Goodbyes are strange...and lame

Today was the last Sunday I would see my youth pastor on a weekly basis. He and his family are moving out of state on Wednesday and I've gotta say, I'm going to miss them all. This guy has been my pastor since my family started going to that church; we actually went to our first service the day he was introduced to everyone as the new youth pastor, so saying goodbye is pretty hard. But, since goodbyes on their own suck, I've decided to make this post light and fun and share my craziest memories of this guy I've been blessed to call my youth pastor.

Note: These are in random order as I remember them, not as they happened.

Run, Scream, and Die
This is one of the best games in the world. My youth group used to do this thing called Wednesday's in the park, we'd go to the park on Wednesdays and hang out during the summer. Well, one day we were all bored and tired of the same old games, but unable to come up with anything else to do. That was the day RUN, SCREAM, and DIE was introduced to us by our youth pastor. (I put in caps because I have yet to hear someone talk about the game without shouting it)
Here's how the game goes --- You take as deep a breath as you can muster and run, screaming at the top of your lungs, across the field. When you run out of breath, you "die" and have to sit on the ground. The person that gets the furthest wins.
When we all played this game, we put our hearts into it and scared all the other parkgoers out of their minds! It was hilarious. Whenever it was time to play, my youth pastor would shout something like "Charge!!!!" or "RUN, SCREAM, and DIIIE!" at the top of his lungs and then run off with all us youth group kids following close behind. It was a pretty funny sight.

"Direct Order"s in Mexico
Okay, let me start off by saying that when this happened, I wasn't the happiest of campers and didn't think it'd be a very good memory. But now, as I look back, I have to laugh and just love my elders all the more.
It was my first mission trip of my high school years and out of the country and on like the last day of work I managed to get heatstroke due to working too hard. But, being my stubborn little self, I refused to take any sort of break or rest, so I started moving furniture. My youth pastor heard about this and was there in a flash, not wanting me to die or anything like that. He looked me square in the eye and said "I know you want to work, but you can't. I'm giving you a direct order to stop and rest. And I know you will, because you won't disobey, that's not your style." Much to my frustration, he was right. Like I said earlier, at the time I was not happy, but now I have to laugh because he knew exactly what to do to make me stop and then wouldn't take it back even when I loudly voiced my complaints.
Talk about being a good shepherd to a stubborn little sheep.

Screaming in the Van
When I was in middle school, we went on a mission trip to a camp here in Colorado and on the way home we got really bored. So, we kids decided that we needed to find out how long our youth pastor could scream on one breath. I have no idea why we decided we needed to know this, but we did and he was good humored about it and screamed for us. Turns out, he can go over 20 seconds (that was the best guess any of us had), but I don't remember exactly how long it was. I do, however, remember that he screamed while driving and we totally got it on cell phone video. My youth pastor just sat there, driving and screaming as loud as he could for over 20 seconds. It was pretty impressive and pretty dang funny. And, of course, after he screamed so long we all wanted to know how long we could scream and started the short lived game of screaming in the van. One of the other adults on the trip made us stop after he got a headache.

9 Cookies, Soda'n'Socks and Other Crazy Games
This memory is the first time my youth pastor and I actually hit it off. Since I was new to the church, I didn't really involve myself in it for a while, but one day my friend Timmy convinced me to come to the games part of youth group and I agreed. The game of the day was a contest on how many cookies you could fit in your mouth at once and I dominated with 9. I didn't want to see another cookie for like a week after that, but I had a blast! After that, I started coming to youth group regularly and my youth pastor would usually have me as a contender for the crazier games because I was one of the only girls that would actually do it. These games included drinking an entire can of soda through a used sock (I won and got a hat), burping contests, slurping baby food out of a jar with a straw, and eating as many red vines as you could in a minute. Those are honestly some of the best memories I have from my early high school years; doing crazy stuff with my friends while our youth pastor cheered us on and sometimes even joined in himself. He was pretty good at getting everyone excited about the crazy things, like drinking soda through socks, and was usually the first to start laughing and cheering.

A Car Ran Over my Toe
This was a cruel prank that Timmy and I pulled. It was a Wednesday in the park day and I'd forgotten to pack my lunch, so I decided I would just walk down to BK and get something there. The leaders weren't comfortable with a girl going on her own and Timmy was hungry par usual, so he joined me and we got burgers for us and his sister. After we'd gotten the food, though, the idea of walking all the way back to the park wasn't a pleasant one and we decided we'd "prank" a ride out of our ever loving youth pastor. Timmy called him.

Timmy: What do you do when someone's been hit by a car?
Youth Pastor: What?
Timmy:When someone's been run over, like their toe was squished under the wheels, what are you supposed to do? How do you stop the bleeding? [K.T.]'d really like to know
Youth Pastor: Are you serious?
Timmy: Yes. Very.
Youth Pastor: Where are you?

After Timmy told him where we were, my youth pastor drove to our rescue only to find us laughing and asking for a ride back to the park, since he was already there and everything. He did not think the prank was nearly as funny as Timmy and I did and made us agree to just ask him for a ride next time...

Hey!
This one is a weird one, but it's probably my favorite. I don't know why this started, but my youth pastor would shout to us whenever he saw us. He didn't say "Hey!" or "Hello" or any other normal greeting, no, he'd shout our first and last names as loud as he could while shoving his fist in the air. We'd do the same back and that's just how we greeted each other.


So there you have it, some of my favorite wacky memories of my youth pastor. I'll be honest, it's really hard to say goodbye and the thought that I won't see him or his family around the church anymore is kind of more than I can get my head around, but I'm also really excited. This guy did so much for me and the other youth group kids while he was our youth pastor -- pouring God's love into us at every opportunity, teaching us how to serve like Christ did, teaching us to break out of our comfort zones, and always being there to pray, laugh, play, and not take life too seriously. Now, he's going to be the head of an entire church, imagine the sorts of things God's going to use him for in his new pastorate!
While it's hard to say goodbye, I know he's going to be an awesome pastor and I'm excited for his new flock. They're getting a pretty fun guy. :)