While I ponder the point of continuing the camp post at this late date, I would like to say that I think I may be an OSU fan now. 😎

Sigh.  Never promise a post.  It has been nearly a month since returning from camp, and still no post on camp itself.  I guess I just don’t feel like writing.  I have wondered if I could make some extra cash by writing a book and selling it on Amazon in ebook form.  Well, here is my answer- if I don’t feel like writing a short blog post I certainly will never feel like writing a much longer work.

At the moment I am unsure what to write about camp.  I can start with a summary and see where to go from there.  I really didn’t enjoy camp as much this year as prior years, but it was still the highlight of my summer.  So what happened?  Well, I will try to figure that out as I write.  I do know that it was a day shorter than prior years.  We were also rained out for a portion- all activities cancelled or moved indoors.  I had a smaller cabin than ever before, but that should be a plus, right? 😉  Another change was- there was so much missing from prior years.  Gone for the first time ever was an activity called counselor hunt where all the leaders hid around camp and the kids had to find us, trying to avoid being tagged themselves by a select few who were hunting *them.*  Gone were the cabin video walkthroughs and awards for clean cabins.  And of course some activities had to be cut because of the shortened camp week.  One of those things I was really looking forward to- the talent show.  Not enough slots for all the cabins since we were short a day.  All in all, it just wasn’t the same.

Well, this has been a negative post so far.  How about what was fun about it?  Well, I had a really good cabin.  I didn’t really know any of my five kids beforehand.  I did remember having one of them in my weekend small group, but that’s it.  One was the brother of a 5th-grader I had last year (now 6th grade) who, like his brother, I have not seen since in the weekend ministry.  One turned out to be the nephew of my small group leader though I didn’t know it at the time, not until he asked if I saw his nephew at camp.  Yes, yes I think I did see him…

My junior leader was a freshman in high school- one of the youngest I have had.  I think one other was his age.  Get this though- his younger brother was also a leader, in a cabin with 5th-graders (my five were all 4th grade), just two years younger than him.  I think the church has loosened the age rule a bit on junior leaders- just a couple years ago the rule was 11th grade, with the occasional special dispensation.  This 7th grade leader was actually in my cabin in both 4th and 5th grade, as was another leader who I think may just meet that old 11th grade rule.  Shows how long I have been doing this…  While my junior leader this year was never in my cabin, he was a regular in my weekend small group when he was in 5th grade.

Well, I am officially tired of writing this post right now.  I could just save it to drafts and finish it later, but I had better just hit publish so at least you have something to read for now.  Coming soon- the return of Zorb, canoeing fun, and more.  Until then!

Okay you may ask, where is/are the camp post(s)?  Well, in short, I haven’t written it/them yet.  As you can tell from the last sentence I don’t know how many of them there will be.  Work was quite busy over the last week and I really had little time for myself when I returned home, usually around 7-ish with photos to go through and upload.  Aside from that my mother had an episode a little over a week ago that left her with a slightly fractured ankle and so I have been doing some extra work helping with that.  Her ankle will be healing for about eight weeks (one down, seven to go…)

So how about some “small world” news?  Not about me, but about one of our church’s pastors?  Both of the main pastors at my church are from Canada, though now have citizenship here.  What do most boys growing up in Canada do?  Hint- it’s not baseball, the past-time of this country.  Even I participated in that for a couple of years- one tee-ball when I was very young, and one as a very poor player in intermediate league because my best friend at the time played it.  Interesting story there- he was on the best team in the league, I was on the worst.  What do you think happened when we played each other?  A classic case of overconfidence of course, so we won.  The only game we won if I remember correctly.  Oh, well.  My interest was never really there so I didn’t practice, got stuck in right field, and the only ball I ever hit was an easily caught pop-up.

