As much as there were good memories and kind people at the church growing up, I eventually reached a point where it didn't feel like the right place for me anymore.

There were a few different reasons that led to my sister and me stepping away from going to the church altogether...

The main reason being that as much as we tried to, we could never seem to make friends there, and that was (and still is) very important to us.

Also, I do think that we stopped going because the teachings there were just so hard for us to understand for the most part.

As well, I recall around the time that we left there being a nice new pastor and wife there, but I do think the son was a bit rude to my sister at times.

Maybe it's cuz their last name was literally the opposite of an angel?

(I'm kidding!)

My dad actually made it a thing around them to pronounce their last name as "De Vile" as in like Cruella De Vil from the 101 Dalmatians films.

Anyway, when we left the church, I do think they found out about us trying out other churches when one of our former teachers from Primary class came by to give us a Christmas hamper around the holiday season.

I distinctly remember saying to her something like, "wait, we're gonna be trying out other churches so I might not see you for awhile".

I wanna say she took it well, but at the same time, I feel like I'll never know for sure.

At least though, when I have gone back to the church the odd time again after that, she was still friendly with me.

To be honest, this really wasn't the first time that we would attempt to find another church to go to make friends...

We had gone to try out others before that, such as a Baptist church with the majority of people there being of one ethnicity, though they were nice and actually sent us a postcard after we checked the church out.

We also checked out other churches over the years and around this time, but I can't recall from memory when I checked all of these out in particular.

Some of them were other Adventist ones though, but they were all farther away from where we lived and most of them were quite similar in regard to their old-fashioned rules and stuff, though at least the people were nice I believe.

It wasn't just church services we checked out either over the years.

There was also at least one year that my sister and I tried out another church's summer camp, but on the first day of it we got overwhelmed and annoyed by how it worked so we quickly joined a different one and ended up enjoying it before realizing we may have left the first one too early.

But hey, this other one we checked out had a carnival at a local park on the last day, and that's hard to beat!

I recall there being at least two different types of churches also that we coincidentally saw two different girls at whom we knew from VBS one year at our Adventist church.

However, the most surprising churches we ever tried attending, (I'm sure) were the Jehovah's Witness Kingdom Hall, (yes our dad let us check it out a couple times) and this other giant church a bit farther to go to that had a whole bunch of youth at (like us) playing video games and stuff (at a church of all places!)

Though the even funnier part is the fact that the bigger church which we only attended like one time would eventually years later become the main campus of the church I currently attend on some Sunday mornings with my dad.

Another church we attended one service at we actually heard people speaking in tongues at (this actually happened at two different churches!).

And as Adventists, we aren't really believers in that type of thing anymore, so it made the whole thing awkward I'm sure.

So believe it or not, from all those different types of churches we tried out over the years and after leaving the Adventist church, we actually ended up at another Baptist one for awhile.

Specifically from September 2017 to November 2023 (at least myself).

This Baptist church in particular was a good size and had all different types of ethnicities that attended it.

We first actually found the church when I looked in a newspaper or something and found out about this block party they were doing to kick off the start of fall and school starting up again.

I do think one of the reasons I got so excited and determined to join this particular group had to do with the youth band of leaders I saw perform "I'm a Believer" by The Monkees at the festival (which they did superb at I might add!).

And these very leaders had nothing but good things to say about the group too, so obviously we had to check it out.

I think the first time we were at youth it was a thing called, "welcome back bbq".

And those who know me well would know just how much I love burgers in general.

It's a big comfort really and a big deal to me as a Christian cuz with my upbringing, I could never eat certain meats, and sea foods if they were "unclean".

Such as bacon, ham, pork, sausages, shellfish, crabs, and shrimp.

Luckily beef and things made from the cow I could still have growing up as well as chicken, turkey, lamb, (though it was baaad) cod, etc).

I could also have salmon if I wanted, but I've never had it.

I will admit that there's been the odd time that I got to have small amounts of bacon in caesar salads or on potato skins cuz that was in small amounts.

As well as the times where my dad would want to try bacon again even though we weren't supposed to, so I got to try some then as well.

Heck, whenever we have roast beef dinners, we always use the fat from the cooked bacon for the yorkshire puddings we bake in the oven, as it helps them cook.

Little amounts of bacon weren't ever a big deal to me either, but my sister didn't like it.

I also accidentally ordered pepperoni pizza when I was in this social group in elementary school cuz little me wondered what that was XD.

Though thankfully I didn't like it XD.

Though I also got to try beef pepperoni or something like that years later and I didn't think it was that good either.

Same with the ham on slices of pizza I'd eat sometimes after pulling most of it off.

Anyway, with the welcome back bbq, it was also one of the only nights of the whole youth group year there (besides one other event that happened) where the parents could attend too and that was pretty cool.

It made a bit less nerve wracking and it made the kickoff dodgeball of youth versus the parents/youth leaders in the church's gym more interesting.

Before this, I swear I never knew that churches could have gyms!

I remember the second youth night I was there, (at least one of the first nights) we got to go to a corn maze for one of the first times and I do think myself and my sister had a great time there.

We got to have smores and roast them over a fire pit at the corn maze after we completed the maze.

Other stuff I remember doing early on at youth were lots of running games, as well as basketball, four squares (sometimes in partners) in the gym.

Some of the running games weren't just in the gym either, they also took place around the church in places!

