Continuing the medical theme from summer camp, enter the 2012 4th and 5th grade winter retreat held right at our church.  The older kids get to go all the way to the camp in Michigan for two days, but as a cost-saving measure for the parents I am sure, this crowd gets one night with no travel necessary outside of being brought to church.  That suits me just fine and allows more to come who otherwise would not.  I know of one family for sure whose junior-higher wasn’t going to be able to go to his retreat though his younger brother was at ours.

I arrived Friday night just a smidgen late and check-in was well underway.  In fact, most of my cabin was already settled in and watching the opening movie which entertained them while waiting for the official start.  I joined my colleagues upstairs and helped settle in the stragglers.  Did I mention that Friday was the day of a major snowstorm?  After driving on snow-packed roads from Algonquin to Elgin and back home, I and a hundred moms, dads, and other leaders slogged down the roads to make this event, the only one not canceled.  But I am sure parents would brave even more to be rid of their young-uns give their brood an opportunity to draw closer to our Lord and Savior.  Though there was one cabin that had several boys missing by the time the main event started, mine was complete (at least it was by dinner time when the last trooper arrived).  I even had a couple of repeat campers from summer, one of which I hadn’t seen since then as he attended the church’s school, but not regular church on the weekends- at least the one I serve at.  Even my junior leader was the same.  Yep, Mad Cow Disease was represented in full.  What?  Oh, yes.  Remember the medical theme I mentioned?  Well, all the cabins were named after diseases and cures.  Most girls would never go for a cabin labeled SARS or mad cow disease, so they naturally got the cures while the boys proudly represented their diseases.

Once the movie was shut off in the middle (sorry for those who may not have seen it before…) and rules had been gone over, it was time to get into things with a game of course.  That game was Duck Hunt.

No, no, no, not THAT Duck Hunt.  This was a game where the kids hunted for little rubber ducks invading the church.  By little, I mean they were only about two square inches in size each meaning not that easy to find.  But there were several hundred of them.  All through, well not the church this year though that was the original intent.  Thanks to the fresh snow, the venue was changed and the ducks were strewn all over the parking lot instead.  Think a hundred kids mining for ducks in the still-falling snow.  They had to find the ducks and bring them back to their team buckets.  Sounds tedious?  Well, add in dodgeballs thrown by zealous leaders (they had to drop any ducks they were carrying if hit, to be thrown by the leader to be buried once again, waiting on another miner) and it made for a fun time.  There were also big balls the teams had to get to their buckets for big points.

The game eventually had to end and we went in for pizza and then our first session.  As per the norm, we started off with an up-front game (we lost- I don’t think we won any of the up-front games in fact) then moved into a couple worship songs before getting into the teaching.  The theme this year was Jonah, session one was about rebellion.  As many know, Jonah rebelled against God in chapter one, not only refusing to do what Got told him, but actively going the opposite way, as far away from his responsibility as possible.  The session ended with Jonah being thrown overboard for being the cause of the storm God sent.  All sessions ended in small group time, so we went back to our cabins to discuss the application to their own lives.

Lights out and the kids were asleep instantly dreaming of peaceful things like rainbows and unicorns.  Yeah, in your dre- hey, wait a minute…  I remember a winter retreat where a couple kids ran up and down the length of the building we were in all night (or much of it).  Things weren’t that bad but we still had talking, fake flatulence, complaints about the talking and the fake flatulence…  I had to get up more than once and just stand over someone to deter further noise.  I did sleep fairly well once I nodded off, at least until 6AM, but I’ll save that for the next post.  It’s getting late.  Talking of sleeping is making me want to be there…

zzz

What?? Hey, I’m not married- if I want to call this a family addition then… 😛

It’s too dark out to take a real photo, but this it what it looks like.  Finally a car- a 2009 Hyundai Elantra.  The bad news?  Insurance is about 50% more for this than for my Metro.  Oh, well.

Coming soon: last weekend’s event when I am not so tired.  Have to be up early tomorrow too…

Or three strikes and you’re out, but I prefer the title saying better.  It is midway through the year of my third stint at being an AWANA leader.  Some time ago, when I was still subbing, I was asked by family to break off a bit from the kids.  After all, I was doing drama and serving in 4th and 5th grade on the weekends then working all week in K-8 classrooms.  Not wanting to get rid of the weekend service, I dropped AWANA after the year was over.

