thritysomething.

This past Saturday the youth asked me to speak at  their monthly "girls night".  Despite the fact that my first years here in Ukraine were focused mainly on work with children and youth, I haven't spoken at a youth event in sometime. In the last two year our ministries have switched gears. After all  Andrey and I are now "in our thirties" and we have definately started feeling the gap, between us and the teens in our church, ( maybe I shouldn't say we, no one has had the courage to explain to Andrey that he is 32) But I have certainly felt the gap.

 I don't really "hang out" with the highschool crowd anymore, and I'm afraid of being too boring.  Riding on the bus a few days ago I eavesdropped on a teenage girl's phone converstation. ( I wanted to freshen up on the slang the kiddies are using these days) And I was totally shocked to realize that all the slang I use is terribly outdated, kids don't say "ya v shoke" or "uzhas" anymore, it turns out that now everyone's  saying "ya v panike" and "pechal'"  Plus the topic I was sharing , "why we as Christians should be doing random acts of kindness", could either come off  inspiring or really dull and preachy. So I was more than  a little nervous speaking to the ladies.

26 girls came to the meeting. We meet in a Sunday school classroom and everyone sat Indian style on  the floor. I wore my coolest jeans and tucked them into my boots to make me look even cooler.  Of course I came to gig with my two preschoolers in toe, but I dressed them up in their hippest clothes as well. (Andrey was at soccer playing with guys half his age, and not feeling intimidated.) The Lord has really convicted me lately about the fact that I don't show kindness to people outside my circle of friends and acquantinces. I really wanted to pass on to them, that God calls us to love and states specifically in His word, that if we really know Him, we will activitly love other (show kindness) As a reinforcement for the lesson, I had the girls make acts of kindness books, little miniscrape books with acts of kindness written on every page. And a verse of scripture to support these acts.  Each page also had a tag on it with a Bible verse on it. When they do the act of kindness they give a little tag with a blessing on it to the person they blessed. I hope it will encoraged them to reach out to their community, and to demonstrate the love of God in an active way.

So by now you're wondering how did the evening go. Well I didn't us the new slang ( I thought it might sound to corny coming from my middleaged lips) And in the middle of the presentation, Nastia, my three year old, strectched out on the carpet  in front of me and fell asleep. So I didn't reach the preschool crowd.