oh those crazy junior highers

This morning I had the opportunity to speak at the junior high group at church. The Jr. High Pastor is on vacation so they've had guest speakers the past three weeks. The junior high group is going through Acts and I was going to talk about Acts 9, specifically Saul's conversion on the road to Damascus.

Can I just go ahead and say that junior highers are AWKWARD!?!??! I am so used to college students who can have real conversations at any time. Here's what a typical conversation looked like this morning:

Me: (walking up to a kid, with a big smile on my face) "Hi! How are you?"
Him: (quietly, looking at the ground) "Fine."
Me: "What's your name?"
Him: (still quietly) "Nick."
Me: Hi, Nick. I'm Sarah."
Nick: "Hi."
*pause*
Me: "So where do you go to school?"
Nick: "Um...Baymonte."
Me: "Do you like it there?"
Nick: "Yeah." (do these kids ever talk in more than one word?!?)
Me: Are you in any sports or clubs or anything?"
Nick: (pause) "No."
Me: "Oh. Um, how about after school stuff?"
Nick: "No."
Me: "So, you just chill at home and do homework and stuff?"
Nick: "....yeah."
Me: (pause) "Ok."

Take that, multiply it by 10, and that's how many awkward conversations I had with junior high students. Oh my word. It was like pulling teeth. I mean, I know it's a hard stage of life and everything; I'm sure I was just as uncomfortable when I was that age. God bless Steve, the junior high pastor - he really loves that age. Junior highers are fun and everything but I definitely prefer college students.