All nighters

Jason posts about having an all nighter with the guys from his youth group. There is something weighty about a group of guys staying up all night to hang, isn't there?
I can remember some pretty significant times being together all night long.
- One time, we had a sleep over at our lead pastors house, since his son was part of our group. I had to leave early and took a student home, while the rest of them left in the church van with my co-leader and went to play Manhunt at a golf course. Later that night, I got a call from MK asking if I had taken JB home. Um, no. So I had to wake up our lead pastor at 3am. Not grand.
- On another occurrence, we spent the night at one of the kids houses who had a lake and a huge field on his property. (His dad is a lawyer...) MK and I made up this really cool game, a lot like Capture the Flag and Manhunt. The coolest part was that when we set up each round, we took his Jeep all over the property.
- When they were seniors, right before graduation, we did a Wild At Heart-esque type of overnight. We camped out with them in MK's friend's orchard, had them do some intense journaling about their future (adventure to live), did a very elaborate (and not so well taken) GPS scavenger hunt (battle to fight), wrote letters to their future wives (beauty to rescue). It was very cool.
- Before we were supposed to come to his house for a sleepover, a kid decided that he was going to get high. We showed up, he was out of it. We asked him about it and he confessed. We talked with him and his mother. He spent the rest of the night in his room, while all his friends had a sleepover at his house. Rather strange.
Like Jason, I can relate to the mix of feelings after one of those nights. You smell like you've wrestled sweaty middle schoolers for 2 hours, your bones creak like you are 67, and your head pounds like you are some kind of addict. On the flip side, you have ventured into a student's world, you made some lifelong memories, and whether you think so or not, you encouraged and challenged someone in their walk with Jesus.