Last week, I brought four eighth graders: Corbin, Amanda, Cutter and Nick - to Lexington, Massachusetts to take part in the ACSI Middle School Leadership Conference.  Kids from Christian schools all over New England converged on Lexington Christian Academy for a day of learning and developing leadership skills.  The four I brought were elected by their classmates as the officers for our class's LOL juggling team this school year, and they are excellent choices.

I have been bringing eighth graders to this or similar conferences on student leadership for about 10 years, and this year's was the best yet.  In fact, it is probably the only one I'd say really met my expectations and the need of our students.  For one thing, there was very little sitting and listening to speakers.  Instead, there were small group discussions.  Best of all, though, there were ministry projects for the kids to get involved in that day.  For example, the group I ended up assisting videoed birthday wishes for senior citizens in a nursing home. The kids sang, extended birthday wishes, threw confetti and made backdrops for their videos.  Another group Skyped with missionaries in Guatemala, and prayed with them face -to - face (sort of). 

The conference ended with the individual schools meeting together to see how they could bring some of what they learned back to their schools.  We decided that, instead of creating one more ministry project for our middle school class- we already go out and juggle every month, are collecting 400 cans of corn for Thanksgiving baskets for an inner city outreach in Portland, and gloves for the homeless in Washington, DC.  Instead, we decided that each officer, along with their student teams that they lead would organize ministry projects for the elementary classes at our school.  Corbin's team will be leading the K through 2nd grades in recording Christmas carols and greetings for the children at Agape House, an orphanage in Uganda.  It will delivered to the Agape House Facebook page.  Nick's team will be leading the 3rd and 4th grades in making Christmas ornaments for the Teen Challenge home in Augusta.  Founded by Dave Wilkerson of Cross and the Switchblade fame, Teen Challenge is now an international faith-based residential rehab program. 

Cutter's team will lead the 5th graders in baking Christmas cookies for the fire and police forces in Windham, the town where our school is located.  Finally, Amanda's team will be leading the 6th grade in making cards and friendship bracelets for the children and teens in St. Mary's Psychiatric Hospital.  Amanda has been in this hospital herself in the past, and she knows what a blessing this will be to young people in the hospital during the holidays.

I'm so impressed with the officers' creativity and desire to work with the younger students in our school.  They'll get started after Thanksgiving break, and I, like the kids, can hardly wait.