stumbling toward divinity

there and back again

I just got back from a mission trip with a group from church.  We traveled even further Up North to a very cool part of the country.  There were plans to take two 15 passenger vans, a 7 passenger minivan and a cargo van for our luggage.  But, a day or two before we left, the rental company realized they wouldn't be able to get us a 2nd 15 passenger van, so they offered us 2 minivans instead.  So we ended up taking 5 vehicles on this trip.

Picking them up was quite a fiasco, too, because it took them longer than they expected to get the 15 passenger van to the office where we would be picking them up.  We were to pick them up a week ago Saturday, and the company is only open until noon on Saturdays.  However, it was also the weekend of our big community festivities, and there was a parade and our mission trip group was supposed to walk in the parade and we needed to be lined up by noon.  Finally, even though they didn't have the 15 passenger van, we drove up to their office (in a suburb about 20 minutes up the road) and one of our drivers (my good friend Mr Too Cool) ended up having to ride with one of the rental company employees to another suburb even further up the road to get the 15 passenger van.  Which meant that he was not back with anywhere close to enough time to watch the parade with his family.  But, we got the vans and they were all here in enough time for us to load our bags into them at about 4pm that afternoon.

We ended up leaving a week ago today at about 5 in the morning.  Although we didn't take into consideration that we'd be crossing over a time zone and therefore losing an hour in our trip.  So we cut it a lot closer than we would have preferred.  But, we ended up arriving right before supper started, and we lugged all of our bags into the church where we'd be staying, and then sat down for a meal of pizza, where the mission site staff challenged the three church groups that were there by saying no group had ever eaten all of the pizzas on the first night.  Well, that was all the encouragement my group needed and, wouldn't you know it, we totally devoured all of the pizza.  There are several young people in my group who are notorious for their eating ability.  One of them even beat one of the staff members to a Lil' Smokey eating contest later in the week. 

We were all split up into seven different work crews and our time was split between work sites, which included helping out at the local Salvation Army, or several nursing homes, or helping with odd jobs at various peoples houses, and most of us got the opportunity to help out at an afternoon program for neighborhood kids.  One of the work sites that my crew went to was to help paint the house of a man named Chuck.  He was an older gentleman who quickly became one of my favorite people.  You see, we hadn't been planning on going over to his house to work.  It was expected that the work crew that had been at his place on Monday and Tuesday would finish up all the painting, but one day it rained and washed away quite a bit of their progress.  And, due to the schedule set up by the organization, they were needed at the afternoon program for the kids on Wednesday and Thursday and were therefore unable to get back to finish up their work.  And since they thought it would only take two days to finish, no one was scheduled to come to his place the next two days.  Well, my crew finished our work earlier than expected, so we ended up going over to Chuck's before lunch on Thursday.  We told him we already had our lunches, but before we knew it, he was pulling into the driveway after going to pick us up several pizzas.  And then he brought out some homemade rhubarb crisp and strawberry shortcake (made with homegrown rhubarb and strawberries), and some soda pop.  He apologized and said that was all we got when we got there on such short notice.  We told him it was great, and more than we were expecting!

I ended up helping to paint his front stairs, and he pulled up a lawn chair to sit in the shade of the tree in the frontyard, and we got to chatting.  Chuck is a great man with a big, generous heart.  He grows tulips in his yard, and ends up clipping them all and taking them to several of the nursing homes in the area.  He's got a massive garden in his backyard, and most of the produce is given away.  I told Mr Too Cool that I was going to start a garden in my yard next year and that he and Mrs Too Cool were going to help me with it.  I think he agreed.

