My life as a youth pastor

Gang Raid

2009-05-22T10:00:00.000-07:00

We do ministry in Southern California.
In a very urban area.
Cerritos itself doesn't seen all that urban... it's a pretty nice, fairly wealthy city. But our church sits on a corner that borders Hawaiian Gardens and Artesia.
When I first moved to Southern California and heard "Hawaiian Gardens" I had this picture of this beautiful, wonderfully nice city. I was sadly mistaken. Hawaiian Gardens is home to all kinds of racism, gangs, and hatred.
That is where we do ministry.
One of the things that I have often shared is my heart for gang outreach.
This morning, I heard about something that really shook me.

The largest gang raid in United States history happened two minutes away from me. Right down the street. In an area where a huge amount of my teens come from. A place that I drive through everyday. For this small town girl from Oregon... that was shocking.

(weapons confiscated during the raid)

88 people linked to a "notorious southern California street gang" were arrested. Right next door. 1400 police officers, 17 SWAT teams... FBI, and all kinds of other people were involved in the take down. You can read more about it HERE (or just google it).

Today I'll be praying for these people... for their families... for the other members of the gangs... for the people they've hurt... for the people who may be hurt in the future.... for the ongoing issue of racism that haunts our nation and hurts people of all nationalities... for the hate in the hearts of people... Join me?

This is my life in ministry.

It's been a while...

2009-05-22T09:50:00.001-07:00

...things have been crazy over here. I write another blog as well, that you can see HERE. It's my photography blog, and it seems to have kept my writing brain busy lately.

Quite frankly, I haven't felt much like writing this one. There's so much that God has been doing and so many great things, but I've been tired... worn out... and needed a break. But today, I thought I'd share some things with you.

First, some funny stories... I know you all love those :)

We were talking in youth group about the "armor of God" from Ephesians. One of the teens looks at Javier and says, "Javi has the muscles of God." I'm sure that's a compliment but it sounds so funny!

* * * * *

I was talking with several teens one Friday night about when they first came to youth group... they were sharing stories of how they first met me. One of the girls, after sitting quietly and listening to everyone else talk, says to me, "Did I ever meet you?"

* * * * *

Javier was kind of teasing one of our junior high boys about his mustache that is starting to grow. He was saying how "mustaches get the girls," and things like that (remember, Javier has a mustache.) A few days later in youth group, we realized that this junior high boy was showing off his mustache to a new girl that had wandered in to youth group.

* * * * *

We were talking to the kids about the Holy Spirit and how when you feel guilty about something, that's God talking to you. One of the kids says very excitedly, "Yeah! Before I was a Christian I would do something bad and not feel guilty about it. NOW I do something bad and I totally feel guilty!"

* * * * *

During a discussion of where you'd go if you died (heaven or hell)... one of the kids says, "Who here is going to heaven TONIGHT???" I'm sure he meant if you were to die, but all of the kids kind of looked at him with this puzzled look.

I will try to do better at keeping up with this blog. So many funny, touching, and wonderful things happen in youth group on a regular basis. I have so much to write about, and yet there are days I just can't seem to find the words. I know God is good... all the time... even when things are hard and ministry is draining. The cool thing is that even when it's draining, there is so much JOY! I am blessed to do what I do.

A butter knife, a hockey stick, and an empty cross.

2009-04-13T11:16:00.000-07:00

I love my job.
It is so much more than just a job for me.
It is my life.
It is my heart.
These teenagers... they are my life... my heart.
I laugh with them, cry with them, hurt for them, pray for them.
They occupy my thoughts, my prayers, my plans for the future.

We do real youth ministry here.
And I gotta tell you, real ministry doesn't always happen inside the church walls.
It isn't always happy victories, and funny stories.
Sometimes it's downright messy, heartbreaking and brutal.
But it's real.

Javier and I both spend an immense amount of time with these kids within the church walls at events, services, youth group, Bible studies, counseling, and when they just wander into our offices after school.

But we also spend a ton of time outside the church walls.... whether it's at an organized event off site, an impromptu movie, a lunch at school, a football game, or when we see them walking down the street and stop to have a conversation. We live life with them. It's a wonderful thing when you realize that as much as you have invested in their lives, they want you to be a part of them. We often get invited to performances, birthday parties, graduation parties, and even occasionally, family events.

We give rides to kids from one place to another, even if we aren't staying at either place, because some of the BEST ministry happens on that car ride.

These kids are really what we live for. Their hearts... their souls... that's why we do what we do.

I firmly believe that because of those things, the teens are open and honest with us. We don't walk away from difficult situations, and when we are confronted with conflict, we work through it with the teens. That is part of the importance of what we do: teaching these kids to deal with things... to do the right thing even when it's hard... to confront things head on and trust God to take care of us.

I really debated whether or not to post this, because it is difficult and messy, and not like the funny stories I usually post. But my heart is aching... breaking... for some of my students. For those of you who read this and are in youth ministry, maybe this can be an encouragement to you. For those of you who aren't, please pray for those that are.

Last Wednesday night in the middle of youth group, we had a breakdown. One of my boys came to me and said, "Diandra, the girls are in the bathroom crying, and they won't come out." So I went to the bathroom and sure enough, three of my girls were crying hysterically. They tried to explain to me what was going on, but I could hardly understand their broken words through the sobs. Finally I pieced together what was going on. The girls were having a feud with another girl in their class and had broken into her house with a butter knife and taken a bunch of her clothes. Now the police were looking for them, and they were scared.

I quickly ushered them into my office and called Javier. After speaking with the girls, he and I stepped out of the office and started discussing our options. Then we made the most difficult decision we've had to make since starting youth ministry. We needed to call the police. We went back into the office, told the girls what we were going to do, and then prayed with them. We told them to be honest and to do the right thing. They agreed. Then the police came. They spent quite a while questioning each of the girls individually. I spent every ounce of energy I had trying not to cry.

When they were done questioning the girls, the police called the girl whose stuff had been stolen. We all expected her to press charges, and the girls were facing some major consequences if she did. But she just wanted her stuff back, and she decided not to press charges. So the police took our girls with them to get the stuff and return it, and deliver the girls into the hands of their parents.

As we watched the police cars drive away, I broke down. I cried. Hard. I knew that the girls were going to be okay, I knew that they'd learned a valuable lesson, and I knew that God had done a miracle and showed them grace in all of it. But I still cried. Because sometimes youth ministry is messy. Sometimes it hurts. And that night was the hardest in the history of my youth ministry... until this week.

We have a pretty large group of teens. They come from all different walks of life, all of them have different family dynamics, many of them are different ethnicities, and they're at all different stages of spiritual growth. For the most part, the kids put their differences aside, and we have a pretty successful meshing of teens. But on Wednesday night, these differences became evident.

Before youth group, there was an exchange of words between a few of the kids when one of them was cussing and another asked him to stop. One of our wonderful leaders, Shannon, was able to calm them down and talk them through it. They were seemingly okay and were told to stay away from each other for the rest of the evening. We had a wonderful service, and God really moved. After everything was broken down and put away from the service, the kids were hanging out.

The boy that had told the other to stop cussing (we'll call him Scott) was playing basketball. All of the sudden, another boy that had been involved in all of this (we'll call him Eric), came at Scott with a hockey stick. He hit him in the back of the head so hard that the top of the hockey stick broke off. Scott went down. Eric continued to beat him with the wooden handle of the hockey stick. Javier ran at him yelling, and it apparently scared Eric enough that he dropped the hockey stick. Javier grabbed him and held him so he couldn't move. Shannon rushed to Scott and held his head to stop the bleeding, and I called 911. Then the chaos ensued.

Scott was rushed to the hospital, and was later released with 7 staples in his head, damage to his ribs, and a whole lot of bruising. He could have been killed. God definitely protected him. Eric was picked up by the police and taken to a juvenile detention center. He will have to appear before a judge.

Many of our teens witnessed the whole thing, and were scared and shaken. Youth group is a safe place for them... a refuge for many of them whose family lives are crazy and miserable. But their sense of security was shaken.

So was mine.

I am a girl. I am an emotional girl. Not only that, but I genuinely, honestly LOVE my kids. All of them. Even when they make bad choices. So my heart was broken. I held it together until the kids were gone, and then I cried.
I cried for Scott, and for his family and his pain.
I cried for Eric... for his soul, for his anger, for his hurt.
I cried for my kids... for the impact I knew this had had on them.
And I cried, because it was hard.

Sometimes youth ministry is hard. Sometimes it is ugly and scary and real.
The good news is, as my dad always says, the only battles we lose are the ones we don't fight.

Friday night, we sat down with a small group of the teens to talk through the situation. Scott was there. Eric was not. Another kid was also there... the one who had been cussing in the teen room. At the end of the time, our teens had grown closer together in this, and decided that they were not going to let Satan win this battle. Scott and the other teen hugged. They laughed together. They put the past behind them... all 3 years of it... and decided to start fresh and allow God to use them. They no longer wanted the hurt, anger, and frustration.

I pray for Scott.
I pray to God that he still loves Jesus.
I pray that he learns through all of this.
I pray that my teens will surround him with Christ's love.
I pray for forgiveness... for restoration.

I serve an AWESOME God.
A God of new beginnings.
A God of love and forgiveness and faithfulness.
A God that is there, even when it is hard, and even when I can't do it alone.
I am so thankful that I don't have to do it alone... that my God is with me every step of the way.
I am thankful that all of my teens are alive and healthy.
I am thankful that God can take what Satan meant for evil and use it for good...
For GREAT!

Sunday was Easter.
My God is not held by a cross and 3 nails.
My God is not held by a tomb.
My God keeps His promises.

We had a baptism service and baptized 6 of our teens (more about that in another blog).
I was reminded of God's promises...
As my teens stood one by one and read testimonies for their friends, and as others joyfully stepped into that baptismal, I was reminded that God loves them more than I do. That as I sat crying that Wednesday night, God cried harder. It hurt him more than it hurt me. He loves them so much that He DIED for them. On a cross. And then He rose!

So in the midst of the trials... of the difficulties, I am joyful in knowing that God wins.

Typical Wednesday night...

2009-03-18T10:04:00.000-07:00

Our youth group has changed a lot from when I first started here.
When I started working here almost 5 years ago, we had about 10 teens and we met in a very bleak looking youth room on whatever rag tag couches we could find. I would teach a Bible study and we'd chat for a while and everyone would go home. Now, several years and many changes later, we are getting ready to re-vamp our youth room into a cafe/lounge... but we no longer fit in there. We hold Wednesday night services in the gym, and we have over 100 active teens. Probably about 150. We have a teen worship band, and we even take an offering. I just wanted to share a few pictures of what a Wednesday night typically looks like now :)

First of all, it takes several wonderful volunteers to run things the way we do. In addition to Javier and I, we have 3 key leaders. George and Shannon who have been helping since the beginning of 2007 and they're WONDERFUL. They help with so much.
We also have an intern from Biola who has been with us for the last year and a half or so. Her name is Sarah.
When the kids get there around 6:30 (although some of them start coming as early as 5 or 5:30...), we have the gym and teen room open for them to play basketball, or soccer, or just hang out.
During that time, we also open up our snack bar (which will be new and improved when we do the youth room renovations! Right now it consists of snacks on a table in our gym...) Shannon takes care of that and she does a GREAT job!
Around 7:00 we start setting up one half of the gym for the service. George does the majority of the work on that... he sets up and runs all of our sound equipment. In addition to the sound, we set up a stage, chairs, room dividers and a cross.
It's also during that time that Shannon takes care of getting teens to take the offering and making sure that everything is covered and running smoothly. George tests the sound, and Javier and I are working on the final few things for announcements and helping wherever we can. Sarah makes sure all the teens are where they're supposed to be.

The we start the service by having the teens come and find a seat. Whoever is NOT teaching that night (me or Javier) gives the announcements and gets the kids settled.

Then we turn down the lights and our teens lead worship.
One thing I'll say is that our teens have learned to WORSHIP... rather than just sing.
During this time we also encourage the kids to use the cross as a place to get away from their friends and distractions and focus on God and pray. They do. It's pretty cool.
After the worship, Javier or I will get up and speak. Right now we're going through the book of John.
Sometimes we'll ask questions, or even incorporate the teens into what we're talking about.
At the end, we always challenge the teens to take action. Publicly. We often ask them to get up from where they're at and come forward, or go to the cross. They do. It's pretty cool. We also ask if anyone wants to accept Jesus. We have been blessed with many responses to that! We close the service with a time of prayer and worship.When the service is over, the teens help break everything down and put it away, and then the gym and teen room are open again until they all go home. Sometimes we're there as late as 11:00pm, but it's a great thing to have teens that WANT to be at church.

Things have changed a lot in the last few years. God is doing GREAT and HUGE things in our youth group and I am so excited to see where He takes us next!

BEST MOMENT IN THE HISTORY OF YOUTH MINISTRY!!!

2009-03-13T08:30:00.000-07:00

Sunday was AMAZING!
The service was great.
God moved (as always) :)
But one REALLY HUGE thing happened!

Brian accepted Jesus!

Now it's always a big deal when one of the teens accepts Jesus. We celebrate with them and we're excited. We are fortunate that this happens quite often in our youth group.

But this time... it was even more exciting. If you don't know about Brian... you need to read his history. I have written about him several times, but never mentioned him by name. Check it out:

Click Here to read the blog I wrote about how he came to our youth group.

Click Here to see him dressed as Santa... for no apparent reason...

Click Here to read the latest blog about Brian where he's struggling with God.

This kid has been a rollar coaster of questions and emotions... he's struggled, fought and wrestled with the idea of God and who God is, and why God would love him. He's gone from being an Atheist, to believing that there COULD be a god, to believing that there probably is a god... but why would he want me, to believing that there is absolutely a God, but needing a miracle to prove it, to asking Jesus into his heart!

He was so excited on Sunday! He was telling everyone who would listen that he "accepted Jesus today"... and his face just absolutely GLOWED!

I dont know all of the circumstances that lead up to his decision on Sunday, but it was about time! Boy is God great! And He sure does answer prayers! There were people all over the country that have been praying for Brian. And on Sunday, those prayers were answered. I thank God that I got to see his journey... but even more, that he loves Jesus now!

Here's Brian with our Intern Sarah at church on Wednesday.

Random Musings...

2009-03-12T08:30:00.000-07:00

Sometimes I cannot help but laugh right out loud at some of the things the kids say and do.

We were talking about Lot and his wife turning into salt in Sunday School last week. One of the kids (after some thought), says, "If I turned into salt, would you use me on your french fries?"

:) :) :) :) :)

Javier was reviewing with the teens about something he'd talked about the week before. The conversation went like this,

Javier: What did I say last week about Satan?
Teen 1: That he's a piece of crap.
Javier: No.
Teen 2: That he has no power.
Javier: Yeah, that's right.
Teen 1: Crap has no power...

I did laugh out loud at that one. I just can't hold it back sometimes.

:) :) :) :) :)

Some of the kids are taking a leadership/discipleship class with the adults. My dad was teaching one night and came home with this story...
They were talking about what Heaven was going to be like.
Teen 1: Can I have wings when I get to Heaven?
Teen 2: You wont even have a body... you'll just be a squiggle... with a tail!

