Head of the GSD Department

Work has been about half stress/half a riot lately. I say a riot because they stress and craziness of it just kinda makes me laugh now. A lot is going on and my boss keeps throwing things at me that stress me out, but now it's almost a joke seeing that there is only about a week and half left. My friend Katie (she has worked summers in the past with us and it was really hard doing the first few weeks without her) is back for the last two weeks of camp which has been a huge help! Everyone has been asking what her official job title is and we decided that she is in charge of the GSD department (Get Shit/Stuff (as we tell the kids) Done) and she is doing a fantastic job of getting stuff done!

As far as everything else goes, I'm trying to tie up lose ends and finish up stuff before I fly out to Hungary on August 2. That's right. I am not sure if I mentioned it before but I am going out to the GEM-K conference again this year in Sopron, Hungary. I leave on Aug 2 which is less than two weeks away which doesn't leave me a ton of time to get things finished up. Please pray that I can manage my time well these next few days. Also pray for conference this year. I am really excited about going (I am also carrying on my own luggage... no losing anything this year). I will write more about conference before I head out, but for now, I'm off to work!

Jesus for President

It's here! The long awaited blog on Shane Claiborne's new book, Jesus for President. I finished the book months ago and never felt motivated or focused enough to actually sit down and write about it. What changed you might ask. Last night I went to the Jesus for President book tour at Ventura Vineyard church. The mix of music and speaking was really moving and inspirational... it sounds kinda crazy, but it was a super neat experience. Shane and Chris (Chris Haw, the co-author of the book) would stand up and quasi-preach the main outline of the book; from political structures of the bible to the political stands Jesus made to the political stands that we as His followers should be making as well. Intermittently between Shane and Chris speaking, two guys from Psalters would play some pretty powerful songs/chants/ and ultimately Psalms...

The book itself is really powerful and really makes you think about how you live your life. It questions who you are living for; Are you living for the Roman Empire (or in our case, the American Empire) or are you living as a chosen child of God - Holy and set apart from nations to be His own. The book really looks at the early church and the politics of Jesus. Someone asked me about a month ago if I thought "politics" should be brought into the church. My response was, the church itself is a political statement. Jesus' entire ministry was political and we, as His followers, should follow in the same manner. We need to be radicals for love and not war - loving our enemies, which I'm pretty sure doesn't include killing them - We are called to turn the other cheek, not to cower in fear but to look our enemy in the eye and pour Christ's love into their souls.

Everything that Shane and Chris had to say was super powerful, but one thing that really made me look at my own life was this: During Jesus' ministry, some of John the Baptist's disciples came to Jesus and asked him, "Are you the one who was to come, or should we expect someone else?" (Luke 7:19). Jesus didn't respond with a conceited "Yes." Instead he "cured many who had diseases, sicknesses and evil spirits, and gave sight to many who were blind" and told them "Go back and report to John what you have seen and heard: The blind receive sight, the lame walk, those who have leprosy are cured, the deaf hear, the dead are raised, and the good news is preached to the poor." (Luke 7:22) Jesus essentially says to them, "Tell him what you see... look at what is being done and decide for yourself." I have always thought this response was pretty neat, but Shane challenged us by asking if we could respond in the same way? When people ask us, "Are you a Christian?" our response should be that like Christ's "Tell me what you see in my life." I know I struggle with that and always have to reevaluate my life to see if someone could look at my life and see Jesus at the center of every thought and action.

There were a ton of super cool parts about last night; including hanging out after with Paul, Kathy, Josh, Darren, Kate, Carl, Coco, and sitting chatting with Shane and Chris after most people had left. We stuck around for a bit and Paul just shared his heart with them. Then we helped them load up their Veggie Oil bus (I'm pretty sure it's normally the Psalter's travel bus, but they are using it for the book tour and driving it across the country. The coolest thing I probably can take from last night was reciting the Litany of Resistance and Confession that Shane, Chris, and some others had complied in order to pledge allegiance to our one true King (not a country, an empire, a flag, or president, but our one true King and Savior Jesus Christ):

