Too many kids too small of a space

The formula for explosive drama is increasing the number of teens while decreasing the overall space. Each week we seem to have a couple of new kids. This is great but that leads to a bit of drama. Of course that isn’t all that bad in itself but tonight it was rainy so everyone got packed inside instead of spreading out. This led to explosive drama. You could chart that into a ramp curve where the more teens and smaller the space results in exponential increase in tension. Yeah lots of fun.

Tonight someone got smacked and did it pretty big. This was followed by some serious shouting down which I waited out. They eventually worked things out without me telling them to calm down and all that. I like to let them work it out if possible so I’m glad they were able to talk things through eventually. Holy freak though it was tense for a while and several more wildfires broke out in the interim. I am very grateful for one of my new leaders that was able to help and that tax season is over which means one of my other leaders is back.

I’m beyond exhausted and honestly feel like quitting and rejoicing all at the same time right now. That may not be unique to ministry but it is a first for me. I’ve been horribly frustrated at times and wanted to quit other jobs but never felt the job redeemed itself in the exact same thing that drove me so crazy.