This year things have been a little different but very much the same.  Originally, 3rd-4th grade were known as Pals (boys) and Chums (girls) while 5th (normally 6th too, but at our church 6th grade is junior high and they don’t do AWANA) were known as Pioneers (boys) and Guards (girls).  I believe it was during time #2 that the switch was made to T in T: Truth in Training for all three grades, boys and girls.  One year I worked with Sparks (K-2) but the rest of the time has been with 3rd-5th grade.  Would you believe the kindergarten Sparkies from that year are in 8th grade now?  Time does fly.  Other differences this year include keeping points for my team- kind of a pain with over 15 boys, mostly 3rd and 4th grade though I do have one or two 5th-graders- and game time is no longer the normal circle games, though at the beginning of the year we did do them.  Now we switch off between double-kickball (two balls, two kickers, one set of bases) and dodge-ball.

Last night was crazy hat night.  Every week has some sort of theme with varying levels of participation- last week was ugly sweater night and few participated.  Wristwatch night also seemed to be on the light side.  Hat night must have been easier as there was much participation.  Conservative, childless me didn’t have a hat anywhere near crazy status and I didn’t have time to think about it anyway since I arrived home from work after six and had to be at the church at 6:30.  There were of course Dr. Seuss hats among the fare, a mohawk hat, a creative lad wearing two Civil War hats representing both Union and Confederate sides, and another one wearing stacked baseball hats.  I am slightly chuffed to say the winner came from my own team, though of course I had nothing to do with it myself.  Cole wore the same hat he always wears to AWANA- he usually leaves it on all night except for prayer- but over that he had on a full Air Force pilot helmet, meaning not just the helmet but the breathing apparatus as well.  Technically not a hat, but it did go on  the head, so…  He informed me one of his relatives was in the Air Force.  If he went to this church on the weekend (he attends a different church- he came as another’s friend one week and signed up after that) he would fit right in at camp this summer and the winter retreat the following January- next year will be the military theme once again.

Anyway, speaking of winter retreat, *this* year’s retreat is tomorrow night and it is now after 11PM.  Time to hit the sack so I will have at least some rest for it.  And perhaps a blog post afterward.  Please pray for us this weekend- 24 hours from Friday 7PM to Saturday 7PM.

Well, sort of.  Also a celebration that my blog is working again!  Anyway, just a video I laughed to today- apparently crows like winter sports too…

This is a video I think all ought to see.  I am not going to say anything about it other than it focuses on a topic that is rather controversial among the population.  I don’t want to say any more lest I cause someone who might come across this to put on blinders before even watching (I don’t believe my regular readers would do such a thing).  This site will put it in a somewhat small window- I would encourage you to actually go to the main site: 180movie.com to watch it, or select the 720p version and make it full-screen.

There is a parental advisory on this for disturbing images.  Running time is about 33 minutes.

More on my life soon, but in the meantime I saw this and just *had* to post it here considering the season, the animal people some of my readers are, and- oh just watch it already! 🙂  I give you…

Over the years I have wondered if I actually have any emotions.  Besides anger.  When my grandparents, one by one, passed away (one is still alive at about 90) I know I should have felt more than I did.  I’m embarrassed to say that even when I lost my father I didn’t grieve overly much, though maybe that’s because of how he died.  It wasn’t sudden but spread out over weeks.  I guess I did experience more during the drawn out days, but never the extent that I often see in others.

No one passed away this time, so what’s going on?  Well, it started the weekend before last.  Eight days ago.  Following the message by our campus pastor (the senior pastor was on sabbatical and returned this past weekend) the associate pastor went up to give an announcement.  A very discouraging announcement.  It would be inappropriate for me to go into the details but it turned out our children’s pastor, a man who I called friend for several years now had to resign and was gone from our campus.  I had just spoken to him the week before, as had many people, and we never knew what would become the basis of the announcement.  Nothing illegal by the way, so don’t let your thoughts go there friends.

