Teenagers have a lot of fun. Several photos of our church’s middle school and high school youth groups having a good time at their respective Christmas parties were posted on the church’s Facebook page recently. I felt a twinge of envy.

It’s been a long, long time since I was involved in a church youth group. When I was, we didn’t have as much fun as these kids were having.

Now, I’m not whining here. My family’s church was small and there weren’t many of us teenagers. The age range was stretched a bit to create a group large enough to meet regularly and when we did it was usually to listen to a devotional from the pastor and sing a few songs from the “Singspiration” songbook of lively choruses.

We did have a few activities and they were fun. There were sledding parties, an occasional game of basketball with the youth of a doctrinally-aligned church from a nearby town and the one time we had an Easter Sunrise breakfast with the kids from the above-mentioned church.

All of that said, I am grateful for much of what I learned from those youth group experiences. The verse from Psalm 119 that reads, “Thy word have I hid in mine heart…” comes to mind here.

However, I still envy the kids in our current day church for the great time they appeared to be having at their Christmas parties.

This will explain why several years ago some of us older folks in our congregation initiated a “youth group” for seniors. Why should kids have all the fun?

The idea came up over coffee and it developed into what we call the Seasoned Citizens. We hear enough of the “senior citizen” stuff and, wanting to avoid that phrase, we settled on Seasoned Citizens.

Vocabulary.com defines someone who is “seasoned” as a “person who has been around forever, doing what they do and doing it well — throughout the seasons.” That’s us.

Our initial meeting offered build-it-yourself ice cream sundaes following an evening of ice breaker games. It was well-attended and I got acquainted with some folks who I previously only knew by name.

Subsequently, we have had several get-togethers adding participants along the way. My favorite is ice cream nights. We bring our lawn chairs to a small park located across the street from an ice cream store and spend a summer evening visiting and enjoying frozen treats.

For three consecutive years, our Seasoned Citizens members have gathered to pack boxes of ingredients for a Thanksgiving dinner for the beneficiaries of a faith-based human services agency affiliated with eight churches in our community. When the task is completed we enjoy an evening of pizza and homemade desserts.

A few months ago a delegation of Seasoned Citizens helped assemble meals for Meals from the Heartland, a local nonprofit.

A semi-retired pastor usually serves as the master of ceremonies at our meetings and comes up with excellent activity ideas. Our Seasoned Citizens group has been growing so at a meeting earlier this year we all shared something about ourselves that others may not know.

This is when I learned how truly “seasoned” this group of 60-and-older folks was. I learned one woman we have known for several years was a young Vietnam-era military widow. Her story tugged at our hearts, especially those of us who have also known widowhood.

On other occasions we have written notes of encouragement to the teenagers of our congregation when they attend youth conferences. These are important opportunities and we hope that a note of encouragement — even from someone their grandparents’ age — is reassuring. Heaven knows how much we all could benefit from a word of encouragement.

One of the realities of being a seasoned citizen is funerals. We have experienced funerals for a handful of our fellow Seasoned Citizens. Though our hearts are heavy at these times, our faith assures us that we will see each other again.

Making new friends and nurturing established relationships in our senior years seems to be a good thing to do. Why should kids have all the fun?

Arvid Huisman can be contacted at huismaniowa@gmail.com. ©2023 by Huisman Communications.