One: Deliver Us, O God.
All: Guide our feet in the ways of Your peace.
One: In humility, we ask.
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us Peace.
One: In humility, we ask.
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us Peace.
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.
All: Have mercy on us.
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.
All: Free us from the bondage of sin and death.
One: Lamb of God, you take away the sins of the world.
All: Hear our prayer. Grant us peace.
One: Today, we pledge our ultimate allegiance to the Kingdom of God.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the peace that is not like Rome's.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the gospel of enemy-love.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the kingdom of the poor and broken.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To a King who loves His enemies so much He died for them.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the least of these, with whom Christ dwells.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the transnational Church that transcends the artificial borders of nations.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the refugee of Nazereth.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the homeless rabbi who had no place to lay His head.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the cross rather than the sword.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the banner of love above any flag.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the One who rules with a towel rather than an iron fist.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the One who rides a donkey rather than a war horse.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the revolution that sets both oppressed and oppressors free.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the way that leads to Life.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: To the Slaughtered Lamb.
All: We pledge allegiance.
One: And together we proclaim His praises, from the margins of the empire to the centers of wealth and power.
All: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb!
One: Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb!
All: Long Live the Slaughter Lamb!

Way better than pledging to the American flag. How incredible is it that we can pledge our allegiance to the Slaughtered Lamb! The goal of last night was not to tell us who to vote for or which party to join. Their mission was and is to unite Christ Followers to live lives set apart from the nations and empires of this world and to live lives that reflect Christ's love for us all. Long Live the Slaughtered Lamb!

Camp... And then Some...

I have now heard from about three people that they were SO happy that I FINALLY updated my blog... I know I am usually really good at updating, but it's been a rough last 5 weeks with trips, prepping for camp, and now running camp. The first three weeks of have been really hard on my physically, mentally, and emotionally. Things are starting to look up though. God has put two incredible co-workers on our staff this year that are so encouraging and loving towards me. God also has blessed me with some AMAZING friends and mentors and I am so thankful for having them in my life (you know who you are...).

So, camp... Where do I begin? I actually don't really want to talk about it. It's getting better and we are hoping/praying to hire Katie back to help us out for the last three weeks of camp. Right now it's kinda just been Dillon and myself doing everything with not a whole lot of help from out new Head Dorm Parents... they are doing their best, but they are new to the job and there seems to be a bigger learning curve for them (not to mention one is the laziest person alive and never wants to do anything he is supposed to... it's kinda annoying). So camp is crazy and stressful, but I am trying to find the joy in it where I can...

Chaos and then Some

This post is mainly for Martha (which, I didn't even know that you read my blog because you never comment on any of my posts...) but since it has been forever since I have posted, I thought I would throw out a brief catch up before taking my 60 children (camp has begun) to the fireworks.

So, we are just finishing our first session of camp (first two weeks) which means that all of our 2A campers will be going home tomorrow and all of our 2B and 4B campers will be moving into the dorms. This session was SUPER stressful with ACA accreditation and crazy children (one of which we sent home early) and the lice scare and the 4th of July... but things are getting a little better (just in time for out next group to show up...). I will have to do a full catch up later when I have more time, but for now, you will just have to be satisfied with the teasers (Martha...).

You Drive Me Crazy!

Tuesday, my mom, my cousin, and I loaded up my little Dodge Neon and headed up the 101 en route for Sacramento. The plan was originally to be just me and my mom, but my cousin is staying with us for a little while and so she came along as well. Our first stop was at Montaña de Oro State Park outside of Morro Bay. The coast was gorgeous and it was a great stop for lunch. After driving past Morro Rock, we continued up Hwy 1 (only stopping at Elephant Seal Beach) until we reached Limekiln State Park to camp for the night. We did a little exploring around the camp ground (we did a little hiking around the campsite) before it got too cold.

After going to bed at 7pm (thank God for Tylenol PM!!!), we all got up and headed out around 9am. We made it up to Monterey Bay close to noon. One of our co-workers' parents live up in Monterey and they are members of the aquarium. So , long story short, we got to go to the aquarium for free which was pretty sweet! After a couple hours at the aquarium, we drove up to Elk Grove to visit the Burgs. We were going to leave the next day, but after Shelly invited us to spend the night with her out on the Delta, we couldn't resist. The Delta was really nice and it was nice to just hang out around a campfire for the evening (by the way, campfires are my favorite!!!)

Friday morning we loaded up the car once again and headed the rest of the way up through Sacramento to my Tia Irma's house. We hung out most of the day and then went to Ryan's graduation. Right now I am sitting at the house getting ready to take a nap before his graduation dinner. We are going to drive back tomorrow morning (I think we are planning on leaving at 3:30am) so I should be back for church, but we will see how things go... Feel free to check out some of the far too many photos I have taken. Please pray that the rest of this trip goes well. I have been having some trouble with my ears and stuff which has been leaving me feeling pretty nauseous and with terrible migraines. I am going to the doctor's again this week to see what's up with them, but until then, I am just trying to hold out until then...

