FC Masquerade Ball

Howdy Partners! Rod is missing Sean's Xbox 360 night tomorrow night because we are taking 7 girls and another mom down to a First Class Masquerade Ball in Vancouver, WA! As you all know, Rod & I loooveee to Ballroom dance. We get dressed up to go dancing when we go... but we've not had the chance to go all dolled up. We go to Portland a couple of times a year, so we are used to the drive... We've been advertising this event through friday school for weeks and last week it all came together. I was going to throw in the towel... and within a week, we went from taking taking no one to all of us riding in a 15 passenger van!

I went to Goodwill bought a dress (which I love) for $10. (My accessories cost more than my dress!) But I went almost all out! Bought some long black gloves, earrings, necklace, bracelet etc. Even bought a black boa. When else would I ever get to wear one??? And yes, I got a mask!

There will be pictures, so i'm sure you'll get to see all of us... The girls are all going to wear gowns etc. One girl is planning on wearing my poofy underskirt from my wedding gown!

We are leaving tomorrow morning, and I'm seriously hoping that we get down to the St. John's house with enough time for us all to get dressed!!

Mostly there is going to be ballroom and wiggle dancing (no slow dancing for the kids!). One of the concerned moms wanted to know what kind of music/dancing would be. All the music has been screened and i'm hoping we get to teach the kids a few ballroom dances.

The neat thing of this alllll... is that parents at our Friday School get the chance to see that other Christian Homeschooling Parents are putting on a ball for their kids, maybe we could do that for ours! At our Friday School there's a lot of boundaries put up by many of the moms over a the years. Through things like this, we are going to be able to break down some of those walls! Yay! And now there's talk that Zindra needs to plan something like this for our group for the parents. Many of them didn't ever get to go to the Prom & they would like to do something more along the lines of a Formal Dance. We'll see where it goes. Another mom has stepped up to help me out on that one!

Lovin' the changes we are seeing in our teen group!!!! Zindra

First Class Teens Update

Woohoo! I'm so excited! Rod and I officially have permission from the Board of First Class Skagit County to work with our teen group! They are ages 12-18. Why am I sooo excited?

We had a Board Meeting tonight where they prayed over us! We feel like we have been "sent out" with the blessing of the board... almost to the point of feeling commissioned!

Most of you know that I was involved with Youth Dynamics as a student, student leader and as a college youth leader. I helped out at His Place with the Jr. High Youth for a couple of years. Those were some of the best memories... I loved most everything about it. It was a huge time of growth in my life. I have always thought that one day, if I ever had the chance, I would give back the way that I was given to.. but I didnt' think that that chance would ever come.

About a year ago, we started talking with the Teens. Rod & I noticed that they are not traditionally schooled kids. They have different issues. Most of them are christian kids that need to grab ahold of the faith they already have. Most of them have parent issues rather than morality or drug issues. Because of all of this, they don't necessarily fit into the traditional youth group mold. We realized this and said some things to a few different people. Told some people that we were interested in helping. Mostly they didn't know our background of youth ministry and we don't have teens. So, at the time they thought that we wouldn't fit.

Not too long ago, it was agreed upon that that the direction of the teen group needed to change. That's when Rod & I began to talk about our experiences and we decided to take seriously having fun with the kids. We took some sledding in December. Took some ice skating in February. The feedback from parents & kids involved has been tremendous. For the first time we've heard the teens say that they do want their own first class teen group, and they are excited about it! Yay!

It looks as if we will be doing one or two fun activities a month (ie: ice skating, skeet shooting) and then one activity night at the church. This of course is open to change. it may need to be adjusted or changed altogether. But we do *have permission* to do all of this. Got a facility use form from EBC today... that's new territory!

What's going to be interesting to see, is that since these kids are homeschooled and most already have a faith in God.. that we should be able to do more with them spiritually than what you would do with most youth groups. I'm interested in seeing where this will take us. I hope that starting something like this in our own co-op will mean that in the future that we will be able to get together and do things with the teens of other first class co-ops. We're also hoping that by the time that Josiah is able to attend (2.5 years) that there will be a foundation laid down for our group!

So pray for us, as we begin this journey. I'm really looking forward to what we have to share with the kids! Zindra