Excited?

Staff meetings are this week for work and the kids are supposed to arrive on Monday. I haven't really had a whole lot of feelings about work starting up again. Well, maybe I have kinda been dreading it and wondering why I signed my contract to give up my weekends (or worse, my Sundays) for another year. But today I got to go to my first staff meeting and, upon seeing the resident student list, I kinda got... Excited? Really? Yeah, I am kinda excited about work. Funny how just seeing the names of the kids I am going to be spending my weekends with got me excited about my job. I thought it was funny... The meetings sucked and I have to go to more on Friday (I am supposed to go tomorrow but I have class... never thought I would prefer to go to class than a meeting). Friday's meeting should be short and then I have to do my CPR certification that afternoon, but it hopefully won't be too bad. But yeah... I'm kinda excited... Go figure...

The Root of All Evil

Today was our first Community back after a summer break. It was so nice to not have to walk into big church and feel awkward and uncomfortable in those pews, but to actually walk into a room full of people I love and who love me (not that people in big church don't love me... many of them do, it's just... so dull) and feel comfortable.

The popular phrase is "The love of Money is the Root of all Evil." Is that really true. True, money causes many of the problems in our world today, but really... ALL problems... it's a little extreme. Actually, money makes a lot of good things possible in our world today. We looked at one of John Wesley's sermons where he talks about the use of money amongst Christ Followers. Mike Kingsley mentioned it in his last blog, but it basically can be summed up in three short sentences: "Gain all you can. Save all you can. and Give all you can." Now, without going into great depth on this topic, it pretty much means that we should be hard workers. As Christ followers we should be hard working because we serve a higher master. We should use every minute of our day to work hard and earn as much as we can. Following that is "Save all you Can." This doesn't really mean to stockpile all of your money just because you can. It's more it's better to save our money than to continue spending it and pouring into this giant consumer economy that we find ourselves in. And the third of course is "Give all you can." It's pretty simple right. So why can't we do it? Why can't I do it?

John Wesley died with only a saddle. The reality of our finances is that 100% of what we have is God's. Not the 10th that we give to the church (even though that is important), but every penny we have is God's. That means that anything we purchase with our money is (or should be) an offering to Him (pleasing in His eyes). John Wesley wraps up his sermon with this:
"Brethren, can we be either wise or faithful stewards unless we thus manage our Lord's goods? ... Then why should we delay? ... At this hour, and from this hour, do His will: Fulfill His word, in this and in all things! I entreat you, in the name of the Lord Jesus, act up to the dignity of your calling!"

It might not all make sense because it doesn't really make sense to me right now either. Here I sit typing on my poop HP computer dreaming of owning a new Macbook Pro and a new SLR camera for my digital photography class. So what do I do with that?

Thin Moments

It's been so nice to be able to go to church this summer. I've been almost dreading going back to work in a couple of weeks because I know it means no more church. I've been kinda bummed that Community took a break for the summer (I'm glad I get to go to two before work starts) because I really have a hard time in "Big church" (I call it big church... I don't know why...). I don't know if it is the Honky Tonk/Patriotic Worship music or the sermons that seem to go on forever about nothing... sorry, a little bit of venting going on there. Anyway, all this to say I actually liked yesterday's sermon. Even though most of Paul's sermons feel like I am in a history lesson (and don't get me wrong, I like a little bit of the history stuff... but not an hour of it...), yesterday's was pretty good. He has been talking about this "Thin Moments" in life where we find ourselves the closest to God. At conference (and it seems like everywhere), a lot of people have been wondering "Where God went?" He seems so distant to so many people and the reality of it is, He hasn't gone anywhere. We have built up this thick wall around us with the business of our lives, the school, the work, the meetings, the soccer games, whatever is filling our lives. We have pushed Him away and we have to thin out our lives in order to draw nearer to him. So the sermons have been about ancient ways of making ourselves thin to God. This week He talked about the "Jesus Prayer" which is one of my favorite prayers. There's just something so powerful in saying "Jesus Christ, Son of God, Have mercy on me, A sinner."

Home Again, Home Again...