So he is suddenly gone and I may never see him again.  I do know from what another pastor mentioned during our children’s leadership meeting that he and his wife are doing okay, attending another church, and definitely in contact with at least that one pastor.  The discussion about him, the “elephant in the room” during a meeting where as far as everyone knew he would be too just eight or nine days prior, was yet an emotional one for our family pastor who will be taking on the duties he gave up to the now-former pastor several years ago once again.

He’s grieving.  I’m grieving.  But no one died.  Yet things won’t be the same.  Can I call him?  I have his number.  I called him friend at church, but I never saw him outside of church.  Not appropriate then?  I don’t know what I would even say if I called.  Perhaps the best thing is what our pastor said to us- just pray for him and his family.

Okay, it’s proven, I have emotion- now when will this feeling go away?

Not mobile data- is that what you were thinking?  I have a 4G phone released this year that’s not really 4G if that says anything about how long we’ll be waiting.  No, our church has a regular meeting for all church leaders.  This year we had about 400…more leaders than last year attend.  One church, six campuses, 15,000 churchgoers.  Yes there were a lot of leaders in attendance.  Our thing for this year is five Gs.  Let’s see if I can remember- the literature is in the car.  Growing, giving/generosity, grace, gratitude, and…  Okay, four out of five isn’t bad (giving and generosity are the same g).  In addition to this upcoming series, our pastor announced a revisit of a past series done about 12 years ago and a new financial drive- no specific dollar amount goal, but something else.  We’ll hear more about it soon.

In other church news, I am no longer a Liferock leader but am now a 4th and 5th grade leader.  Did I ever name the ministry before?  Probably not, but since I have stopped blogging for the most part causing my readership to heavily dwindle, I feel it is now safe to write.  Back to topic, the kids ministry decided to dump all names and just refer to the classes by grade.  Gone is Rock Solid (preschool ministry) and their climbers, leapers, trekkers, sleepers, and whatnot.  Now it’s just nursery 1, nursery 2, preschool 1… (ten preschool classrooms if you can believe it- remember the number of churchgoers I mentioned above…?).  Likewise, the separate names for the K-3 and 4/5 ministries have been removed.  I’ll learn of whatever other changes they have in store in two weeks when we have are children’s ministry meeting.  What this change means is I may be the only one who has served in the complete run of Liferock.  The year I started doing kid’s drama at church they had a Friday night ministry for 4th and 5th grades which I did not serve in, but they called that Life on the Rock I just learned.  They didn’t change it to Liferock until the following year when they moved the program to the weekends, separating the K-5 ministry into the now current K-3 and 4/5 as referred to earlier.  Now that the name has been terminated, I have served from start to finish.  How many years was that?  Well, my nephew was in 4th grade at the time- he may have attended once or twice.  He is now the equivalent of 16th grade.  That’s right- a senior at a university.  That makes this, what?  My 12th year?  Yes, I started drama in 1998, so Liferock the following year.

A note to L & C- 4th and 5th grade are quite different from junior high, but it is a real joy to teach those grades and I am sure you will agree.  Not the handful younger grades are, but not adolescents pulling away from adult authority either.  A perfect age in my opinion.

Blah- 11:00, and I have to get up and drive to Chicago in the morning.  I detest driving over there.  30 minutes away in no traffic, so that means over an hour to get to where I need to be.  I really wish this job of mine didn’t do business in the City…

Okay, it looks like I focused a great deal on one small aspect of camp last time, but hey- it was new, and I enjoyed my role as director as much as how the skit went.  How about something a little less focused?  A lot of the camp activities was same-old for me, but how else could some thing be after seven years, even with a new cabin each year.  The camp staples were there- archery, riflery, crafts, competition games, food, bedrest (Michigan law- an hour each day must be spent in bed during the day to avoid overexhaustion).  Some things are new every year, like the Zorb this year as I already mentioned.  Also new this year was a game in the courtyard called gaga-ball (nothing to do with the pop star, actually a game imported from Israel) and one in the swim front area called nine-square, though we never played the latter.  Also new this year was the almost daily rain.  Years past have had no more than a couple days with some rain, but until the last day we had some rain every day.  Last year that rain canceled our wacky water sports instructional, but it was replaced by- a different wacky water sport the entire camp engaged in.  What they did was lay a tarp across a large portion of the game field and create a giant slip ‘n’ slide.  On it they had races and wacky games like an extreme duck-duck-goose.  Well, we had one time like that this year as well, during our canoeing time and free time after that.  That time started out normal, mind you.  By the time we actually got into our canoes, however, the rain started.  Meh- a little rain never hurt anyone.  But then it turned into sheets of rain accompanied by thunder.  Whoops- time to get out of the water.  No one overturned their canoe, but by the time we were ashore it sure felt like it.  We spent the next 15 minutes or so in a shelter before heading out, ending up in the tarp-encrusted game field.

