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."

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".

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?"

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.

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!

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!

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.

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 :)

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 :)

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!

...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??? :)

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!