The LUMC Youth Ministry Team requests your presence on

  April 27th at 6:30pm 

in the Fellowship Hall. We would like to share some information with you regarding the state of Youth Ministry at LUMC, and hear feedback from you! This is an opportunity for you to voice your joys, your fears, your concerns, and your hopes.

 Please come with your thoughts on:

Beverages and desserts will be provided. 

For more information, please contact: Kevin Dunn, Kathy Lee, or Christa Salmon

Well, I hope to change that, and continue to add things (no matter how random!) more regularly. Keep checking back for event information and devotions & shtuff.

Embarrassing Story #10

Now, this is definitely a funny one.

It happened at about this time of year (right after the Christmas break), when I was in fifth grade. To fully understand the embarrassing part of it, you have to remember what it was like to be in fifth grade and at a relatively new school. I had just moved to Cazenovia that year, and it was still so fresh and new. I didn't know many people, only had two friends, and was still pretty much just "the new kid."

Some of the only delights I could take in my day were when I had finally saved up enough change to buy ice cream at lunch. I always bought lunch at school, which was $.95, so you'd always get $.05 back when you payed with a dollar. I'd save up the change for the week and then splurge and get a fun dessert like an ice cream cone/sandwich. I'd really look forward to that dessert.... mmm.....

Anyway. Sometimes it'd be problematic, though, because lunch was rushed and you might not have a chance to finish all you had to eat. Unfortunately, such was the occasion on this fateful day. It was the day before Christmas break, and I had enough money that day to treat myself to a ice cream sandwich.

So, I finally went up and bought my ice cream, but- oh no! The period was over! Lunch was over! What was I going to do?! Well, I didn't have the time or manners to even wolf the thing down, so I did what anybody else would've done - ...I put it in my locker.

Now, this wouldn't be that bad except for the fact that I, well, left it there throughout Christmas break. There were several factors to me leaving it in my locker, but suffice to say, when I was sitting on my bus as it was pulling out of the school, I remembered my ice cream sandwich and was horrified to think that it was going to stay in my locker for the entire break.

And so, I worried all Christmas vacation. I was too embarrassed and afraid to tell my parents about what I had done, and my mind raced with all that could go wrong - would it melt all over my papers? Would there be dripping ice cream all over my books? Would there be a puddle outside my locker, and would I get in trouble because of it? I worried myself sick. All throughout Christmas break, I worried about what was going to happen and everything. By the last day I was a basket case, and even my parents could tell that something was wrong. But I still didn't tell them what I had done... until that night when I tried to go to sleep.

I had worried myself into a tizzy so much that I couldn't fall asleep. I was so upset that I finally came downstairs, where my parents asked me what was wrong. And I cried. I cried and cried and cried. Like, really sobbed hard. I was so distraught that I was going to come back to my locker and find all its contents dripping with melted ice cream, and I was worried about all the consequences I would face. Once again, I don't know how they contained their laughter, but they did. They got me calmed down enough to get to sleep.

And, it turned out, it wasn't that big of a deal. It seems as though there are so many preservatives and chemicals in that kind of junk that, wouldn't you know it, it didn't melt. Really. It just stayed in its paper wrapping, and when I got to my locker the next morning, I just threw it out. I think I wiped up a little spot on the shelf where it had been, but it wasn't much at all. ::shrug::

All that worrying, for nothing. ::sigh::



Check back next month for another embarrassing story - "Some Other Story Involving Me And An Embarrassing Situation"

Speaking of cancellations, Youth Group will be canceled tonight! When I woke up, it hadn't started snowing. Now, it's snowing quite heavily, and is expected to dump a little over a foot by the time the storm's done. So, stay at home tonight! Don't make your parents drive you to church, because no one will be there (no food will be there, either)!

Embarrassing story #9

It's that time of the month again, isn't it? Time for me to share another embarrassing story about myself?

....well, if I must.

This story is actually one that is often told about me, but which I don't actually remember happening. I was too young to remember it, you see. The earliest memory I have is from when I was a little younger than three, and I think this happened right around that time. (No, it didn't happen just last year or anything. Though, that would make it even funnier.)

So, it was Christmas Eve, and I was at my grandparents house. It was evening-ish, and we had all finished dinner a while ago and were just sitting around the table talking. Well, the adults were talking. I don't know what I was doing (I don't have any recollection of this incident, remember?). Anyway, the conversation turned around to Santa Claus, which caught my attention. I mean, it was Christmas Eve! My cousins and I were always pretty excited around Christmas, looking through the J.C. Penny catalog and marking all the toys we wanted. And, it was evening already! We would go to bed soon and then Santa would come, and before we knew it it would be morning and we'd have presents!

So the conversation came around to Santa Claus and then my grandmother, thinking herself quite funny and clever, sneakily put her hand down underneath the tablecloth and knocked on the underside of the wooden table.

"What's that?!", she asked, "Probably Santa Claus on the roof right now with his reindeer!"

I burst into tears. I just kept crying and crying and crying. Not only was I worried about not being in bed and having him come and not give us presents, but I was pretty scared of Santa himself. For a long time I refused to have my picture taken with Santa. (Can you blame me? Haven't you ever seen that scene in A Christmas Story where he goes to see Santa? He's scary!) And now he was on the roof!

Needless to say, it took a while for me to calm down, and I was wary of my grandmother for a while after that.

Lessons learned: Santa can be scary, don't try and trick kids around Christmastime, and never mess around with rules about receiving presents. If you do, kids will burst into tears.




Check back next month for another embarrassing story - "The Slow Torture Of Ice Cream And Its Melting Point"