What Is Going On?

Ok, I know it's been awhile since I have blogged (with the exception of the last post), but I have good reasons. Things have been super busy with work ending and summer starting and helping out at Forest Home and babysitting... It's been crazy, but let's see if I can't catch you up on what's going on...

Last weekend (I mean two weekends ago... not yesterday's weekend but the weekend before that) was my last weekend working for the summer. The kids graduated on Thursday and they all went home (some to stay for the summer and some only for a couple weeks before returning for summer camp). The weekend was kinda stressful as most of the kids were all ready to be done. We did our normal Santa Barbara State Street trip to end out the year. Weekends were fun and I am looking forward to working them again next year (but I am super pumped to have them off for the summer... too bad there is not Community...). So, graduation is always a fun time for the kids and for the teachers. I really like our graduations because they are not too long and they give out a ton of really fun awards. The best part, I have to admit, about graduation is shopping through lost and found after the kids leave. There wasn't as much stuff as last year, but I did find some cool things (well, some of them weren't actually lost and found but I had fun taking pictures of them...).

Monday I hosted again at Forest Home. This group was a little strange because they had already been at camp for a couple of days and I was taking over for the other host... It was just weird coming in on an already established group... Youth group ended this week which is sad, but just in time for me to be way busy.

Friday I went over to watch my boys for the weekend. Mason has made so much progress (he is walking, signing, sort of communicating - without words -) and Caden is a giant! There is seriously like a 7 lb difference between the two of them. But watching them was fun and I am hoping to do it a couple more weekends this summer.

On a more future note, tomorrow I am heading out on a road-trip with my mom and my cousin. We are working our way up to Sacramento to visit my tia and my cousin (he is graduating this Friday). We don't have any really set plans other than we are driving up the 1 and stopping at a campsite for the night around Monterey. We were able to score a couple of free tickets to the Monterey Bay Aquarium which I am super excited about!!! We might stop and a friend's house on the other side of Sacramento for another night and finally end up at my tia's house maybe around Thursday (in case you aren't familiar with the lay-out of California, driving straight through to my tia's house would maybe take 6 hours, but we wanted to make a trip out of it so we are stopping here and there along the way). I am really excited to get to spend some quality time with mi madre this week! I am going to try and barge back Saturday night so I should be at church on Sunday...

I have already started a ton of planning and scheduling for summer camp. Our meetings start on the 16th, but I will probably start really working hard around the 9th... I know it sounds pretty busy, but I love this time of the year... I love having crazy schedules but still making things work... So, yeah... that's what's going on...

To Barge (v.)

To Barge - verb - orig: Ojai
a combination of two words, Charge and Barn... To charge to a distant location for no apparent reason other than having a fun like a barn or barnacle.

Last week Amber Carlson and I decided it would be fun to barge up to the closest Sonic. She had never been to Sonic before and we both had the day off (well, she had the day off... I have everyday off...) so we figured, what better day than today to go for a nice two hour drive up the 33. The 33 was beautiful! Everything was super green and the wild flowers are all blooming. Two hours and 5 counties (yes, we drove through 5 counties...) later, we arrived at the sketchiest area in the middle of Bakersfield, CA right across the street from Happy Mart... I know this sounds super pointless and random, but that's what barges are all about... It was great getting to know Amber better and it was a great addition to my small but growing list of random road-trips...

How Big Is The God You Serve?

Last night at youth group, Ryan had this guy named Richard come and give his testimony to our High School students. It was a super intimate night with only 8 students (usually we will have a good 30-40 kids on a Thursday night but they all have a 4 day weekend because of Memorial Day on Monday...). It actually worked out really well because out of the few kids that came, at least half of them really needed to hear Richard's story and they were totally moved to chat with him about it afterwards. Richard's testimony was absolutely spectacular! It's incredible what God has done in this man's life. I wish I could share some of it but for reals, no one would ever believe me... After he shared, Ryan asked us all, "How big is the God you Serve?" For Richard, God is bigger than drug addiction, abuse, violence, prison... How big is your God? That's something I have been dwelling on since last night... We serve a Huge God who is bigger than all of the crap of this world... And what is incredible to me is He chose us... He chose me... He loves me... and he says that NOTHING (neither death nor life, nor angels nor semons, nor things present nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing: Romans 8:38-39 ) shall be able to separate us from the LOVE of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord!

