My
Experience at Summer Nights
I
had fun at my first Jhi Summer Night on the twenty-sixth day of June 2013. Summer Nights is a night-of-worship type festivity held at Perimeter Church on
Wednesday nights in the summer for middle school students. The first part of
the night was spent playing games and worshiping. Then, I went outside and
played a game called Bonkers and ate ice cream.
After that, I played basketball until my mother picked me up. It was
amazing.
When
I arrived at church, I went straight to a worship venue known as The Hanger.
Since I was a new student, I signed in as one, and entered The Hanger. Once
inside, I noticed that the room was half-full of Jhi students and church
employees. On the stage was a large cardboard cutout similar to a release
poster for Despicable Me, matching up
perfectly with the Despicable Me,
Glorious God theme of the night. I searched for boys from my discipleship
group, but there were none, so I sat by myself. Then, a woman stood on the
stage and announced another game (I had arrived some five minutes late). It was
a large-scale rock-paper-scissors match. One would start out as a Cookie Robot,
hoping to move through the ranks of Minion and Daughter until reaching Gru; all
the Grus would compete in rock-paper-scissors until there were only two
finalists; whichever finalist won would win the game. After that, we sang
praises to God in three of my most favorite praise songs. Next, one of the
workers, Aimee Simmons, testified about her faith. She compared Margo, Edith
and Agnes from Despicable Me to
herself as a teenager; both wished for love and approval in the eyes of others.
At the age of twenty, she was attending Georgia Southern University, and was
invited to campus ministry; there, an Evangelist spoke to her about the gospel
in such a way that it came alive like never before in her. She learned about
the object of the night’s theme: that even though we are sinful souls, God is
just and kind, and, most of all, perfect. When the testimony ended we sung
again, and were invited outside for a special game.
The
game we played was called Bonkers! The object of the game was to complete an
obstacle course consisting of cornhole, dizzy bat, hula-hoops, pushups, and
crabwalks. For each challenge one completed, they had the challenge’s number
(1, 2, 3, 4, or 5) written in their wristband. While running from one obstacle
to the next, we had to beware of church workers, who would hit others with
pantyhose full of flour. When someone got hit they had to sit and yell, “Nurse!
nurse!” and another employee would come and assist them. Anyone who made it back to the start/finish
line would get ice cream under $3. I took a light blow toward the beginning,
and a painful one between stations one and two. I failed to have numbers 2-5
written on my wristband, so after I ordered my frozen treat (which happened to
be a Sour Patch Kids Popsicle), I had a triangle divided into triangles to
count for my ice cream plus all the other stations. While I was eating, I had
another worker rub me with his pantyhose while trying to engage in conversation
so as to distract me. Later, I met a woman named Tara, her daughter, her
daughter’s friends, and one of the camp counselors for the day camp that had
just ended for the day before the fun took place. Soon a man said, “Everybody
inside!”, so we all walked inside to have more fun indoors again.
Once
inside, I noticed that there was music upstairs. Tara and I then headed
upstairs to see what was going on. The music was playing loudly over numerous
speakers. I found the upstairs basketball court, which was partially caged in
to prevent balls and players from falling onto the second level of the church
(we were on the third). I attempted to join an ongoing game, but since the
people who were playing didn’t want anyone to join, I decided to wait. In good
time, the game ended, and I entered the court. There, I practiced basketball
skills with a member of the Jhi event staff named Austin and a tall,
African-American eighth-grade boy named Dolu. We learned a great deal of
interesting pointers, such as keeping your elbows by your sides when shooting
and shooting the ball with your fingertips versus your hands. Soon, more people
entered the court, and a game began. Due to the fact that I was wearing Crocs,
I was unable to move fast, but I still did a good job playing. All of a sudden,
a man yelled, “IT’S 9:30! TIME TO GO!” Upon hearing this, we broke up our game
and went outside, where our parents were waiting.
Once
outside, I stood on the curb, waiting for my mother, sister, and my sister’s
friend, Ally Jones, to pick me up. Finally, after five minutes of waiting, my
mother’s car drove up. I climbed in, rode home, and got ready for bed. Overall,
I had fun at Summer Nights, worshiping the Lord, playing games and socializing.
It was an excellent experience, as all church-related excursions are, and I
couldn’t wait to attend again.
