Oh What a Night, Late December back in 2007...

Well I am bushed, isn't that the correct word? But it was all worth it. Last night's Rock the Cat Box was more than I hoped it would be. It was such a great way to ring in the New Year! I was surprised at the average age but by the end I was stoked about the group that showed up. It was nice ministering to kids I don't usually get a chance to minister to. I kind of got to know a bunch of kids a little bit better that will be in the youth group for the next several years. The Bands were great, especially Secondhand, I'm partial to them, I've known them since they were knee-high-to-grasshopper (isn't that how you put it out here in these parts). Their dad was my youth pastor and he was the mentor who pushed my heart towards ministry to youth. Not to mention Secondhand just plain ROCKED THE CAT BOX!!!

It was interesting that the energy through out the night got better and better, not worse and worse. You would think that we would have all just died at a certain point but we didn't, everyone kept up. One of my favorite parts was watching my son jump up and down during Secondhand, they were his favorite too, and he doesn't even understand that we are pretty much related. Here is a video:

The list of people to thank is too long but what I will say is that the group of leaders I had were unmatched in their willingness and energy. They were completely awesome. Ryan M. was the man as emcee, Brian Cline made the night what it was with all of the video streams, slides, and anything audio visual, Mr. Brown was there for me all day long, Elizabeth was the coffee machine (even after the fact, she knows what I'm talking about), Derek Chalfant was the man that made me look good in the end (seeing as he tracked down most of the prizes, he promoted, he helped set up, he was just the man altogether), PK was a secruity machine, my wife would constantly say "do you need me to do anything else" (and I always seemed to have more to do), Nathan and Kimberly handled all of the money stuff with the tickets and t-shirts, Tammy was another all purpose player and did a ton, Jennifer sold 28 tickets and brought a whole youth group, Aaron and Melissa thank you for all of the help, and your daughter made it the whole night which I'm sure was not surprising to you but it was to me, Lott's you are awesome and Dwayne thank you for the awesome last minute prize basket YOU ROCK, and really show me some grace here if I didn't mention you but there were so many that I would love to give a hug too. You all are awesome!!!

Plans are already in the works for next year and Rock the Cat Box II. Tonya and I are going to go in together on it and make it an entire family/youth group extravaganza. It should be awesome.

I told some of you that I didn't think I'd enjoy the show until after it was over, but alas, I was wrong, I really started enjoying it about an hour and a half in! That was a pleasant surprise. I think by my counts of the tickets and the amount of people that didn't pay because they were the BIG HELPERS I've counted somewhere around 150 people in the Cat Box last night, that was HUGE! I hope you all had fun, I really did!