6th grade kidnapping

over the past few years i have had the feeling that each year i haven't done a good enough job of connecting our new 6th graders with the youth ministry. they've always seem to come around when they were in 7th grade but i just haven't been able to get them into everything while they were in the 6th grade. this year i want to things to be different. so the youth staff came up with the idea of "kidnapping" the 6th graders for the first wednesday night of the summer. we sent letters out to their parents explaining that we wanted to come pick up their kids and make a big deal about their first night within the youth ministry. the parents were on board and we were excited. all we had to do was actually kidnap the kids.

so here's what we did:

• alan dressed up (somewhat against his will) like the "old man" character from the six flags commercials.
  
• we got a school bus and loaded it with youth and signs bearing the 6th graders' names.
  
• we drove up to each spot that the kids were at and picked then up with blaring music ("we like to party" by the vengaboys - the six flags commercial music) and alan dancing - it drew quite a few stares.
  
• we then brought them up to the student center for ice cream and hamburgers.
  
• we had a "sixth grade advice" video made for the evening.
  

the results have been pretty good. thus far everyone who has responded has had very positive things to say concerning it.