It's hard to sleep on a cold church floor . . .

I am absolutely exhausted today. The past week has been pretty relaxing for me – three days on the north coast followed by three in Dublin. And then yesterday happened. The youth group at church had a 24-hour fast and lock-in to raise money for an African charity. Abaana, the charity, is based in Bangor (just north of Belfast) and works with street kids in Africa. They came to a youth rally that we were at a couple of months ago, which is how we heard about both their work and the 24-hour fast. I suggested that we do the fast as a group, partially for moral support and partially as an excuse to have a youth group overnighter.

At noon on Friday, we started fasting. For the next 24 hours, we had worship time, made piñatas, played Ultimate Frisbee and an assortment of other games, watched a movie, played card games, slept (a bit), played more Frisbee, had more worship, and played more Frisbee. And then we ate, at noon on Saturday. The only casualty was a whiteboard marker that I accidentally dropped down the radiator while keeping score for a round of charades.

I’m really pleased with how the lock-in went. I led it, with the help of two other young adults. One of them, Hannah, is on the team with me and works on the other side of Belfast. And because she’s amazing, she volunteered to come and help out. The other leader came to Kilmakee with a similar young-adult-volunteer programme a couple of years ago, and now goes to school in Scotland. So she was over visiting, heard about the lock-in, and also volunteered to help. Altogether, I think everyone had fun and we collected £100 for Abaana.

 

Word for the Week: Shattered. Meaning “tired,” it’s roughly the same as “knackered,” only “shattered” sounds tireder. As in, I am shattered and going to bed.