Lattes, Cher, and Toilet Paper Elastic Wars

Recently, we started a new program. We seem to be a very music oriented centre these days, and we wanted to feed the creativity of many of our youth. We've also had a number of youth who are becoming more and more leadership oriented at the youth centre, and were looking for something to do. Pairing that with the love that youth have for hanging out at The Door, and soon we had a coffee house brewing (oh, pun fully intended).

Our aim is to have a youth-led program, where we can facilitate and step into the background to help make it happen. In the bitter cold last night we hosted our first one, and with a dozen youth in attendance, we had success. We had three youth interested in leading, so we had them sort out the music, the games, and the overall feel of the centre. We created ambient lighting, had music by Dj Hutch (one of our youth), and even had karaoke, when Aaron coerced a bunch of the guys to join him for The Village People, Celine Dion, and, um, Cher. We served lattes, cake and cookies, had Valentines candy on the tables, and chess boards and card games. The latest trend in our circles is Minute To Win It, and there were ongoing games of ping pong tic tac toe, followed by a race to see who could break a string of toilet paper with an elastic band torpedo (if you think that it is ridiculously easy, I challenge you to go into your bathroom and office supplies, and hang a roll of t.p. off of a broom handle, letting the paper trail to the ground. Shoot away, and let me know your findings). 

Overall, we were happy with the first event, and thrilled that we had a chance to talk to our youth in an environment more calm than drop-in, but cooler than Tim Horton's. Next month, we hope to feature some youth performers, and continue the karaoke trend, which can only get better from here. And, here are some very fuzzy pics from my cell phone, enjoy!

The set-up, with DJ Hutch in the back.

The coffee and hot chocolate bar (I loved playing barista!)

Our drink menu... not bad!

Two Left Feet and Learning to Stop

Or perhaps I should say, two right feet. Our youth have been off school for sometime with exams and the turnaround to the new semester. And with winter, the group of us is starting to get a little stir crazy. Last night we went skating.

It was a great night, not too cold, and having dodged most of the nasty snow that was expected (although it was still a snow day), it was the perfect night to hit the outdoor rink. We had a few kids interested, and after Soul Food, we packed into our car and headed to the rink. I haven't skated in probably 15 years, but I didn't figure it would be too hard to remember. Like riding a bike right?

Maggie (not her real name) also hadn't skated in a while, but figured that she could dig up some skates at home, so when she met us at the rink, we had to share a laugh about the fact that she couldn't find matching skates, so she grabbed two right footed skates. How she got them the same size, I have no idea, but she managed to get them on and not skate around in circles. Craig (also not his real name), our resident tall guy, who has to be near seven feet tall, had many years of hockey under his belt and soon took off, flipping around backwards, and zooming in close to all of us who were far less skilled than he was. 

As Maggie and I slowly made our way around, I finally stopped my feet from wobbling, and was able to crosscut the ends. Stopping however, was a much different story. If I wasn't near a board, I would eventually slow down to a point where I stopped moving. If I was skating along the boards, I'd kind of throw myself into them, and grab on to stop. But if I tried to hockey stop, my newly sharpened blades would skid across the ice, sending me into a panic as I could feel myself tipping back, or turning backwards. It was not good. And Craig was eating it up. As he lapped me again and again, I reminded him that he should relish this moment of me looking like an idiot on blades, until I would get good enough to beat him. 

Aaron was trying to teach me the technique, and refresh my very foggy mind. It's just like skiing, he said, but I'm quite proficient at stopping when I'm flying downhill. While I felt frustrated at my forgetfulness of this once familiar and necessary skill, I didn't feel bad. At one point, Craig joined up with Aaron and I again, and started to show me what I should be doing. I blathered on to him about how easy he made it look as again, I felt Aaron grab the back of my jacket before I fell over again. But when I let him and Aaron come alongside me to teach me how to stop, I found that when I got over my own inability, they were both patiently skating beside me and I was making some lead in this venture. 

Before you think that I became a pro at stopping, I should tell you that I am still far away. But I can can mostly stop, kind of. My goal by the end of the winter is to know how to stop, and to be able to cover Craig in my ice flakes as I do it (I know, bad goal). Lately, I've been focusing a lot of my reading and reflection on our presence with youth. One of the things that strikes me over and over again, is that I have so much to learn from our youth. Some ways, such as learning how to stop, are practical, others, are much more profound as I've learned to be more like Jesus while walking along with our youth. We build memories together, we challenge each other, and we ask each other deep questions - and then we look for the answers together. And through the fun times like last night, and the difficult times when none of us have words to express what is going on, we grow together, learning to skate on our two right feet.