:) :) :) :) :)

I find so much joy in this job. it is really neat to see lives changed right in front of me and to see kids "get it". But not only at those points... the whole journey. These teens are amazing people and they have so much going on in their heads... I love it when they share with us!

So cal Teenagers...

2009-03-11T08:30:00.000-07:00

I grew up in Oregon.
Home of snowy, rainy winters...
...weather below 60 degrees (and if it gets above 60, you wear shorts!)...
...warm clothes (including but not limited to: hats, scarves, mittens, coats...)...
...icy roads (yes, ice. it's not just for cooling down your drink!)...
...warm boots (complete with socks!!)...
...real fires in fireplaces (used for warmth!)...
...and common sense.

I now live in Southern California.
Home of dry, warm winters...
...weather that never goes below 70 (and if it does, people panic)...
...t-shirts and shorts (even in the rare rain storm)...
...icy cold cokes...
...flip flops (even if it is weirdly cold or wet)...
...fireplaces that are just for show...
...and NO weather sense.

Dont believe me? Check out these pictures of my teens in the snow... PROOF!!!

Shorts and T-shirts...
Yes... those are flip flops...
Shorts and a t-shirt... and he's even THROWING A SNOWBALL!!!
More shorts... although at least he has a sweatshirt on...T-shirt... notice the waterproof pants UNDER the ripped jeans???

t-shirt and glove??? But only ONE glove...
t-shirt and gloves... at least he has both of them...
Notice how bundled up I am??? She's wearing a t-shirt.
a scarf with a t-shirt... at least he has it wrapped around his neck!

We were getting ready to go to winter camp, and Javi comes out with a scarf draped around his neck. He says, "Did you know that they ACTUALLY keep your neck warm???"

My 100th post!!! Winter Camp 2009

2009-03-10T09:21:00.000-07:00

Wow. 100 posts. I still remember starting the blog about a year ago and worrying that I wouldnt have enough to write about. But I have LOVED writing this blog... and going back and re-reading it too! I hope you've all enjoyed it as well! I'd love to hear from you if you're reading... because the only way I know is if you leave me a comment.

I can't believe that we're already done with another winter camp! It seems like we just had last years! But Winter camp 2009 has come and gone... so here's how it went down...

First of all, we had about 40 people go! Which is really quite something considering there were only about 150 in the whole camp... our youth group is really growing!!! Last year we took about 25. Because our bus is not in commission right now, we had to take a caravan of 9 cars!!! We had some wonderful people volunteer to drive kids up which was awesome. Javier's parents were among them:
As soon as we got there, snowball fights ensued... and they didn't cease until we left the snow.
luckily, the kids were so excited to be in the snow and at winter camp, that they had great attitudes... even as they were getting pelted by incoming snow.
We had a few kids that came with us that had never been to an event with us before. It was an AWESOME weekend of bonding with our kids... they really opened up to us. Over and over I heard them saying that our youth group is like a "family".
One time we were at the snack bar, and the guy working it asked us which group we were with (there were several groups up there), and Chrisha blurted out "CERRITOS!!! WHOOOOO!!!" and the guy started laughing because that was not the group, but rather our church. He said "It's great to have church spirit!" to which Chrisha replied, "we're not a church... we're a family!" It's really cool that our kids feel that way about us. I sure feel that way about them!

It's also the first year that we brought our intern, Sarah.
I really dont know what to say about this picture... other than that it is just so Sarah :) She came to us a about a year and a half ago from Biola and we love her! It has just been such a great fit! It was also George and Shannon's first camp which was sooo exciting (but for some reason, I dont have a lot of pictures of them)! All of our leaders bonded with each other and with our kids. We are so blessed to have great leaders who really LOVE our teens!
I often hand my camera to one of the teens and let them take pictures for a while... what we end up with is always a lot of fun :)
This is Javier and his son Javi... they have a very special relationship... but we all get a kick out of it...
The chapels were pretty good. The kids really connected with God. But one thing that I noticed is that this was not a "mountain top experience" for our kids. God has really blessed us at our church. Every week we have wonderful services and our teens connect with God. They dont need a camp to see God face to face, or to experience His love. They get that on a regular basis. So while the teens responded, and absolutely got something out of the weekend, it was really a neat realization that they are building strong relationships with God wherever they are!
Several of our kids are pretty musically talented and always seem to find a way to worship... wherever we may be. I think that's pretty cool :)
We had several game times when the kids hung out in the gym and played games. We never had all of our kids on the same team, because there were so many. We would have dominated. But it was fun to play with them and watch them have fun with each other.
But more than anything else, there was a lot of hanging out in the snow: taking pictures, having snowball fights, sledding down the HUGE mountain (more about that later), playing football, "snowboarding", and just having a blast!

I am not a very big girl. I am about 5 feet 3 inches and about 120 pounds... so most of my teens are bigger than me. Especially the boys. So when we get in situations like winter camp... I find myself eating it... a lot... and usually with the help of one of the silly boys...\

The boys sure were loving the football! (or maybe just pushing each other around...)

This was the result of that one...

We kept taking group pictures, but we could never quite get the WHOLE group in the picture...
The youth pastors (Javier and Me)
Yeah... it looks like a nice picture... but this is what REALLY happened:
And as always... I seem to get hurt. Here is the story of my injury... There is a very large hill (pictured below). The kids were sledding down it (you can see some of those pictures above). most of them were going to the second section (marked on the photo below as II) and sliding down, but a few of the more daring ones would go to the very top. Most of the teens were catching a foot or two of air as they hit the lip... several of them lost their sleds and rolled the rest of the way down the hill. Two of my boys decided that I should go down. I told them I'd go but only if they went with me. So we got one of the big sleds and headed up the hill.
We got to the middle part where most of the kids were going down and I stopped. But they kept going. "You have to go from the top," they said. "It'll be more fun!!!" So up we went. I watched a few other people go down and I thought, "I cannot do this! I'm going to die!" But no one else died, or even got hurt. I rememberd the story my dad tells of me as a kid wanting to go down the waterslide but being scared... by the time I finally did, it was so late that I only got to go once and I was bummed. So I decided to go for it. I was the first on the sled, but before I got on, I looked at my boys and said in my most serious voice possible, "If you push me down this hill by myself, I'm going to kill you."

**Side note: When youth pastoring, resorting to threats of death or serious injury is highly frowned upon. In fact... it's really a bad idea. And typically... I do not make such threats... but I blame it on adrenaline mixed with sheer panic.**

Everyone was watching...
So I sat down on the sled and sure enough, they shoved me down the hill and stood at the top to watch. I made it down the first section fairly easily... still sitting on the sled and I even thought for a minute, "Hey, this is kind of fun!"
But then.
It happened.
I hit the lip (labeled below as II).
And I flew.
Literally.
In the air.
At least 10 feet (as told to me later by the people watching).
But in addition to the 10 feet, there was a drop. So I basically flew in the air and dropped about 15 feet and landed on my head/neck/back (I landed right about where it's marked III) and then slid the remainder of the way on my stomach with my arms straight out in front of me like superwoman (I was wearing my wonder woman shirt that day... I should have known!).

Now, I know this is a little scary (especially because my mom and grandma read this)... but I am okay. It is another miracle considering how it happened and how I landed and all of that... the people who saw it happen were pretty scared that I was badly hurt. But I came away with just scrapes and soreness. God is really good. The boys, however, got quite an earful from Javier. Needless to say, nothing like that will ever happen again :)

All in all, camp was WONDERFUL! God did great things, our kids bonded with each other and with us, and a good time was had by all.

I'll leave you with our last attempt at a group picture (we're only missing 4 teens who had already headed down the mountain):

Cross Conversation

2009-03-02T09:08:00.000-08:00

In our youth group, we have a cross.

We have gotten rid of the traditional alters, and instead, we have a wooden cross that acts as the alter. It stands at the front of the gym next to the stage. The teens will leave their seats throughout the service and go to the cross to pray. Sometimes they stand... sit... kneel... whatever it may be, the come to the cross and pour out their hearts to God.
Wednesday night last week, one of the teens who is still somewhat new to our youth group, came up to Javier in the middle of the service and asked "Why is everyone going to the cross? What is it for?" Javier explained to him. I was watching from the back and assumed that he would go and sit back down in his seat. Instead, he walked over to the cross, knelt down and began to pray.

God is doing huge things here in the lives of our teens. This same kid started coming with one of our girls several weeks back after she'd asked him and asked him to come. He'd turned her down several times saying that church is "weird". But she didn't give up. Eventually he came (I think out of curiosity) and not only did he go to the cross last week, but he gave his life to Jesus. I get chills now even writing this. Because that girl was faithful and didn't give up at the first sign of hesitation, there is another life in the kingdom!

I am so proud of my kids and the way they show Jesus' love. Not just by bombarding their friends with invitations to church (although that happens too), but by simply living their lives and telling their friends what God is doing.

Don't put God (or yourself) in a box

2009-02-10T10:34:00.001-08:00

I asked Jesus into my heart when I was 4 years old. It's hard for me to remember a time when I didn't believe in God. Even the short period of my life when I wasn't serving God, I still believed He existed... I was just mad at him. So it's hard for me to imagine how some of these teens feel... the ones that don't believe in God.

There's one teen in particular that came to our youth group because some of our teens were evangelizing on their own at the grocery store down the street. Several months later, this teen is an active member of our youth group. When he came to us, he said he was an atheist. He has since decided he believes in God, but he wants to see a miracle before he'll accept God. He has a plan to put himself in a box... and see if God gets him out. We've been talking to him about how you shouldn't test God, and trying to work through some things with him.

The other night, he was talking to pastor Orlando...

***Side note: I think it is the COOLEST thing that our teens are comfortable enough to go to our senior pastors (or any other pastor on staff) and talk to them about their lives... their problems... the things they're doing... or just what they like to do. We are blessed to have pastors that show interest in our teens. It seems to me that most youth groups are kind of shunned in churches, but ours has been embraced. It's made all the difference in the world.

...so the other night he was talking to Pastor Orlando, who told him that God says the only place we can test him is with our finances. After having this conversation, the teen emptied his pockets, handed Javier about 15 cents and said "That's all I have but God can have it." Needless to say, it was hand delivered directly to the offering.

We've also started taking offering in our youth services and teaching the kids about giving and being a part of a WHOLE church... not just a youth group.

Sunday morning, one of our teens chased my dad down with a handful of money and said, "I need to give my faith promise! Is there somewhere I can do that?" Our teens are starting to see what it means to really give God 100% of your WHOLE life... even when it's not a lot. I think God sees these things and just beams with joy... I know I do!

Here's a funny video that was sent to me today that goes along with this:

Salty Earth

2009-02-10T09:51:00.000-08:00

Youth group is always interesting. Always. There's always something funny that happens. There's always someone who says something weird. Usually someone gets hurt (not always funny)... and ALWAYS ALWAYS God shows up :)

Wednesday night was no exception.

Javier was talking to the kids and he referred to where God talks about us being the "Salt of the Earth".

He asked the kids, "What does salt do?"

Their answer?

"Makes things Salty."

"Kills slugs."

:)

As funny as those responses can be, at the end of the night, kids always respond to God. We take that for granted sometimes, because it is a regular occurrence. But I know that our church is special. I know that God is doing big things with our teens. I know that they are going to make a difference not only in our church, but in the world.

They ARE the salt of the Earth... they may not be the normal, everyday salt...
But God uses them for SURE... These kids are incredible. They let God use them. They give themselves to Him and they follow what they think He wants for them. And it's incredible to see what is happening!

Feeding of 5000... only not.

2009-01-27T10:52:00.000-08:00

A couple of weeks ago we headed down to Mexico for the day. It was the most amazing trip yet! We loaded up in 3 cars: Pastor Gabriel's van, Rene's truck, and my car. We headed down to the border and as usual, we stopped at McDonald's right before going across :) Then we began to pray as we crossed over the border. You see, we can be fined or turned around if we get caught bringing the stuff that we bring over the border. So every time as we go through, we just pray that God gets us through. This time was no different. Gabriel's van made it through... my car made it through... but Rene's truck (which was carrying most of our stuff) was stopped. They wouldn't accept money from them (which is just unheard of there!) and they turned them around and sent them home. So now we were left with only 2 vehicles and without most of the toys and clothes. We had to change our plan of attack. So we headed to a different place than we'd initially planned. When we got there, we had to decide what to do. Should we hand out what we had even though we didn't have enough for everyone? After much discussion, that's exactly what we decided to do. So we gathered everyone around and Gabriel and Javier talked to them about God. We had 3 people that accepted Jesus! Then we began handing out the toys, blankets and clothes that we had. And they just kept coming... we'd finish giving out all that we had, and close the van doors, and then we'd open the van and it was like God multiplied what we'd had because there would be more! At the end of the day, we had enough! It was so cool to see God so plainly do a miracle! It reminded me of when Jesus fed 5000 with only a loaf of bread and fish.

Just wanted to share that story and some pictures... so here are some of my favorites from the trip.

Waiting at the border for Rene (little did we know...) Javier decided to take a nap.
When we got there, the people all rushed around us.
Javier and Gabriel telling people about God.
Javier praying for the people that accepted Jesus
Me and Crystal
Me and Karla (one of the girls we see every time we go.)
Me and Mango (with a soccer ball on his head). He's another one we see each time.
Handing things out and hanging out with the people there.
Javier talking to the guys that accepted Jesus.
Me, the teens that went and a couple of our new friends.
Me and Mango again (he loves me) :)
This man had this super cool bike he'd made... and he was kind enough to let us ride it! It was pretty fun!

One of our Mexico traditions is going to eat tacos before we go home...
Javier even got a little daring and tried a pepper... I don't think he'll be doing that again anytime soon...
Here are a few more of my favorites from the trip...

They make me laugh... they make me cry...

2009-01-27T10:25:00.000-08:00

...my teens are amazing. They're hilarious, and they're thoughtful and they touch my heart.

A few days ago, I was driving with a couple of teens and we'd just picked up food. I looked over in the passenger seat and the teen that was sitting there had his hand out the window and a french fry in it. I didn't think much of it. I kept driving. Then I saw him reach in the bag and take out another one. I looked over and again he had his hand out the window with the fry in it. I asked him if he was throwing fries out the window. He replied, "No, they're hot. I'm just airing them out." And then he popped the fry in his mouth. :)

Sometimes my teens do things that I don't think they even realize that just make me want to hug them. One of the things we're doing right now, is allowing the kids to teach on Friday nights. It's been really cool to work through that with them and help to develop and teach them how to be leaders. So the other night, one of our boys was teaching. And he started quoting stuff that I'd said in other lessons. I was so proud! Not so much that he quoted me (although that was pretty cool) but that he'd been listening and that he'd understood!

