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.

... 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.

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.

...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!

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 :)

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

In 2 different languages.

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 :)

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...

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.

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.

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 :)

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):

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 :)

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.

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 :)

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.

:)

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!

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:

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!