Hello! I will be your Host for this Week!

Last week, Wednesday - Friday, I got to work at Forest Home Ojai Valley. Basically what happens is there are groups that will come in and run their own programs. While they run their own programs, there has to be a "Host" who provides whatever the group needs in order to run their program (The Host is basically the contact person for the group... They carry the Host cell phone around all day and night). So, that's pretty much what I did last week for those of you who were confused. I stocked bathrooms, set up Audio/Visual equipment, helped with Recreation (Zip-line dismount... so much fun!), Did announcements... and broke up a midnight water raid...

Ok, so here's the story with the water raid. Apparently their host last year (I won't mention his name but some of you might be able to guess who...) helped some of the male counselors raid a girl's cabin in the middle of the night. So, having heard all of the stories from last year, the kids, led by the leaders, decided to have a full on water battle in the middle of the night. I had finished all of my "Host" duties, hooked up my cart (highlight of hosting was probably driving the electric cart around all day!!!), and headed over to Holly's house (where I was staying while hosting). I took a shower and got ready for bed then sat and chatted with Holly as she was cutting out stars (long story). Then around 12:30am I heard some girls screaming... It only lasted a couple seconds so I figured they maybe saw a bug or an animal or something and just freaked out... Then I got a phone call from the ground's keeper asking if I heard all of the noise. I then figured that it wasn't just one scream and I had to go check it out... I walk out to find bathroom doors covered in silly string, water balloons being hurled at people and boys and girls throwing buckets (actually trash cans... they used their trash cans) full of water at each other. It had woken up a couple people so I had to make everyone go back to their tents and go to sleep. I thought the whole thing was pretty funny and if I were in middle school (or a leader in the group), I would have been so pumped on this battle... but, because I was working and a couple of people (the ground's keeper in particular) got pretty pissed, I had to shut it down. The kids and leaders were great the next day and made sure that they picked up every last water balloon shell and dried up piece of silly string... All in all, Hosting was fun. The group was great and fun to be around and to chat with (especially this one EMO kid who kept asking me about my gauges... He called me "Plugs" the whole time... pretty funny... I got a few pretty fun nicknames from the kids... "Plugs," "Mae-Mae," "Chae"...) I think I am hosting again this next week, Monday - Wednesday (so I will be at youth group next week Ryan... sorry for missing it last week!)

As far as work goes, we took the kids to the beach this weekend. It was so nice to get out of the heat for the afternoon. One more weekend and I am free for the summer! I am super excited. These last few weekends have been super special for me. I have been connecting to a few kids on a little bit of a deeper level and just enjoying every bit of them. I am excited to have my weekends back for the summer though!

One of Those "Born-Agains"?

This weekend at work one of my coworkers (all of the teachers are put on weekend duty's to help supervise the kids) said something that really made me check my heart and evaluate myself (does that ever happen to you? Someone - maybe even someone who isn't a Christ follower - says something that makes you check yourself?). She is sort of a Chatty-Kathy ("sort of" might be being too nice... she talks A LOT and it's usually pretty negative... not super fun to work with). Anyway, she was talking about one of her friends and referred to them as "One of those Born-Agains." I said "Born-Agains?" and she sort of just went on with her story (I honestly don't even remember what she said because I started to really think about what she said... I think it was something about how she had cancer or something... that sounds bad that I was zoning out, and it probably was...). Don't get me wrong, I was super excited that she called her friends this. It sounds like they are doing a pretty good job of furthering God's Kingdom. It did however make me look at myself. Do people call me "Another Born-Again"? Is God's love pouring out of me to make people see Jesus in me? Are the fruits of the Spirit (love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control) apparent and driving factors in my life today? What am I doing to further God's Kingdom? I just finished reading Jesus for President (I will be posting on that later) and it talked a lot about living like Jesus lived/s and loving like Jesus loves. It talked a lot about being a part of a different Kingdom; not the Roman Empire, or the American Empire, or the European Empire, but being a member for Kingdom of God and what that means for how our lives should look. They should not look like those with devotion to the Empires of this world (focusing on money, power, military might...) but those with a devotion to loving God and loving others! I pray that people will see Jesus' love shinning through me! I pray that one day, someone will see Christ in me and that they might even refer to me as "One of those 'Born-Agains.'"