Hinghamopoly Night

Every once and awhile a]I bite off a tad more then I can chew for a night of youth group, and Hinghamopoly kinda turned out to be that sort of project. We had three giant game boards set-up down stairs, with each place on a monopoly board being replaced with a place in Hingham. I thought it might be a couple of hour project, but when your creating every place on the board, money, hotels, etc. for three giant game boards it turns into a monster project. The students seemed to think it was pretty to cool to own Hingham places, especially the really cool ones like THE Soda Machine, Old Man's House, and The Old Mill. While it was a pain to get everything set-up it's done now, so it will be really easy to play again, and with how much the students loved it we'll certainly drag it bag out. Big thanks to Mary Lynn, Kenzie, and Dani for spending their afternoons helping get everything set-up and making it all look great.

The message for the night was on money and tithing. We dangled $110 in cold hard cash in the students' face, which certainly got them hyped up (some of them a little too much as they chased me all over the building trying to get it later). We then talked about how the world tries to tell us one thing about money (that it makes us powerful, happy, and is all important) while the Bible tells us quite another (that God gives power, we find happiness apart from money, and that the most important thing is God's love). We then talked about giving to God, that we give to God because it is really His money in the first place, and we want it to be used for His purpose. We closed with a story of generous giving that we've seen in our ministry lately. With the downturn in the economy we have a lot of students who cannot afford our winter retreat this year. Therefore we've been praying for some people to come forward and help us out. This past week I've gotten letters from people saying they are so THANKFUL to GIVE US MONEY for this trip. Can you believe that? People not only willingly giving hundreds of dollars, but literally thanking us for taking their money? These are people who have the right view on money and giving. If we've been blessed with money then we should be ready to give it back to God to be used in great ways.