But this isn’t supposed to be about me.  I am sure you have figured out by now that what most Canadian boys do growing up is play hockey.  You know all professional athletes start somewhere, and the story of a hockey superstar intersected with the story of one of our pastors on a team together as kids.  The reason for him bringing it up in his message was about teamwork, the body of Christ working together in their separate roles defined by spiritual gifts.  The story was how he tried and failed to score a goal on his own when a teammate was wide open to pass to.  Wayne even came up to him afterward and asked why our not-yet-pastor didn’t pass the puck to him.  Oh, did I just give away the superstar?  Even though I only gave his first name, I do believe that will be sufficient as all of you of course mentally added his surname.  Being a very gifted player even at a young age, you know he would have scored that goal too.  But anyway, just as not all hockey players are goalies or forwards, just as not all baseball players are pitchers, we in Christ are not all teachers, not all pastors, not all bearing higher-profile gifts.  God has given us different gifts and we are, as I already mentioned, to use them together whether our gifts are onstage, backstage, outside, or wherever.

So… how has your week been?  Camp post(s) still coming soon.

The theme of camp this year, for the entire summer actually among all the age groups, was war.  The years switch off between two themes for 4th/5th grade age group but this is the first time I noticed the entire summer was the same theme.  Anyway, this song from Passion 2012 was this summer’s main theme song:

More to come, but I wanted to get this out of the way first that you may be blessed by it.

(note to admin: the Godtube tag no longer works?  No matter, I found a version on Youtube, fortunately  without ads- harder to do each day.)

Hey, I’m back!  Ok, you never knew I was gone since I barely post.  Well, I have something to post about now.  Camp 2012.  Coming soon, but first a rest.

Boy, you can almost hear the crickets chirping around here lately, partly due to me of course.  I do know the situations of two of you of course; as for Jamiahsh, the new job must be keeping him busy.  Or has this blog site run it’s course?  Maybe it’s time to open a Twitter account since I don’t blog much anyway.  And I don’t think it has to be tied to a real name unlike Bookface, I mean Facebook.  Could be wrong though as I have never looked into it.

My lunch today:

That is all.

So it doesn’t spell a real word.  Sue me 😛 (no, please don’t- who can afford an attorney these days?)  Anyway, it is time for my bimonthly update it would seem.  Let’s try bullet points since much has gone on- not so dull after all.

• AWANA- ended several weeks ago.  First year of round 3 complete.  In my previous round, the Sparkies I had the first year were K-2.  This year they finished 8th, 9th, and 10th grades.  Hard to believe there was a round even before that, but I have been serving in kid’s ministry since fall ’98, and started that first AWANA round fall ’99.
• My AWANA team had a *lot* of 3rd-graders.  Where are they now?  Why, many of them have shown up in my weekend classroom.  That’s right, 3rd grade through high school officially moved up at the beginning of this month.  Younger kids don’t move up until the end of summer.  I can hear the sing-song voices of the older kids: “I’m now in 4th grade, but you’re still in fir-irst.  Nah-nah-nah-nah-nah!”
• 5th graders moving out at the end of last month was as usual sad.  Some didn’t even bother showing up (not their fault I’m sure) which was even more sad because I didn’t have a chance to say goodbye to them.  Especially since the week before I missed.
• What?  I missed a week of church?  Blasphemy!  Okay, I have an excuse- I was in southern Illinois for my nephew’s graduation.  From college.  Yes, I am officially old…  I never want to repeat that weekend again, by the way.  We stayed at my nephew’s house (take that, h/motel industry with your doubled prices for graduation weekend!) which was in and of itself not a problem, but he had parties going on Friday and Saturday night.  Think me and parties, those that know me- college parties.  Kegs, beer pong, hip-hop (non)music…  Yeah, I appreciated going home at the end of it.  Oh yes, I watched my pastor’s sermon on the web, so I only missed the fellowship, not the message.
• The boy’s TnT director had a mini-golf outing two weeks ago for kids who finished a book that year.  Does anyone recall the mini-golf outings my church experimented with a couple years ago for 4th and 5th grade small groups?  I’m sure I wrote up something as back then I was still making semi-regular posts here…  Yeah, it went like those.  28 book-finishers.  Two showed up.  Two.  Out of 28…  Sigh.  Still, for the few of us it was an enjoyable afternoon.
• Two new employees for my company.  One person had moved to sales, so really just one new for all intents and purposes.  It does free me up a little for camp in August since I gave her two of my stores.  Yeah, August- two months later than prior years.  Well, six weeks anyway.  And minus a day too.  The church decided to change things for this summer to add two extra camp sessions, which actually gave them three because they are consolidating the two 4th and 5th grade weeks into just one for all campuses.  It is going to be crowded I think.  But it will still be fun.
• The book store is closing at my church so I used the gift card that one of my AWANA kids gave me for Christmas (sweet of him) and added $20 of my own to get four books at 40% off.  Books by John MacArthur, Greg Laurie, David Jeremiah and John Piper- the former three who can be heard on Moody radio on a regular basis.  I also have a book from Erwin Lutzer and others books as well, so I really had better start reading them.  The only fiction book I am waiting to read is the final Wheel of Time book due out sometime this year.  No, scratch that.  It *was* due out in March of this year after having been pushed back.  Now it has been pushed back until next January.  Oh, well.  Plenty of time to read the more inspiring books of my collection first.
• What of the musical I tried out for?  Didn’t make it.  Oh, well.  I wonder if God wants me to use my gifts elsewhere?  I sent an email to CYT Chicago, now apparently called Spotlight Youth  Theater to see if they had volunteer opportunities for non-parents.  Apparently not since they never bothered to email me back, even with a reply of “no.”
• Today there was a short period of wind and a thunderstorm.  Sometime during it I heard a funny sound from outside.  I looked and saw that one of the trees in the front yard had assumed a mostly horizontal position.  Yikes!  I expected to see a scorch mark on what remained of the trunk, but apparently it was rotting and all it took was this wind storm to finish it off.  Praise God though- it fell on the ground and driveway and not on the house or one of the cars *on* the driveway.  In fact, there was at least a foot between the butt of my car and the nearest branch (which would have done little more than scratch the car- there was even greater distance from the thicker branches and trunk which could potentially have caused catastrophic damage.  Again, Praise God.

