When Things Go Better Than Expected

I just got back from Church Camp. I've been at Old Hickory a little over a year. Last year, within a very few weeks from my arrival, I had to organize VBS and Church Camp. Everything went much better than people were expecting (including myself), but there was a lot I could improve on, and tried to improve on for this year.

I was really blessed to have two youth interns working with me this summer; both of whom have very strong work ethics. I tried to plan as much as I could in advance so during the week of camp I would have more time to spend just being with the kids and enjoying the time, rather than having to do last minute plans for things I had forgotten, being exhausted all the time.

One of the things that moves me most deeply as a Christian is when I get to see God take something that I've tried to contribute, and then make it in to something much better than I could have ever hoped for.

That was how camp was this year. My oldest campers took their power to influence the younger campers very seriously. They were well behaved, they were friendly, and they were encouragers. I felt like I had come up with a strong theme, some solid Bible class ideas, and a decent schedule, but nothing could have prepared me for how strongly the people at camp were affected by this last week.

Not that numbers are everything, but we had 13 baptisms this year. We had the first two on Monday night, and based on my experiences with some of the campers, I knew at least two more were really close. One of my seniors decided to be baptized on Thursday after the devotional (see the picture), and he started a chain reaction. We ended up making four separate trips that night down to the swimming hole. It was so special. We had a grandfather get to baptize his granddaughter's boyfriend (who has grown so much in the last year, and was a very genuine convert). We had a father get to baptize his son. We had older siblings baptizing younger siblings. By the time it was all said and done, there were 11 new Christians on Thursday night alone.

I was concerned about some of the younger ones just getting caught up in the moment, but as I spoke to each of them individually and spoke with many of their parents, I genuinely felt that all of them had been preparing for this for quite a while, and that God blessed us all to be in the right place at the right time with the right people. Just because responses are often emotional doesn't mean that they aren't also genuine. I felt very humbled and privileged that something which began as a few thoughts on paper with a somewhat flawed schedule ended up being an event that has permanently affected the lives of so many people.

We spent so long going back and forth from the swimming hole that we had to completely skip the Thursday night skits, which is a long standing tradition, but no one really cared except a couple of the youngest ones who didn't really understand the gravity of the moment. I wasn't able to do much other than to sit there with my mouth hanging open, amazed that God had blessed us so much in spite of ourselves.

From beginning to end, it was one of the best weeks of my life. And to be completely candid, it's the closest I've felt to God in nearly a decade.

Holiday World

Yesterday I took the youth group to Holiday World in Santa Claus, Indiana. For those of you who either like amusement parks or who organize trips for kids, I thought I would share my impressions of it.

They claim to be "#1 in Family Fun." I would say as far as being family-friendly and customer-friendly, they are a full head and shoulders above any other theme park I've ever been to. They are making a profit from this park, but I never felt like this place was greed-driven like Disney, Universal Studios, or Six Flags.

Here are some of the perks:

• Price - With a group rate, it was only $23.50 per person. Free parking, too. In fact, between admission, food, and renting a locker all day, I spent a total of less than $35. Pretty incredible!
  
• Food - Drinks are included! You look around for buildings labeled "Pepsi Oasis" (there is always one near by, wherever you are), then you go in, get a cup, and fill up on your choice of Pepsi products, tea, or orange Gatorade. When it was time to eat, the food was actually good, and very reasonable. For $6, I got a bacon cheeseburger, excellent fries, some extra cheese to dip my fries in, and a chocolate chip cookie. Drinks are always free. I couldn't have done better than that at most fast food places.
  
• Wooden Roller Coasters - The roller coasters they have are all legit. They really go fast, and the rides are pretty impressively long.
  
• Water Park - The water park is included in the price of admission. It isn't the double whammy like Universal Studios where you pay extra for the ride section. The water park rides were numerous, and all of them were really good. My favorite one was a bit like being flushed down a toilet. Two to Four of you get on an inflatable raft which goes through about 15 seconds of tunnel down into a funnel shaped spiraling bowl, and finally down and out the bottom of it. Next time I go, I will likely spend the majority of my time there in the water park. Did I mention that they provide free sunscreen? That was nice

As far as the things that were less desirable about it:

• If you don't like the jarring of wooden roller coasters, you won't find any smooth ones hear that take you upside down. There are only three roller coasters. They're good, but there are only three of them, and all are wooden. They have several other rides that are enjoyable, but if you're a big time coaster person and you don't like water parks, it will leave you wanting.
• It is in the middle of nowhere. I honestly don't think there is anything within 25 miles of this place. I don't know where you'd stay the night, because there is nothing around it. There aren't even any signs as you get close. You go over a hill out in the country, and suddenly there's a theme park in front of you.
  
• The music show was rather unimpressive. I prefer to see live musicians. There was singing and choreography--even a Christian music show--but no musical performers. As a musician, I was a little disappointed.
• I never could find a clock. When I had left my cellphone in the locker to do water rides, it was hard to know when I needed to go to the checkpoint.