It's been a little less than a week since I got back from GEM-K Conference and I am just now getting my head focused enough to write about it. Conference was amazing! It was so nice to catch up with old friends from last year and was even more fun to get to know all of the first timers to GEM-K Conference (this year we had over 10 first timers). This year was really neat because there wasn't a specific "team" that came over to run conference. We had a team, but not like last year when our team from OVCC went over to run it. This year there were two youth leaders from GEM (Cam and Tagg), four past GEM-Ks (Patty, John, Michael, and Kate), two people who love GEM-Ks (Liz and myself), Rod, and Matt and Hailey (and their kids). Being at Conference came so naturally this year because, 1) I had been there before and knew what to expect, and 2) I wasn't in charge of making sure the entire thing ran smoothly (by that I mean it wasn't all on our team's shoulders like last year, rather it was a total team effort and it was just natural).

So, the theme for Conference this year was taken from Chris Haw and Shane Claiborne's new book Jesus for President (sound familiar?) Matt was our speaker and he focused on a Mission theme: namely the Mission that God has for each of us and how it ties into God's Mission of bringing Shalom to the Earth. So our theme was Sheep... How does that work, you might ask. Well, in Matthew 10:16, Jesus says "I am sending you out like sheep among wolves" so... there you go. We are all sheep.

So, like I said, Matt was our speaker. In the mornings he would show a video and then we would break into our small groups and discuss the video. In the evenings Matt would speak in a sort of discussion format (similar to what we do in Community which is why I really enjoyed it). Every night he had the kids participate in section which he called "Agree:Disagree." How you play is simple: Matt throws out a statement and you walk to a side. You either agree or you disagree and then we discuss and argue each side. And you HAD to pick a side. There was no room for middle ground. All of the statements were set up in a way where you could come up with an argument to agree or disagree. I liked this part of Matt's talks because it made the kids (and myself) actually think about what they believe and why they believe it without being able to consult their parents or friends. They had to decide. Two statements that I remember most vividly were from the last night: "I have sinned if I bought a pair of shoes that were, unbeknown to me, made in a sweatshop." and "Everything we do is spiritual." Now, I have some strong opinions for these two, but I was surprised at the amount of kids which disagreed with my opinions. It was actually kinda sad.

All in all, conference was great! I love making connections with people, especially teens. I am so thankful for the opportunity to be able to attend and hang out with everyone (thanks again Matt!). It really was a wonderful time!

PS: the rest of my photos are posted on my Flickr. Have a look!

What is Poverty?

Today is our second full day of Conference and things are going really well. This morning Michael shared with us about his recent trips to Cambodia. He showed some pictures of where he lived and his brothers and family in Cambodia. He also showed us a pair of trousers (I've been hanging around Matt too long when I call pants trousers) he was wearing that his friend from Cambodia swiped from the garment factory she works in and gave him as a gift. It was crazy to actually see the face of someone who works in garment factories in Cambodia and to hear the stories of people passing out from the chemicals in the dyes while they only get paid $50 a month... The pants alone sell for a good 40 Euro (Michael said this, I don't know the brand but I hear it's popular in the UK). Michael told another story of one of his trips to Cambodia when he couldn't take any money out of the bank because his bank card didn't work (I've had this problem before no it was no fun). Oneo f his sisters/friends (she was pretty young and had lost both of her parents to AIDS) told him that she had saved up some money and handed him everything she had (about $10). He refused it at first because it was all she had and she started crying saying that if he didn't take it, then he didn't love her family. Sounds like a lame excuse I know but it was totally legit. In that culture it would be an insult not to take it as it was; a gift.

After Michael shared, we watched a short movie that asked the question "What Is Poverty?" Many people define it as a lack of money, but this guy proposed that Poverty was a lack of friendship. He asked, "If you lost everything, your house, your money, everything, how long would it take you to find food and water? How long would it take you to find a place to sleep? How long would it take you to find a job?" A lot of people I know would probably say a matter of minutes and maybe a week or so for a job. His argument was that if you are able to find everything you need to survive in a matter of minutes or weeks, then you are not poor. It was an interesting argument and I am not totally sure I agree with it fully, but I can definitely see a lot of that at school. All of the kids I work with are filthy stinkin rich but are so lacking in the love department that I would totally consider them poor...

I don't know. It was an interesting topic and it was neat to hear Michael speak a little. Tomorrow we are going to Vienna in the afternoon which should be a good time! For now I am going to attempt to take a little nap... I'm tired! Check out the pictures I posted on Flickr today of Conference so far.

