High School ministry

Last Sunday night we had the high schoolers over to our house for an evening of hot dogs and play. It was a great time, punctuated by a water fight started by my #3 son. He came into the living room and started shooting me with a little water gun while I was doing something unimportant. So, I, being the nice, loving dad that I am, swiped the gun from the little guy and started shooting him with it (that'll teach him). He went and got his big brother's gun and came back at me while I was refilling. I chased him outside (probably much to his mother's approval). By now the students had figured out what was going on, and scattered to different parts of the house (with my wife's approval and help) to get buckets and hoses. The end result was an all-out, unplanned water fight with a majority of them. Your's truly got completely soaked (as did #3 son), but gave as well as I got. It was a blast. After drying off, we played "Four Men on the Couch." If you aren't familiar with the game, I don't have time to describe it here, but, yes, it's as sexist (in a fun way) as it sounds. The men won twice, and, after each time, we men who were on the couch got piled on by the girls. Neither my back, nor the couch's back, will ever be the same, I have a feeling, but it was a truly fantastic evening of bonding and sharing a fun experience that definitely strengthened our relationships for the future. I praise God that, slowly but surely, these relationships are starting to solidify. I told Shari afterwards that this is more what I pictured the relationships being like last fall when we started, which, in retrospect, may have been unreasonable, but was my vision. I was just a little premature in timing. I'm looking forward to what God's going to do this fall.