Never Turn Out The Lights!

This summer I learned a very valuable lesson in teaching preteens that I would like to pass on. NEVER TURN OUT THE LIGHTS! I know it might sound like a good idea in the planning stage but trust me, it doesn't work during the teaching. Here's what happened:

I was speaking at preteen camp and I was teaching about the importance of being prepared for God to use you. My idea was to tell the parable of the ten virgins (I called them "bridesmaids") and then talk about how scary it would be to not be ready when God opened up an opportunity to use us. To do this I decided to teach the parable of the ten virgins like it was a scary story. I set it up by asking the students if they ever knew that Jesus had told a scary story. Of course they said no and that's when I preceded to share with them the story of the ten virgins. When I was done I asked them if they were scared and (just like I had planned) they told me no because it wasn't a scary story. So I read the story again, only this time I read in a creepy voice over candle light with the sound of a storm playing in the background. My plan was to ask them again if they were scared, and when they still said no I was going to talk about being prepared for God to use us and how scary it would be if we weren't.

I never got that far!

As soon as I lit the candles and turned out the lights the students went crazy! They were screaming, yelling, and some were howling at the moon. After five or six minutes (literally) of trying shush the room, I ended up abandoning the idea and quickly had the lights turned back on. I then tried to make my point, prayed, and walked off the stage in defeat. It was awful. So please let my silly mistake become a lesson to all who are reading this and NEVER TURN OUT THE LIGHTS.

Patrick Snow