We learned lots of cool games there early on such as Sardines, which is basically the opposite of hide and seek where one person hides and then the rest have to try and find them and then hide alongside them in the same spot.

My sister was so good at this game to the point where one time when we played, she somehow managed to hide in the giant tub in the sanctuary which people got baptized in!

Another time I think she hid under one of the pews there.

Zombie Apocalypse was this awesome made up game we would play where these tiny soft balls (lots with Disney princesses on them) would be hidden around the church in classrooms among other places.

And the goal would be to find them, avoid getting tagged by one of the zombies who couldn't get inside the rooms but could run in the halls and chase you, and return the balls to the gym (which was a safe area).

This game may not sound like it made a lot of sense, but dang, it was like one of my most favourite activities I got to do at the youth group.

Other fun activities we did besides all the ones I've mentioned already, (minus the hard to play Sardines) were all the obstacle courses we would do inside the gym.

The nights where we would try to fill out bingo card tasks on teams and then show the pics and video tasks from that bingo board to the leaders.

The trivia games we played but I could never beat the older youth at because they were so good, quick and fast at it.

Playing dutch blitz consistently on games nights after learning it for the first time.

The halloween parties with costume contests I tried so hard to win but only came super close once when I brought a friend along who ended up stealing the show in both good (and bad) ways.

The film festival nights where we would make teams and record movies and then they'd be watched, and judged by the leaders before they decided the winners.

The christmas parties where we'd do ugly sweater contests, the neverending giftwrap game (which I won three times), decorate cookies or gingerbread houses, and do a white elephant christmas gift exchange game where we could steal presents from others a certain amount of times.

The craziest gifts I recall people recieving were food stuff like cereals.

We would also sometimes do this crazy mystery flavour Jelly Belly game where the one you pick to eat could taste good or bad depending on which one you chose.

There were a couple times as well when we were in the youth group program where we'd get to go ice skating and I recall enjoying myself even though I can't skate for the life of me (but with those things to hold onto I can!).

I nearly forgot about this because I didn't get to stay around for the night but early on when we were in the group, they held a 60s/70s allnighter event which was basically a sleepover after we got back from this giant christian event downtown called Missionsfest!

At Missionsfest, there were some opening ice breaker games, worship songs I'm sure, and then a preacher speaking about how they found God.

I distinctly remember that one of the years I went to Missionsfest, my sister and I saw this speaker talking who would later become our mom's counsellor through a local organization!

As for the 60s/70s themed all nighter, I don't remember a lot of it, but I do think we did some game show activities together.

And then also just before I left they were starting this really cool Mission Impossible game which me and my sister missed out on so I was super upset and crying about it.

I think maybe one of the reasons we couldn't stay the night at the allnighter was cuz we were just starting out there and our dad wasn't sure how safe it was or if we'd be sleeping with just guys or not.

It could've also been that our dad was working early the next day even though it was a Saturday, but this happened so long ago so no doubt I can't fully recall all the details from memory.

As I'm writing all of this, I'm finding myself looking back at all the activities we did in order on the social media account for the youth group I was a part of...

Apparently the first film festival we did there was sometime not long after the 60/70s all nighter thing and you know that does ring a bell.

There was also some worship nights at the church where we would sing songs together as a group, do a bible lesson with a leader or the pastor speaking (or Youth Alpha).

And these worship nights would also almost always include time afterwards or before too I think for games such as Zombie Apocalypse or sometimes board games maybe.

And of course snack time with the sacred iced tea, chips, etc (don't hate me but iced tea is too sweet and overrated).

Sometimes we would also get invited to other events through other churches such as one that did this whole parody night of Jimmy Fallon cuz this guy apparently looked a lot like him.

This was quite the experience and also cuz me and my sister were the only ones that showed up there from the baptist church we were attending.

Luckily the pastor from our church at the time made sure we got settled there before he left us there alone (we wanted him to stay but he thought we'd be alright cuz we had eachother).

When I really think about it, that whole night was a blur cuz I don't remember a whole lot about it except apparently it being so similar to the real Jimmy Fallon's show.

(Also when these two girls danced in shades and other stuff on stage while lip syncing to Will Smith's "getting jiggy wit it").

It's amazing the memories I find on this page cuz apparently we went to this trampoline park but I'm not sure if I'm recalling this particular one like going to it at all that much.

Sometimes we did teamwork activities in groups as well where one person is blindfolded but tries to help the rest of the group as well... We did this at least once.

We went to the park a few times over the years at youth as well to play games and do some bible lessons outside in nature!

Let me also not forget to mention the year end pool parties we got to do at least twice when I was in youth at a church family's backyard!

It was awesome!

There was a yummy bbq for dinner with chips, popsicles I'm sure, and one year each of us also got prizes/gifts from the pastor (I got funny glasses thing because I think he said I was funny?)

My sister got a giant magnifying glass and someone else there recieved a brand new plunger as a gift (of all things) because of them being courageous I believe so that's probably why they then took it and chased a guy with it.

These church people who were letting us use their backyard also lived pretty close to my aunt's place.

And right across the street from where these people lived there was a big field which we got to play soccer on and perhaps ultimate frisbee too.

I did ultimate frisbee a couple times at youth and it was fun.

The people had a park close to them as well so one year my sister and I got to play grounders with some of the nice older youth even though I'm sure we were too big for the small playground XD.

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