages really but there is something so fresh, enthusiastic, and willing about middle schoolers that makes them my favorite age group. They even taught me a thing or two about life, being energetic and tips for my very white rap tendencies. I love my internship!