I came into the office this morning and found this email from that same teen:

Hey Diandra how you doing? I wanted to send you my bball schedule so if you wanted to some of the rest of them. Thanks a lot for your support. And once again great job on Sunday. You did really well. And in case you don't know it you are a great youth pastor, and I am thankful that you are my and the whole youth group's pastor. Your compassion and love and desire is really great and I thank you for always being there for me and all of us. Not only are you my youth pastor but I also consider you a good friend of mine. I'm really glad that after Christine left, God chose you to step in and you did a wonderful job of taking over. I'm sorry if I'm being too mushy mushy but I just want you to know that you are appreciated and that you if you ever feel discouraged I can pray for you or just be a friend. Because I'm sure it can be tough sometimes, but just know that we all love you. Alright see you on Wednesday.

It is really a privilege to be able to be a part of the lives of these teens. I feel so uplifted and encouraged by them. They're amazing and they don't even know it!

Evangelism... or something like it.

2009-01-27T09:24:00.000-08:00

We have started a new year... and with that, we've decided that we need to do some things differently. Javier is determined to be organized and on time. So far he has been pretty organized... he even lines up his pens on his desk. As for on time... well that will come :) I've decided to try to have a little bit of a life. I spend so much time at the church (which is not a bad thing) but I'm trying to make sure I have time with my friends and family as well. But we've also made some changes in the direction of the youth group. We're working on planning na dorganizing more ahead of time... although we sat down to plan the calendar for the year, and we got through March and Javi couldn't think any farther ahead :) So that has to be done in small doses.

One of the things we're pretty excited about is Evangelism. We have planned one evangelism day each month. So a couple of weeks ago we ventured out for our first one. We weren't really sure what to expect.. We thought maybe 2 or 3 teens would show up, but if not, we were prepared to do it anyway. So we printed out little cards...
...and we headed to the Long Beach town Center which is like a big outdoor shopping center with a movie theater and food court. We were happily suprised to be met by about 15 teens! We haded out the cards to the teens, prayed together and off they went to talk to people. It wasn't long before security cornered Javvy (Javier's 16 year old son) and told him we couldn't do that there, that it was private property. In the process of being kicked out, Javvy had this conversation with the security guard:

Javvy (while playing guitar): "Do you go to church?"
Security: "I'm sorry but you can't be doing that here."
Javvy: "I just asked if you go to church"
Security: "No."
Javvy: "Well do you want to come to ours? we have a service tomorrow."

Needless to say, the teens were awesome. They stepped out of their comfort zones and they did a fantastic job! And they were even disappointed when we couldn't continue!

* * * * *

Last week we went to a local high school to watch one of our teens play in a basketball game. As we were leaving, we saw two girls running around the corner and into the bathroom. A couple seconds later, one of our teen boys came running after them. He saw me, and he said, "Oh good! You're a girl! Go in there and tell them you're my youth pastor! I want them to go to church!"

It turns out he'd been chasing the girls around trying to get them to go to youth group!

It's exciting to see our teens getting excited about God... and spreading that excitement and enthusiasm to the people around them. God is doing huge things in our youth group... I really believe that a revival is starting with our teens!

The Christian Drug Alternative

2009-01-12T15:22:00.000-08:00

In youth group the other night during our discussion, one of our teens got pumped up. He was really excited about God and what God was doing in his life. He was talking about the feeling you get when you have a relationship with God and how great it is.

"Want to get high? Don't do drugs... do Jesus!"

And he was dead serious and so excited!

I think that is maybe the COOLEST part of my job... when my kids get excited for God.

Excitement :)

2009-01-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

Last Friday was pretty cool.

In Bible study on Friday night, we were having a discussion. We had some scriptures that we were going to read, so we asked for volunteers to read. Oftentimes when that is asked, there is silence. But on Friday night, we had many hands raised... the kids began to go back and fourth about who got to read... it ended in a game of rock, paper, scissors to determine who would win reading the Bible.

So super cool.

Santa in the teen room

2009-01-07T11:05:00.001-08:00

Santa made a visit to our youth group shortly before Christmas:

I really have no more explanation than that.

I heard one of the little kids saying to another little kid, "Did you see Santa in the teen room?"

Ghetto Heaven

2009-01-06T09:48:00.000-08:00

In Sunday School a few weeks ago, I was asked a question I never in my wildest dreams would have EVER expected to hear: "Is there a ghetto in Heaven?" It made me laugh at the time, but I got to thinking about it later and it didn't seem so funny.

I grew up in small towns in Oregon. Most of the people I knew were middle class white people. As I've talked about before, I never really understood or knew much about racism. For me, a person is a person is a person. Race was simply a physical characteristic, like blond hair or brown hair. With that often comes culture, but I've always taken an interest in different cultures and I think that is so cool! But when we moved here to Southern California, my world got turned upside down. I couldn't believe the amount of racism and hatred that was around me.

I was also shocked at the amount of poverty and homelessness. I never knew what a "ghetto" was. I didn't understand what that meant. But when I moved here and I began to get involved in ministries and outreaches, I began to realize the immense about of suffering and pain that surrounds us. My eyes have been further opened since I began working with the Spanish ministry and going on trips to Mexico and doing things that are a little outside my comfort zone sometimes.

When I started thinking more about the question of a ghetto in heaven, I realized that there is a lot of prejudice and hurt in the lives of my teens. Many of my kids feel inferior because of race, social or economic class, or citizenship status. I realized that those feelings (though hidden behind tough exteriors, and never being admitted), translate into their understanding of God. At the time we made a joke about Heaven's ghetto having streets paved of silver instead of gold. But the fact is that to God, all of us are His children and He loves us all equally. It seems to be something that is lacking in society... loving people regardless. Loving people because of who they are to God... rather than what they look like or where they come from.

I am so grateful for kids who teach me lessons. I know that it is my job to teach and mentor them... but I often feel as though they are the ones that are teaching me. I am glad that God has allowed me to be their youth pastor and to see life through their eyes.

I know that there is no ghetto in Heaven. I know that because Jesus didn't die for ALL of us... He died for EACH of us. He loves us all... unconditionally... equally. I am so grateful for a God who sees who we are... not what we look like or where we come from.

Random tidbits from 2008

2009-01-06T09:21:00.000-08:00

It's 2009.

Which is a bit of an adjustment for me considering I'm still writing 2007 on everything... so I guess I'll just skip 2008 altogether.

I thought I'd share a few more stories from last year (that sounds so funny!) that I keep forgetting to blog about. So here is a compilation of random things that have happened... and stories that have been told...

Enjoy! :)

* * * * *

I am terrified of spiders. It's a phobia. It's irrational. I cant explain it, but I do NOT like them. Well a few of my teens have managed to figure this out. We were sitting in small groups the other night, and apparently there was a spider web on the ceiling. One of the teens pointed it out to me and I proceeded to freak out... just a little :) One of my boys responds with, "you should call my dad... he's pest patrol!!!" Then there was a pause. "I mean control. Pest control." Javier's response: "So basically your dad is a hit man for bugs?"

* * * * *

One of the things that happens at Christmas time, is that each department is responsible for doing something in the Spanish service as a Christmas celebration. Usually for things like this, Javier and I plan it and the kids carry it out. But this time as we were talking, I told the kids that we wanted them to plan it. So they got excited and began to brainstorm. Their idea ended up being something with a Santa suit... elves... and a song in Spanish with a few English parts. I believe there was also going to be some dancing and clapping. One of my teens says, "I'll bring the lighters!" (if this doesnt ring a bell, read this blog entry). To which I responded in protest, "Did you just say you'd bring the lighters???" Another teens answered, "you said we should plan it and that's our plan!"

Needless to say, Santa, the elves and the lighters all failed (I promise I had nothing to do with it!) and the teens sang 3 wonderful songs! :)

* * * * *

Last Friday in small groups, we had a pretty small group of kids. We decided to do something a little different. We spent the whole time gathering around each of the teens and praying for them. Some of them had specific needs and struggles, and others we simply prayed for a solid, blessed year. It was a wonderful time of lifting our kids up and supporting and encouraging them. At the end, we all gathered in a circle and they prayed for Javier and me. In the middle of the prayer, I felt something wet on my arm (which was around a kid). I ignored it and continued praying. A few minutes later, I felt someone wipe it off. After the prayer, I turned around and one of my boys was standing behind me with a straw in his mouth laughing. I guess the straw had flicked water on my arm and he didn't know what to do. So he sat there for a minute and then decided he should wipe it off.

* * * * *

Tough Oregon Cookie

2008-12-22T13:23:00.000-08:00

I am sitting at my grandma's house in Oregon. Every year we head up this direction for Christmas to visit our family. This year, we're sitting in the middle of a blizzard :)

Last week in Sunday School, we were talking about my upcoming trip. I said that I was going to bring my Nike Cortez shoes (if you dont know what I'm talking about, read this blog before you continue). This is how the conversation went:

Diandra: "I'm one tough cookie... they won't know what to do with me in Oregon" :)
Teen: "More like a THUG cookie"
Diandra: "What exactly is a thug cookie?"
Teen: "It's a cookie with LA written on it and Nike Cortez shoes."

Service... Interrupted

2008-12-22T13:14:00.000-08:00

Sunday Mornings we have a service that we call TNT. It's our service that is more contemporary and aimed at teens, college students and young adults. We have loud, upbeat worship and then when it's time for the sermon, the show the main service sermon on a big screen. Javier and I are the pastors in the TNT service.

Last Sunday, as the service started, there was something not right. We were having sound issues, people were distracted and the worship was off. So a couple of songs into it, I stopped the service. We stopped and prayed together and asked God to take away the distractions and be in the midst of the service. Then we started again.

And the service was amazing.

It's so cool to see how God continually answers prayer, and continually shows up at church with us :)

I was looking around during the sermon at the array of different people in the service. A large portion of that service is made up of teens. And as much as we have emphasized the fact that this is NOT a teen service, I got to thinking... how many of these teens would be in church at all if we didn't have this service? I came to the conclusion that even if the service never grows... even if it stays EXACTLY where it is now (which I don't believe it will), it is worth the work that has gone into it, because it is accomplishing a lot. It is reaching people that quite possibly wouldn't be in church otherwise.

God still does things!

2008-12-19T11:02:00.000-08:00

I wanted to share a couple of stories of what God has been doing in our youth group. Because even in 2008... God still does things!

Last week I was preparing to teach. We've been going through the book of John bit by bit. It was my turn to teach and I was so excited because I got to teach about Jesus walking on water! Which is one of my very favorite stories (although I have many). So as I was preparing, I was struggling. I wanted so badly to focus on the miracle that Jesus did in walking on the water. But God was pulling me a different direction. So Wednesday night, I got up to speak... not knowing ENTIRELY where I was going with this.

That happens to be quite often. Sometimes I know right away where God wants me to go, other times, I don't know until the last minute, and still other times, I walk up on that stage without a clue what is going to come out of my mouth. But God has taught me to trust Him and He always comes through! Wednesday was one of those days. I knew where I WASN'T going to go, but I just continued to pray and let God do His thing.

I spoke about how the disciples were scared when they saw Jesus, but as soon as He called out to them, they were no longer afraid. They knew His voice. The reason they knew His voice is because they had a relationship with Him. I talked about the importance of having a relationship with God so you recognize His voice. The story goes on to talk about how the people who he'd left went looking for Him. I talked about how there are times we feel like we cant hear from God... and instead of just waiting around, we need to SEEK Him. At the end, I asked the teens if they wanted to hear from God. I asked them to come to the cross (our version of an alter) and spend time praying and making sure they had a relationship with God and that it was right. And then we prayed and asked that God would speak to them. The cross was FILLED with students.

I began to feel very lightheaded and short of breath the second I walked on that stage. I knew that God was going to do something big because Satan was working overtime. As soon as I finished saying what I had to say, I turned it over to Javier to pray and I went to the back and dropped. I laid on the floor for quite a while trying to get my breath back. In the mean time, God was doing things in the lives of our kids.

I've been struggling lately with feeling inadequate. I've struggled with God's call on my life and wondered if I'm living it out the way He wants me to. Over and over I've doubted myself and what God is doing through me. It's been an ongoing battle the last couple of months, and every time I begin to struggle with it, God gives me encouragement. Usually in the form of a teen that comes and tells me how much they love me and how glad they are that I am their youth pastor. Last week I was really fighting with this. I was feeling more discouraged than I had in a very long time. Before the service, I was asking God just to reveal something to me... to make it clear that I am where I'm supposed to be.

God very clearly showed Himself and the way that He is using me when one of my teens came up to me after almost everyone had gone home. He talked to me about some of the things he'd been thinking about and what was going on in his life. Then he told me he thinks God is calling him to ministry...

I cried.

Because God still does things. God still uses people... even when we feel inadequate.

You see, there are things Ive started taking for granted. I realized that on Wednesday night. I take for granted that there are new kids every week, and every week there are kids returning from the week before. I take for granted that kids respond to our messages EVERY WEEK. I take for granted that our teens worship God with their hearts, regardless of what their friends think. And I take for granted that kids make decisions to accept Christ and follow Him and trust Him.

It is my job to teach these kids... but last week, God taught me a huge lesson.

God still does things.

Yes, I am an adult.

2008-12-19T10:01:00.000-08:00

I am fairly young. And more than that, I really still LOOK young. Oftentimes I am confused with my teens... people will ask me if I know where the youth pastor is :) Sometimes I worry that it is hard for my teens to look at me as an adult because of this.

A few days ago, I was listening to some music with one of the kids... a lot of it was music from the 90's. The kid turns to me and says,

"Do you know all these songs? They're oldies."

It was at that moment that I realized they do see me as an adult... and apparently an old one :)

Preaching.

2008-12-10T09:36:00.000-08:00

I will be preaching in the main Spanish service a week from Friday.

I am so excited.

I am so nervous.

Just wanted to share.

Funny intern stories

2008-12-10T09:24:00.000-08:00

We have an intern from Biola University. Her name is Sarah. She's been with us now for a little over a year I believe. It is absolutely a God-thing how we ended up with her and she has been a huge blessing. She fits really well with Javier and me, and she does a great job with the kids. Here are a couple of stories I thought I'd share involving her. Sarah, if you're reading this, we love you :) And it's about time you made it on the blog!

On Friday night we were having a discussion with our teens.

Sarah (our intern) was the one leading the discussion at this point. She was trying to get the kids thinking. Oftentimes we'll do that by asking them for a response. That is what she did.

Sarah: God created everything, he looked around and said that it was....
(trying to get the kids to say "good")

Teen: Mine.

* * * * *

Sarah has started teaching the early Sunday School class on Sunday mornings. The first day she was there, she was talking to the kids about what they liked and didn't like about Sunday School. One of the kids said that they didn't like the name... it seemed boring. So Sarah suggested changing it.

Sarah: Well, let's change the name to something awesome. What do you want to call it?

***Silence***

Teen: How about "something awesome".

Sarah: Okay.

"Sunday School" has officially been changed to "Something Awesome".

Dear Mom, Amen.

2008-12-04T01:09:00.000-08:00

There are moments that just absolutely crack me up.

And there are kids that crack me up even more.

I have two stories that come from the same teen...

The first one happened a couple of weeks ago.