Chuck also had a great sense of humor.  The two girls on our crew got a little crazy with the paint, and one of the girls ended up having a leg painted entirely blue.  Chuck came up to her and said, "You know that's latex paint.  Good luck getting that off."  The girl's jaw dropped.  The girl next to her looked with horror at the paint on her arm.  I chimed in, "Yeah, it's gonna look like you have leggings on for a while."  Then, the girl with the paint on her arm started to rub her arm and said, "No it's not, it's coming off right now!"  Chuck's mouth spread into this immense grin and we both started laughing.  As we were leaving he told one of our boys to not do "any of that beat boxing" on the way home, for the sake of the other people in the van.

This was the largest crew that our church has brought on one of these mission trips.  In the past three years that we've been doing them, the group has gotten progressively larger.  There was talk that, for next summer, we'd plan two mission trips - one for our junior highers and one for our senior highers.  But we will have to see how that goes.

Anyway, I'm glad to be back, to be able to sit in my living room in front of the air conditioner, to watch TV and get on the internet.  But I miss the scenery, the people that I met, and the knowledge that everyday I'd be doing something meaningful and helpful for people.  Not that I don't do something meaningful or helpful everyday, but at least on the mission trip there were more quantifiable results.  Maybe I need to figure out ways to do things that are similarly helpful and meaningful everyday here in my regular life. 

a conundrum

Which came first Confirmation or a headache?

a completely different kind of Christmas story

We had our Christmas program yesterday at our late service.  It went pretty much as expected.  It was pretty good, the kids were cute if a bit restless, and all the parents and families showed up making for a standing room only worship service. 

El Capitan normally does the welcome and announcements at the beginning of the worship services, which is fine with me.  But at the Christmas program he thought that I should be the one to do the announcements.  Even though they are one of my least favorite things to do (and I'm not even sure why... it's unexplainable) I agreed to do it.

Basically all I had to do was welcome everyone, thank them for coming, thank the Sunday School teachers and kids for putting on the Christmas program, call their attention to the printed announcements (but not call attention to any one of them specifically) and then announce that we would be taking our offering at that time.  However, as I was getting ready, one of the teachers called my attention to something else that needed announced.

So, as I stood up in front of the large crowd, I welcomed them, thanked those involved in planning and putting on the program, called their attention to the printed announcements, and then I said, "I have a small program note.  If you'll look at your program, where it lists the cast of characters you'll noticed that it says 'Mark.'  Now, I have to admit that Mark is a great name, but it's supposed to say 'Mary.'  And she's a pretty important part of the Christmas story.  So you'll just want to note that small change."  People laughed, they thought it was funny.  And then, when they were all in a good mood and laughing I said, "And now we're going to take the offering!"

I had wanted to say, as part of my announcment about the typo, something along these lines:  "You'll notice in the program, where it lists the cast of characters, that one of the characters is listed as Mark.  Now, I have to admit that Mark is a great name, but it's supposed to say 'Mary.'  If it were Mark that would be an entirely different kind of Christmas story..."  But I wasn't sure if everyone would think it was as funny as I did. So I opted for the "she's a pretty important part of the Christmas story" line.  It seemed a bit safer.

a road trip with jr high kids, or how things always go better in my head

Allow me to set the stage:  Tonight there was a youth event in the Other City, aimed specifically at Confirmation aged youth.  We went last year, and apparently this is somewhat of a tradition, so we went again this year.  I had it all worked out in my head.  We had the tickets for the youth and adults, the bus was scheduled, and as it required us to leave before normal supper time we had 67 bag lunches made (one for each person going on the trip). 

I decided that when the bus arrived I'd have the adults get on first, and sit in random spots throughout, so that there was no space where kids could be too far from an adult.  Then, as the kids were getting on the bus, we'd be standing at the door asking whether they wanted a ham sandwich or a turkey sandwich, and they would take one before getting on the bus.  We'd have garbage bags to pass back and forth to make sure that there was no garbage left on the floor or the seats and the bus people would greatly appreciate our efforts.

We'd drive to the Other City (home of the Other Seminary) and walk to our seats and enjoy the evening of music and inspirational speaking.  It would be great.