Saved the best for last, right?  Okay, maybe not, but at least it comes with pictures!  I have AWANA award ceremony pictures too, but I probably shouldn’t post them.

A dull life that is.  There has really been nothing exciting to write about.  Working, eating, browsing the web.  And the few days during the week I trek to my church for small group, AWANA, and service.  Easter service a few weeks ago topped last year’s.  An award-winning gospel artist returned to sing with us again, there were boatloads of confetti, and the addition of a balloon drop.  Just normal life at a large church. 😉

This week the first year of my third stint at AWANA came to a close with Sparks and TnT awards night.  Two of my kids gifted me with a card & bookmark, and some homemade pretzel/chocolate treats which were snarfed down the next day.  Yum.  It was a nice night with some worship from the AWANA worship leader, handouts of well over a hundred awards (some kids received more than one when they finished a book from the previous year plus the current one).  I was surprised to see several awards to older kids who did not have an official AWANA time to meet- at our church it only goes through 5th grade.  At least one winner was in high school.  AWANA does have clubs for junior high and high school so these were legitimate awards, it’s just that our church doesn’t support them on more than an individual basis.  It was nice to see several of my team (red) as well as ones on other teams I lead on the weekends earning awards.  One of my Sunday regulars won a gift card from the director too for earning the most points over the year for verses memorized, uniform, Bible, and bringing friends.  Our next meeting is a special fun night for book-finishers in June.  How many will actually be there I don’t know.  A couple of years ago when 4th and 5th grade ministry sponsored small group outings I had exactly one show up for each one.

Speaking of 4th and 5th grade ministry, this is an off weekend.  Next month is the final month for 5th-graders meaning there are only three meetings left for them before they graduate out of children’s ministry and into student ministry.  Three more times to make a difference in their lives before they, like their predecessors before them, leave me behind.

