Youth ministers are some of the most entertaining people on planet earth. They design interesting T-shirts. They order mass quantities of pizza and frozen lasagna. They can tune out all the noise on a fifteen passenger bus for hours at a time. If you look up 'multi-task' in the dictionary, there should be a picture of a youth minister. I have the incredible opportunity to spend time with at least one youth pastor each week. And, if nothing else, my sermon illustrations are better for it.
Last October, I was with a group of students from Chattanooga. We were somewhere in the middle of Tennessee. We were doing an event based on 'The Amazing Race' where the students were in cars with adults racing from place to place, trying to find clues so they could move to the next location. One of my youth minister friends (we will call him Joe, because that is his name) had forgotten to place a clue in the woods. This was the area where I was the moderator.
When Joe realized this, he came screaming in his Toyota Corolla to our location. Joe took off sprinting into the woods. He then moved to his next location, because, as most youth ministers, his schedule was a little off kilter.
The hunt was competitive, as most youth scavenger hunts are. The event was more intense because on the line was a free ski trip. This intensity culminated before my very eyes as every group showed up within seconds of one another (except for my buddy Mike's group, which was lost.) I quickly gave them their clue. All four groups, within seconds of one another, took off sprinting into the woods. Moments later, all of the groups were sprinting back. This made no sense, because they could only read the clue one team at a time. Then I noticed there was a cloud above their heads. A flying, buzzing cloud. Due to his frantic hurry, Joe had not realized he had placed the clue below a hornets' nest. Due to me not wanting to walk into the woods, I did not notice either.
One boy had his shirt off, swinging it above his head like a helicopter. Another boy was yelling, in a voice many would consider too deep for his size, "We have to go back in there! My brother did not come out!" I reassured him that it was a trip into the woods, not World War II, and that Hitler and the Axis Powers were not going to hold his brother hostage. I also comforted him by reminding him that his brother wouldn't even be stung that much, because he had on a long-sleeved paint ball shirt with a spider on it. I reminded him that hornets were afraid of spiders, especially spiders that play paintball, and he calmed down a lot.
The retreat was a lot of fun. There were a few stings, but nothing that some Benadryl could not handle. And some kids did get to go to Colorado for free. However, they hid some clues by some grizzly bear/polar bear hybrids. And Bears are not afraid of spiders. Or paint balls.
