IT'S TODAY!

It's today, it's today! It's 30 degrees and it's today! The kids are coming in 2 hours! IT STARTS TODAY!

Glob

The other day I talked to Marv Penner, Youth Ministries professor at Briercrest and also the speaker during this week’s staff training at Q. He had just finished giving a great talk on love and relationships to us. Through the week he’s spoken to us several times, and at first I was very disappointed, because the first time he talked to us he told us that after being in ministry for 40 years, he’d come to realize that he’d never loved Jesus… or something. It frustrated me. I know there’s this notion of the church being the bride of Christ. I can confidently say that I can understand God the father as my father, and Jesus as my brother, teacher, and a sacrifice for my sin, but I struggle a little bit more to say “I need to be in love with Jesus”. Jesus loves me, yes, I love Jesus too, but “in Love?” The girl who said she’s beginning to understand what it means to “fall in love with Jesus” needs to try to explain it to me in more concrete terms I think.

So I talked to Marv Penner. I didn’t really know what I was going to say. I asked my question, but I do a better job writing my question here than I did when I said it to him. My question was, in a much more direct way: Why doesn’t the bible talk about chivalry? Why doesn’t God command men to let women go ahead of them in line? Why does it seem like the bible has no useful information on how to meet the love of your life? A prayer, a well, some camels, 2 gold bracelets and a nose ring?

I decided all on my own that if the Jesus himself didn’t tell me how to fall in love with the right person, then it must be simple; it must be intuitive; it must be something you learn from your parents- like how to talk; Something that people don’t forget how to do, but that they can always do when they have to. I decided that there must be some natural way of things which makes fat people fall in love with people less shallow than I am. I came up with a solution that fit my mind, and then I started to forget I’d even thought about it.

But then Marv Penner came along and told me things I didn’t know. Things about relationships that are based in an overall understanding of the scripture’s teachings on how we ought to live. He said (for example) that the decision to not have premarital Sex in order to avoid the consequences, such as pregnancy or simply emotional hurt, is not enough to keep Christians abstinent, and that the only good enough reason for abstinence is a love for God. Don’t ask me why, but that wasn’t something I’d spent enough time considering.

But Marv didn’t completely answer my question, but then I didn’t completely ask it, I didn’t make a whole lot of sense when I started trying to talk to him. But I said that the story of Isaac and Sarah didn’t help me, and neither did the gospels. He told me that chivalry is in the bible, that it’s just part of treating others how we would like to be treated. He asked me if I was familiar with the story of Hosea, and when I said “no” he told me a little bit about it, and I’m excited to try and read the whole book (when I get the time, I’m scheduled straight from 8:30am to 10:00pm these days and I’m not feeling able to start reading the bible in another place as well as the places I’m already slowly reading from) He also told me that he knew a guy in India who’s marriage was arranged by his parents with excellent result.

So yeah, I actually felt pretty dumb, pretty unprepared with my question. It seemed very foolish as I was asking it, but what I took from my talk with Marv most of all is that I need to develop my character. He said that if I’m the man that God wants me to be then I’ll be the husband God wants me to be, and the Father God wants me to be. If the only good enough reason to avoid the pitfalls of relationships is a love for God, I’d say I need to work on that.

So now I’m still confused; what about the female counselor who mountain bikes? Do I focus inward on my own character, outwards at the pretty girls, or both? What’s my objective?

Oh yeah, the campers, they’re coming on Saturday. I guess they’re the reason God’s placed me here.

Liftoff

Wow.

48 hours ago I returned to my room to grab my computer, and found that the shelf it was sitting on was retaining a large amount of water, because I had placed it under a plastic kettle, which I had believed to be empty, but which was not. I then proceeded to grab my computer and a towel, and I wiped the bottom and top, and then I opened it. I was dismayed to find that the entire screen was covered in condensation and that ever key was wet. I concluded however, that it would probably be alright, and that the water had only run off the lid and inside of it on it's way to the shelf it sat on. I then dabbed out all the water from the various plugs, then attempted to shake any water out of the computer fan, and then put it down open and on it's side to try to dry it out over night.

In the morning, it seemed dry, so I decided to open up the cd drive, but I realized that I would have to turn it on first. I turned on my compter as usual, and quickly popped out the cd drive. The cd in the cd drive was covered in little water droplets, and every surface of the disc tray was wet. I dryed it with a towel and pushed it in, as my computer continued to boot. everything seemed to be working fine, and I got to the point of reading a facebook message when suddenly my computer's power went out completely. Thinking that maybe it had just been low on batteries, I plugged in the power cord and turned it on again. It made it to the login screen but then powered down once again. I thus concluded that it was still wet and left it until that evening.
That evening (yesterday) it powered down three times when I tryed to boot it, and then stopped even turning on. I kept hoping that if I just held it still it would stay on long enough to dry itself because of the air circulation. At this point I also removed my battery and one of the panels on the bottom to see if it was still wet inside. It was. My battery was wet, and so was my hard drive. I went to bed immediately- at 7:00 at night, I just didn't feel like being conscious.