Well, it started to go downhill when, after making the bag lunches, I walked into the office and asked the secretary, "Just how many people can fit on one of those buses?"  Now this is a reasonable question to ask her, as she drives a morning route for the school bus company from which we had scheduled the bus.  Now, keep in mind that the secretary had been in the kitchen with us making the sandwiches for these 67 bag lunches.  She decided she'd need to call to make sure they sent us a big bus.  Turns out their "big" buses, while they say their capacity is 77, that is 77 small elementary aged children and not normal sized people.  It only holds about 50 normal people, and even then not very well, as I had to fold myself in thirds to fit into the seat.

So, after figuring out our options, we decided to get a second, smaller bus, to carry the extra people.  When I was trying to figure out who would go on that bus, I decided that maybe the 7th grade girls could ride on that bus, as they are of a softer and gentler nature than most of the other kids.  I thought perhaps these girls would appreciate being segregated from the rowdier kids.

Things continued to go wrong when one of our small group leaders came and said, "Yeah...  I'm not going...  I don't feel well, at all, and I figure you don't want me going along and getting sick."  I agreed with her.  Then, another parent came and said that another one of our small group leaders wasn't going to be going along as her father was in the hospital.  Then another small group leader said that he had some things going on that would require him to not go, as well.  So, if you're keeping tabs, that is THREE small group leaders who I found out were unable to go.  On the day of the event.

That's when, as I was standing in the church, coping with the news of these adults no longer coming, when the buses pulled up.  And the kids went crazy and immediately clambored onto the bus.  And a large group of boys were vying to get on the smaller bus.  I stood there and said, "That wasn't supposed to happen..."

We got the kids back off the bus, and then back on the bus with their lunches.  One of the moms/small group leaders said, "Tell all the 7th grade boys to get on the small bus, and we'll watch them there."  I thought that sounded like a deal, so I had all of them get on that bus.  I then got on the large bus and counted.  There was vastly less of us than I had anticipated.  I got back off the bus.  The secretary was standing there, I told her the number of people on the bus, and she said there was no reason to have the smaller bus.  So we unloaded all of the 7th grade boys and their leaders and made them pile onto the larger bus.  Of course, at this point, I realized that all of my adults were still standing outside of the bus, which meant that exactly what I didn't want to happen had happened - All of the kids were smashed in back, leaving seats in only about the first seven rows for the adults.

Luckily, the whole sandwich bag/garbage bag situation worked out.  When we got back to the church, and I scanned the floor and seats of the bus, I only found one bag on the floor.  I was impressed with my kids!  But, something that I forgot to do, and which I was reminded of MANY times was that we forgot about beverages.  And, apparently, the kids were dying of thirst - I MEAN DYING!!

We arrived at the location, and the person helping with bus parking told us that we'd meet the bus back out on the same side of the building at 7:45 this evening.  So we trudged up to the balcony, which is where we were assigned our seats, and sat down.  The opening of the event was great, it was a parody of a popular television show starring a friend of mine from my network (remember, it's NOT a cellphone company but a group of youth workers who regularly meet), and then bishop of the Other Synod came onto the stage and talked for a bit, and then there were these cool Aztec dancers, and then a Christian hip hop artist that my kids have appreciated from various other events came on stage and I tried to get the kids to dance.  Mainly they just laughed at me.  And it was hard to get the kids excited and involved when the guy looked about the size of a M.U.S.C.L.E. Man action figure (random aside - I LOVED those action figures when I was younger).

Then, the bishop from My Synod got up and led a little Bible study.  He was quick and had fun pictures and engaging.  Great for an arena full of junior high kids.  Then, there was another band, and they sang a very long, slow song.  At which point, the kids from my church started turning to me and asking me what time it was and when this thing was over.  After the slow, boring band, the main speaker got up.  In a different venue, she would have been amazing.  I mean, if she were a food she would be Chicken Marsala from Buca di Beppos amazing.  She talked about her various expeditions, like pulling a sled that was twice her weight across the continent of Antarctica.   It would have been amazing.