For this story to make sense, you have to understand the set up of our youth group.
We usually have the kids use the bathrooms that are located outside to keep them from being disruptive to the other services that are going on. Well this kid was still kind of new to the youth group, and he got up to use the bathroom. This is the conversation that took place:

Me: Where are you going?
Teen: I have to go to the bathroom
Me: Okay, well go outside.
Teen: (looking at me as though I'd just asked him to eat a grasshopper) OUTSIDE?!?!?
Me: There are bathrooms out there.
Teen: Oh :)

He hadn't realized that there were bathrooms out there. I guess he thought I wanted him to use a bush.

* * * * *

Wednesday night I was taking this same teen home after youth group. We had another funny conversation that went something like this:

Teen: Is it wrong to ask God for something?
Me: Of course not.
Teen: Even if it's physical?
Me: (thinking he meant physical, like a new bike) You can ask, but it doesn't mean you'll get it.
Teen: Cuz I want a deeper voice.
Me: (Silence)
Teen: Mine is kind of high...
Me: (trying to recover) Well, you can pray and ask God for anything.
Teen: How would I ask for that?
Me: Well how would you ask your mom for something?
Teen: Dear Mom, I'd like a deeper voice, Amen.
Me: Change "mom" to "God" and I think you've got it!

:)

Sometimes my heart breaks

2008-12-01T11:25:00.000-08:00

I love my job.
I love my church.
I love my teens.

That's what this blog is about. And usually it is very upbeat and sometimes even funny.

But today... my heart is broken for one of my boys.

I started going to this church almost 8 years ago. There are a couple of kids that are in my youth group that went the the church all the way back then, although they were pretty young. One in particular we will call John (name has been changed). When I came to the church, John was only about 8 years old. He came to church with his grandma and could always be counted on to be in the children's musicals, and sitting in church on Sunday morning. He joined the youth group as a 6th grader when I was a senior. He was one of those kids that everyone loved. People would always donate money to get him to camps and events, knowing that he probably wouldn't be able to go otherwise. 5 years later he is still one of my teens. He has been with me since I started working with the junior highers almost 5 years ago.

I have watched over the years as the other kids have lost their excitement for church and for God. But John has just grown stronger in his relationship with God, and still has that glimmer of excitement in his eye when he walks through the doors of the church.

I've watched the other kids go through rebellious stages... as they've treated their parents with disrespect and gotten upset with the adults in their lives. John continued to walk his grandma into each service, sit with her, and take care of her. He was good to his parents who eventually began coming to church as well. He would leave youth group if his grandma needed him, he'd go home early because his mom had to pick him up then... with a smile on his face and not one complaint from his lips.

While other teens have been disrespectful to me, cussed me out, said mean things to me, and taken advantage of me, John has encouraged me and lifted me up... even when it's supposed to be the other way around.

Last week I got the news that John's grandmother had passed away. She's been sick for some time and it has been a struggle for her, but John has been there with her through it all, loving her just as much. I knew that he would be torn apart. I immediately called him to see how he was doing. He was sad, I could tell. But there was still this bit of hope in his voice... because that's just who John is. Even in the midst of the most difficult thing he's probably ever had to go through, he remained kind hearted and hopeful.

Sunday morning during the service, John went to the cross (which is what we have instead of an alter). I went to pray for him, and as soon as I placed my hand on his back, I felt the sobs that were shaking his body. I knelt down next to him and grabbed his shoulders. I sat there as he cried and I began to cry too. I knew that he was hurting... and I hurt for him. He looked up at me and simply said, "I miss her so much."

He went on to say that if it weren't for her, he wouldn't be where he was... he probably wouldn't even be a Christian.... that he was so happy knowing she was with Jesus, but it hurt him to lose her. I told him that she had been so proud of him, and that I knew he would live his life continuing to make her proud. And to make God proud. I told him that one day, he would see her again...

...and he cried...

...and I cried...

...and my heart broke again...

Because no matter how much I try to just be their youth pastor... no matter how much I try to keep things professional to some degree... These kids are my heart. And when they hurt... I hurt too.

So today... my heart is hurting for John.
For his family.
For the people who loved his grandmother.

But it is also full of joy for the fact that she IS with Jesus....
....for who John has become because she cared enough to bring that little boy to church...
...for John's parents who now love Jesus too... because he showed them God's love...
And for every life that John will touch... because I know that one day, there is going to be a group of people that looks back on their lives and credits John, and his heart, for who they have become.

Because that is just who John is.
And I am so blessed that God allowed me to be his youth pastor.

Just a typical Sunday Morning....

2008-11-26T11:40:00.000-08:00

...although typical for us...

...is really not typical at all :)

We have a service called TNT. Basically it is an alternative service that happens at the same time as our main service. It is held in the gym where it's dark, the worship music is loud, we have coffee and doughnuts and it's much more laid back and relaxed. One of the things about this service is that it requires a lot of set up. And right now, our teens are doing most of that.

Sometimes it's hard to remember that they are still teenagers...

...but they always have a way of reminding us:

I'll leave you with a couple of pictures from Sunday:
This is our "alter". It's a cross.

WWE Smackdown?

2008-11-26T11:24:00.000-08:00

One of our kids is really into wrestling.

Not the kind you do on a mat in high school.

The kind where you throw things at each other and do ridiculous moves.

I wouldn't think of this as being a problem...

...until he hit me with a chair....

Apparently, he wanted to try out one of the moves.

And one more thing...

2008-11-26T11:20:00.000-08:00

I forgot to post this picture from when we went to PLNU... and really, it deserves it's own post:
Yes, that is Isaac.
And yes that is the trunk of my car.

So now my teens think they're in college....

2008-11-26T10:14:00.000-08:00

...and I guess that's our fault because we took them to one.

One of the things that is cool about the Nazarene Denomination is that we have a university... several actually... but the one that our district is connected with is Point Loma Nazarene University in San Diego, California. It's actually where I went to college and it's a great school.

Once a year, they have something called Preview Days. It's a chance for kids from the Nazarene churches to go and check out the school. They stay in the dorms, eat in the caf, go to a chapel and a class and if they're seniors, they do their admissions interview. The school also does some other fun activities for the kids while they're there. This year, we took 7 teens down. It was quite an adventure. Things like this are always fun when we have a smaller group of kids because we really get to have fun with them and get to know them better.

I have some kind of funny stories... but I thought I'd share a few pictures also! So enjoy!

This was on the way down.
I was driving.
We decided to have a contest to see who could blow the biggest bubble...
This was mine.
I didn't like Crystal's... so I popped it :)This is me and one of my boys (Kyle) at a rest stop on the way there.

This is Isaac.
He's super cool.
But you might notice something kind of odd...
He's wearing fake eyelashes...
And they're on his eyeLIDs...
We love him :)
This is the Greek Amphitheatre (with the ocean in the background!). It's kind of famous at PLNU.This is the baseball field (in the background) and the track. Notice the ocean again?This is me and Javier... he is "hexing" me.
I don't know why.
Some of us down by the cliffs... this is actually on PLNU's campus!
This was taken on our way back up the cliffs... you wouldn't believe how many different versions of this picture we have with all of us trying to get in on it!
This video is from our hike back up the cliffs. The teens headed up the way we came down. Then Javier took the "easy way" and told me to try it.
I did.
It wasn't so easy.
I got stuck.
The teens laughed. And videotaped. And this is what happened.

We really enjoyed the time at PLNU, but before we knew it, it was time to head back home. We got on the road and decided to take our time... so we pulled off at a gas station (mostly because there was a lot of traffic and I panicked :) and then we decided to head to the beach for a while.

Remember Isaac?
We love him.

As soon as we got to the beach, the boys ran up this sand hill and posed for a picture:
...Then they pushed each other off of it...
Typical boys.

Shirley, me and Crystal... the only girls that went. We had fun!
There's a lot of love in our youth group :)I'd like to take this moment to thank God for Javier. Because before he came along, the boys did this to me... now he takes them on:
Don't worry... no teens were harmed in the making of this blog...
The next stop was the McDonald's dollar menu...
There are no words...
I'm really not sure about them sometimes... but they sure think they're funny.
One of the jokes that started circulating (i don't know how) is they would come up to me and say "Diandra my arm is swollen!" and then flex their bicep. At McDonald's it got taken to a whole new level... "Diandra, I have a headache":
We stopped at a Rest Area on the way back. The kids were making Sims of all of our teens... it was pretty funny! They were playing with the little Sims, and I hear Crystal say,
"Is that a hamster? Or a dog?"
:)We returned home safely and all the kids had a good time. I am reminded again about how wonderful my teens are and how cool my job is :)

I have a headache...

2008-11-03T14:58:00.000-08:00

...I've had one since Wednesday night in youth group.

This might explain it:

Because at any given time on Wednesday night before and after the worship service... there are 4 or more balls flying through the air. For some reason, they all seem to end up at one central point: my head.

Worship to a different beat

2008-11-03T14:48:00.000-08:00

We've got a group of teens that have started a worship band. The band plays on Wednesday nights before we teach. We've been talking to them a lot about how important their role is. They lead people in worship, and really set the tone for the rest of the service, and for what God is going to say through the message.

Sometimes we talk and talk and it sure seems like it goes in one ear and out the other.

On Wednesday night I realized that sometimes, it sticks.

The kids were kind of messing around during worship, so right in the middle of it, Isaac, our guitar player, stops playing and gives the youth group quite a lesson. I quickly pulled out my phone when I realized where it was going and caught most of it on tape:

It's a little hard to hear, but he basically says that it inst about how they sound, God doesn't care, He just wants us to worship Him. He goes on to say, who cares if you look silly or if people look at you, sing, dance, raise your hands, whatever... just worship God. (that's a bit of a paraphrase :)

Save your pennies... and drive fast!

2008-11-03T14:41:00.000-08:00

Winter Camp is coming up soon.

I was making a plug for it in Sunday School. A few of the kids had just gone to starbucks and were drinking their fancy little drinks (welcome to Southern California youth ministry).

There is a cost to the camp, so I was telling the kids to save their pennies. Here is what followed:

Teen 1: Aw man, I just threw all that change in the tip jar at starbucks!
Teen 2: Dude, it was like 30 cents
Teen 1: No... oh well, yeah.

Later on in Sunday School we were talking about Sanctification. I was trying to explain in "kid terms" what it means. So I used this example:

Before you become a Christian, you're driving down the road in a car and Jesus is running along side of you. When you become a Christian, you let Jesus get into your car for the ride. When you become Sanctified, you let Jesus drive and you sit in the passenger seat.

To which one of the kids responds: "But does He drive full speed?"

Victory!

2008-11-03T13:54:00.000-08:00

There are times when life is hard.

There are a lot of those times when you're a youth pastor.

Oftentimes I find myself discouraged... frustrated... and just feeling down.

But God has this really cool way of turning that around.

At the end of Sunday School, I always ask if anyone would like to pray. It used to be that the kids would volunteer each other, so I'd make the kid that didn't want to pray pray. Then one day I realized that I was using prayer as a punishment (which was never my intention but that was what it had become). So I stopped doing that and started talking to them about what a privilege it is to pray and how much joy God must get when He sees that we want to talk to Him.

So when Sunday School ended last week, I was about to ask if anyone would like to pray. But before I had the chance, one of my teens raised his hand and started saying "oh me, oh, oh me!" you know... like kids do when they cant contain themselves...

And then he says something I wasn't expecting: "Can I pray? PLEASE?"

Possibly one of the best moments of my life.

Will You Marry Me?

2008-10-25T21:51:00.000-07:00

Lucas is still proposing (if you don't know what I mean, read this).

Friday night I took him and Crystal (Javier's niece) home. On the way to drop him off, he proposed again. Crystal and I laughed and she said something about how it's never going to happen.

Lucas says, "Yes it will, I have faith. God answers prayers."

Then he proceeds to tell us that he asked in his Bible class at school for them to pray that his youth pastor would marry him.

When we were relaying this story to Javier and Sam (Crystal's dad, Javier's brother) later on that night, Sam looks at Javi and says, "Well I hope he didn't mean you."

:)

I'm on Jasmine's Blog!!!

2008-10-24T12:36:00.000-07:00

So again, not really "teen" related... but another update to my life list:

I've been featured on Jasmine Star's blog :)

Here are a couple of my favorites:

A picture is worth a thousand words...

2008-10-22T11:09:00.000-07:00

I almost feel like just leaving it at that and not even telling you the story behind this picture...

...almost...

...but I like to talk :)

This is Sarah (our intern) and Daniel (one of our teens). This is what Daniel did to Sarah instead of just saying "hello" like a normal person.

But that is why we love our kids...

...they're hands on...

...and they seem to have this weird obsession with hair... anyone know if there is a medical term for that?

Just another day in Paradise...

2008-10-22T11:04:00.000-07:00

Just wanted to share a couple of pictures of what youth group typically looks like.

Here are some of the kids in the gym during the Wednesday night service...
And part of one of our "small groups" on Friday night

Life List Update

2008-10-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

Yesterday I accomplished something on my life list :)

I know that this is unrelated to my teens, but since I started writing about it on here, I have decided to continue with updates.

DO A PHOTOSHOOT WITH JASMINE STAR.

It was amazing! It will be posted on her blog at the end of this week or beginning of next week if you want to check it out.

Here are a couple behind the scenes pictures:

Friends in Ministry

2008-10-15T09:07:00.000-07:00

I am so thankful that I am where I am.

But if that weren't enough, God has blessed me with people to work with that I really love.

I get to work for my dad which is amazing! But in addition to that, I have been fortunate enough to really form friendships with our other pastors, and even our volunteers!

We have an intern from Biola University who is completing credits with us. Her name is Sarah. Yesterday, Sarah and I went to Disneyland!

Afterwards, we went with Javier and Sam to get pumpkins and carve them:

The funniest part was Sarah's portrait of Javier on her pumpkin :)
I am continually blessed by my job. It is so much more than a job. I am grateful for amazing people who make it that much better :)

So Cal Youth Ministry

2008-10-14T09:49:00.001-07:00

***WARNING: This is not the typical "happy post" that I usually post. I find so much joy in what I do, and I typically write about that, and the triumphs, but today something is on my heart and I really felt like writing about it. So feel free to read, think and comment, but just keep in mind it's not the norm.***

I've mentioned before that I grew up in Oregon. And not only in Oregon, but in relatively small towns in Oregon. I have parents that taught me well... especially when it came to racism and hate. I learned from a very young age that the color of someone's skin was just that... a physical characteristic. That it didn't make them any less of a person. I also learned that we should love people regardless... that Jesus died for EVERYONE... not just the people we like. Those lessons were so important for me to learn. Because of the way I was raised and the person that God has made me, I really don't notice race as anything more than a physical characteristic... like blond hair or brown hair, green eyes or blue eyes, short or tall... Unfortunately, I cannot say the same for the world that I live in.

Our church is multinational. It's even in the name. Cerritos Crossroads MULTINATIONAL Church of the Nazarene/Mas Que Vencedores (yes it's long, but it's who we are). We speak 5 different languages officially and several others unofficially. We live in an area where this is not uncommon... Granted, it is a bit uncommon in the church... but southern California is full of different cultures and languages and nationalities.

