Our family offered to provide the meal for youth group this week. Buck suggested Sloppy Joes, so I pulled out our cookbook and found his favorite version of the recipe. With a little help from our Google lady, "Okay, Google . . . how many cups is 3/4 times 8?" (Yes, I could have done the math, but we might as well use the Google for something she's not "sorry, I can't help with that yet" :) Google proudly announced, "Six cups." I wasn't sure I heard correctly, so I asked again. Google repeated, "Six cups." Whoa. That's a lot of ketchup! Our eight-pounds-of-meat recipe also now called for a full cup of Frank's hot sauce, half a cup of mustard, half a cup of cider vinegar . . . and then there were the onions!
Gabby volunteered to be our chopper. Technically it was supposed to be one whole onion per pound, but we just went with five onions. Halfway through, we were both weeping in the kitchen with all that oniony aroma ;)
I couldn't fit three big frying pans of meat on our stovetop, so we went with two large and one small. Both girls worked on the browning process. Soon it was all simmering in the crockpots--if you include the sauce and onions, pretty close to 10 lbs. of Sloppy Joes!
We've never produced food for an expected crowd of 40 to 50 middle schoolers to teenagers before. Buck and I were a little worried when we saw the teen boys piling three to five sandwiches on their seemingly miniature paper plates. Maybe it was like the loaves and the fishes in the Bible, but all the chips, veggies, fruit (well, maybe not the fruit), cookies, and Sloppy Joes stretched to feed the crowd. We even had about half a pound meat mixture leftover (we'll give the veggies to the birds--I can't do *hand*led food the next day :/)
Among the topics of discussion in small group that evening . . . if you could stay one age forever, which age would you choose? One girl in Gabby's group said, "19--I've never been 19 before, but it sounds like it would be a nice age; you'd be sort of done with school, and you could still be with your family . . ." Another girl says, "28--because you wouldn't have to be with your family, and you could do whatever you want, and you would be still able to play sports." Gabby says, "67--because you'd be retired, and you wouldn't have to work anymore, but they STILL pay you, and you get to travel, like my grandma does . . ." The first girl says, "Oooh! That sounds great; I pick 67, too!"
The conversation swung around to me (the girls were insistent that I get my turn), and I said, "29--because I'd have all my kids, and my husband, but my metabolism would still be intact." :) After the others girls had answered, we moved on to discuss the Bible passage 2 Corinthians 4. Verse 16 stood out: "Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day."
As the girls wrestled with what this means, I said, "It's a miracle passage--even though our bodies are getting older on the outside, our souls are becoming younger and newer as we learn more about God."
The youth pastor's wife added, "Our bodies grow until we're about 25, and then they deteriorate--they start falling apart."
Suddenly the "28 forever" girl popped her hand in the air and said, "I want to change my answer!" It was so funny. She's a fairly quiet kid, so those wheels were turning :)
The youth pastor is presenting some thinky stuff--getting the kids to consider what's more important in your life than God (what stuff do you try to do on your own that [you think] He's not a part of, how do your reading/music/online habits/friendship choices affect your connection to God, are you reflecting Him when you walk out of class, punch a kid you're mad at, disrespect your parents? YP's making the kids squirm, trying build some character there, help them see the kind of people they want to be and how they can start being those people now. It's good stuff! Fueled by Sloppy Joes ;)
2 comments:
I forgot to mention, speaking of age, earlier in the evening, one of the girls in Gabby's group was eating her Sloppy Joe in the youth room, alone. The Toby Mac, Light Shine Bright, song was cranking on the sound system. That is a hard one not to dance to! I told her, "I feel like dancing, but I might be too old to show my moves." She said, "How old are you?" I told her, "I turned forty at the end of last year." Her little jaw dropped (I wasn't sure if this was good or bad). She swallowed her bite of Sloppy Joe and said, "I thought you were in your twenties!!" I said, "You are my favorite student of the night." :)
I love Gab's comment about being 67 and it made me chuckle! It actually is pretty cool for all the reasons she stated!! Your sloppy joe recipe sounds delicious...wow, I've never cooked for that many..yikes!!! Glad it all worked out. Doesn't it feel great when someone tells you they thought you were younger???!!! I had a few favorite students over the years for that very reason!!
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