You've been Flocked...

"Hey Nanc, when you get up look out in the front yard, somebody put a bunch of flamingos out there... I don't know who did that but um there's a whole lot of them... so don't be to surprised... 'kay so take a look out in the front yard, look out thru the bedroom window if you want ... but it's weird looking... there's a bunch of them. anyway, love you bye."

This is the message that my dad left on the answering machine for my mom sometime around 4:30am.  It appears that today didn't quite start out like a normal day at my parents house.  Sometime the night before somebody flocked their house with flamingos when they weren't looking.  It's not every day you wake up with 23 pink plastic flamingos out on your front yard, especially when they weren't there when you went to bed.

I know who did this and I know why... so here's the scoop on the Flamingo Flocking!

When I was in highschool I took part in Young Life club.  I went to all the meetings, drug my friends to club with me, went to Malibu club for summer camp, learned to snow ski at Whistler during a Young Life ski trip and even went through training to become a student leader my senior year of highschool.  As we all know, when most people go off to college and leave your parents house for the first time not all good intentions continue on.  In the years that followed, I lost track of YoungLife and quit going to church.  While I have always believed in God, one might say I fell off the path of walking with him on a regular basis.  Through the grace of God I have managed to get in touch with a friend from highschool who is now a Young Life leader at Lynnwood Highschool.  Enter said Flamingo Flock.

Every summer a group of high schoolers from Lynnwood and Mountlake Terrace HS (and hundreds of other highschools as well) head out to various Young Life summer camps.  Camp isn't exactly the cheapest thing so most of the kids end up doing fund raisers to earn the funds so they can go.  Back in the day when I was fund raising we volunteered at a firework stand for the 4th of July and we earned quite a bit towards camp that way.  Apparently YoungLife won't allow that as a fund raiser anymore, I think it had to do with legal reasons or something, so they have had to come up with different fund raising ideas.  They have done bowl-a-thons, sold programs at Mariner's games and this year they have started flocking peoples houses at night when they aren't paying attention.  The flocking is a great bonding experience for the kids and leaders not to mention a great fund raiser to get more kids to camp. 

For only $20 you can get the kids to go out and place a flock in someones yard, they then suggest a $25 donation to have the flamingos removed, though they do not require you to pay to remove them (they do need the flamingos again after all).  They also give you the option to pass the flock along to someone elses house for the $20 flocking donation.  How fun is that.  And it's all tax deductable and going towards a good cause.

Apparently I've skipped over the "What exactly is Young Life?" question you might be having right now, so let me do a brief explanation.  YoungLife is a program that gets Christian adults who care enough about high school and junior high students to take time to do things with them, get to know them, give them a safe environment to learn about God's love, and if all goes well it brings the kids to a place where they actually know God's love.

Now for the long version, this is the "What is Young Life?" from their website:

"Young Life doesn't start with a program. It starts with adults who are concerned enough about kids to go to them, on their turf and in their culture, building bridges of authentic friendship. These relationships don't happen overnight — they take time, patience, trust and consistency.

So Young Life leaders log many hours with kids — where they are, as they are. We listen to their stories and learn what's important to them because we genuinely care about their joys, triumphs, heartaches and setbacks.

We believe in the power of presence. Kids' lives are dramatically impacted when caring adults come alongside them, sharing God's love with them. Because their Young Life leader believes in them, they begin to see that their lives have great worth, meaning and purpose.

This is the first step of a lifelong journey; the choices they make today, based upon God's love for them, will impact future decisions … careers chosen, marriages formed and families raised. All ripples from the time when a Young Life leader took time to reach out and enter their world."

In short, I think Young Life is a very good thing, it's a place where kids can grow and learn and hopefully become better people.  It's an accepting place where you can come as your are and hopefully leave knowing God's love.  Even if the kids don't find God's love, at least they will feel like someone cares about them and right now that is very needed in this world.  I know Young Life was a wonderful experience for me, I really do wish I had stuck with it when I went to college.  Though at the same time I'm also happy that I've followed the path that I have, struggles in life really are great learning experiences.  I'm happy with my life right now; I've started going to church again and am really feeling God's presence in my life, I have a wonderful husband, we have a roof over our heads (and so far we have been able to pay the mortgage), and I have even been able to donate money from time to time for the kids who need it.  Someday I wouldn't mind donating more of me and my time to Young Life, but for now I'll just have to stick to flocking peoples houses, donating to bowl-a-thons and supporting Young Life as much as I can.