Before the lesson started, I served donuts and water to the class and let them tell me about their weekend experiences.  They had gotten back that morning from the Spring Youth Retreat and they were all excited.  They were also all tired.  This is where I learned my first lesson of the day; the donuts were not fresh.  In fact, they were one day old because I had gotten the morning before.  I had eaten one myself that morning, but it turns out that some were a bit too hard for the youth’s liking.  Next time, fresh donuts for all!

The lesson was on Joseph, and it went fairly well but for one exception.  The class was unusually rowdy.  I chalk this up to three reason.  1) They had been up all weekend.  2) We had 9 people, which is more than we typically have in our small Sunday School room.  3) I was incorporating Bible sword drills into the lesson.

For those who don’t know, a sword drill is where I call a book, chapter, and verse out and they have to find it and be the first to stand and read.

Starting the week after next, we will begin a 6 week competition on sword drills.  Each week they have to bring their own Bible to compete.  If they win that day, they get some candy.  If they are the one that wins overall, I’m going to give that person $25.  The whole reason for the competition is to get them to bring their Bibles.

Well, I spread the sword drills throughout the lesson on Joseph, so every few minutes I would call the reference and the class would go nuts with activity.  The pro was that they were paying attention to me.  The con was calming them down after each time.  It worked well, though, in my opinion.

During the lesson, I learned another lesson myself.  Key needs sleep.  Key is a girl in my class.  Very nice and well-behaved, but very, very hyper when she is sleep deprived.

Overall, the class was good.  I’ll just remember to bring fresh donuts the next time we have them.  Also, other than the sword drills, this lesson lacked interactivity, which I don’t want to do very often.  They respond much better when they are doing more than listening.

Outer Noise - Turning the TV off to represent tuning out distractions during this journey.

God in the Flesh

Mary Anoints Jesus

Judas Agrees to Betray Jesus

The Last Supper

Gethsemane

Jesus’ Arrest

The Crucifixion - Each student wrote a sin down and nailed it to the cross.  I can’t describe how powerful it was to keep hearing this pounding.

 Jesus’ Death - At the end of the devotional, the student would blow a candle out to represent the death of Jesus.

Jesus’ Burial

Jesus’ Resurrection

On a tangent, I can’t for the life of me figure out the logic behind doing this, since I’m sure we aren’t the only group who’s parents often need to have their children home on Thursday.

We went to Tuesday night’s service, but didn’t stay at the hotel that night.  We met on Wednesday morning and went to the service and then checked in at the hotel and stayed the night.

The services were great, and had a much different feel than the last one that I was a part of.  I guess, to me, they had more of a “youth” feel to them rather than a normal church service, which I like.

We had about 10 youth stay with us, with probably 8-10 more that came to the services.  I believe that, overall, it was a very positive experience.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2007/09/30/ap/national/main3312765.shtml