But she was speaking, very calmly and sedately, to an arena full of junior high kids who just had to sit through a long, slow song.  And she talked for about 30 minutes.  I think that, if by the end of her speech, she still had the attention of more than three of my kids she was doing good.  There were plenty of pleas for bathroom breaks, trips to the drinking fountain, asking what time it was... a lot of poking each other and other forms of antagonizing.  And that was just me (I'm kidding... maybe...).

I kept looking at my watch.  7:45 came and went.  Finally, at 8:15, we decided it was time to go.  So we walked out (we weren't the only group to leave early, in fact there were several that left earlier than us) and it was after the woman was done speaking.  When we made the decision to go, a large group of my youth (not led or accompanied by an adult) walked down the stairs and out the door and down the hall.  I finally caught up to them, got them to stop and then said something along the lines of "What in the world are you doing?  Who were you following?  What adult was leading you?  Why did you think it was ok to do this?"

We got the kids piled on the bus, in a situation very similar to the one we had on the way up.  We drove back home, and I ended up sitting with some of my very cool seventh graders and having a good time getting to know them.  After a very, very stressful time getting ready to go on this trip; a very, very frustrating time at the event trying to keep my kids focused or at least politely quiet so that those around them could pay attention and focus; the time spent with these great kids on the way home really reminded me why I am involved in this kind of ministry to begin with.

today was intense

That's the only word I can think of to describe it.  It's a busy week, anyway, with a sermon to write, a newsletter article to finish, Confirmation Sunday coming up this weekend, a Halloween party that was pretty much just dropped in my lap, Confirmation class to plan, as well as some things that are still upcoming that need to have the rough edges smoothed out.

These past two weeks have been coasters, I didn't have to preach and I didn't have Confirmation to plan or teach.  And then, this week, it was as if I had two weeks worth of work dumped on me.

Then, tonight, while I was still scrambling to get stuff ready for Confirmation this evening, and not feeling entirely 100%, and trying to figure out how to deal with the fact that several of my small group leaders would be unable to make it, I had a mom show up with her kids and tell me there was a situation involving one of her kids that might involve her needing to remove him from Confirmation class later on this evening.

And I could tell this kid was hurting.  From the minute he was at church he was not his excited, exuberant self.  He sat in a corner and kept to himself.  His mom, knowing the he likes me and that I normally get along with him very well, asked if I would go talk to him and get him to engage. 

So I tried.  But only as much as this evening would allow me to do so.  I mean, I'm in charge of confirmation class.  If I'm not on the ball, making sure things move along, then it's not gonna happen.  So, while I wanted to be sitting there, talking to him, making sure he was ok, I needed to corral the other kids, make sure they stayed where they were supposed to stay, make sure they went to where they were supposed to go, and make sure that the evening moved along like it should. 

And, of course, the other kids noticed something was wrong, too.  Some of them had heard about what had happened, but as the situation unfolded almost right before Confirmation class this evening, a lot didn't know what had happened.  So they kept coming over to see how he was and what was wrong.  This led him to go downstairs to the youth room to be left alone.

I followed him, to make sure he was ok, and it was at that point that he broke into tears.  If I had been able to spend some more time with him, I think I would have been able to talk to him some more... I'm not foolish enough to think that I could have solved the problem in that one evening, but I think I could have let him know that I was available and that I cared for him and wanted to listen to what he was willing to share with me.

But then it got to be time for class to start.  I told him he could stay downstairs, as he was in tears and I'm sure that wasn't the face he wanted to present to his classmates.  I wasn't exactly comfortable leaving him in that state, but I knew that if I didn't get upstairs and get stuff moving then it would just devolve into chaos...  Or at least more chaotic than it already was.

And it would be an understatement to say that there was tension surrounding this situation the entire evening.  Because there was a lot of it.  In fact, at almost 10pm, I JUST got off the phone with a mom of another youth from church who was involved in this situation. 