Well, that’s it for now.  Almost three months since my last post about my life (though I suppose reading that book mentioned in another post was a part as well, so less than three months then) and not much to write about.  Maybe the title is accurate after all…

Yes I did enjoy the trip to visit my lifelong (seen teen years anyway) friends last month, but they already know the details, so not much to say there, right? 🙂

Heaven is for real.  Absolutely true.  But is this story for real?  Did Colton Burpo really go to Heaven and meet Jesus, his great grandfather, and his sister who died in a miscarriage?  Does the painting made by a girl who has had visions from God and confirmed by Colton to be accurate really depict the likeness of the second person of the Trinity?  There were a couple of things in his account that troubled me, but I think you will be doing yourself a disservice not to pick this book up at your library or bookstore, read it for yourself, and make your own judgment.  Be sure to click on the images for more information on the Burpos and on the girl behind the painting.

*RING* *RING* *RING*

Yawn, time to get up already?  Hey wait- it’s not wakeup time!  I distinctly remember setting my alarm for 7:25- it’s only 6!  Thanks junior leader- I know we didn’t want a repeat of last year (no alarm went off, late for breakfast…) but this is a tad ridiculous…  Guess what readers?  He didn’t even wake up- right back to sleep after I nudged him and told him his alarm went off.  Let me clarify.  *He* went back to sleep, I just lay there for the next hour…  I don’t think I’m the only one who didn’t get back to sleep after the false alarm, but at least whoever else awakened they kept quiet.  So, 7:25 rolled around and most of us got up.  There was only one who didn’t, and that is always a fun thing.  No, no buckets of water.  Can’t have that much fun. 😉  Only one though, so again, not as much fun as it could have been.

Breakfast was great- eggs, bacon, sausage, I think there were pancakes?  Starting to forget- good thing this is only two parts.  They even had hot sauce out for the eggs- they know me well!  Session 2- starting with a few Angry Birds shorts.  Wait- Angry Birds is a ‘toon now?  Have I been under a rock?  Anyway, find a bunch of them at RovioMobile on Youtube.  Here’s one as a sample- they are in hi-def too, so change the quality and go full-screen with it!

Our next minute to win it game was up.  Last night it was catching-things-in-large-basket-on-head (whatever it was called), this morning it was be-a-tp-dispenser-for-teammate who busily tries to wrap him/herself without breaking the paper.  The boys and girls each had turns today (one boy, one girl from each team). Get ready- go! (press play on video below)

Annnnnnd- we lost.  I believe I said last time we didn’t win any of the minute games, so you already knew this.  Oh, well.  Moving on, we worshiped and our family pastor gave part two of the lesson.  We didn’t focus much on the prayer in chapter two so much as what it meant- Jonah repented.  Still miraculously alive in the fish, he went to his knees (figuratively I’m sure- not much room in a fish I wouldn’t think…) and communed with God.  In the end, as you probably know already, the fish (relieved I’m sure) spat him up onto land and so ends the chapter.  Small group discussion back in the cabin and then- game time!  Plinko (isn’t that trademarked by a famous pricing game show?) in the lot- oh wait.  The snow caused a change.  Instead we played snow soccer.  Not much to say here- one ball, then two, three, large balls, giant earth ball…  I’ll let your mind play this one out.  Unfortunately halfway through someone caused the earth ball to deflate, meaning when we switched games with the other two teams they sadly didn’t get to use it.  We switched to acquire the tire- a steal-the-bacon game where there were inner-tubes (alas, I don’t think 10-and-11-year-olds could handle actual tires- something about the weight of them…) ranging in size from small car to tractor, and point values from 50 to 1000.  The big tractor tire was of course the 1000-pointer (how many kids would it take to lift a tractor tire?  Good thing they were just inner tubes!).  All they had to do was drag it over their line, with kids from the other team latched on to the other side of it dragging it in the opposite direction.  Easy, right? 😉