It is also full of hatred and racism. I get so frustrated when I see that. I don't understand how people can feel so much disdain towards another human being simply because of the way they look, or where they were born, or where their GREAT GRANDPARENTS were born! It doesn't make sense to me.

That hatred translates in so many different ways. One of those became very real for some of my teens this week. A girl at one of the many local high schools in the area was shot and killed. She was the friend of one of my girls. She was killed at a party when someone came in and shot her. I don't know the details, but I know it was gang related... and gangs are driven by the need for power and surrounded by racial issues which often turns into hatred for no apparent reason.

It breaks my heart to see these things happening... and happening right in front of me. My heart goes out to this girl's family and friends. This isn't the first time something like this has impacted my teens. I continue to thank God for keeping them safe and pray that they continue to make good choices and stay out of harm's way.

Gangs are very real. I never really realized that until I moved here. But now that I'm here and closer than ever to real people affected by real gangs, I am driven to do something. Gangs are full of kids who need Jesus. And I honestly believe that Jesus can really and truly save these kids and change their lives.

We're all going to Hell

2008-10-13T13:58:00.000-07:00

I got a very unique invitation in the mail last week.

It was from a church, inviting me to Hell.

Yes, Hell.

It's a Halloween alternative that this church does... I guess it's some sort of show.

I was reading the invitation to Javier and one of our boys was standing there and overheard.

He turns to me and says, "I want to go to Hell."

Then he realized what he said, "Wait. I think that came out wrong."

:)

Proof that I'm a Goof...

2008-10-13T10:25:00.000-07:00

It takes a special person to be a youth pastor.

There's really a balance between being their friend, their mentor, their spiritual leader, and a little bit of a goof ball.

I was sorting through pictures on my computer today of my kids, and I started seeing a bit of a pattern... so I thought I'd share some proof of the goof ball side. :)

At the fireworks stand... I really dont know what Im doing...
Eating a Popsicle... I think it was for a photo scavenger hunt.
Silly sunglasses
Another one for the scavenger hunt... hanging out in a tree...
In a fountain... you'd be amazed how many fountains Ive been in...
Playing on the playground at the church
Rock Candy... yess!
Winter Camp... He started it.
Girl's night. I promise I do not dress like that on a regular basis.
Trying to get Bernice to smile... it worked :)
Always trying to get the kids to laugh for pictures...
There is no explanation for this one.
More from the playground.
We were dancing. We're actually really good :)

My office... my second home...

2008-10-10T11:20:00.000-07:00

I don't have a lot to blog about today, but I thought I'd show you where I work :)

My white board. It is next to my desk and its how I brainstorm and sort things out. What you see on there is all the camp finance info from this summer... I'm still sorting through it all :)
my couch... it gets a lot of use from teens who come and crash after school... and before youth group... and Sunday afternoon... and any other time they catch me in my office :)
My desk calendar... what would I do without it??? I write EVERYTHING on here and even get teased at staff meetings because I bring the whole thing to staff meeting every week! You may also notice all the post it note lists... more about that later :)
Hand prints... one of my favorite parts of my office... my kids put their hand prints on my wall... in my old office I had one wall almost covered... I haven't done so well in this office... but I'm working on it.
It looks chaotic, but there's a lot of organization... and some chaos :) I have everything on these shelves from books to DVDs to pictures to food to random gadgets... they tend to collect things.
My duck. I don't know where it came from, but now it lives on my shelf and I like it.
My stuffed penguin and picture from NYC 2007 in Missouri... mixed in with some CDs, DVDs and even a video tape :)
My desk and computer. Where I spend most of my "office hours"...
Post it notes... They're everywhere!!!
Encouragement from my teens... they're so cool! I have a whole folder full of stuff like this that they've made me that I keep and pull out in times of frustration.
My treo 755 is AMAZING! it does everything and it hooks up to my computer so that they update each other... My office phone is great too, although there are so many buttons and I always seem to push the wrong ones :)
I have a thing with writing utensils... I love them. And I can never have enough. There's also my elephant paperweight that my friend Danny brought my back from his Jesus Film mission trip to Africa. The picture is from an event we did where the teens nailed things in their lives to the cross.
To do lists and post it notes... They're everywhere! They keep me sane and on track, even though anyone looking at them would probably just be confused :)
Just thought I'd give some insight on my life :)

Life List Update

2008-10-06T13:53:00.000-07:00

So since posting about my Life List, I have been fortunate enough to have a couple of updates... and I know this isn't technically about my teens, but since I wrote about it on here, I thought I'd give updates. I created a special tag for it, so if it's something you're interested in you can follow it. If not, sorry to deviate from the typical blog topics... but again, I write this blog as a way for me to look back and remember things and be encouraged. I am excited about this list and working at accomplishing the things that are on it. So here we go!

I don't want to give away too much just yet, but I am SUPER excited about a couple of opportunities that I have. The first one is this: I have a photoshoot booked with Jasmine Star! That is what I am MOST excited about right now! I cannot wait. It is definitely going to be a blast. This is a photographer I came across when I first got interested in photography a couple of years ago, and she was just kind of starting out. I was completely blown away by her work and who she is as a person (she's a pastor's kid too!). I haven't actually met her, but I have followed her blog and I am fortunate enough to have the opportunity to meet her in just a couple of weeks! She has inspired me in more ways than one, and I am so excited that I finally get to do this... and meet her!

Another update... I'm working on some of my running goals. I'm coming up with a plan and I am going to try really hard to be disciplined enough to stick to a schedule and start working towards that marathon. I don't really like to run, but I know it's good for me and I really want to do a marathon (although I'm not really sure why...).

I have something else possibly coming up that I'm pretty excited about too, but I haven't decided for sure, so I don't want to write too much about that yet.

I'll keep updating as I accomplish things!

God is sure good. Even when life isn't :)

What if...

2008-10-06T13:41:00.000-07:00

There's a tradition in our Sunday School class called the "what if" book. Its a book full of questions that start with "what if" and they are designed to get the teens thinking. Sometimes I'll pull it out and ask a few if we have some extra time.

Sunday our conversation went a little something like this:

Question: "What if you found the cure for cancer?"
Teen's answer: "Then I'd cure cancer"

Question: "What if you could get rid of one rule at school?"
Teen's answer: "I'd get rid of the rule that we have to go to school"

Wow. Sometimes, they definitely DON'T make you think!

My kids love me :)

2008-10-06T09:56:00.000-07:00

After church on Sunday I was talking to one of my teens as he was walking away from me. He didn't respond, so I said, "did you hear me?"

He whipped around and said, "Did you just say 'will you marry me?'"
To which Lucas (a 13 year old teen) replied, "I want to marry you! Why didn't you ask me to marry you?"

I laughed.

He continued.

All afternoon.

"Diandra, will you marry me?"
"No Lucas"

Now let me just take a minute and say that I think it is important for my teens to know that I love them. I tell them that all the time. And it's actually pretty cool because some of these kids never hear that from anyone. And some of those kids that were super uncomfortable the first time I told them I loved them are now very comfortable with that fact. It is not out of the ordinary for one of our kids to tell us they love us. So on Sunday afternoon....

Lucas: I love you Diandra
Diandra: I love you too!
Lucas: Then will you marry me?
Diandra: No Lucas.

PS... the kids have taken to mocking my cheesy smile.

My kids are rubbing off on me

2008-10-06T09:34:00.000-07:00

I am kind of young.

Especially for being a "grown up".

And not only that, but I look like I'm 16. Case in point... oftentimes when new teens come, they ask me who the youth pastor is... or they'll ask me where I go to school, and so on.

I find that I often blend in and parents have a hard time finding me among the 70 teens in the gym. It's much easier to find the tall bald man :)

Part of the reason I blend in is because I often dress like I'm 16. You will more than likely find me wearing ripped jeans, flip flops and a t-shirt rather than a dress or suit.

I am influenced by what the kids are wearing... even though I don't always notice it.

I bought some tennis shoes the other day because I liked them. I've seen them before and I have always kind of liked them. I wore them to youth group and the kids were laughing at me... I couldn't figure out why. Then Javier told me: The shoes I'd bought (Nike Cortez's) are "gangster shoes"... and apparently seeing this little blond girl wearing them made all my kids laugh. But I've decided I like them anyway :)
There are things like that that I just don't understand... or realize. Part of it I think is growing up in Oregon and not really being around the "LA atmosphere"... I am working in a very urban youth group... and I absolutely LOVE it. I wouldnt trade it for the world... although I am apparently still a little clueless. Luckily my kids manage to look past that.

But I am noticing that they are rubbing off on my a little:
:)

Pants? Again?

2008-10-06T09:07:00.000-07:00

You may remember my previous post regarding pants laying on the ground.

If you don't, STOP reading and read this first.

And now... I present you with what seems to be common place in youth group now:

Wow.

2008-10-01T08:47:00.000-07:00

Myspace.

It's my best friend...

It's my worst enemy.

I love it and hate it all at once.

But one wonderful thing about it is that I find out all kinds of things about my teens and who they are and who they hang out with and how they perceive themselves. I occasionally get on and just kind of browse through their pages and what they're writing. Yesterday I came across this blog entry:

"I wish emotional pain never existed. I've realized that emotional pain always drives me to do stupid things that I know I shouldn't be doing, like drinking, ditching, bitching at random people for absolutely no reason, even trying to take my own life. I don't know why I do it; probably because it makes me feel like I have power and people can't control me. I live my own life.
I've realized how many times I've thought about suicide; it's countless. I don't even know how to explain it or where to begin, but I realized that temptations and urges to breathe my last breath was common from the beginning of freshman year. Most people already know why, and if you don't, then you're going to have to ask in private, because I'm not the same person I was 4 years ago--the person who was open about who I liked, and didn't give a damn about what the world thought... That's gone.
I've been feeling this way for a long time. I don't know why. It's been stirring in my mind since mid-summer. A lot of things happened since I got home from retreat that have changed my life; things that I should be grateful for, but for some reason, I take it for granted. I guess the only thing that keeps me going is the fact that there are people who are going through what I'm going through. One of these people is going through pretty much the same thing I went through freshman year that led to my downfall. She's someone I looked up to since my sophomore year, when my sister started bringing me to church and then left me. I was more of looking for a "sister-figure" that I could depend on, because my sister couldn't be with me anymore, and this person (some how) became my sister-figure. A few months ago, things started to happen that pretty much changed her. Don't get me wrong; I still look at her and love her like my very own sister, but seeing how she has to deal with the things she goes through every day really breaks my heart, especially knowing how it feels through every perspective. And seeing who she is and knowing that she has to hide her emotions for work everyday because so many people look up to her really inspires me. I don't know why, but it just makes me want to keep going with my life.
Sometimes things get in the way and I lose track, and often times I feel frustrated and stressed to the point where I just want to give up, but I often think about who she is and what she's going through, yet she's still hanging strong, and it kind of helps me.

Considering that it's not 2:40-ish, I think I should go do my homework. =) Bye!"

My name was not mentioned but I know that she is talking about me. As I started reading, my heart was broken for this girl. Sometimes you can talk a kid to death... and you can listen as much as they talk, and you still have no idea the extent of what they're thinking. I read the beginning and it sounded so hopeless. But as I read on, I started to see a spark of hope. And I realized that the God I serve is AWESOME. I mean, I already knew that, but seeing Him take my crummy circumstances and actually use that to HELP one of my teens... that makes it all worth going through. Over and over again I have seen God use this situation and I know that He will continue to use it. I am so thankful that my God is more powerful than anything or anyone else!

Live like you were dying...

2008-09-30T10:11:00.000-07:00

There's a song by Tim McGraw that's called "Live Like you were Dying". It's a WONDERFUL song... and a great reminder to live everyday to the fullest.

Recent events in my life have really made me think extra hard about this. It's amazing how God can use the worst of circumstances to remind you of how blessed you really are. It's also amazing how sometimes we have to think about death in order to remember life.

I have decided to really actively work at this list. There are things on here that I may never accomplish in my life, but there are things that I most definitely will. There are other things that I quite possibly could accomplish but it is going to take really working at it to do it.

Ive been keeping a list for quite a while, but I've decided to work on it again after all this time. I think EVERYONE should have a life list! It's a great thing to have goals! So here is my life list. I'd love to hear what is on yours!

-scuba dive the great barrier reef COMPLETED

-run a 5k

-run a 10k

-catch a fish

-live in a foreign country for 3 months or more

-write "Mr. Pearson's Pumpkins" with my mom

-run a marathon

-Go to Greece

-own a shootsac and a canon 5d

-go on a hot air balloon ride

-Make it on a jury

-go deep sea fishing

-Invest in someone's life COMPLETED

-Learn to play the guitar

-audition for the Amazing Race IN PROGRESS

-Write a book

-take a road trip and camp... no hotels and no destination

-Go to Israel

-go on a safari in Africa

-Finish Photography project

-Get one of my photos published (or win a contest)

-go sailing on a sail boat

-Fix up an old house

-Go to Denmark

-Learn to ballroom dance

-Do a photoshoot with Jasmine StarIN PROGRESS

-Go to Italy

-Start a family

-Go to Australia COMPLETED

-make a documentary

-Get my BA IN PROGRESS

-Go to New York

-buy a house

-Learn to speak Spanish fluently IN PROGRESS

-Write a children’s book

-Photograph something spectacular on every continent IN PROGRESS

-Start a new scrapbook of my life

-Go skydiving

-Name a star

-sleep on the beach

-see a volcano

-Coach a volleyball team

-Go to Panama

-trash my dressIN PROGRESS

-Get a puppy

-Get my masters

-Get ordained IN PROGRESS

-Go on a missions trip to another country COMPLETED

-Be in a Movie as an extra

-Go to Brazil

-Change someone's life

-Go to Hawaii

-Read the Bible from Beginning to end IN PROGRESS

-Be in a musical

-ride a camel

-visit all 50 states IN PROGRESS

-Go to Chile

-Write a play

-Write a screenplay

-Go rock climbing (on a real mountain)

-Get my website up and running IN PROGRESS

-Write in a journal every day for a year

-Go to Haiti

-visit the White house

-Photograph a wedding COMPLETED

-Make a living doing something I love COMPLETED

Just because I think EVERYONE should hear this song.... (and maybe it will inspire you)

Church 101 or something like it

2008-09-29T11:12:00.001-07:00

Some of you know my dad is also my senior pastor (and one of my very best friends). It is amazing and I LOVE working with him.

He's been teaching Church 101 to the teens in Sunday school the last few weeks. This is basically a class that teaches what our church believes. We ask that people take it before becoming members of the church so that they know what they are choosing to associate with :) So this week was the last week of the class. He opened it up for questions... I was expecting some good ones, but I did NOT expect what he got.

As soon as he asked if anyone had any questions, one of the boys raised his hand. My dad called on him.

Teen: Do you ever wish Diandra was a boy?
Dad: No.
Teen: Really? Cuz sometimes I do.
(keep in mind I am an only child)

Next question.

Teen: Why didn't you have any other kids?

Next question.

Teen: If you'd had another kid, would you have wished it was a boy?

Next question.

Teen: How old are you?

