We started off tonight making birthday cards for Djibril, as his birthday is the beginning of July and it takes a while for mail to get to where he is in Africa. Then we had accountability time.
Then we spoke to the kids about "normal". This year's Acquire the Fire theme was Normal's Not Enough. It's not enough to be normal, fit in, go with the flow. What Jesus did on the cross for us was not normal and we are called to be the same...contranormal. Though a few of the kids did not go to ATF this year, they could certainly understand this as we discussed scenarios they face everyday at school and at home and what would be considered "normal" reactions. The we talked about how we're to respond to those same situations as Christians and contranormal.
At ATF, the final challenge was for kids to name 3 ways they were going to be contranormal for now on. As leaders, we were encouraged to not let the kids forget their commitments to Christ. Statitistics show that, if kids don't make the changes they've committed to make within three to four days after the event, they likely never will. So we asked the kids to confidentially write their three contranormal challenges on slips of paper and fold them and put their names on the outsides. We prayed over our lists then and reminded each of the kids that, though we didn't see each other's lists, God knew what was on each one of them and was expecting them to keep their commitment to Him.
We put the slips of paper in a safe place to be re-visited a few months from now to see how everyone was progressing.
We also challenged the kids to memorize a second Scripture verse for this next month...
Romans 12:2 - Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God's will is - His good, pleasing and perfect will.
