camp

So do you ever wonder what happened to the good ole days of church camp? The days when people made out their summer plans and made camp the center. They planned their vacations around when the kids had an opportunity to go to church camp. I must confess I miss those days. Today, it doesn't matter whose schedule you respect when making your camp plans over half of your kids will make other plans and you'll be stuck footing the bill. Oh how I long for the days of camp being important and not just an add on.
The 4th of July is just on the other side of tonight and I don't even look forward to it. Tara has to work tomorrow night and I can't get past that. She is going to be working during one of the few nights we have spent together every year without fail for over 13 years now. We've watched the fireworks together in about 7 different locations through the years and this year I have to break that tradition. So I hope you and your family are able to spend the fourth having a good time and enjoying family, after all that is what these long weekends are for, family.
My book I was reading, So you don't want to go to church, is completed. I finished it and I still don't know whether to recommend it or not. There was so much in there that explains so much of what I have struggled with over the past few years, yet there are components to the book that I do not endorse. The Shack on the other hand I do highly recommend to anyone who is struggling with life, or things that have happened in their lives.
Have an awesome fourth, a great weekend and hope to see you some time soon!

Hump day

So it is finally hump day. That day when at the end we realize that we are on the downhill portion of the week. When we know that the weekend isn't so far away. This week is a little different for me because I am planning for a 10 day vacation. I have Friday off for the 4th of July and then we have Student Life camp next week in Daytona Beach. Which reminds me, if I can't get Tara to let me take the laptop next week I may be taking a week off from blogging, but we'll see how that goes.
I must confess, trips, camps and things of that nature are my least favorite part of the ministry. I would prefer to do a bible study, sermon, keep things at the normal pace than put together trips and such. One of my main reasons for that I believe is that I have this engrained thing that makes me want to squeeze every possible person into our trips and camps that I can. I'll take them if they can walk and listen. Who cares if they want to be there, if they can afford to be there, or even if we have room for them.
As I am getting older(yes I will admit to that, I still say older not old)I am relaxing about all of this and understanding it's all about God and not me. It's about who God wants there and not who I want there. This is passing over into my ministry in a lot of areas. I have always said that if someone misses church, or youth or a church event and they feel guilty that is between them and God. I don't want any part in the guilt process. Because someone who comes based on man made guilt will just fade away eventually anyway. So if you miss something, don't get offended when I don't call and ask where you were, if you should have been there you will know it without my prompting.
I am ready for youth tonight, it's that high that gets me through the rest of the week. Sunday is my big top of the mountain experience each week, then Monday and Tuesday try their best to take that away from me until Wednesday night and then I'm back real close to the top until Thursday and Friday try to take them back again.
Have a great day and thanks for reading my ramblings!

Quoatas

So I spent the day on the road yesterday, mostly. In the morning I was off to Hastings bright and early where I spent time with some elementary school students discussing bullying and gender roles. From there I ran accross town(big town at that)to the Hastins Recreation Teen Center. There I discussed the importance of getting out of society's expectations for men and women and the importance of that on society as a whole.
When I completed those two things I was back to town where I was invited to lunch with my cousing. It's something I never pass up, a chance to do lunch with him is meaningful for me, even if it's just lunch to him. So we hit 5 Guys Burgers and just talked about things, nothing in general.
Then it was back to my office where I was bombarded with paperwork, end of the month stats and the like. The way the grant is written that I work under there is a quota for each year that has to be met, a certain number of presentations to a certain number of students. Well, we're running pretty close to quota.
It got me thinking though, what if God gave us quotas? What if I had to preach to a certain number of people each month to reach my year end totals? What if when I didn't reach that number (which I know I wouldn't) I was given an unsatisfactory report. That is something I could not bear at all. I'm so thankful that God doesn't keep tabs on us and what we've done and He choses to work on me through my feelings. I know when I am right on par with what God wants for me and when I am not, I am so glad there is no need for a formal evaluation at each month's end.
Got the paperwork done just in time to drive home in a hurricane force rain and sit under our carport and do some reading. I can't think of a better situation(other than a cruise ship) to sit, relax and enjoy a good book.
Not too much excitement on Mondays for me, so have a great day and God Bless!

Fiasco anyone?

So each and every thing has ingredients. WHen you bake, cook or put together a dish it has ingredients, each one doing its part to bring the results that are desired in taste, texture and appearance.
Well, yesterday turned out to be another fiasco for the books that was totally out of my control. The reason I put ingredients in there is because apparently the main ingredients in a good disaster are a few Athanaseas', a couple Hutsons and a Gatlin or two sprinkled in. Every fiasco I can remember in my ministry has involved such people. Whether it was camping in the rain with no milk, no fire and no plan; driving down the wrong side of the road in Miami and getting pulled over while looking for a hotel at 9:00 at night; breaking down in the middle of downtown Orlando with a host of kids headed to CEntri-Kid; or sitting through a rain delay and a 15 inning baseball game followed by a concert(the reason we actually sat through the game) at 10pm in a parking lot. All of those fiascos have 3 major ingredients and I hope those ingredients will humbly take their place in fiasco history once again.
Yesterday I left church with a truckload of kids for the Suns baseball game and more importantly a BIg Daddy WEave concert following. At 1:05 we arrived at the ballpark and got vouchers given to us by David O of the PRomise radio station. We took those vouchers and got free tickets to the baseball game. Well, the game start was delayed by a rain shower accompanied by thunder and lightning. The storm blew over and we sat in our wet seats and suffered through 14 innings of scoreless baseball. In teh middle Julie one of our teens was struck in the middle of her head by a foul ball(no fiasco is complete without a good first aid story) but she survived. The game got over finally at about 9:00 I believe it was, we walked out to the parking lot and at about 9:45 the real reason we went Big Daddy Weave began his concert and all of a sudden(atleast for me) it was all worth it. My 9 hour journey was finally at its end and it was all well worth it to see my favorite guys on the stage praising God. The best part of it all is that the concert was in a parking lot where Florda-Georgia game fans and Jaguar fans are usually drinking and partying while tailgating. What an awesome feeling to be praising God right there in that place!
So, if you need a good fiasco call me, I have all the major ingredients on speed dial! Have a great day and thanks for reading!