I really didn't expect that.

I don't think my dad did either.

But in the midst of all of the silly questions, we had 10 teens that decided they want to join our church and be official members. I think that is a pretty cool thing!

Service from a Skateboard

2008-09-29T09:39:00.000-07:00

We have a service called TNT (the Next Thing). It is our alternative service, and while it is not a TEEN service, a lot of the people in it are teens. The whole point is to "come as you are"... for people off the street to walk in and feel comfortable however they come. This is what I saw on Sunday:

To some people... that may be offensive.

Personally, I think its awesome :)

When I wasn't looking...

2008-09-29T09:37:00.000-07:00

...The 80's came back! (these kids crack me up!)

Yes, that is a neon colored fanny pack...

Mexico Trip!

2008-09-29T09:08:00.000-07:00

Saturday we went to Mexico.

I've posted about these trips before, even though it isn't TECHNICALLY stories about the teens... the trips have made such an impact on me, and so I want to remember them and share them.

The trip went well and pretty smoothly other than getting stopped at the border going in. See we have several car loads of stuff and technically you aren't supposed to do what we're doing. So they stopped us at the border (which has never happened before). I didn't really know what was going on, because they were speaking in Spanish.

Luckily, Sam translated: We're going to jail.

The good news is he was joking (of course I didn't know that, and I panicked just a little bit). The bad news is we had to pay a small fine. But then we went through the border and continued on our way.

Here are just a few of the hundreds of pictures we took:

Pastor Orlando and a little girl that we have gotten to know from repeated trips, Carla. (more of her from another trip here)
David, Sam, Pastor Orlando, Me and Javier
Patty (one of my teens) and me
Sam and some of the kids in the background... and me laughing at him trying to take the picture of himself.
Me and Carla and another little girl.
Helping the kids with backpacks... that was the main thing we took this time... school supplies.
Waiting in line.
Mango and me... you may remember him from a previous post
Mango and me again...
One of Pastor Moises' twins and me.
We raffled a bike that was donated and here are all the little boys with the winner (he's the one in the middle smiling)
Me and Javier handing out backpacks.
Me and David (he's one of our Spanish pastors, and my friend)
George and Mango in the car on the way to the next stop.

It was a successful trip. It's so much fun to see the kids' faces... They woke up thinking it was going to be like any other day, and then suddenly we show up with all these things for them. There's something so cool about that. And yet, when we leave, it always feels like we haven't done enough. It's hard for me to understand why I have a roof over my head, food to eat, clothes to wear, a car to drive, and a job to go to, when these people have almost nothing.... and it's just because of where I was born. I was born here and they were born there. So I continue to pray for them, and love them and do what I can... I don't know if I will ever understand why... but I am so blessed every time I go... I think sometimes more than we bless them, THEY bless US!

Comments made easy!!!

2008-09-29T09:00:00.000-07:00

I've mentioned before that I keep finding that people read my blog. I originally started writing it as a way to track funny things that happen for my own encouragement, but I am finding that a lot of other people have found encouragement from my stories also. But one of the complaints I've gotten is that it was really hard to leave a comment.

I fixed that problem!

You can now easily leave me comments. I'd love to see who reads my blog... so leave me a comment if you'd like!

Just thought I'd let you all know the update! :)

In Honor of my 50th post...

2008-09-26T09:21:00.000-07:00

...here is quite possibly one of the funniest/coolest things EVER!

Wednesday night was AMAZING! But before I can tell you that story... I need to give you some background information (which is a little bit funny too :).

A couple of weeks ago, I was sitting in the Spanish service on Sunday night when my phone rang. It was a blocked number so I excused myself and answered it (oftentimes parents will call wondering when things are over, or teens will call wondering about something, so if it's blocked I answer). The following is the conversation that took place:

Diandra: Hello?
Teen on phone: Diandra... is Crystal (one of my teens) with you?
Diandra: Yes
Teen: Can you drop her off at Ralph's? (a grocery store down the street)
Diandra: Right now?
Teen: Yeah
Diandra: (knowing full well I was not going to drop her off at Ralph's in the middle of a service but now very curious why they wanted her there) Why?
Teen: Because we're going to go evangelize and we need a singer...

As I continued talking to him, I realized that he and another boy had been going to the grocery store and standing outside with a guitar singing and handing out my business cards and inviting people to church. There was a little part of me that really thought this was a hilarious picture. See... these are the two boys that started the whole "your face" movement (see previous post). I pictured their evangelism going something like this:

Teen 1: Hey God loves you!
Teen 2: Your face is God

Teen 1: You should accept Jesus...
Teen 2: Your face should accept Jesus

and so on...

But there was another, bigger part of me that was incredibly proud of them, and thankful for these two boys that have come such a long way from where they were the first time they came. They saw a need for reaching out and they decided to do something about it!

So last Wednesday (still not the main point of this post), a boy came to our youth group. He'd never been there before, and he kind of stood out. But our kids included him right away... in fact I wasn't even sure who he'd originally come with because he was with several different people. He sat near the back and when we started worship and some of the kids stood up... he stood up too.

I watched from the back and started to get kind of excited thinking "hey, maybe he's getting it!"
Just then, something changed my thought.

He pulled out a lighter.

And then he started waving it back and forth in the air like they do at concerts.

There is rarely a time when I have no IDEA what to do... but this was one of those times. I was so caught off guard. I didn't know if I should laugh, or yell, or tackle him and hope the church didn't catch on fire.

So I just stood there and watched.

A couple minutes later, he put it away and the service carried on as usual.

This leads me to this last Wednesday night.

He came back! We had a smaller group than usual, but we had several new teens that I hadn't seen before. I looked around the gym a few minutes before we were going to start the service and realized we were missing quite a few teens... and our intern. So I wandered into the teen room and found them all in there... including this teen that had come the week before. Our intern, Sarah, was sitting with them and talking to them about God. Answering their questions and talking them through things. Javier and I decided that rather than stop what was happening, we'd allow this teen and one other one that is still fairly new, to stay in the teen room and talk with Sarah. In the mean time, we started the service.

I spoke about John 4:1-26... the story of the Samaritan woman. At the end of the lesson, I started talking to the kids about the importance of making a choice, and the fact that not making a choice... IS actually making a choice. Then I said, "the fact is, if you haven't accepted Jesus, you're going to hell. I know that seems harsh, but that's the truth. The good news is, it's not too late." We ended the service with worship and a chance for the kids to go to the alter. Many of the kids did. And two of the kids that came with friends ACCEPTED JESUS!!!

***Side note*** Since Javier joined us... I have learned a lot of things and I have changed the way I do a lot of things. One of the things that has made the biggest difference is simply ASKING if anyone wants to accept Jesus. We have kids saved every month just because we ask if they want to... a lot of teens are just waiting for an invitation.

After the service, the teen that had been invited from Ralph's came out of the youth room... he still has a lot of questions, but things are starting to be more clear to him. I realized he'd been carrying around a plastic grocery bag full of something.

Then he announced that he'd brought 48 lighters to share "for the concert"!!!

But when he realized it was over, he said, "what am I going to do with 48 lighters???"

I found out later, that this kid had gone to Ralph's looking for nutmeg. he'd been told that if you smoke it, you can get high. Just because two of our boys got an idea in their heads to do something... and they DID it... this life is being changed.

I know this post was longer than usual, but there were so many parts of this story that were both funny and touching and simply amazing, that I wanted to make sure to share the whole thing!

We all have good days and bad days. But at the end of the day, God is good, regardless of how our day was. For me, Wednesday was a bad day... but God had other plans :)

Sometimes you just need a hug...

2008-09-19T10:01:00.000-07:00

Right now life is hard.

I am so blessed to be where I am and serving God and working with amazing teens at a wonderful church, but my personal life has really been taking some blows. It's been difficult at times to be normal with the kids (and not be short with them) and to make it through Wednesday night youth group.

So on Wednesday, we were giving the kids a chance to just meet with God. We opened up the cross (our alter) and told them that if they wanted prayer to come to us, that we were not going to go to them that night... we wanted them to have the time they needed with God. The kids responded. We had many at the cross and several that came and asked for prayer.

I had just gotten done praying with one of my teens, and one of my other girls came up, stood next to me and put her arm around me.... and was silent. I asked her if there was something she wanted prayer for and she said, "No, I just wanted to give you a hug and tell you that I love you."

I just about lost it.

Its my job to minister to my teens.... but sometimes, they are really the ones blessing me.

This same girl posted this on her myspace page:
Talk about feeling loved and appreciated. I think its a very rare thing for a youth pastor to feel real appreciation from their teens... often times teenagers take things for granted, but this week, I am blessed to have teens that genuinely love me.

Once in a while...

2008-09-15T11:22:00.000-07:00

... a teen absolutely blows me away...

I have a girl in my youth group that takes 3 buses to get to church because her dad wont bring her.

She is the girl that cries because she sees people hurting and she hurts with them.

She is the girl that will see someone sitting alone and decide to make a new friend because "No one should have to sit alone".

She is the girl that will do EVERYTHING she can think of to get you to laugh, even when she's hurting more than anyone will ever know.

She is the girl that doesn't care what people think of her... so everyone LOVES her.

She is the girl that sits in the front row... or the back... or the middle... or wherever she needs to to make the most of youth group.

She is the girl that thinks through things you say, and comes back later to ask questions.

She is amazing and I am so glad that girls like her still exist.

Your face...

2008-09-15T09:26:00.001-07:00

I live in a land of dead legs, 2 day relationships, hot cheetos, texting the person you're standing next to, 2nd grade humor, and drama drama drama!

That's cuz I work with teenagers :)

My kids are in this thing right now of saying "your face is...." and completing the sentence with whatever the person just said. For example:

Me: Can you move that chair for me?
Teen: Your face is a chair.

Me: Are you going to the overnighter?
Teen: Your face is an overnighter.

And so on...

I have to admit that as lame as it sounds, it sometimes makes me laugh... occasionally it makes sense and sometimes it is completely bizarre, but once in a while I just have to laugh.

If you are new to my blog...

2008-09-10T08:55:00.000-07:00

...I've noticed that I've had some new readers (I really dont always even know how people find my blog... Ive tried googling it and I cant find it... so how do you find me?)...

So I thought I'd link you to my very first post to give you a little bit of background on me... Im still kind of new to the whole blogging thing, so Im not sure how to make that post stay at the top of the blog (if anyone knows, please let me know!). But in the mean time, if you are just reading my blog, start there. There are a lot of funny stories, pictures and videos all over it, but if you dont want to read the whole thing (cuz its kinda long!) here is a good starting place!

I'll leave you with a picture from youth group last Wed. This is me, Katy, and Javi in the background :) Some of my fav pictures are the ones where kids sneak into the background!

God is Awesome!!!

2008-09-09T10:44:00.000-07:00

Sunday morning... after the service was over... you cant tell from the picture, but a few of the kids were actually jumping and dancing... it was pretty cool :)

This is what happens at a multinational church...

2008-09-09T10:42:00.000-07:00

Yep... my kids wrote "wash me" on my car...

In 2 different languages.

Love God, Love Others

2008-09-08T15:12:00.000-07:00

Here is the official camp video from summer camp this year... I know it's a few weeks late, but I wanted to put it up here :)

Mexico!

2008-09-08T14:15:00.000-07:00

So we're gearing up for another Mexico trip. I realized that I never shared pictures from the last trip. So here are some pictures from our last Mexico trip. It was pretty cool to realize that we have actually formed relationships. Like we recognize the people and they know us too... it was fun to just get to hang out with them and share life while sharing Jesus' love. We BBQ'd hot dogs and chicken and ate with them and played with them and just hung out. We also brought some clothes and toys and things as usual.

I'll be sure to post more and maybe even some stories from the next trip :)

This is what happens when you eat licorice without your hands and Javier has the camera...
Me and Ameroni
Two of the kids there
Our team heading into the town square
Me and a cute little kid
A couple of the girls...
Olga and Gabriel
Pastor Gabriel, a couple of kids and the spider (its in the hole)...
Javi and Ameroni
Me and Ameroni
Ameroni trying to figure out what was on Javier's necklace (its Cuba)
Talking to the kids
Me and some of the boys
Javier and Pastor Gabriel with the kids
This kid was so good with that yo-yo thing... It was pretty cool to watch!
My favorite!
Some of the kids with Javier
This kid kind of got attached to me... but I kind of got attached to him too :)
Me trying to BBQ... mostly it was just for the picture because right after this it burned me and I didn't want to do it anymore :)
loved this kid!!!
Pastor Gabriel and me hanging out with some of the kids
Chivas #1!!! (that's a soccer team I'm pretty sure...)
This little boy was so cute...

Countdown...

2008-09-08T14:10:00.000-07:00

In Sunday school right now, we are doing something called church 101. Basically its the basics of what we believe and we ask that people take it before becoming members of the church. So my dad (who is the senior pastor) has been coming in and teaching the teens. It is really kind of funny because sometimes he doesn't know if they're serious or making a joke (sorry dad :)

Sunday was no exception...

We were talking about people waiting for Jesus' return and one of my boys was getting all excited about seeing Jesus and all of God's glory... he was trying to figure out if the people who had already died would know when Jesus was coming back... and he says,

"so is there like a countdown for all the people who already died? Like a clock that counts down so they know when Jesus is coming back?"

and I say, "You mean like New Years?"

To which he replies, "Yeah, you know, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, JESUS!!!!"

So funny :)

But also really cool that he is that excited to see Jesus.

Isn't God great?

2008-09-05T09:54:00.000-07:00

I have been thinking a lot lately about how amazing God is and how cool it is when we sit back and just let him work. I try really hard as a youth pastor not to get caught up in numbers. It's great to have a big youth group and everything, but what matters most is individual teens and their individual lives...

But I was sitting in youth group Wednesday night and realizing how much God has blessed us with numbers too. When I started almost 4 years ago, we had less than 10 teens that came. Now we're close to 100 active teens.

I got our picture back from summer camp this summer... the one of just our teens. And I couldn't help but think back to the first year I took teens to camp. I think we had 5 that went. We had few enough that they fit in 2 cars (with all of their luggage). This year, we had to rent a school bus. We had almost 40 teens that went.

In addition to the great growth in numbers, God has done some amazing things in the lives of our individual teens. We've had many teens accept Jesus for the first time (about 10 in the last month or so), and we've had many that have re-dedicated their lives, been called to ministry, started leadership roles, encouraged others students (and their youth pastors), taken a stand for their faith with family and friends, gone to Bible clubs at school, invited their friends to church, fought HUGE spiritual battles, and made a difference for Christ in the world.

Wow, God is amazing.

I'll leave you with this picture of our teens at camp.

For the youth pastors...

2008-09-03T11:28:00.001-07:00

I'm not really sure who reads my blog.

Occasionally someone will comment to me about something I've written in it... or mention that they read it, but I really don't have a clue who actually reads it (or if anyone does...). I know my mom does :)

But I've had a couple of my other youth pastor friends mention that they've read it, so today I'm hoping they are cuz this is for YOU!