After confirmation, I just wanted to come home and relax and watch TV, but I had talked to the choir director earlier today and mentioned that I would be able to be at practice tonight.  So a coupel paragraphs into this entry, she sent two choir members over to my house to fetch me.  So I headed back over to church.  And it was probably good that I did.  Choir is something I enjoy and have fun with.

But right now I am wiped out.  And I'm positive that I haven't heard the end of this situation involving the youth from my church.  In fact, I wouldn't be surprised if it was just beginning...

social networking sites

When I was on internship, a couple of my seminary friends invited me to join MySpace.  For those of you who don't know, it's a social networking site, where you get to set up your home page.   There are sections for you to include pictures of yourself, to list your favorite books and music and tv shows, as well as to include little blurbs about yourself and who you'd like to meet.  Then, you can become friends with people, and your friends can do things like comment on your page and your pictures.  You can set your privacy settings so only your friends can access your page.

At first, I wasn't too into MySpace.  I mean, it was ok, it was kind of fun, but I just didn't see the appeal of it.  But then, I started to search, and I began to find all sorts of people with whom I shared connections.  Since I began this page, now more than two years ago, I've reconnected with camp, college and high school friends and have fostered relationships with my friends who also belong to MySpace.

That brings us to facebook.  Now, it came about after I was in college, and for the longest time you needed a valid college e-mail address to get an account.  So it was set up as a social networking website for college students.  However, in the last year or so, it has opened its doors to everyone and now all you need is a valid e-mail address to access it.  Many of my camp, college and seminary friends have set up accounts and I use it to keep in touch with many of them.  It is similar to MySpace, but it has a bit more of a cleaner, more organized look to it.  I have actually started to prefer facebook, because it was originally intended for a college aged audience, the people who use it are mostly that age or older now.  It doesn't allow the same kind of spam and fake accounts that MySpace has allowed, and I don't get a ton of spam requests for fake friends on facebook.  So, although I was keeping my MySpace account open, I was starting to faze it out.

That was until the youth from my current church started finding me on MySpace.  Right now, I think the count is only up to about eleven youth have added me as a friend, though I know there are many more out there.  As I've looked at the sites of my church youth, I have seen other kids from my church who have left comments on their pages and photos.  It got brought up on a bus ride for a youth event the other day, when one of the kids mentioned that I had a MySpace.  A bunch of the kids thought it was cool, and I think my level of hipness was raised in their eyes.

Most of the time, I think that this MySpace account is a good way to connect with the youth.  I am careful about what I put on my site.  I make sure the pictures I share are appropriate, that what I write on it is PG, and that the music I have on my site (they have an application that allows you to stream music onto your site, so that people can listen to it when they visit) is clean.  Now, that's not that big of a deal for me, because I always used to do that anyway.  Well, except for the music.  I didn't used to worry too much if the song I had on my site dropped the f-bomb or something like that.  But I've gotten to be more mindful about it since I know I have a new and different audience.

I don't request that youth from my church be my friend.  The way it works is, if you find someone that you want to be friends with, you click on the "Add friend" button on their site and it sends a request to that person, letting them know you want to be friends.  They can either accept it or deny the request.  All of the youth who I have added as MySpace friends have sent the request first.  I figure I'll leave it up to them.  If they want their Pastor as their MySpace friend, then they can send the request.  I figure that gives them some privacy, if they don't want their pastor reading everything that's written on their site. 

Right now, it is convenient for the youth to all be in my "top friends."  One of the things that MySpace does, that facebook doesn't do (unless you add the application) is have you pick your "top friends."  It used to just be your Top 8, but now you can go up to 24+ friends.  These friends' pictures are then put on your page in the order that you rank them.  At this moment, I have it set to display 24 friends.  The first part is filled by family, seminary, high school and camp friends.  Then, the last 10 or so are filled by my church kids.  Right now I can include all of them and not have them consume all of the spaces.  So I figured I would list them.  But, for me, it's either all get listed or none get listed.  The moment I have too many to list in my top friends, then they are all going to get removed.  That way, I don't have kids saying, "Well, why is Timmy in your top friends and I'm not??"  Although there is the whole idea that they are ranked, and one is friend #17 while the other is friend #20, but so far none have said anything to me.