Lunch time- the expected chicken nuggets and mac & cheese.  This reminds me of a couple years ago when I was sure the mac and cheese was really mac and yellow food coloring, but the last couple years it was definitely pretty good.  I still long for BBQ sauce to dip the nuggets in, but ketchup was fine.  After lunch was cabin rest- wait, no it wasn’t- this wasn’t summer camp nor was it Michigan despite the constant references to cabins (classrooms, really), so we were allowed to treat the kids as if they were in a workhouse if we wanted to.  Okay, not really, but there was no cabin rest.  Just straight to session 3: revival.  Chapter 3 of Jonah started the story again, this time he entered Ninevah and gave them the warning from God.  Much to Jonah’s dismay Ninevah was repentant and God withheld judgment.  Chapter 4 expounds on this more, but that was the 4th session which no one was there for since they had gone home.  That’s right, there was no fourth session.  Revival was a good note to exit on, right?  Following a good up-front game, good worship, excellent teaching, and very productive small group time was the next team game involving giant slingshots and fla-vor-ice popsicles.  Last year the only goal was to get the popsicles on the roof, but this year they put up a giant target.  They could go for the roof as well, but the biggest points were the bullseye and… the pastor.  That’s right, our pastor came out a couple of times and made himself a target worth double the points of the bullseye.  I think the other team grazed him, but no direct hits that I could tell.  Maybe the other two teams fared better.  Or maybe he walked off a happy pastor. 🙂

The other game was inside and improved from last year- an ice-block relay.  The kids got to ride a large ice block to the other side of the gym and back.  It was improved as they made the blocks thicker this year so they didn’t fall apart after extended use.  I think a couple teams last year had to switch to scooters toward the end.  Extra points were given after awhile if they rode superman-style, on their bellies with arms held out in front like flying through the air.  Leaders had a turn as well.  Same with the tire game earlier- I forgot to mention it.

After the games we cleaned out our cabins so the younger kids could use them during church later and not have to work around backpacks and sleeping bags, then we had free time.  Not so free, just the appearance of free.  That is, they were free to play the games within their assigned area.  There were six areas.  Really, five- they tried to separate the games in one of the rooms, but we just let them play whatever they wanted instead- they were the games in the room they play every weekend so they already knew what they liked and what they didn’t.  The gym had the best games- a return of  gaga-ball in a less-permanent court than at camp, and they got to play nine-square this time.  On the other side was the explosive volleyball-like game of nuke-em.  Look up my summer camp recap for explanations of all of these.  The final room consisted of crafts, karaoke, and board games.  Okay, scratch karaoke- apparently they didn’t actually have it though the schedule showed it.  Oh, well.  The boys were only in there 15 minutes before dinner was called anyway, clever scheduling on the church’s part as this is a less interesting thing for boys generally.  The girls got a shortened weekend-games room time, but everyone got the full half-hour of gym time.

The end is drawing near.  Dinner time with spaghetti, a video, then parents arrived for a short recap, worship time, and closing ceremony with the announcement of the winner- the team we played against all the Saturday games.  The original idea (did I mention this already?) was to play against two different teams (Friday night was a four-team game), but the way they did the cabins that would have pitted boy-strong teams against girl-strong teams so we wound up playing the team that was most in line with ours.  To clarify, there were three cabins that made up each team unlike summer camp where we had four.  Two teams had two boy-cabins and one girl-cabin.  Vice-versa for the other two teams.  I would like to add that moi noticed the absence of the big song from summer, which became one of my favorites, and made a special request to do it since, after all, this was an extension of summer camp.  The worship team practiced Like a Lion during the afternoon and had it ready for this closing worship time.  Kudos to the band for that.

With the closing ceremony over, all that was left was to part ways.  We moved to the gym and the parents claimed their baggage kids.  It was a little sad parting ways after 24 hours of a blastin’ good time (yes, there’s a reason I used that word…), but part we must.  And that includes us- until next time!

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You’re still here??  It’s over.  Go home.

Go..!  (Sorry, a certain recent car commercial based on a certain famous movie was on my mind)

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Okay, one last bit.  I tend to avoid naming people and places and whatnot, but my church makes these videos public and I only have about two readers (partly my own fault I know) so I will just go ahead and link to the official video online.  Now you don’t have to imagine much of what I wrote- does the video hold up to your imaginations? 🙂  No, you won’t get to see me on the ice block, so keep on imagining. 😉  Careful eyes will spot me a couple times though…  Sadly, no HD version. 🙁

[vimeo]https://vimeo.com/36104897[/vimeo]

And hey, nice song they used!  Adventurous people may find summer camp videos as well…