Boulder Dodging and Cloud Jumping: Friday Night Live!

I jumped onto a raft next to Matt, a junior at Rogers High School, and we were off—scaling down a white water river, dodging rocks, trying not to capsize the fragile raft we occupied. Occasionally our tiny boat would catapult off a large boulder and we’d go flying into the sky with our hands in the air, land on skinny bridge, slide down a cloud and return to the crashing waves of the river. We were soaked. We looked at each other thinking, “Why did we wear our normal clothes to this thing?” As we wipe the sweat from our brow we share a laugh at some pictures we took along the way. Stepping out of the boat we welcome its new occupants: Jackie and Leslie. As they step in we chuckle, boast about how well we tackled those waves and challenge them to attempt to match us.

            You may be thinking, “What Ozone event did I miss out on? How come I didn’t hear about this white water adventure? Camp War Eagle 365 is really stepping it up this year with their program!” Now I’m not saying that we don’t have our own incredible events throughout the year, like Great Pretenders, Beaver Lake Clean-up, and Spring Break Retreats, but Ozone can’t take credit for this one. Springdale First United Methodist (FUMC), a great church Ozone has partnered with often is the brain behind this fantastic event.

            Friday Night Live (FNL) happens once a month at FUMC. “So, I can go boulder dodging and cloud jumping every time,” you may ask? Yes. It’s just one of the many activities offered at its Friday Night Live (FNL) event. Along with the white water adventure that we played on the Kinect, there are also Xboxes, a Nintendo 64, and a Wii, two pool tables, two Ping-Pong tables, and a foosball table.  Not only does FNL have all these sweet games, but they also have dodge-ball tournaments, laser tag, ultimate Frisbee, raffles, crafts, movies and free snacks. This partnership between Ozone and FUMC has been a huge blessing. Not only do they let us host our large events there, but they also invite us to be involved in their events, like FNL.

            Friday Night Live is a fun and free evening for students from 8^th to 12^th grade, designated Friday nights from 7pm-10pm. I’ve had the privilege of taking a van full of Rogers students to every FNL and they love it!  It’s a place where new friendships are made between Ozone students from different cities and FUMC students.  The next Friday Night Live will be on April 13^th. I hope that more Ozone families will be eager to jump on board and attend so they can experience all the fun that we have at FNL!