
When the words “SCHOOL IS OUT” ring across the United States, kids everywhere begin cheering for joy. There is something about summer when you are in school that feels different. The total freedom to do whatever you want. Thankfully at the Buford church of Christ, many of our kids want to be an active part of the church! Due to this, we fill our BYG summer with opportunities to study, fellowship, serve, and grow!
Our Summer theme this year was “Can’t Help Falling in Love With Jesus Tour.” This summer, our goal was to follow Jesus around to different moments in His life on earth and see how those moments helped us fall in love with Him. Some examples of this are places like Sychar, where Jesus was at a well. He talked to a woman who clearly was significantly below Him in social class and offered her living water. We also followed Him to places like when He cleansed the temple, ate with tax collectors and sinners, healed a woman’s son in Nain, cried with Mary, and reasoned with Martha in Bethany when their brother passed away, Gethsemane, Golgotha, and the final judgment day when He justifies us!
This allowed us to see Jesus for who He was, not an artificial version of Himself. We saw His characteristics; His compassion, hatred for sin, love for the lost, and so much more about Him. Seeing these things allowed us to fall more in love with Him, and we pray that our students leave this summer more excited to live for their savior than before.
In addition to our Wednesday night series, our summer was filled with many different activities. Things that may seem futile were all with intention! While a breakfast club may seem like a bunch of teens getting together for some breakfast, this allowed a gathering of individuals in a very informal way to meet up and enjoy getting to know some people they maybe didn’t know as well. The teen portion of VBS followed the same storyline as the main VBS but emphasized certain things teens needed. The timing of VBS allowed us to get creative with the way we taught, and we could do activities that forced teens to creatively think about scripture.
Things like the Lock-In caused physical exhaustion, but relationships that will stand strong for years to come were developed. Our lock-in this year started with a Braves game and ended at the church building, where we found ourselves watching the movie “Cars” at 4:30 AM (and there may have been a Nerf war mixed in somewhere in there).
Of course, you have the classic youth group trip to Six Flags that we all know and love! It is always neat to watch the groups of people that form on these days because they rarely are cliques but generally are groups that are separated into the “big rides are amazing” and “looking at a roller coaster makes me sick” crew. This means that many students are hanging out with people they would not usually hang out with! If it takes riding roller coasters to let those things happen, then roller coasters it shall be!
Camp is always a fantastic week, and great things happen. Camp was special this year. The camp theme this year was “BeReal,” and we watched many of our students flip the switch to become more real spiritually. This was exciting. The reason you go to camp is to have moments like this. I pray that these moments were not fleeting seconds of emotion but conscious decisions made by our students to change their lives for their Savior.
Soon after, we had our BYG On the Go week! This was a week dedicated to evangelism! We knocked on 1600 doors inviting people to our summer cookout. Reaching souls is why we are alive, and it was amazing to watch the BYG spring into action during this week to reach souls! It was beautiful.
Our summer closed with the traditional End of Summer Retreat. The retreat offered ONE MAJOR CHALLENGE. The tour Jesus was on does not end when He ascends. He challenges all His followers to continue His work in their towns and lives. Our theme was “Tour Extended: Buford.” We had our students design action plans going forward that dream up ways we can continue the tour stops of Jesus even though He has already ascended!
This was an amazing summer. Thank you to the Buford Youth Group, to every adult who was plugged in, to every member of this congregation who supported us, to the two interns (COLTON AND KENZIE WERE AMAZING), and to so many others for letting this summer happen! If the Lord doesn’t come back before next summer, we hope to do it again next year! Let’s keep falling in love with Jesus!