Stuck in the Middle
The adventures in my Youth Group
The Hayride
Stuck In The Middle, my Youth Group, had several special events. The first of which was the hayride. It took place at a farm and we had two tractors pulling two trailers. Now what made this important was that you could switch from tractor to tractor….while they were still running. It was so thrilling to jump off one and run to go and catch the other.My friends and I switched countless times during the trip. A fire pit in the woods was our destination. Cupcakes, soda, hotdogs, smores ingredients and chips were scattered on the picnic table. Darkness had now completely blanketed the skies and the temperature had greatly decreased. A very peaceful feeling filled me. But after everyone had eaten, the leaders decided it would be fun to play tug-of-war. It would be boys vs girls, eighth grade vs seventh grade and so on. Then, it was leaders vs students. The referee yelled to start, the students pulled as hard as they could and….the leaders let go. Everyone rocketed backwards. I’d gotten knocked over by a line of falling students. After a while. we went back, but everyone was to tired to switch tractors like they’d done before. I just talked with my friends. We all got belly aches from laughing so hard on the way back. When I got in the car, I was peacefully sleepy. It had been a thrilling trip. Fun and craziness all rolled into one. But it was just a preview of what was yet to come.
Fire Pit
Fire for roasting marshmallows and hot dogs.
Hayride
Our tractor looked similar to this one, and it was just as dark.
Fall Retreat
The Fall Retreat was Stuck in the Middle’s next event. It takes place at a camp and we got there via riding in the leaders cars. When we got there, I was anxious for things to start happening. I didn't know what I wanted to happen, I just wanted stuff to happen. But unpacking was the first goal. I friend of mine and I shared the smallest room. Afterwards, we listened to the first lesson while taking notes and drinking soda. And oh boy, did my friend drink a lot of soda. Caffeinated soda. When the first lesson concluded, the rest of the night consisted of games, hockey, pizza and more soda. The first game we played took place outside. The coolness wrapped around us comfortably as we snuck around. The goal was not to be caught by the leaders. They had flashlights, and the night was silver. Our goal was to find a yellow pencil box and put toothpicks into it. But the pencil box would move, and if we were caught...the leaders would snap our toothpicks and we had to go back. Teamwork, whisper of mouth and careful planning were necessary to complete the goal. And everyone, everyone took it seriously. It was like it was a life or death situation. After the game was done, we went back inside and people either placed hockey or cards for three hours. I was pretty tired and my friend was hyper. So sleeping wasn’t the easiest thing that night. When I began to wake up, I noticed something wasn’t quite right. Then it hit me. The lights were on. My friend had been up for a while. Apparently, I sleep like a rock, because I had been oblivious to her attempts to waking me up. The remainder of the retreat consisted of playing games and wrapping up our lessons. When supper concluded that evening, we were brought home.
Winter Retreat
Stuck in the Middle’s second, and last, retreat is Winter Retreat. It’s three days and two nights and a boatload of fun Arriving on Friday evening consisted of unpacking and playing outdoor games. Another activity we did was splitting into four teams and starting our lesson. The next day we played a whole lot of games. The night before we had been split into four teams and the goal was to beat the other teams in all the games. There was a scavenger hunt, kickball game, ice hockey game, sled racing and toboggan shoot race. And the winning teams got points towards winning the weekend contest. Other ways to gain points were to memorize Bible verses, which is what I did in my free time. However, one of the leaders decided that free time needed a new activity. He started a game of catch-the-marshmallow-in-your-mouth, which was hit throwing marshmallows at us from an indoor balcony. On the second day, we had to get together with our groups and put on a skit. It could be about anything and our group chose to do a skit about a talk show with some….interesting guests. We ended up winning the contest. Soon, the retreat came to a close. We wrapped up our lesson and started to pack up. But not before some early morning sledding. We had gotten pounded with snow the night before, and we decided to make the most of it by sledding down a hill on the property. We made trains out of sleds, had races and got faces full of snow. One of my friends almost knocked a leader over! A bulk of the time I was sledding, I ended up crashing into a pile of snow. As we left, I was a little sad, but excited for next year. And I bet it will be even crazier.
Watch out for flying Middle Schoolers
Sledding over retreat was fun, but could be dangerous to those watching.
Hockey
The main sport over the course of both retreats.
Catch the Marshmallow
Part of the best game of Winter Retreat