Youth-I-Versity was introduced to our church when the youth minister came aboard. This is the same thing as VBS, but don't tell the teenagers. ;o) Everything is geared for teenagers. We have volunteers come in who take care of snacks and teaching different lessons/classes. Our youth minister gives each class a funky title, so the students have no idea what class they signed up for. Example: The class named, Girls Night Out was about the Proverb 31 Woman. Of course this was a girls only class. Since some teenagers work, this event goes from 7p-10p. Every night they have a lip sync contest. All song lyrics have to be approved. The songs have to be positive or christian songs. He has 6-7 performances a night. He also has "guest" judges (more on this later). There is a 1st, 2nd and 3rd place award. First place is usually a ticket to an event. This year on the last day, all who've attended youth-i-versity every night get to go to an amusement park and pay only 20$ plus their meal. The church will pick up the price for the rest of the admission. Pretty sweet deal! Every night they have some kind of tournament. So far they've had a 2 person team jump rope contest, the lip sync contests, carpet ball contest, hoola hoop contest and a pogo stick contest. On the first night we had over 70 youths! In the past, the first night has the lowest attendance. The big attendance days are Wednesday and Thursday. I can't wait to see what the attendance will be tonight.
Here are some of the pictures...
Our Master of Ceremonies was non other than.... Michael Phelps! (setting the record straight... this is an impersonator.) Needless to say, the crowd went WILD!
One of the guest judges was... that's right... Kung Fu Panda! He even did a little martial arts demonstration. Very much a la Jack Black. LOL!
On the last night... we were floored... when... Batman... dropped by. WOOOOOOO HOOOOOOO!!!!!!!
The Warrior and his best friend... Bro decided, after a prompt for the Fair Maidens, to enter the lip sync contest. Still Waters and Daughter of the King sprayed some highlights on their hair and helped them pick an outfit to wear.
They began to goof around while waiting for their time to preform. Bro is also the youngest of five siblings. Like The Warrior, Bro has an older brother and three older sisters.
The Warrior and Bro have been friends since they were two years old. They are great playmates. At times they don't even talk, they know what each is thinking or what they are about to say. When they are together, you can be sure to hear a lot of laughter.
Not many are know the silly, funny, goofy, quick witted side of The Warrior. In fact, most were shocked that he preformed. The Warrior and Bro were the only up and coming 6th graders to attend Youth-I-Versity.
Jewels "performed" with....
Susie-Homemaker and Mr. Bill. They "sang" a song called, Tennessee Bird Walk. They did a great job. It was toooooo funny. Jewels was awesome with the, chirp, chirp. LOL!
The Warrior and Bro, "performed" a song by Reliant K. This is how it goes... "I.... just... wasted... ten... seconds... of... your... life..." . The song was exactly 10 seconds long. The youth got it, but the older crowd (other parents) didn't get it.
Let me tell you something about my Warrior. He is not one to call attention to himself. He was in a couple of plays when he was younger, but once he was old enough , he quickly realized he didn't "have" to be in choir or in plays. We know that it's not for everyone, so we never forced him. This performance was his decision. He did so good. I'm so very proud of him, for stepping out of his comfort zone. WAY TO GO BABY!!!
Another group "performed", Stomp, by Kirk Franklin. They did a great job. They had the crowd stompin'! The young lady in the front that's wearing a white cap, was AWESOME. She was really gangsta!
G.I. Joe was asked by some friends to perform with them. They sang, Which To Bury, Us Or The Hatchet by Reliant K. I knew my G.I. Joe had it in him, but I had not really seem him perform like this before. He's been in plays and musicals when he was younger. But my Squire has really matured into a fine young man. Be still my heart...
One is only allowed to be in two groups maximum. So needless to say....
G.I. Joe performed with another group of friends. They performed the song, Godspeed by Anberlin. They tied for third place with the Kirk Franklin group. They really did a great job.
This time around he was the "lead singer" or should I say the "lead lip sync-er"? I know I'm his mama, but he looked mighty handsome up there. ;o)
I'm sorry to say, that most of my pictures didn't turn out well. These were the best ones, if you can call them best. :o(
I'm so proud of my Squires. They did an awesome job. They knew all the words to the songs and were great performers. I can't wait to see the mighty way God will use them.
The grand prize for first place lip sync group was an admission ticket to Bush Gardens, for all the performers in the group. The group that won sang a song from Third Day, called I CAN Feel It. I wish I was able to take picture of their performance, but alas, my battery went dead. :o( Also, the pictures probably wouldn't of turned out either. :o(
All the youth at had attended all four day of Youth-I-Versity were able to go to Bush Gardens for $20. They got a group discount which brought it down a bit, but the rest that was owed, the church flipped the bill for it. All those that went to Bush Gardens had a great time. They had two bus loads. One bus, was one of those big ones that has a bathroom. The high schoolers rode on that bus along with some chaperones. The smaller bus (sits about 35) was for the middle schoolers and the rest of the chaperones. They left at 9a and got back around 12:30a. It was a long day, but they had a FANTABULOUS time! Daughter of the King and G.I. Joe went.
The Warrior and I made other plans. The Bush Garden trip would of been too long of a day for us. So instead, we got together with a group of his friends, who tunrs out that have older siblings that went to Bush Gardens. We decided to go to Animal Kingdom. The Warrior's best friend, Bro and his mom went with us. A friend from The Warrior's Sunday School class, Nerf Jr. and his mom went with us too. They also brought along with them a friend from the neighborhood. We rode all the "fun" rides. We had a FANTABULOUS time too.
All in all, the week was a HUGE success! They averaged about 50+ youths every night. The lessons being taught were great. The snacks were DELISH. The volunteers really went all out to make this a special event. People really don't realized all the hard work that goes into putting something like this on. But the rewards are priceless. The youth meet make new friends and grow closer together. The volunteers get to know the youths and they bond. Even newcomers leave having made friends. God is good... ALL the time! \o/
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