This is a video from the skit guys. They're AMAZING and hilarious! I saw this today on another blog that I occasionally read for ideas... and I was cracking up. I think I literally can name a kid from my youth group that is like each of these characters! If you're a youth pastor, you probably can too :) Even if you arent a youth pastor, this is pretty funny... its kind of long, but stick it out.

***And if you read my blog... I'd really like to know. I know its hard to leave comments, but shoot me an email or something... I'd be interested to know who actually checks it out :)

Youth Band

2008-09-03T11:13:00.000-07:00

We recently started a youth worship band.

We are sooo blessed to have wonderful volunteers because neither me or Javier is musical. So every Tuesday night our volunteers run our youth band practice.

We walked into the gym the other night and watched for a few minutes as the kids practiced. I realized that there were like 10 teens hanging out on a Tuesday night doing band practice. It hit me that when I started as the youth pastor here, I didn't even have that many on a Wednesday night... and now here on a Tuesday are these kids practicing for the youth band!!! It absolutely blew me away and I was once again reminded of how INCREDIBLY blessed I am!

Here is what we saw:

Here is part of the band playing on Wednesday night (we were missing our drummer):

Left over pop

2008-09-03T10:50:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what happens to all of the snacks and drinks that are left over from overnighters?

Some of our boys found some 2-liters of sodas that were left in a cooler from an overnighter a couple months ago.

This is what they did:
(by the way, one of my teens grabbed my phone and taped it... its not me you hear egging them on... at least not this time :)

Summer Camp 2008

2008-08-19T09:06:00.000-07:00

We just returned from district summer camp a couple of weeks ago... But this is the first chance I've gotten to write about it. The week was incredible and God really did some amazing things. We took up about 40 teens and every single one came back different. A couple of weeks later, we are still seeing those changes. This was not a "camp high" experience, but rather real change that has real impact back here at home...

I am not going to share a whole lot about all the little things that happened because I just don't have time right now, but I will leave you with some pictures.... and hopefully in the following weeks I'll get some stories up.

Those are our kids right in the front row... worshiping their hearts out :)
Isaac... one of our teens that is on our worship band back at home.
The camp speaker hugging one of our kids (George) after a service.
Javier and Kyle... I have no idea who is giving them bunny ears...
Some of our boys... they think they're tough... but they are such nice guys :)
Sam, me and Javier in the Rhino on security duty...
Our boys playing soccer... they won the whole tournament and then even beat the staff!
The giant slip n slide that me and Nathan were in charge of.
Our kids worshiping God.
Me, Javi, Sam and more of our teens...
Javier and Sam in the boys cabin.
Me and Crystal.
Some of the girls...
Joe in the background, Isaac, Javier sneaking into the picture, and me.
Javier, Sam and me coming back from paintballing... yes, the convinced me to play paintball.
Chrisha, me and Raquel.
Our camp picture... "Love God, Love Others" ADNYI summer camp 2008.

Sunday School funnies... again :)

2008-07-22T15:46:00.000-07:00

It seems that some of the funniest moments in my youth ministry are during Sunday School. I dont know exactly why that is... maybe its the early mornings where the teens arent quite filtering their thoughts... maybe its just the nature of Sunday School (usually we spend the time discussing and talking with the kids).

Last Sunday, Javier was talking about John 10:10. It talks about how the devil comes to Steal, Kill and Destroy. He was asking the kids what the devil steals. They were saying things like: love, peace, joy, happiness...

Then one of them says to Javier, "...Your hair...."

(Remember, Javier is bald.. see attached photo)

To which Javier calmly replies, "The devil did not STEAL my hair..."

Never a dull moment in youth group :)

Expecting the Unexpected... an old story :)

2008-07-15T11:51:00.000-07:00

I often write on this blog the funny things that my teens do and say. Like I've said before, I know other people read this, but I write it primarily for myself... for those days when I'm discouraged... and for the future when I look back on my time as a youth pastor and want to remember all of these wonderful memories...

And even though usually this is about the teens, it is also occasionally about me. I was reminded recently of something funny that happened in February when we were taking our teens to winter camp. Dan, a youth pastor from another church, came to pick up our kids with their bus. I rode with them in the bus while Javier drove Dan's truck behind us. It was SUPER foggy on the way up the mountain and the kids were freaking out because they couldn't see anything. Dan was driving and decided it would be funny to play a little trick on the kids.

Dan: "Diandra, Im gonna slam on the brakes in a minute and we're gonna scream and scare the kids."

Diandra: "Really? You're really going to do that?"

Dan: "Yes, really. So get ready. I'm gonna slam on the brakes."

Diandra: "I dont believe you... you're not going to do that... are you really gonna do that?"

Dan: "Yes Diandra, here we go, I'm gonna slam on the brakes right now."

He then slammed on the brakes.

I screamed. Very loudly.

And not because he told me to but because I was really scared.

Dan started laughing.

The kids just looked around like, "What the heck is she yelling for?"

And the joke was on me in the end.

:)

Aliens???

2008-07-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Our Sundays are very unique.

It starts with Sunday School at 9am. During this time, there are other English Sunday School classes meeting. Then we have a service that we call TNT (The Next Thing) that starts at 10:15 that is also in English and happens at the same time as our main service. From there we have Sunday School again at 12:30 at the same time that the Spanish is having Sunday School. Then we all meet back together in Spanish. Then at 7pm there is another Spanish service.

Our teens have the option of what they want to go to, Javier and I are at all of these services. But during the Sunday School classes, we only have teens. So one day in Sunday School, one of the teens was sitting quietly and suddenly burst out with this:

"What would you do if I unzipped myself and I was an alien? Would you freak out? Cuz I would freak out! Seriously, what would you do?"

As I'm sitting there trying to figure out if this conversation was ACTUALLY happening, and how on earth to respond to that, Javier jumped in quickly and said,

"I would send you back to the Sanctuary because you're not a teen."

What a perfect response :)

If you could ask God one question...

2008-07-15T11:42:00.000-07:00

In Sunday school a couple of weeks ago we were just chatting with the kids. Javier asked them, "If you could ask God one question, what would it be?"

Most of the kids responded with things like, "When will I die" or "How will I die"... one of the girls looked deep in thought, so he asked her what she would ask. She promptly responded with, "I would ask God, 'What's your favorite color?'"

:)

At the time, it was hilarious. But as I told my mom the story later, she commented on the fact that most of the kids were asking questions about themselves... this girl wanted to know something about God. What a good perspective!

Happy Birthday to me!!

2008-06-19T02:10:00.001-07:00

Okay... so let me just start this out by saying that birthdays are a very big deal to me. I love my birthday so much that I usually have a whole birthday month... and then a birthday week (which is a bigger deal than the birthday month of course). Well this year I had to share my birthday month because Javier is on staff now and his birthday is June 6, so we had to make a big deal about that with the teens and the staff... so I am learning to share. But now it's my birthday week (actually right now its my actual birthday!!!) and it is time to CELEBRATE!!! So I've done some kind of fun little things this week here and there, but then I went to youth group tonight. I was feeling kind of down for some reason, and we started youth group... Then Javier got up to speak (and I was getting some chairs for teens) and Shannon interrupts him (which they had planned) and calls me up on the stage. They had flowers and a present for me!!!
And the kids all sang happy birthday to me (some of them even danced!!!) with Kyle leading on the mic. It was a really special suprise that they pulled off! The kids spent the rest of the night telling me happy birthday. Then I took Javi Jr. and Crystal (his cousin who is visiting from Texas for the summer) back to their house. We stopped and got some Jack in the box and took it back and ate it while laughing and watching silly youtube videos until a little after midnight. Javi even played me a birthday song on his guitar...

It was so simple but it really meant a lot to me to spend that time with teens that I adore. I love my kids and I am so fortunate that they love me too :) It turned out to be a really special night. So thanks to my amazing youth group for making my birthday WONDERFUL! I love you guys so much and you mean the WORLD to me!

And on my birthday night, we took a group of kids to go see The Hulk. Afterwards we were at starbucks, and Isaac sang me this little song:

Lessons from James

2008-06-16T09:29:00.000-07:00

Youth group on Wednesday night was sure interesting.

We've been teaching from James, and last week we were in chapter 2, talking about faith without deeds being dead. I was trying to give the teens a picture in their heads...

So I used the example of a Moose. When you see a moose out in the wild, it's moving. Its running, eating, walking, standing, whatever... but there is movement. But then, when a moose is hunted and killed and it's head is hung on the wall... no matter how alive it looks, it isn't going to move. You can sit there and watch it for 5 hours, but it still won't move.

To this, one of my teens says, "What if it falls off the wall?"

:)

Javier went up and began teaching after me and was talking about the different people in the chapter and how they had acted out their faith. He says to the kids, "Do you know what Rahab the prostitute did?" The kids thought for a minute and one said, "Well, she was a prostitute."

Then it continued...

He went on to talk about how faith without deeds is dead, and how like a dead body is useless, our faith is useless... and another girl raises her hand and says (in response to a dead body being useless) "Well if you're really poor you could eat it!"

Our teens are hilarious. And the funniest thing is that they are sooo serious!

Mexico

2008-05-29T23:40:00.001-07:00

Saturday we went to Mexico.

Man does God work in mysterious ways... it's amazing to me how He blesses us in the most unexpected ways. I have been going through a really difficult time in my personal life. I've had a lot of high highs and a lot of low lows these last couple of weeks, and Saturday I woke up really struggling. But I was committed to going to Mexico and I knew they needed my car. So I dragged myself out of bed and headed to the church as the sun was coming up (well not really, but it sure seemed early!) and tried to plaster a smile on my face.

Here's the thing... God has this way of bringing joy when you ask for it. That has been my prayer for so long... for joy even through the trials and hurts... and on Saturday, God brought me incredible joy.

When we got to Mexico, we got out of the cars and started talking to the kids and families that were there. It turns out that this is a place the Spanish ministry has been going for quite some time, and they have known the kids since some of them were tiny! We spent most of the day there with the kids, playing and talking...

Well everyone else was talking... I was trying... and the kids were so good about speaking slowly so I could figure out what they were saying... they were even trying to teach me more Spanish... and some of them wanted to learn some English words too!

We took some of the kids with us to the next place we went and they helped us hand things out to other families. It was so cool to see people we'd helped helping other people! Then we took them to eat tacos! The kids were so much fun!

I want to share some pictures... more than I usually post on a blog entry, but I just think that this is such a cool opportunity. Plus, two of the older girls that went with us are the ones that took most of the pictures. They were so excited to get to play with my camera and I love that the pictures are taken through their eyes!

So here are quite a few pictures from our latest trip to Mexico :)

Carla, Me and Jasmin... these are the two girls that took almost all of the pictures.
Me and some of the girls... and Moses (one of our teens)
Pastor Gabriel and two of the little boys
Me and Javier (for those of you who have asked who he is)
Some of the boys goofing around
Javier playing around with one of the boys (who then tried to do the same thing to Javi...) Dont worry, no one was hurt in the making of this photo :)
Carla and "Mango" with their POP! :)
Praying over the food... yummie tacos!
Me and "Mango"... such a great kid! I wanted to bring him home with us!
Me, Javier and Jasmin... the kids all wanted to take pictures with us
Me and Pastor Gabriel giving out toys
Javier and Pastor Gabriel with some of the kids that they've known since they were tiny!
Me and a couple of the girls who asked to take a picture with me :)
Writing on soccer balls (they all wanted us to write our names)
Me and a guy that spoke a tiny bit of English and wanted me in the picture with him.
Me and a few of the boys... they're so cool!

I don't think I want to go to Heaven....

2008-05-27T12:23:00.000-07:00

...I never thought I'd hear those words from one of my kids...

but before you get too sad... listen to the back story.

In Sunday School on Sunday, we were talking about Jesus coming back. This is how the conversation went:

Javier: "Think about if you're just sitting there with your friend one minute and the next minute your friend is gone and there's just a pile of clothes sitting next to you."

Teen 1: "A pile of clothes? You mean your clothes don't go with you? You go to Heaven naked? I don't want to fly into Heaven naked! I don't think I want to go to Heaven."

Diandra: "Remember that when Adam and Eve were created they were naked, but there was no shame in that until sin entered the world, and there's no sin in Heaven, so it won't be a problem."

Teen 2: "But what about on the way up? Don't you think it will be kind of cold if you have no clothes while you're flying up to Heaven? And what about people still on earth who see you as you float away naked?"

....PAUSE....

Teen 2: "I'm gonna start wearing 5 layers of clothes..."

Probably the most random conversation EVER about Heaven... and who ever thought about going without your clothes??? :)

Jesus Bring the Rain

2008-05-23T12:09:00.000-07:00

I can count a million times
People asking me how I
Can praise You
With all that I've gone through
The question just amazes me
Can circumstances possibly
Change who I forever am in You

Maybe since my life was changed
Long before these rainy days
It's never really ever crossed my mind
To turn my back on you, oh Lord
My only shelter from the storm
But instead
I draw closer through these times

So I pray....

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

I am yours regardless of
The clouds that may loom above
Because you are much greater than my pain
You who made a way for me
Suffering your destiny
So tell me whats a little rain

So I pray....

Bring me joy, bring me peace
Bring the chance to be free
Bring me anything that brings You glory
And I know there'll be days
When this life brings me pain
But if that's what it takes to praise You
Jesus, bring the rain

Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty
I'm forever singing
Holy, holy, holy
Holy, holy, holy
Is the Lord God Almighty
Is the Lord God Almighty

I've got a license, I've got a license, I've got a license HEY HEY HEY HEY!

2008-05-16T14:07:00.000-07:00

I am now officially a district licensed pastor for the Anaheim District Church of the Nazarene!

We had our annual ordination service on Tuesday night and it was so exciting! I was presented with my district license, and Pastor Orlando was ordained in the church of the Nazarene.

In addition to that, we were asked to help speak at District Convention which is a HUGE deal! My dad (who is the senior pastor) did the majority of the hour long talk about multiplying churches, but then he asked Javier and I to speak about what we've done with the youth group. It was exciting and very cool to get to share what has been going on and what God's been doing. We got a lot of positive feedback. The thing that stood out the most was the fact that the GENERAL SUPERINTENDENT (which means nothing to most of you, but there are only 6 of them and they are the top of the WHOLE denomination!!!) took notice. He liked what we had to say, he was excited about what is happening at our church and he even asked both Javier and I to help in the ordination service later that night! It was an incredible blessing and really a great compliment!

Here are a few pictures from the evening:

Before the service... Javier, Pastor Orlando and David (they did NOT want to smile!):
Me and Pastor Orlando (see how I smiled!!!):
Javier and David imitating my picture... David, Me, Pastor Orlando and Javier... see they really do love me :)My dad, Pastor Orlando and David during the Ordination service:
The General Superintendent and me during the service!Javier reading during the service:
Me reading during the service:

How deep IS your heart?

2008-05-16T14:01:00.000-07:00

After a spanish board meeting the other night, one of the mom's came up to me and was telling me in spanish how thankful she was for what we're doing and what is going on. At one point she said something "from the bottom of her heart".

