So, I have no idea whether I have mentioned this or not, but I lead a young adult group at church. I have been doing this since The middle of July and have had a great time leading this group. I have been able to find it as a very satisfying thing to lead and have gotten closer with people. I usually lead the group with lessons and am at the head of planning and making sure all the background stuff is completed so that we may proceed to our fun activities.
Each lesson has been fun and I know I have been trying to dive deeper so that I can lead, but it wasn't until today that I personally got really moved.
Today we carved pumpkins. We sat around a table and laughed and had an overall good time. We had Christian templates that we could carve on them and just had a fun time designing and emptying the pumpkins out. It wasn't until one of the girls mentioned she had never carved a pumpkin before is when it hit me.
She is 19yrs old and had missed out on something that I thought was very traditional. She mentioned her family just didn't have the money to purchase a pumpkin and was very excited she got to do this.
As she was saying this, I was just in complete shock. I just never really thought of someone not having enough money to buy a pumpkin to carve, but here she is at this group getting to enjoy her first carved pumpkin.
The true feelings didn't hit me until I was driving home from the church and just thinking a lot about this. Myself and my friend who helps me plan events just chose this cause we thought it would be fun and something traditional that everyone had done in their childhood. We weren't thinking about the idea of someone getting to experience something that they wanted to do when they were little.
It just really made me think that as young adults, we can actually make a difference in each others lives. Just by having events like carving pumpkins and having movie nights or game nights can totally help a person feel accepted and that people actually care about them.
I will be the first to admit that this group is a bit of a random group of people, but the more I have started to lead it, the more I feel like this is the perfect place for me. I honestly have no idea where everyone is on their walk, but I think that me just being there and having this group keep going is going to be the best purpose of all cause it causes the people who didn't necessarily fit into youth group have a group where they are cared about and missed if they don't show up.
So just remember when you are carving your pumpkin this Halloween that there is a child somewhere wishing that they could carve a pumpkin too. This thought may be sad, but just remember that you could maybe give them the chance to carve a pumpkin sometime in their future, cause maybe that's all they really need.