For me, it has been a fun way to connect with my kids.  I joke back and forth with some of them, and have even set my profile picture to be a picture  one of them took of the two of us at a youth event, wearing light up bunny ears.  She just thinks that is great.  So it gives me another connecting point to some of the kids, and I think that is never a bad thing.

I'm not the only church worker who utilizes MySpace to connect with their youth.  I know several other friends who do the same, and some have even set up MySpace pages for their youth groups.  It's a great way to connect with kids, the majority of whom have MySpace pages and regular access to the internet.  It's easier, and more accessible for the youth, to put a message out on MySpace than it is to put a blurb in the weekly bulletin.  Kids are more likely to read the MySpace message than the bulletin blurb.  There was a short conversation about it on the discussion boards of the ELCA youth ministry network, and there are even articles written about it on the internet.  One in particular can be read here. 

Now, I admit there are some negatives to MySpace.  There is the spam, a lot of which seems to provide easy access to pornographic websites.  And the amount of spam you receive in a day can be a bit ridiculous.  Youth, having complete control and often unsupervised access to MySpace, are allowed to portray themselves in ways that they wouldn't at church or in front of their parents.  But, as it states in the article I've linked to, as a pastor and them knowing I have access to their site, it opens up avenues of communication about things that they are posting on their MySpace.  For instance, if there is a rumor that one of the kids has been drinking, I could approach him/her about it.  But if they post something about alcohol on their MySpace, then I can ask them about what they wrote, and it makes it much easier to approach the subject.

There is also the question of allowing your church youth to see your interactions with your friends on your page.  For instance, the youth that check out my MySpace page can see any of the comments that my friends have left.  So, do I want the youth to have that kind of access to my life?  If I don't, I can always set my page to private, so that my youth would not be able to access it.  On one of the message boards I read, one person said that there should be nothing in a youth minister's life that they should need to "hide" from their youth, and if there were aspects of their life that they felt they needed to hide, would that mean they were being good ministers?  Now, I have my page completely public.  Anyone can look at it.  But, I also respect that some people don't want to allow everyone that kind of access to their pages.  Some youth workers might not want their youth to access their pages.  I, personally, don't see anything wrong with that.  I can understand the need to have something be separate from their work in the church.  I don't think that says anything about their quality as a youth minister.  But, since I have chosen to allow youth access to my site, that just means I need to be more mindful about what gets written on my site.  If a friend posts a comment that I find to be questionable, I always have the option to remove it.

So, really, when it comes down to it, I admit there are negatives to this whole MySpace thing, but I think the positives of being involved in it outweigh them.  Because, when it comes down to it, the youth are very present on MySpace.  They are very active and involved.  So, then, why wouldn't the Church want to be a presence there? 

morning (and afternoon) o' meetings

Today I had a couple meetings to get to.  The first one was one of my favorites, it was my local network's meeting.  Now, by my network, I don't mean anything involving my cellphone company.  My local network is a gathering of youth ministry workers.  Some of us are ordained, most aren't, sometimes we have a topic we discuss, sometimes we don't, but we almost always have a good time when we get together.  A pleasant surprise during the meeting was that my good friend CDubbs, and former member of our network before he moved across the country, called and chatted briefly with each one of us that was there. 

Afterwards, there is usually a good group of us that will go out for lunch.  But today, for various reasons, there were only two of us who went out.  I was ok with that, as the other person is someone I get along well with and have spent time with socially outside of network.  So I knew it wouldn't be awkward or painful or anything like that.

