Movie/Game Night Tonight

Woo Hoo!

Things We Haven't Done - things to do before leaving the Bay

Our high school seniors are leaving us soon (sniffle sniffle) and last night we talked about a few things we'd like to do before they go.. Bowling, mini-golfing, field-trip, etc.. and then we talked about individual things each of us hadn't done before. Like, going to Costco, eating at Carl's Jr., eating at In-N-Out, going to Bay to Breakers..
which brings to mind a question that I've had for a while: What sort of things would we put on a "To do/visit list" for people before they leave the Bay Area? Hmmm....

It's getting HOT!

Last week we whipped out the water buckets and almost made ourselves sick with the cold. This week, it's blazing hot. So, we'll be waterballooing for the first hour-- just to make use of all the leftover waterballoons that we didn't break last year.

Lars And The Real Girl- Not in Oakland!

We had a funny moment last week when some of us arrived to Youth Group WAY earlier than usual and began watching, "Lars and the Real Girl." As time past, and more people arrived, we tried to stop the movie a few times, only to be told that we should leave it on. I guess there's something about watching a guy and an entire town interact with a life-sized doll that just captures everyone's attention :) It was a sweet, endearing story, even though it was certainly a bit odd. There were lots of questions and discussion topics afterwards, but perhaps the most poignant moment for me was when someone shouted during the movie, "That would NEVER happen in Oakland!"

The story is fictional, of course, but in this city, our experience is that people would not be so accommodating and accepting of this extreme dilusion. What would it take for this to happen in Oakland? What would it take to have people care about each other this much? Isn't that what our faith is to us?

We, as Christians and as Catholics believe in some pretty amazing things... aren't some of those things seemingly impossible? Like, having an entire community rally around the delusion of one man (Lars), I don't think it's impossible for something this to happen in Oakland. It might be HARD, it might take a while, but I believe that if we rally around each other, loving each other like Jesus loved each of us, we can achieve the impossible.

In case you're curious, here's the movie trailer, which actually does a pretty good job of summarizing the film.