Erm- so much for unfocused I guess.  Let’s see now.  Besides raining out part of an instructional, one of the competitions got rained out, except that time we all raced for the shelter of the lodge.  Our infamous counselor hunt also was nearly rained out, but it did stop in time for the hunt.  Last year I hid so well that no one found me.  This year I made it easier for them.  A group of three leaders were hidden as it turned out not very well, and I went downhill from them.  All the kids had to do was look down and there I was!  Then they had to climb down a steep hill to get to me- mwa-ha-ha-ha.  Well, once they saw me not a single group passed up the chance, but not all saw me oddly enough.

At the end of the week, the students were given an opportunity to give testimonies about their week at camp, and I was happy to see two of my own cabin go up to the microphones.  There they talked about accepting Jesus if they did, rededicating themselves, how they learned what kind of heart they had (shallow, crowded), and how they wanted a fruitful heart (see the parable of the seeds being sown on different soils).  A testimony that really touched me was from a boy from Iowa who started his testimony out with “I thought I knew God, but I really didn’t.”  I may be paraphrasing a little, I don’t remember the exact words.  How many of us think we really know who God is only to find out through some teaching somewhere, or some action by someone, that we really don’t know Him at all.  That’s the point where God enters into our lives as He revels Himself, and we either gladly grab on to the life preserver he gives us, or we utterly reject it and spend the rest of our lives trying to manage on our own.  Has He revealed Himself to you?  Did you grab on, repent, and become His adopted child?

I will leave you with these few pictures and videos from camp.  By the way, did anyone catch the title of my last post?  It is from a song we sang daily at camp, one where I witnessed the Holy Spirit at work more than some of the other songs, Like a Lion from the Passion Awakening album.  The Youtube video is at the end.

Gaga ball: dodgeball with nowhere to run!

[vimeo]https://www.vimeo.com/25938602[/vimeo]

Just a minute to win this…

Help- I’m upside down!

[vimeo]https://www.vimeo.com/25938827[/vimeo]

Humans + Foosball = life-sized foosball

[vimeo]https://www.vimeo.com/25938716[/vimeo]

Now this is a worship time!

Nope, didn’t even make the callbacks.  There was a message waiting when I got home the day after stating that I did not make the show.  It’s been a long time since I didn’t make a show.  This is not what it sounds like- in recent history I have only tried out for Oliver! and It’s a Wonderful Life before Dracula.  I didn’t even try out for Jekyll & Hyde, only responded to a plea for more actors.  Unfortunately along with a rejection comes a void that can’t be filled, a void of never knowing why.  Was something wrong with my audition?  It was only a singing audition and I feel I sang just fine.  The accompanist didn’t always keep up- was that counted against me?  I did a performance, not just the song.  Maybe I should have stood there and just sang?  Maybe my hair which I forgot to get cut bothered them?  Maybe they used the “Will you be willing to be in the ensemble/chorus” question as a weed-out tool- I said no because I would rather try out for Noah than be in the chorus- at my age I have this privilege, do I not?  Did someone find this blog and see I would rather be in Noah?  Was it even about me at all?  I do know it is a relatively small cast for two groups- yes it is a joint production between two groups.  Oh, well.  I am now free to try out for Noah whenever those auditions happen, assuming they don’t just pre-cast it since there is such a small cast.  If I make the show I will know for sure not making Dracula was a God thing (someone was praying for me).  Of course, considering the message of the Dracula story, it may just be a God thing no matter what happens.

Come to think of it, I was rejected more recently- when I did a general tryout for Metropolis last summer.  I was never called back for anything.  Well, that was professional theatre so it was expected.   I do so wish I could just call and ask, but I know that would be improper, so I will just continue to wonder.