Meta...

That's short for Metamorphosis. Each November, our church youth group holds a weekend "retreat" that is actually in town. The kids gather at the church for large group sessions, complete with some of the rockinest music in the area and some mighty fine teachin' and preachin' geared for teens. But they don't sleep at church. They stay in host homes, divided by grade and gender.

We are a host home. 7th grade boys. All of them. There are actually two groups, one with 7 guys and 2 leaders and the other with 8 guys and 2 leaders. That makes, for those of you who love numbers, 15-7th grade boys and 4 leaders. All for a grand total of 19 people sleeping under our roof, 18 of which do not normally sleep under our roof.

Ah, Meta.

Can I just say this? ... Boys are more active than girls. And they smell bad. God's provision for my survival of this weekend as the lone human female in the house is that Logan is one of the leaders. Logan is a Marine. Thank God. I mean that literally and very, very sincerely!!!

I am not going downstairs where all 19 guys are sleeping because... well... they scare me. But Jimmy tells me that within minutes Logan had the sleeping bags arranged so efficiently that everyone fit downstairs. Then they covered the rules. Then he went over the shower schedule, assigning morning guys and evening guys time slots for getting cleaned up and announcing that no one was going to stink up the place while he was in charge. Logan was Zane's leader at Impact this year. Their cabin was immaculate, so I'm told. Yep... I'm grateful.

The other leaders are great too. Two have asked for coffee in the morning. :-D They have such hearts to see these 12 and 13-year-old boys grow into men of God. That is cool. Totally. As a mom, I am so very thankful for young men who pour into the spiritual growth of my boys and model what it means to love and serve Jesus.

Group A has settled down into their discussion now, although after hearing the racket that came for downstairs earlier, I wasn't certain they'd ever settle down. When they moved from the sleeping quarters downstairs to the living room behind me on the main floor, the discussion leader began with the question, "Have you ever read Lord of the Flies?" Yeah... uh oh! There was talk of a conch. I was sitting here hoping there wasn't a chubby kid with glasses in the group.

But it's all good. This weekend is about the Gospel. The news just doesn't get any better than that!