Over lunch, we got to talking about what we had to do that day, and I mentioned my other meeting that was coming up later that afternoon.  The executive director from the camp that we take kids to for confirmation camp was going to be in the area and wanted to stop and chat.  I got excited, of course, because it was camp.  But El Capitan had mentioned that she had come and talked to him before, a couple years ago I think, just to kind of touch base with us because we are one of their sponsor congregations.  It sounded like this meeting was going to be just like that one, where she would share some upcoming activities at camp and that sort of thing.  I told my friend that it would be fun to talk about camp, but what I was thinking was that I thought it would be cool to be on the Board of Directors of the camp.  My friend said that if I was interested I'd have to let the director know.  But I said I wasn't really sure how to bring that up, or even if they were in need of someone on the Board, or whether they would want ME on the Board... there were enough uncertainties that would probably prevent me from mentioning this to her.

So the time for our meeting rolled around, and she came into my office.  She sat in the chair on the other side of my desk and right away I was afraid that it would be uncomfortable.  We exchanged some brief small talk, and she asked me about how things were going for me.  I told her they were going well, I felt like I was getting into the swing of things... yadda yadda yadda...  But then we started exchanging stories about the ministry, and about youth ministry in general, we talked about some of the upcoming changes at camp, about ways that my church can utilize the camp, and that sort of thing.  But she kept asking how things were going, how I liked being a pastor, and questions like that.

As the conversation started to wind down, she looked at me and said, "Well, since it sounds like you're doing good here, do you want to talk about adding something else to your plate?"  "Like what?"  I asked.  "We are going to be in need of some new members of our Board of Directors."

"Are you serious?!?"  I asked, and then I proceeded to tell her about my conversation with my friend at lunch, and how I'd been thinking that would be a neat way to be involved with the camp.  Then I stopped and looked at her and said, "You probably don't often get this kind of reaction when you ask people to be on your Board, do you?" 

Of course, she said that they didn't.  I told her that I was very interested, but that I'd have to run it by El Capitan to make sure it was ok, but I didn't see how he could deny me when he saw how excited I was about it.

After our meeting, I went next door to El Capitan's office and told him about the conversation.  And, like I thought he would be, he was very supportive.  He just thought (and I was already going to do this) that I should mention it at our next church council meeting so that it gets put in the minutes of the meeting and the congregation can be aware of what I'm doing.

But, anyway, I just thought I should share my excitement about being connected, in a new way, to CAMP!!!!

allow me to explain

I had a meeting today.  It was the Parent/Student orientation meeting for Confirmation.  Sort of the big kick-off, inundate everyone with information, give them all sorts of forms, have them sign up for things sort of meeting.  Last year when this meeting came up, I had been at my call for less than a week (it sounds weird to say what I was doing at THIS church a year ago...), and so mainly I was there to assist El Capitan with it.  But since I've taken over the reigns for Confirmation, it falls undery my umbrella to take charge of this meeting.  So I made sure that all of my forms and sign up sheets were copied and ready and laid out nicely.  I made an outline of what I wanted to talk about, and the things I thought I needed to cover.  I checked and double-checked to make sure everything was in order.  I wanted everything to go smoothly.  That's what I was nervous about.

But the meeting went well.  It didn't take as long as it did last year, which is sort of a recurring theme when it comes to me taking things over from El Capitan.  But I got through all of the information, everyone was given the requisite sheets, and we had kids sign up for acolyting.  No one had any questions.  I think everything got covered.  I chit chatted and floated around and answered questions.  I made decisions.  There was none of this, "I'll talk to El Capitan and see what he says..."  There was only, "Well that sounds like a good idea to me," or "We'll have to see what we can do about that," or "Yeah, I think we'll go ahead and switch that around and do it that way."  It felt good.

