The ones who showed up

Students motivations and reasoning can be weird sometimes. Take a table I have visited regularly at lunch for , going on, my third school year. Only one of the girls had previously been to club regularly and another had visited. This table, once just girls (though guys always join a table over time), used to harass me when they were freshman. They even took one of my schedule fliers and used my number off that to text bomb me (send texts from multiple phones at once to one phone to overwhelm it). Eventually maturity started to prevail and I got one of them to go on a six flags trip and get support from one of my caring female staff.
  Now I tell you this story because at my first club one of the girls from that table showed up. At the slip n slide event two more showed up. I don't talk to students for the selfish motivation of them to come to club, but in the genuineness of showing them love in the name of Jesus. When I invited a couple to various trips one of the girls belted out that sounds dumb and she would not be attending. I eventually explained the event to the other students and costs free/cheap and the same girl who called it stupid and declared she was not going took a flier and said "let me ask my mom".The problem is for some reason their is a fear of the new. (Granted that fear subsides a bit when 40-50 of your peers show up to club each week.) They also realize that free food, a trip to taco bell with a busload of 51 kids, fun games, and great bonding time with friends is not all that scary.

  Some of the fear is with the gospel message. One new freshman asked me if it was a "Christian thing". I told him we talk about Spirituality and Jesus and have discussions. He proceeded to tell me it wasn't for him and then had a conversation with me on what he believed about God. So when I say fear, the fear is about something new different, not a fear of what the student usually complains about. This one freshman shows that reasoning and motivation is built upon peer pressure, false idealisms, and a logic that doesn't benefit the student. 

  This leads me back to the table of once only girls and their male friends. What broke them down? More of their friends going and a breakdown in peer pressure? The false thought patterns being debunked? I can never know, but I am excited that they are getting an opportunity to hear the gospel, build relationships with people who care about them, and exterminate the fear that kept them away.