Revoloving with My Girls...

So, I spent the better part of my week-end on a bus with a load of teen-aged girls. Back in July I was asked if I could take some of our girls to the Revolve Tour . It is "Women of Faith" for girls 7th - 12th grade. I said yes without even thinking...I had no idea what I was getting myself into. Luckily for me the church hired a youth pastor shortly after I committed and his wife (Nikki) jumped right on board for this trip. The conference was in Columbus (about 2 hours away) and we really didn't know where we would be staying or how we would get there when we first purchased the tickets. It wasn't long after Nikki came along that we decided to include Suzanne as a chaparone. So, three adults 15 girls. We ended up hooking up with another church who had a bus and we all rode down together. We stayed at a church that wasn't too far from Columbus. We all slept (well...we were supposed to sleep) in the youth room. The church is where our youth pastor's father is a pastor. Anyhooo...we had something like 40 teen girls in one room. I have never seen so much pink. Revolve was as awesome as I had expected. The topics were so relevant and they really hit home with some of our teens. Last week we had extra tickets and we weren't even sure who was going and who wasn't going. In the end, I think everyone who was supposed to be there was. I got to take Caitlyn (Melanie's daughter), Brittany (old neighbor), Desarae (Brittany's sister), Hannah (their friend) and Nicole (a respite girl most of you know and love). I think they all had a lot of fun. The only one out of my group who ever goes to church is Nicole so I was slightly concerned the rest of them wouldn't like the whole "God" thing BUT they really liked it. On friday night Natalie Grant was singing. I looked over and they were all clapping and dancing around. I can't tell you how nice it is to see teen girls happy. Our world is so messed up- you don't see happy girls everyday.

Well, I am still tired (I went to bed at 3 AM on friday night) and I want to get going. I will leave you with 10 things I learned this week-end and then some pics.

1. Teens can (and do) make a difference. 3 out of the 5 girls I had in my group sponsored kids for World Vision.
2. The Bible talks about cutting. I can't believe I never knew this. Matthew 5:5
3. Even the skinny teens girls EAT A LOT.
4. Do not mess with Nicole while she is sleeping. (You trifflin' is that how you spell that word?)
5. I can't listen to a girl talk about painful things like suicide, cutting, being used by boys, etc... without crying. I've turned so soft.
6. No matter how many times I hear Tammy Trent's story....I cry and I always will.
7. Hearing the truth about boys from a hot guy makes it so much more believable.
8. It takes a lot longer than 2 hours to get to Columbus with a bus load of girls than it would driving in a car by yourself.
9. Natalie Grant is awesome. I never even paid attention to her until Women of Faith and even then I didn't know how cool. Girls are lucky to have her around. She rocks.
10. Being old isn't so bad after all. I think I still relate.


Poo...the pics aren't working now. I will post them later.