Wednesday night mess for church youth.

From BleckleyProgress.com

Community News
Wednesday night mess for church youth.
By Dave Whitaker
Aug 28, 2014, 00:41

An extra challenge during the bucket filling relay was a garden sprinkler going full blast.

A group of children watched from a distance as Bethany Baptist youth held bowls of ice cream with their hands and tried to devour the content with just their faces. "It's mayonnaise," said one girl. "No it's not, they're not using it this year."

Blindfolded soccer made for interesting ways to handle the ball.

What the children were watching was the annual Messy Olympics. The event, started by former youth pastor and current Lakeview Baptist Church pastor Jim Ward, has been held at the home of youth workers Jody and Becky Kirkpatrick for the past five years.

You never knew when a bag of colored powder might come flying at you.

Each year, youth are faced with various games and other endurance events, all designed to leave them wetter and messier than when they arrived. This year's event included a fill the bucket with a sponge relay, a most unique softball game, and an old standby "diaper duty."

The only use of hands allowed during the ice cream eating contest was to hold the bowl.

That involves eating brown food items (this year's mix included chocolate pudding) from a diaper. There was also random buckets of water dumped and other silliness. Several youths at the end took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.

This ice challenge involved holding your arm in the cooler for 20 seconds.

Each year's event takes planning, numerous volunteers, and time to set up as well as clean up. Why do the Kirkpatrick's do it? As Becky wanted the last few youth play, she remarked "Those are some good kids. It makes it easy to plan things for them."

After all the mess, several youth still stood and took the ALC Ice Bucket Challenge.