This morning I woke up and prayed for my laptop. I prayed the best prayer I could pray. I itterated my need for my laptop, and explained that, although I new that God was capable of providing for my needs even if my laptop was destroyed, I really and very strongly wanted God to supply my need by healing my laptop.

Then I turned it on. It worked. It stayed booted. I logged in and left it to hopefully continue drying itself during the day. Now I'm using it. Yes, I'm using it. I am using my resurrected laptop.

Today was open house here at Q. Over a thousand people came on this beautiful day. After my sound check (oooh a sound check?) this morning I grabbed some quick lunch at 11:15 and then went up to be in charge of archery for 5 hours. Although it started out slow, people began to gather, and so there were a lot of people for me to show how to shoot a bow. I showed a kid who was almost too short to shoot over the bench. After awhile there was a guy who showed up who enjoyed telling people what to do more than I did, and so I let him do most of the teaching for the last little bit, since I was kindof tired of it. The guy was very nice and very helpful, but he told people things they didn't need to know, which is somewhat less tactful, and made me think he just liked to show off what he knew, but still, he was helpful.

At 5:15 I grabbed a quick dinner by cutting in line, although there was almost no food because there were so many people the kitchen could barely keep up, and then I went to Q-Town (big white tent, it's the chapel) to get ready for the show. I played bass in the band up on stage as we played the camps songs, which are written by the lead singer and dedicated full-time staff member for music at Q.

We played a cover of One Thousand Miles, which is a staple here at Q ever since I went as a camper in 2004. It was however the last time we will play it this summer, as it is being retired.

When I go out, well I know I'm gonna be I'm gonna be the one who's going out with you
When I hang out...
When I pray out...
When I sing out...
Well I would walk 500 hundred miles and I would walk five hundred more just to be the one who walks a thousand miles to fall down at your door DA-DA-DA!!

Anyway, good times, and kindof stressfull. You can't imagine just how good these songs are, and although the audince wasn't as into it as they would be during a camp, and although I barely looked up from my music, I really enjoyed it. You can't imagine the way I feel about these songs that I haven't heard since i was at camp 4 years ago, and how cool it is to be helping the to provide them to a new generation of campers by playing in the band. Also, the whole band vibe is absolutely great, I just dropped right into their mostly seemless collaboration of continuity. We rock.

No more band playing for awhile though, this next week we have to finish off absolutely everything before staff training begins next friday. Staff training is when our band is going to do most of our practicing. By that time, all the staff will be here. There's a bass player coming, so Russ is thinking of getting me to play guitar some of the time, it will be good, I can't wait to play some more songs, since I've only played the 6 that we practiced for tonight. (LIFTOFFF!!!!)


OOOOOhhhhhhh dear. Time to do something normal. I feel like running around and jumping up and down.


Instead, I took pictures:

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Until next time...

Experience

Josh-roomate, Sean-Kiwi, Richard-boat driver
Doorstop-monster, Steve-Biceps,
Lewis-eyebrow, Evan, Tyler-boss

Batteries have cells too,

I remember hanging out in the basement with the rest of the Q crew all evening, I remember that Tim F was there playing foosball. I remember that before that I had been out riding a unicycle, and that before that I had been riding a bike, and that before that I had been drinking a Grape Crush. I remember going on a bike ride with a hardcore XC guy, and I remember that he beat me up all the hills, but I beat him down because I was so hard up. I remember that we had left for our ride immediately after dinner, which, as I recall, consisted of pork, potatoes, salad, cooked vegetables and apple crisp. I remember drinking lots of pink lemonade. Before that I remember putting the tire back on the rim of one of my bikes, and before that- peeling the stickers off of 7 mountain bike forks because they had half-naked women on them. I remember that when I did that I had just finished painting a certain section of the skatepark black, and that I had decided not to start on the next part until tomorrow. I remember that Paul and I had been painting the skatepark for most of the day. I remember that Paul was from New Zealand, and I remember that in NZ "hard up" means flat out. I remember using peices of wood and heavy equipment to lift a 23 foot aluminum skiff onto an 18 foot trailer. I remember that it weighed about as much as a car. I remember that it was an extremely difficult task, which required a lot of thought and engineering. I remember that my my two much older coworkers who I was helping listened to my suggestions and explained things to me instead of just telling me what to do, and that I was glad to feel so respected. I remember that the time I spent with the skiff was more or less a side project in the overall project of the day, which was to paint the skatepark. I remember that this morning we had a staff meeting. I remember that this staff meeting started with a pastor from an inner city church explaining to us how glad he was that we accept inner city children, and explaining to us what to expect from them, and what we should do to help them. I remember that I showed up for this meeting late because it started at nine and I didn't wake up until 8:59. I remeber that that was the first time I've ever missed breakfast since I came here.