Wow. I had such a great time at the reunion of youth group kids from the 80’s and 90’s at my old church, San Diego First Assembly of God. I’d guess over 100 people were there (if you count the little kids- and boy, there were a lot of little kids) and probably 50-60 of them were actual youth group members from “back in the day”. A few highlights, in no particular order:

-It felt strange to drive up to the building of the youth center. It was my second home for years and I hadn’t been there in ten years.

-From the slide show, I gathered that I wore a lot of teal and hot pink in the 80s and early 90s. I wasn’t alone in that, but I was one of the leading teal-wearers.

-We females had big hair.

-Kids’ personalities, now that they are adults, by and large have stayed the same.

-Kids remember the conversations we have with them. Time after time, someone came up to me and recounted a conversation I had had with them that was meaningful. Sometimes I didn’t remember the conversation at first, but clearly the youth group kid did.

-Kids need a safe “space”. While we all agreed that the youth group was the people, not the building, several youth group kids still said that they loved having a safe “place” to come to. People are at the heart of that place, but physical location matters also.

-Deep relationships make community unbreakable. By the end of our 3 hours together, I literally felt like I was going to see these people at youth group on Wednesday night. We haven’t seen each other for 15 years (in some cases) but we easily re-connected.

-I am so proud of these former youth group kids. More on that tomorrow…