danny’s space

Yesterday started out okay, but my brain died by midday because my supervisor and I were going through some convoluted vector constructions. Then I ducked into the lab to do a quick bit of work, after which was the honours seminars. Then a bit of pizza (supreme from Dominos isn’t that good, the olives are too squishy) and then home for 180FM (youth group as other churches would call it).

I left uni around 5pm, buses took ages to come as per usual. State buses always seem to arrive in clusters of 3. I don’t know why bus drivers do that, or if it’s the fault of traffic lights. You can stand there for 15 minutes waiting for a bus, and suddenly 3 come. Couldn’t they organise it so that 1 bus comes every 5 minutes?

At least the train ride home was okay. Nice air conditioned Tangara that actually went to Gosford. Luckily I wope up just before the train got to Gordon. Train seats are getting awfully squishy. Maybe that’s a result of my pudginess or maybe the general pudginess of society these days.

Then I get home, and get a letter from USYD saying that my enrolment is incomplete, and that I need to complete some red tape about HECS-HELP. What the heck is this? Why did the government have to change such a simple system pre-2005 to some convoluted maze of paperwork and queues? Couldn’t the uni have sent me this letter earlier? Now I have to stand in queue at the blasted Student Centre which is mostly staffed by slow-moving, apathetic people who obviously want to exact their revenge on the next generation of students in queues after being treated that way themselves. Plus next week is the start of semester, which means the queue will move at 0.5 people/hour. Great.

And then I lose track of the time, end up leaving home late for 180. Couldn’t find stuff at the last minute to bring for the introductory game. Plastic bag holding the drinks broke. Hadn’t eaten dinner because mum didn’t plan on me leaving so early, even though she knew. So I got to 180 in a pretty grumpy mood.

But I must say, the day improved from there, which was unexpected because last week’s study ran atrociously, the kids didn’t pay attention and Alex and I both had headaches by the end of the night. This week was a different story though. Although Kent started kicking and punching me during the first couple of songs, the impromptu skit game ran well and so did the interview. We’re alternating interviewing one leader or one kid a week, and getting the interviewee to play a simple Flash game versus the interviewer. Pacman was on the menu this week. The thought of being able to play a computer game on the projector in front of the whole group got all the boys excited and wanting to be interviewed.

The bible study ran well this week, which was refreshing and really encouraging. There were only 6 guys there this week. The chairs had been stacked and moved around for the skit, and so the boys just sat on the row of stacks chairs next to each other. This apparently works better than in a circle, at least for a small group. They sat in a row facing Alex and I, like a panel. We got through the first 4 questions in something like 10 minutes since they ‘know’ all the answers. So Alex suggested doing one-word-a-person answers and trying to form a sentence like that. That worked pretty well, as did answering questions and reading things in accents. This slowed the study down a bit which was good, and the kids got the big idea at the end of Jesus being the model humble servant who washes us clean.

Unfortunately Ernie had a different experience with his yr7-8 boys group. This week he felt like what Alex and I felt last week after the study. Ernie was sprawled on the ground groaning. It seems that his oxygen deprivation tactics (of doing the study in the little library room at the back of the church with all doors closed) have started failing, even though they worked perfectly the first time he tried. The kids must have evolved.

So there we have it. Youth ministry is full of its ups and downs, and you don’t see the products for 5-10 years, says Jason and Ernie, both much more experienced and mature people. Just gotta hang in there, teach faithfully, and remember to play to an audience of one.