Our first AMP'd in The Garage was last night. I think it is safe to say that it was a success! This was our first HS only service. We weren't really sure what to expect. We put out 200 chairs (max. capacity is a little over 400) because our normal Wednesday night crowd is about 220 with MS and HS. We had 234...you read that correctly 234 and only 6 or 7 of those were Middle Schoolers. We ran out of chairs and the adults were lining the walls. It was incredible! There were 18 first time guests and many students who had not been with us in a while. Bryan even let the band do a scream-o song to celebrate. I am not a fan, but the kids loved it and this is the only time that he has let them do it. I don't think (at least I hope not) that this will be a regular thing.
We weren't without a little drama, but that is where Officer Justin comes in handy. He cut that off quickly and things went smoothly from that point on. It seems crazy to have an officer at church, but he has helped us out and dissolved many situations quickly. Anytime you put a few hundred teenagers together you can never be too careful. It also takes some pressure off of our volunteers, because they know that he is there as a resource if they ever feel like something is more than they can deal with. The kids like him and he is good with our students. They seem to have a mutual respect for each other.
We do have one problem that keeps coming up over and over again. Maybe someone out there will have some suggestions. Every week we have kids that get dropped off and they have made no plan for how to get home. They seem to expect that one of the volunteers will take them home. One particular girl lives about 20 minutes away and is not close to (or even in the same direction) as any of our volunteers. After the same volunteer has taken her home every week for a month or more, the volunteer declined last night. The girl and her friend made no attempt to find another option. Both of them have cell phones. Justin did not offer them a ride and rightfully so. After they were the only kids left for a good 20 or 30 minutes, they asked Bryan to take them home.
I don't know about your area, but here IF you can find gas, it is not cheap. Again, that is IF you can find a station that actually has gas. On top of that, the church has a strict policy that staff members are not to transport people of the opposite sex without their spouse or another staff member. Since we don't ride together this wouldn't work. I don't know what finally happened, but the other kids had been gone an hour by the time these kids finally got a ride. We don't really know how to handle this, because we want the kids to come, but the church does not pay for gas for transporting kids. The only vehicle the church owns is a school bus. None of our volunteers is licensed to drive this bus and of course, I go back to the gas issue. Any suggestions?
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