Sleeping is a privilege, not a right.

If there is anything that summer youth ministry internship will teach you, it is that very fact. You wake up earlier than everyone for breakfast or meetings, and you tell people 'shhh' until the cows come home, for they do enjoy their pillow talk. But most of all, someone has to stay up on the all-nighter to make sure couples don't sneak off, or overdose on oreos. Thus, my friday evening.

Last week I had the privilege of experiencing Montreat, North Carolina. A place I had only heard about from friends and professors, that when mentioned would bring a joyous glaze to the face of the speaker. Needless to say I had some rather high expectations on my way there (which was about an 11 hr van ride, so I had a lot of time to think about those expectations). On reaching the beloved mecca of the PCUSA, I wasn't sorely disappointed. We stayed in a nice little house, and drove in to the retreat center each day, which was sized just right, and beautifully situated among the Blue Ridge mountains. But worship? left a bit to be desired.

A Seminarian's Critique:
Montreat offers week long conferences in the summer to high school aged youth. This year's theme was 'The World On Fire' - potentially a great theme, but that all depends on how you use it. Is the fire good? Is the fire bad? It was never really made clear. I believe the intention was to explore both the good and the bad attributes of fire, but the message was bottom line, confusing. The morning speaker seemed to stay on the shallower end of her messages, which also had great potential but were lacking depth. The evening pastor presented a pretty good message, once you got past his meter and cadence. But both still operated from a position that everyone in the audience has a basic understanding of the gospel, when that is not true! And reflects a great injustice of youth ministry today - we assume that any child brought up in the Christian Church knows their Bible stories and therefore knows God, the gospel, etc. But Sunday school, it seems to me, does a rather poor job of making it real. Of bringing it home. So at places like Montreat it seems essential to revisit the basics of our faith - our sinful nature, God's redemption through Christ, what that means for our lives, and not just that last part. We got into a lot of social-gospelesque messages, which I am happy to encourage, because we need to be finding ways in which to help our neighbor whether it is at home, in our nation, or across the world. But if we don't have a central focus on Christ and a better understanding of who God is in our lives, then we can easily be misled.

Overall I loved the trip, but I think that was mostly because of who I traveled with. These students are phenomenal. My co-workers, there are no words to describe how wonderful they are. And they continue to surprise me with new gifts they have to share!

And given my general unsatisfactory attitude about the speakers, I did have a seminarian nerd-out moment over one of the sermons/talks. Put these two together: The tower of Babel, and Pentecost. It will blow your mind.

Oh, and there are no pictures because I forgot my camera in Seattle ... but they mailed it to me, so here I come, Great Escape!

Thoughts while on planes or in airports.

1. Where are we all going, all of the time? That a flight home is oversold, even thought there are at least 3 other flights on this airline flying today as well as at least 4 other airplanes flying to the same destination? But really, how are so many people always in transit?

2. Why are we rewarded for frequent flyer miles? The obvious answer being the more $$ in the pockets of the airlines the better, but in this day and age post-Inconvenient Truth and amidst all our efforts for a greener world, air travel does TERRIBLE damage to the environment. But we don't really hear about it. No one is protesting it loudly, because we're all too busy planning our next journey. This is why we breathe toxins and a constant haze engulfs our cities and neighborhoods.

3. Why are plane boarding lines so different from any other line? It's true, it's like a giant merge lane. People hardly ever actually move to the back like in a proper queue. It's more of a conglomerate melding into every part of the line, and the thing is no one really minds or puts up a fuss! We all just accept it as routing. Perhaps it's the pre-assigned seating, but at the same time it's always a mad rush to get on board. "I NEED to get on there first so I can have MORE time to sit in a small confined are in which I will constantly lose my personal space for the next 5 hours." And WHO are those people who sneak on when their zone is not called and have an aisle seat? They're making it harder for everyone. And then there is the frenzy to get off the plane. Yes, let's all stand awkwardly tightly together while no one is moving because the plane just pulled into the gate. What? oh sure, I can hit 3 people trying to get my luggage out of the overhead compartment, no problem!

So what the heck, you're welcome, glad to have you with us!

I will be the first to say I am a fan of the Music Man. No surprise there. How about Field of Dreams? Phenomenal. And how about Herbert Hoover? As of yet undecided. What do these all have in common? Iowa.

I just got back from a week-long mission trip to Iowa/Illinois doing disaster relief due to the extreme flooding that occurred there last summer. The trip was with the High School group in Westfield, 76 students in all, and it was phenomenal. We split up into teams of about 4 students per leader, and headed out to individual homes to start demolishing, repairing, and rebuilding the houses and lives of the people in Gulfport, IL. I love construction, because it makes you think (measure twice, cut once) and it is instant gratification (usually, unless you measure once and cut twice ...). For instance:

The completion of a wall! What are we capable of? Anything. We sided this whole house, and none of us have done siding before. Needless to say, we are a proud team. See awesome team below.
The house was for a man named Herman, who was the most interesting man from Germany I have ever met - one child of 13, outstanding sense of humor, and at least one brother who is able to yodel in German whilst wearing Lederhosen. Fantastic. I wish I had taken a picture!

But really, I loved the whole trip. It was emotionally difficult near the end though, as the current youth pastor is leaving after this summer, so it was her last mission trip with these kids. Rough, but beautiful to see a congregation so moved to tears at the thought of her departure. Sometimes it is very healthy to cry. On the other hand, I know that for my sister or me if we cry to much we get terrible terrible headaches ...