Overall, the fun and the bang for your buck far outweighs the shortcomings. It is a great theme park, and I will definitely go back again. Any youth group looking to go to a theme park would make a good choice in trying Holiday World.

The Future You

The other day, Carolina and I discovered lots of old church directories filed away in the office. The earliest one with pictures we found was from 1972, and the most recent one we came across was from 2000. Different pictures strike you in different ways. There were several that made us laugh until we cried. Some people have changed so much, it's hard to believe! We also loved finding out just how many people are related to other people here. There are so many brothers, sisters, cousins, aunts, and uncles that I had no idea about.

I especially got a kick out of some of my youth group kids as little boys and girls in their sailor suits and lacy dresses. I will have to say my personal favorite was one of the dads of my youth group who was sporting an incredible mullet in the early 90's. I'm fighting hard to resist the temptation to scan those puppies and get them up on Facebook, but I think I would be biting off more than I can chew. The pictures on this post are some I found on the internet from someone's reunion where they did before and after shots of people. Everyone grows up and gets older!

The other day at church, a man handed me a paper with this little essay on it that I think is worth reading and reflecting on; especially if you are a young person.

The Future You

The person you are to become is always watching the person you are right now. The image you have of yourself tomorrow depends on the actions you watch yourself take today. The confidence with which you live next month will be based on the integrity of your actions this week.

You can always hide and conceal things from just about anyone, but the person you are to become is always watching. That person's opinion of you will play a major role in your life.

Will you be proud tomorrow of what you did today? Will your future self find strength in your present actions and attitudes? Will you learn from your mistakes and from your successes? The you of tomorrow is watching, waiting, hoping and depending upon the you of today.

Live each moment like someone is watching because that someone can make you or break you. Live so that the person you become in the future can look back with gratitude and admiration at the person you are right now.

Trials, temptations, disappointments - all these are helps instead of hindrances if one uses them rightly. They not only test the fiber of a character, but strengthen it. Every conquered temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.

Fall Fest

We had our annual Fall Festival at Old Hickory last night. It was lots of fun. I'll post a little more about it on my other blog, but I was proud of my outfit.

It is funny when you know people are staring at you, but are trying not to appear like they're staring at you. Many of the people at church genuinely could not figure out who I was (as in "Who is in that costume?"). Harriet, who was working at the main desk, glared at me from the moment I got out of my car. It wasn't until Carolina spoke that she figured out who we were. I had a good time!

Carpet Ball

I recently went on a retreat with my youth group to Camp Christian in Burns, TN. It was a really great weekend. The kids were well-behaved and participated really well. I had good help from the parents, and therefore we also had great food to eat and snack on. I also discovered a new game while I was there called Carpet Ball.

The game is like a dumbed down version of pool. You have a long wooden table kind of like a trough with a carpet-coated interior. (Apparently, it looks best when you use superbad 1970's carpet like what is pictured) You use one set of pool balls (solids on one end, stripes on the other). At each end of the table is a big pocket where the balls can be knocked into.

Each person sets up his/her balls in whatever way they desire, then the two players take turns pushing the pool cue ball towards their opponents' balls. The goal is to knock the other balls in without the cue ball going into the pocket. If the cue ball goes into the pocket, then whatever balls were knocked in that particular turn are taken back out and placed again on the table wherever the player desires within the lined-off area. The game is over when one person knocks all of the other person's balls into the pocket.

It doesn't look like it'd be that hard to build one. It was a lot of fun!

Tarter Sauce To The Ear

One of my youth group kids, Cody, sent me a picture from camp. On Thursday of camp, we have "Messy Day" where I organize a few activities involving really disgusting stuff. Probably the grossest thing this year was "Condiment Twister". I got 4 Twister games, taped them together, then on the 4 colors I put Ketchup (red), Mustard (yellow), Green Beans (green), and Grape Jelly (blue/purple). It was pretty nasty.

The kids had complained to me about previous years involving peanut butter and Crisco in their hair. I found a cool website called RecFX that sells all kinds of stuff to use for group activities. (The finger rocket things are a blast). I bought all 4 kinds of Yuck, and it turned out wonderfully. Some of it looked like sludge that I dyed black so it looked like caviar. Some of it was more like applesauce, some like jello, and some like snot (which we dyed the appropriate neon-green color).

The good thing about this yucky stuff is that it is neither petroleum-based nor sugar-based. That means it washes off really easily...and it did. I was very pleased with it. We started off with more organized activities which progressed to pure chaos, involving shaving cream-filled tube socks for smacking each other.

Unknown to me, one of the staff people brought along a Sam's-sized container of old tartar sauce which he left sitting in the sun in the back of his truck all week. At the right moment during the festivities, I was pushed out to the middle of the tarp and they tartar-sauced my head. It smelled disgusting, though a lot of people told me they were starting to get a craving for fish.

Since I got this new, upgraded picture of myself with the tartar sauce on my head, I thought I would put it on here. Enjoy.