One of my teens was standing next to me and when the mom left, he had a look of deep thought on his face. I asked him what he was thinking about and he said,

"How deep IS your heart? Like what if I'm only kind of thankful... do I say from the TOP of my heart?"

I love my job :)

The Lion, The Witch and the Teen Room?

2008-05-12T14:29:00.000-07:00

The Chronicals of Narnia Part 2 is about to come out in theatres. We've decided to take our teens to see it (anytime a good family movie comes out, I really encourage the teens to check it out... so for a Christian movie we all jump on board!). So to kind of get them excited, we've been watching the first Narnia movie.

We were in the middle of the movie on Friday night and it's the part where Lucy first steps into Narnia from the wardrobe. The teens are all silent in awe, and then a voice from the corner of the room (obviously TRYING to whisper), says, "Man I wish my closet would do that!!!"

And this from one of my "cool" boys.

AND... I think he was serious!

Sometimes it takes all I have not to laugh right out loud at them!

Unity in Purity

2008-05-03T18:31:00.001-07:00

I work with teenagers.

If you havent figured that out yet than you REALLY need to re-read my blogs :)

But the one thing that is most exciting for the teens and most difficult for the adults is when they discover... each other. By that I mean the boys discover the girls... and the girls discover the boys... and they realize that they actually aren't "icky" but rather "cute".

I hate that moment.

It would sure be nice if they all thought they were "icky" until they were 30.

But we've had some issues with teens and dating, so we have really been talking a lot about it.

Last weekend we decided to have an overnighter... well two actually. One for the boys and one for the girls. We split them up and really challenged the teens. We talked about purity and different aspects that apply to the different groups.

Both overnighters were powerful and effective (at least we think so!).

We followed those up on Wednesday night with a Purity ceremony. We bought purity rings for the teens and gave them the choice to participate. We had 31 teens that decided to commit to pure lives. The thing that ended up almost overshadowing that amazing fact was the unity.

See, a little over a year ago we merged with a Spanish speaking church. Then in January we FULLY merged our two youth groups into one. We are not two different churches meeting in one building... we are ONE church. We are still a bit bound by the language barrier among the adults, but we knew we could do one service.... AND IT WAS AMAZING!

We had everyone worshiping together in English and Spanish, and then we had both pastors, as well as Javier and I. We translated everything into both languages and it was spectacular. I think it's something we'll all remember for a long time to come. It's amazing what God can do, despite the barriers Satan tries to use! Its so cool to see such a united church body of believers that is truly diverse and yet able to worship together!

All the girls:
Pastor Orlando, Me, Javier, and Pastor Rollie (my dad)
all the boys:
Praying
Showing off their rings...

Rent-A-Teen

2008-05-03T18:27:00.000-07:00

We are raising money to go to camp. It is a long process because we plan to take 50 or more teens and it costs about $300 a teen! Most of our kids cant afford it so we are doing major fundraising! Well last Sunday we had a big fundraiser spaghetti lunch. While everyone was eating we had our associate pastor, Doug, auction off our teens. It was HILARIOUS! The kids were getting into it... showing off their talents (one of them even did a choreographed dance!!!) and trying to get people to bid for them.

I just want to take this minute to say how AMAZING our congregation is! We had about 25 teens that were auctioned off and EVERY one of them was purchased!!! And none of them went for less than $50. Some went for as much as $175 or $250!!! Between that and donations and the lunch, we raised $3210.00!!!

We're well on our way towards summer camp, but we've still got a lot to raise!

Powder Bomb Ditch 'em

2008-05-03T18:17:00.000-07:00

Just by the name we should have known what we were getting ourselves into with this event :)

Basically we described it as paintball only without the paintballs! We filled baggies with flour and then split the teens into teams. One team guarded buckets while the other two tried to get sticks into their buckets without getting hit.

After quite a bit of playing, the teens decided it was much more fun to rip open the bags and pour the flour on each other... and on me :) I am usually the target.

So I thought I'd share just a couple of pictures from powder bomb ditch 'em:

Here are several of the teens (as well as our intern from Biola on the Right and one of our other leaders in the back)
Javier and I are usually targets... it must be because we're the youth pastors :) But this is us in the middle of the game plotting our revenge... if you can believe it, we were actually more covered than this by the end!Here is most of our group... not all of them. But as many as we could manage to get into one picture... it was a smaller group than most events we do, and several had run away to get more powder bombs by this point :)

Mexico

2008-04-23T12:18:00.000-07:00

Here is another post that I took off of my photography blog. This one was from January.

I have been absolutely blessed to go to Mexico with my church. We went again yesterday and took toys down to the kids. It was an amazing trip! God is so good! We left early in the morning and drove down to Tecate. When we got there, we went to the River Invasion. They had opened up the church for us and were there waiting for us and worshiping God. We went in and joined them, and a few of our people spoke (I'm not sure what they said, because I still can't speak much spanish) and several of the people in the River accepted Jesus. We also got a chance to pray with the people. It was such a neat experience for me, because I don't speak spanish fluently, or even close to it, but I was still able to pray with the people and even though they couldn't understand me, God still touched their hearts... and mine too!

After that, we talked with some of the people and passed out the first batch of toys. The kids were so excited! It's amazing how a simple toy can bring an instant smile to a child's face. It was cloudy, but we were incredibly thankful that there was no rain.... yet :)

Somehow I managed to lock the key to the car inside the car. In Mexico. Where we have no cell phone service. And no spare key. I'm brilliant :) But everyone was very good natured about it and we managed to find someone who was able to break into the car. It took quite a while, which I suppose is a good thing for Pastor Moises who owns the car... not easy to break into :) And then we were on our way again.

Oh and another thing about being in Mexico... we can get cell phone service, but it is roaming and costs about $2 a minute. On that note, Javier (my co-youth pastor) still tried to call Pastor Moises to find the code to unlock his car... unfortunately, Moises didn't know it. Bummer.

I was waiting VERY impatiently...

And she finally this lady got it open! Everyone started clapping :)

Next, we headed to a whole new place. I'm not sure where it was, but it was next to some train tracks. We walked around and talked to the people and gave out more toys. We had more than enough toys (which was a huge blessing, because we were worried we wouldn't have enough).

The trip was incredible. I am continually blessed by these experiences. It reminds me of how much God has given me... how much He continually blesses me. And it absolutely humbles me to see these people where they're at. I serve an AWESOME God! :) Here are some pictures I took of the kids getting their toys and some other neat things. Enjoy!

Side Note... many of the above pictures were taken by one of my teens (who also happens to be one of my favorite people ever), Javvy. He is an aspiring photographer and had my camera for most of the trip (which is why I'm actually IN some of the pictures for a change)... and he did a great job taking pictures. Thanks Javvy! :)

This picture was actually taken by Javvy but I just thought it was hilarious... so I wanted to throw it in here:

I'll leave you with one of my favorites that Javvy took of me that day (I might have to start taking him on my shoots with me to help!):

A blast from the past... Winter Camp :)

2008-04-23T12:08:00.000-07:00

So I have another blog that I have been writing a little longer than this one for my photography. But I used to also add an occasional story of the teens on there. Well I decided that I would take the posts I'd had on there from the teens and put them here... so here is one I wrote about winter camp (even though it's from back in February):

We headed up to winter camp on Friday afternoon and hit some major fog on the way up. Friday night we had a nice big snow storm and with that a very large snow fight... complete with snowball throwing and tackling... and even a few snow angels. It was so much fun to see the teens really experience snow (some for the first time ever!). We got into FULL ON snowball fights... although there weren't a whole lot of snowballs involved... mostly it was just shoving each other down in the snow and throwing handfulls of it into each other's faces... we love each other so much :) Really!

Saturday was a beautiful day and we spent the day playing in the snow again. You'll see the pictures of the kids tackling me and trying to take me out... this is a continual problem I face with being smaller than almost all of my teens. They like to throw me around a lot!

In the afternoon we had some free time, so we decided to go and explore with several of the girls. We found an old abandoned cabin. After we'd had enough of it, we decided to move on. We were walking around the side of it and Javier was leading the way. I was following right behind him. There was a tree branch in the path, so he held it out of the way so it wouldnt come back and smack me in the face. In the mean time, he lost his balance and grabbed a board on the side of the cabin deck to stable himself, but instead the 2x4 came off and hit me in the head. It knocked me down and made me quite dizzy. I had a bump for several days and it was pretty sore. When we got back from exploring I was sitting outside with the girls, and we were talking about what if I died from the bump... we stopped talking when one of the girls started crying at the thought :)

Sunday brought lots of rain and lots of sad teens who didn't want to go home... but we did. We had a wonderful weekend filled with lots of laughs and bonding time!

Here are some of my fav pics from the time... hope y o u enjoy them :)

Sometimes we do stupid things without even knowing it...

2008-04-22T11:31:00.000-07:00

... maybe I should explain.

See, this weekend we had something called NYI (Nazarene Youth International) Convention. Basically this is the business meeting for all of the youth on the Anaheim district. It's where we elect our NYI President and Vice President and council for the next year. The way that our district chose to do it this year is to have it Friday night and Saturday and also do some leadership training. Well Javier and I were both nominated for positions on the ballot. We also had two teens (Chrisha and Patty) who were nominated as well. In order to be on the ballot you had to be present, so we decided to take the two girls. So we got there Friday night and everything was going wonderfully. We got done with our sessions early and decided to take the girls to do something fun. After asking for ideas from the current NYI President, Jason, we decided to head over to the beach. After "exploring" (Javier's word for getting lost) the area, we ended up at the beach around 10:15. We "explored" our way down to the beach from the street and found the beach fairly empty with some fires that were still going. We spent about 30 minutes hanging out and sitting by a burning out fire and decided we'd had enough and we should head out and get something to eat instead. So we headed back for the car.

We realized on our walk back that there was a cop standing in the parking lot by where you exit the sandy part of the beach. We kept walking and when we got to him he announced that the beach had closed at 10pm and that they had cleared it out at that time. I explained that we had just gotten there about 20 minutes ago and he told us that he needed to enforce the rules and asked us to please sit on the curb next to his cop car. At that point, two more police cars pull up and one announces to the people still on the beach "Walk toward my car!" When no one moves, he says "If you do not walk toward my car right now I will come out there and arrest you!"

They ended up with about 25 people sitting on the curb. They took ID's (Javier had his, but mine was in the car, and neither of the girls had them) and began writing tickets! At this point I'm panicking a little bit because of the two girls. I wasn't so worried about me and Javier (although I didnt want a ticket, and I'm sure he didnt either) but I did NOT want them to get them. So the cop gets to us and asks if we have state issued ID's (not with us, just at all). The girls both said no. He asked how old they were and they said 14. Then he looked at us. I quickly explained that we are their youth pastors and we were here from another city for a leadership convention. He wrote down my name and told us he'd be back to take care of us.

In the mean time, Patty asks if we can pray. So we start praying.

The three police officers worked their way through everyone else and then came back to us. The cop that said he'd be back told Javier and I that he was going to let all of us go (and rip up the ticket they'd already written Javi) because they knew we weren't trying to do anything wrong.

So we were able to leave without a ticket while the other 20 or so people were ticketed. It really ended up being pretty cool because the girls got to see an immediate answer to prayer. We explained to them that God didn't have to show us Grace, that He could have let us get a ticket. They were so excited!

One of the funniest things that came out of all of this, was when we were sitting on the curb waiting (we were sitting there for more than an hour). Javier looks at Chrisha and says, "So is this your first curb-sitting experience?" To which Chrisha replies, "No, I sit on the curb at home all the time!" She is so funny!

So I know that this is not the typical funny story I share on here, but I also think that when God does something incredible, that people should hear about it. I had debated posting this because I know it could really come across wrong, but again, God deserves recognition for the great things He does! And I'm sure that this will be an experience those girls NEVER forget :) I'm sure I wont!

Don't Mock Me!!!

2008-04-15T17:03:00.000-07:00

I love my teens.

I love my teens.

I love my teens.

Even when they mock me.

In fact, sometimes I love them more then!

They are really quite funny.

Here is one instance in particular. Javvy (Javier's almost 16 year old son) probably gives me the hardest time of any of my teens. We took a few of the boys rock climbing the other day, and I took my camera.

I always try to get pictures of me with the kids (because I'm usually behind the camera). So Javvy humored me:
Then I looked at the picture and realized my head was up and I was taking a picture of my neck. I explained this to him and asked if we could take another picture. Here is the result:

Need I say more? :) :)

Teens (and youth pastors) say the funniest things...

2008-04-15T16:47:00.000-07:00

So as usual... another funny conversation.

Today I dropped off one of my girls after picking her up from school to hang out. I stopped and talked to her sisters (who are also two of my girls) for a bit. One of them was telling me about a cockroach she saw at school... this is how the conversation went:

Katy: "Today, there was a cockroach at school on the bathroom wall and its little antlers were going like this (motions with hands above head)"

Me: "Katy, cockroaches dont have antlers, they have antennas... only Deer and Meese have antlers."

Katy: "Meese? What is a Meese?"

Me: "You know... like a group of Mooses."

Katy: "They aren't called Meese"

Me: "Then what are they called?"

Katy: "Moose."

Me: "No, that's one. You call a group Meese... ya know, like you call a group of Gooses 'Geese'... a group of Mooses is Meese."

Katy: HAHAHAHAHAHAHA

Me: "You don't say, 'hey look over there, I see some MOOSE'... you say 'I see some MEESE!'"

The conversation went on like this for a few minutes and then we got the other two girls involved and they both agreed that you do not call several Mooses "Meese". I admit that when you say it out loud it does sound quite funny.

But THEN... Katy went and looked it up online... and sure enough, listed as a plural is MEESE!!! Take THAT! :)

This is why I love my job...

2008-04-14T09:15:00.000-07:00

...need I say more?

Teens say the funniest things: Church Edition

2008-04-13T22:36:00.000-07:00

S0 today was just another Sunday...

...another Sunday full of hilarious things said by teens...

We have a game cabinet in the youth room that Javier and I keep locked up so that things dont get misplaced.

Well this morning before Sunday School, the teens were playing ping pong (my mom brought brownies and I blame her for the sugar high!)... well a couple of the kids left the room to go get water from the kitchen... right about that time one of the teens who'd been playing ping pong was going to the game cabinet, and this conversation took place:

Diandra to teen playing ping pong: "Can you lock it?"

Teen sitting on couch to Diandra: "So they wont come back?"

The teen sitting on the couch observing what was happening thought I wanted the other teen to lock the teen room door so that the teens that went to get water wouldnt be able to get back in!

:)

So then in Sunday School we were talking about the spies going into Jericho and the lady named Rahab that they stayed with. Well the teens thought I said "REhab"... so that started some confusing and hilarious conversations as they tried to figure that one out.

:)

Tonight I went to the Spanish service as always. I was sitting talking to one of the boys after it was over, and I was teasing him about a girl he likes. I must have "threatened" to do something or tell someone cuz he said "If you do that I'll kill you..." (NOTE: it was said in a very non-threatening joking tone), and I said, "That's not a very nice thing to say" and he quickly came back at me batted his eyelashes and said "...with my LOVE!"

Funny funny teens!