March 23 and 25

This week I did my usual preparations for the program, picking a crowdbreaker and making sure that the message was taken care of.  We started a new series this week called CSI:Skull Hill.  We were going behind the scenes of Jesus' death and resurrection to look at it from a CSI perspective.  Since this was the first week and sort of an introductory week we thought that we would play a condensed version of the "Passion of the Christ".  I had to run over to Blockbuster to get the video to be edited.  I also had to make arrangements with the food provider to make sure that we had the stuff for the "team of the month" party.   Lastly, I wanted to find a quick crowdbreaker that also had to do with March Madness.  On Wednesday we made final preparations for the evening, and I set up for the crowdbreaker.  The program started at 6:00 and then ended promptly at 8:00.

March 30 and April 1

This week we continued the series of CSI:Skull Hill.  On Monday, I was asked for the information on how to perform the "Everything" skit that we had done in previous weeks for an upcoming missions trip to Africa.  I had to spend a lot of time recreating the time line for the song and performance and then write out supply lists and character lists.  I also had to tailor the skit a bit to make it more relatable to African teenagers.  After this, I took time preparing for Wednesday, picking a crowdbreaker and getting things set for the team meeting that was going to take place after the program that Wednesday.  On Wednesday, I had to run to the store to pick up some snacks for the team meeting and also get some supplies for the crowdbreaker.  I also had a meeting with my supervisor to finalize what we would be talking about in the team meeting and how it was going to play out.  The program started at 6:00 with the team meeting following until 9:00.  In the meeting, we split up the leaders into adults and high schoolers.  I spoke to the high schoolers about image and being a role model.  I reminded them of how important it is to be aware of your actions and what you say because the Middle Schoolers are always watching and listening.   

April 6 and 8

This week was the last week of our series for CSI:Skull Hill, and I was giving the message.  On Monday I worked from home, spending hours upon hours putting together the message.  This message was much more difficult than any other message because it dealt with more concrete facts.  I was trying to prove Jesus' resurrection and then talk about what that means to us as Christians.  I had to sort through the research that I had done to focus in on a few ideas that Middle Schoolers could wrap their minds around.  This took a lot of time, patience and prayer.  This was also a big week because we were doing our big event, "Deal or No Deal".  This took a lot of preparation, and a final meeting with my supervisor to finalize the details for the evening.  I also had to spend a lot of time practicing for the message.  Because of the detail involved and the complicated ideas that I was trying to convey, it was crucial for me to practice how I could get across the ideas in the most clear and understandable way. Lastly, I had to come up with "mini crowdbreakers" to be played in between contestants.  I found a few trivia games in storage and used those questions for our games.  The program started at 6:00, I gave the message and we started with "Deal or No Deal".  It was a great night overall and we all enjoyed the event!

April 13 and 15 

This week was really slow.  Since the students had their spring break, we didn't have our weekly programming going on.  I didn't have my internship on Monday, and then I only went in for a few hours on Wednesday.  On Wednesday, I prepared for the next week's programming.  Since we weren't going to have a message for the evening, we wanted to have some sort of organized competition that would promote relationships between leaders and students.  I decided to do a Photo Scavenger Hunt.   With the time that I had, I looked up ideas for the scavenger hunt, prepared a checklist for the teams and printed out the rules for the competition.