Youth Alpha

It's a long gravel drive, past the rugby pitches to the back of the secondary school, Mount Temple. (Secondary school is essentially 7th -12 grade, schools in Ireland take out the "middle school" part of education). 

It must be lunch break, because there are kids everywhere! My heart's racing as I get closer to the school. I see lots of possible entrances, but I want to go to the office. Thankfully the entrance for the office is well labeled. As I enter and try to squeeze past a group of students just loitering around the door, I have to tell myself to breath. Play cool. Don't shake. Most importantly don't let on that you've never stepped inside a school before! 

I sign my name in the visiter book. I'm early, so I find a seat waiting for Andy to come. 

When Andy gets there, he leads me down the school halls lined with students waiting for the bell to ring, toward the staff room. We walk into a room filled with frenzied teachers trying to enjoy a couple of minutes of adult time, or trying to get papers graded, or working on projects for the next class. Andy finds the teacher he's looking for, introducing her as Ms. Burkes telling her we're there to do the Youth Alpha for her class, during the religious class period. 

Ms. Burkes checks her watch, and quickly finishes her lunch, frenzied now that she's lost track of time. She then takes us back into the halls and into a class room. Shortly after we get there, and Andy starts setting up his computer the students start pilling through the door. Tables are picked up and pushed to the sides and the chairs are assembled into a circle. 

Once the computer is set up adequately Andy gets some volunteers to come to the center for a food eating competition. Supposedly it's been scientifically proven that it's impossible to eat 3 digestive biscuits in 1 minutes. (Digestives are like graham crackers). Naturally the kids are game for proving this theory wrong! The first 3 kids though are unable to. The next 3 however, having watched and learned from the first 3 are able to eat 3 digestives in under a minute. Crumbs everywhere! As Ms. Burkes now has to go look for a hoover (vacuum), and Andy and I get the kids to rearrange themselves into small groups of no more than 5 or 4. Once that's done, Andy starts the Youth Alpha video. 

It starts with 2 Canadians guys sharing about who they are and a little about their faith. Then they ask a question "what would you do if you only have 24 hours left to live?", after randomers on the street are interviewed and answer this question, the question gets posed to the kids watching the video. After the kids talk about what they would do if they only had 24 hours left to live, the video continues this time with the Canadians sharing about what Christianity is, without forcing anyone to agree or change beliefs, just encouraging someone to think about what they do believe and why. After a couple more minutes, another question is asked, this time a little deeper. This pattern continues for the rest of the class period. 

I rotate between the different small groups, facilitating the conversation so everyone gets a chance to answer the question without sharing my opinion (unless specifically asked, which is actually so hard for me not to do!). Just encouraging the kids to think about what they believe. 

As the bell rings telling the students it's time to go to the next class there's a hurried scramble of the tables and chairs being set back up in the room so that it's left how we found it. 

I quickly get myself to the door as the kids are leaving to hand out treats to them. Which, depending on the week is either sweets (candy) or biscuits (cookies). 

Food's an important part of Youth Alpha. If we were doing it in a normal youth group setting, we would be doing a proper meal with them every week. But as this is just a class period, we make due with just having biscuits for them. 

As soon as the last student is gone, Ms. Burke tells us a rushed "good-bye and thanks", she'll see us next week as she hurries to her next class. 

I follow Andy back through the maze of school halls to the office, totally turned around, hoping he doesn't catch on that I have no idea where I'm going. 

Kathy, the receptionist, signs us out and I step back into the outside world, buzzing! As only being with teenagers and getting to talk about Jesus can leave you, thankful that I agreed to do this all over again on Friday.