Later on this evening, as I was getting ready to call it a night (I had actually made it INTO bed), I was struck with the thought that I didn't lock the office and I had left a box of books on the secretary's counter that would confuse the heck out of her when she came in tomorrow.  And, since I have a meeting through lunch, I wouldn't be there to explain it to her.  So I decided to go over and move the box to my office and lock the door.  While I was over there, I decided I might as well take all of the checks that were written this evening, stick them in an envelope and put them on the secretary's desk so that they are out of my hands.  So I did that, making sure to mark who had paid, so I could know who to send reminders out to later.  There was one woman who has two kids in the program, and we explicitly state that the fee is a certain amount PER student.  She only paid the amount for one student, which would most likely mean that she should get a reminder.  But I happen to know that they're not in the best situation financially, so I'm making an executive decision to not pursue that further.  Without consulting El Capitan :)

Anyway, as I was walking out of the church to head back home I was struck with a thought.  Well, more like a feeling.  It felt like this is MY place.  This is home.  I am where I am called to be.  And it felt GREAT.

So, of course, I needed to blog about it.  And now I'm going to call it a night for real.

pray for me now, and at the hour of my death

Which might be a lot sooner than I'd hope for.

I leave for a mission trip tomorrow in the wee hours of the morning.  We're taking two fifteen passenger vans and setting off on a 19 hour/two day road trip.  Which really means that the kids are going to be sleeping the whole way, while the adults take turns driving.  So when we get to the place where we'll be staying tomorrow night, and then arrive on location on Sunday afternoon, the kids are going to be wide awake and rearing to go.  While the adults will want to pass out.

And then there's the week of being The Leader for my church's group on this mission trip.  And having only a handful less of kids to be in charge of than I did at confirmation camp.  Luckily, I will be bringing six other adults along so that I won't be the only one directly responsible for the youth from my church.  And, if one decides to be crabby or unruly, I can pass him/her off to one of the other adults.  That will be nice.  Or, I guess, WOULD be nice.  Since it probably won't work that way.  And I'll get the, "Well, YOU are the trip leader." And I'll say, "But Troy!  He's YOUR kid!" And Troy will respond, "But YOU are the trip leader.  Deal with it."  And that's when I'll break down into sobs.

Ok, ok...  Who am I kidding?  I am super-excited for this trip.  I live for events and experiences like this.  There are many aspects of my job I would gladly trade for the opportunity to do more things like this.  It will be a good time, and I am sure we will have a lot of fun.  But, I'm pretty sure that internet access will be inaccessible while I'm there.  So, this is kind of a signing off for a bit more than a week.  I'm sure I'll have a lot of fun stories to share when I return!!!

Feel good moment of the year

I had remembered I wanted to blog about this awhile ago but I forgot.  Now I'm sitting in my office with nothing to do as a young couple is down the hall answering questions on a pre-marital counseling inventory thing that we make them take, and I was looking at some stuff and it reminded me of this moment I wanted to blog about.

Many of you will not be unfamiliar with the "too cool" kids from my confirmation class this past year.  They proved to be a struggle, to say the least.  But I've managed to connect with one of them, as well as his family, and I think he's a pretty good kid, despite the image he tries to portray or what other people say about him.

But I had the opportunity to spend some 1 on 1 time with him not too long ago after a car wash that we had done for a youth fundraiser.  We were sitting and chatting, and he was telling me about how he saw me when I first met with the church council here at church.  It was the second step in the call process.  His step-dad was on the church council, and his family had just come for the Wednesday evening service, so they hung around for my meeting with the council afterwards.

He told me that when he first saw me then, he thought I was weird and he was pretty sure he wouldn't like me.  But then, one day after confirmation I came outside and sat by him on the curb while he was waiting for his parents to come and talked with him.  He said it was from that moment on that he changed his mind about me.

I have to admit, I was a little floored.  I mean, I was just on my way home from church, and I saw him and another boy sitting and talking, waiting for rides.  So I plopped down and joined in.  It was nothing fancy, it wasn't a big deal.  I just wanted to talk and get to know them.  And that made all the difference.