Слава Ісусу Христу! Glory be to Jesus Christ! I tell you, this weekend was definitely a busy one for the youth at St. Nicholas! Not only did we decorate all those cookies on Saturday, but this last Sunday was St. Nicholas' Annual General Meeting. Now perhaps it might seem as if this wouldn't have much to do with the youth but au contraire! Guess who was in charge of making breakfast for the meeting attendees? That's right, the youth!
When I learned that parish council was expecting the youth to prepare breakfast, as they've done in years past, I was a little concerned we wouldn't have enough hands to help out because it was the tail end of Spring Break. What if everyone was still on vacation? I needn't have worried, though, as a bunch of youth turned up to help out (thanks to some of the Babas for bringing their grandchildren!) and we had several parent volunteers available as well.
I actually love working with youth in the kitchen. It's really fun to see them taking care to prepare the food and hear the conversations that arise out of working together with other people their age. They also have the opportunity to learn from older adults who have been preparing breakfasts and lunches in the parish for years (this was also super helpful for me, as it had been a while since I'd worked in our parish kitchen).
Of everything, though, my favourite part was chatting with the youth in those moments of downtime while we waited to serve the food. As I mentioned in my previous post, I'm always so interested to learn about the youth I work with, to hear their stories and figure out who they are as people. Even though it's been a while since I've been a teenager, I can still remember how I just wanted others to listen to what I had to say, especially those older than me. Hopefully I was able to give these youth that satisfaction of having someone just a bit older listen to them and what they had to say.
In the end, the breakfast was a huge success! The food was delicious, the meeting wrapped up in fairly quick order, and the clean up was easy. A great morning, indeed.
Oh, and did I mention we sold all the Easter cookies we decorated the night before?! I couldn't believe it when the girls bounded into the kitchen and announced their success. I don't know that that's happened before. The icing on the cake, for sure!
That's all, folks! Until next time, God bless!
Joyanne :D