leaders meeting

one of the things i love most about ministry is the great friendships that can be started and developed by sharing life together. we get together with all of our adult leaders every 4-6 weeks, and it's always such a neat experience. we usually have them on a saturday evening in one of the leader's homes (we all take turns hosting the meetings). while they are always different and unique, they usually look something like this:
- arrival & small talk
- dinner
- game
- life updates / God-sightings
- communal prayer
- training & encouragement
- ministry logistics
- communion (every now and then)
- hang out / laugh / tons of socializing

tonight we had everyone over to our house and it was great! here are some of the highlights:
1. shanna made tons of pizza roll, and it was amazing!
2. one of our leaders found 2 snakes outside the house...and proceeded to show us all how to kill it by grabbing it's tail and snapping it's neck. for me, i think i'm gonna stick with the shovel.
3. played a hilarious game of "four on a couch"
4. between thursday nights, small groups, student leadership teams, and some big events, our leaders have been pushing hard lately. it was so great for some of them to hear from the others how God is now using their labor to break through and move the teens.
4. our leaders are amazing brainstormers. tons of great ideas came out tonight and i'm excited to see them implemented in the coming months!
5. announced that we're heading to mozambique with a team of students in 2010 and the energy in the room was loud. we are so excited about the partnership with what God is doing over there and how God is positioning it all. when asked who was interested in going, nearly every hand shot up!

after the meeting we all got in our cars and headed down the road to the new home 2 of the leaders are moving into. they are so excited right now, and it was cool watching everyone else rally around them and rejoice with them.