Leftovers
One of my favorite parts of House of Hope has always been running them out of our homes.
House of Hope is a “come on in!” ministry. It creates comfort and trust and breaks down walls.
Over the years, while doing ministry in my home, there have been all sorts of youth night “leftovers” by the time 8:30pm rolls around. Often times they actually end up lingering throughout the week into the mundane day to day. Proof of life. Proof that something special is happening here.
The thing about leftovers is that you kind of have a love/hate relationship with them.
When you are looking for any excuse to try that new restaurant down the street, your container of leftovers in the fridge might be haunting you. That is sort of how I feel when there is a dusting of confetti on my living room carpet because playing that game sounded like a good idea at the time (honestly, I stand by that choice). Oh, and don’t even get me started on those friendship bracelet beads that seem to find their way into the most ridiculous spaces. The kind of youth night leftovers that take all week to clean up.
But then, when you finally perfect that recipe that you’ve been tweaking, you might find yourself looking forward to those leftovers the next day.
When I reach in the fridge for lunch on Wednesday, I am met with kids drawings and a poster with a list of why the kids choose to come each week. If am sitting on the couch on a Thursday, I am looking at paintings on the wall or the kids “God made me..” affirmations. When I am on my way out the door, I have to walk past a party of little Jesus’s. When I get in my car on a Tuesday morning I just might find a little butterfly clipped to my windshield wiper from the night before.
If I’m being honest, there are days when I feel a little overwhelmed after everyone leaves. Youth nights take a lot out of me, it’s a lot of socialization and chaos control and it can feel like I spend the whole night correcting behaviors. Sometimes the leftovers add to that feeling but sometimes they bring a smile to my face and fill me with gratitude…like what we are doing here matters.
The leftovers are proof that this space is being used for something bigger than me. Bigger than us. Bigger than what happens between 6pm and 8pm on Monday nights. It’s imperfect and messy because real life is imperfect and messy. Ministry is imperfect and messy.
So yeah, the confetti will probably stick around longer than I’d like. The beads will keep showing up in strange places and I will probably always find surprises through out the week, but at the end of the day, the leftovers are telling a story. A story of life, and growth, and a whole lot of love happening within these walls. And I guess those are the kind of leftovers I’m okay with.
-Alyssa