2 Posts in One Day?

It must be something good if I get two posts in one day... My bag came tonight (around 9:30pm)!!! Praise God! And another praise is that Mike is doing much better. Matt and Liz went to visit him this afternoon and they say he looks much better. The doctors still want to keep him there to figure out what's wrong with them... So please keep praying that the doctors can figure out what's going on and that he can join us soon!

Caught in a Storm

Today I woke up around 9 am after going to sleep around 9:30pm... gotta love those 11 hour sleeps. We all ate breakfast and then hung around for a couple hours before heading into downtown Sopron. We found a bank (many of us didn't have any forint and needed to take some out) and then we went and ate some pizza for lunch. Liz and I (Liz is my roommate by the way... I enjoy hanging with her and am looking forward to getting to know her better) shared a pizza which made for a lovely lunch. We then walked up to the BOB (the toboggan ride here in Sopron), just to make sure we all remembered how to get there. I opted out of riding it this time around, but maybe later in the week if some kids want to go I will ride it with them. As we left the BOB, it began to rain. We walked down to the Interspar (the very large grocery store here is Sopron) and picked up some necessities (for me it was shampoo, conditioner, deodorant,) and then some not so necessities: Coke Light (that's right Ryan... I'm having a Hungarian Coke Light right now... If I get my suitcase back then I will bring some home for you, but if I'm stuck with my carry-on, you're out of luck!) and a Soproni (yeah, that's definitely a beer... not quite 21 yet in the states, but here it's legal and not a big deal so Liz, Matt, and I are going to have our beers later on tonight). Once we left Interspar the rain had picked up and there was some definite thunder going on in the background. Ah... a summer thunder storm! It's was super neat to be caught in one since we definitely don't have them in California. We were able to catch the bus up to our stop. By the time we reached our stop we still had a 5-10 min walk uphill to our hotel and by this time it was pouring down rain with thunder and lightening. Once we got up the hill, we were soaked from head to toe. I kept slipping in my rainbows so I took them off and just walked up barefoot. About 5 minutes ago I looked out the window of my room and definitely saw a lightening bolt maybe a mile away... and now the rain has stopped... It looks like it's clearing up. But it was pretty neat.

Anyway, no word on the luggage yet. I have to call and ask sometime today. I will keep you as updated as possible. Please be in prayer for Matt's brother Mike. He got here yesterday from spending a couple months in Cambodia (he is here to be part of the team) and almost instantly began to feel ill. Not getting into too many details, he got REALLY sick and from all the loss of fluid he was definitely way dehydrated. The ambulance picked him up yesterday and took him to the hospital were he probably has to stay for another two nights. Matt and Liz are over there right now checking up on him but please pray that the doctors can figure out what's wrong with him as there are many possibilities with him just getting back from Cambodia. Pray that they can treat him and that he will be healed and can join our team soon.

Made it... Almost in one Piece...

It is now Sunday, August 3 (I have lost a day somewhere) and I am happy and thankful to report that I made it safe and sound to the Hotel Korona in Sopron, Hungary. The flights weren't too bad (accept for the 2 hour delay in DC). I am sad to report that the one bag that I checked didn't make it to Hungary with me (and no, I am not joking). I have all of my clothes with me this time (I brought them in a carry-on) so we are only missing all of the camp shirts and decorations. It won't be the end of the world if it doesn't make it, but it will be a lot of time and money wasted (which would be a bummer). Please pray that it makes it here soon so the kids can have shirts for conference this year. I will try and keep you all updated on the trip (the hotel has wireless internet now so I don't have to sit up in the nest and plug in every time...). Anyway, I have to get going. Check back for more soon!

Making Like a Baby... and Heading Out...

I couldn't resist the pun in the title... I couldn't figure out what to make the title so I made it as cheesy as possible...

I am leaving tomorrow morning for the 2008 GEM-K Conference in Sopron, Hungary. All my bags are packed... I'm ready to go... oh wait I'm not singing... But in all reality I am ready to go. These last six weeks have been crazy stressful and busy with camp, and I am excited to get away and meet new people and reconnect with old friends. I will do my best to keep my blog updated with photos or whatever, but I don't make any promises. Please pray for travel safety for me (and my luggage... I am carrying on my clothes and checking the camp t-shirts and it would be a bummer if they didn't make it). Keep me and the MKs and the leaders and Matt & Hailey in your prayers the next week and a half.

PS: Here are a random sampling of photos from Summer Camp this year. Enjoy!