To Camp

It was night and fire side had just started. Kids were still coming down from the "Tab" in groups of 3's and 4's, slowly and with a glaze in the eye. Then a voice came from the top of the hill screaming above the rest, "I did it! I did it!" Bonding down in the energy only a middle schooler has, she threw herself into the arms of her councilor. They stayed like that for nearly the rest of the night, attached at the hip smiling and laughing. This is the joy I live for as a Campus Life director. Years of relationship build and set in a joy that Christ brings. I am looking forward to this next week.

It is dangerous to step out from your door

"Journey over all the universe in a map, without the expense and fatigue of traveling, without suffering the inconveniences of heat, cold, hunger, and thirst."

Miguel de Cervantes

The 5 Essentials of Fruitful and Sustainable Ministry Sites

We have a new list at YFC. This is a list that reflects missional ministry. I can dig this. Here it is:

Widespread Prayer-
We deliberately engage lots of Christians to intercede on behalf of the ministry site. (What is life or ministry w/o any prayer? My own work.)

Loving Relationships-
We consistently pursue lost kids and engage them in lifelong relationships with Jesus. (This is the drug, the hook, the reason)

Faithful Bible Teaching-
We accurately handle biblical truth, regularly coaching kids to apply it in their lives. (Or apply their lives to the teachings of God in the bible)

Collaborative Community Strategy-
We intentionally work together with local churches, agencies and other partners to provide sustainable youth family ministry. (God calls out those people. Can we encourage them?)

Adults Who Empower-
We strategically develop leaders to reach young people from every people group. (Indeed, no more lone rangers in youth ministry)

What is free

The price of anything is the amount of life you exchange for it.
-Thoreau

Wednesday morning must mean

Forza

It is LKWD MMA staff meeting. We laugh, cry and get hopped up on wifi and bottomless coffee.

I am thinking that this summer, we will go on a tour of the coffee shops in the Greater Tacoma area for fun and a hard won addiction. Starting in July, Mondays will be Shoppe day.

On the Rood to Mississippi

I am prepairing to follow the cloud left by the twin sisters, Katrina and Rita. I mentioned several posts ago that I am working with Deaf Teen Quest. It is a group of people who specialize in working with Deaf/Hard of Hearing students. AS part of my training that I have set for myself, I am going on the mission trip that was scheduled for Pascagoula, MS. I am going to look and listen to the people I am asked to serve. As much as I can tell this will be a pilgrimage for myself as much as it will be missions. And that is where I am wrestling, pilgrimage/short term missions. Is there a difference between the two or are they the same thing in concept? I tend to believe they are the same thing.

Here are two stones in my shoes that are making my walk uncomfortable: Matt 11:28 and Matt 16:24. The yoke and the cross.

Worship site

I have mentioned in the past that I like to spent time at coffee shops. Now that I have a spy camera in my phone I am able to show you one of the many places I frequent. (Please excuse the poor quality, it is a camera in a phone) This is a picture of the Cutter's Point sign. There are several CP in Tacoma, this one is on Pacific next to UWT. It is five minutes from the main YFC office. I ususally go ultra wireless on tuesday mornings (book only) spending time in quiet meditation with a cup of black sunshine.

So much energy

I would like to spend some of it on doing something. I have finally learned the names of my neighbors. There has been too much food on my plate and my stomach is full and distended. It is time to digest.

Until then here is a picture of my suburbia.

BART!

D'oh

Working in a new community

I am having the pleasure of working with the deaf teen community. I am the stranger in the strange land. I have a hard time communitcating and I am the slowest one in the room. But the people that surround me in my learning are loving and generous in giving.

Reaching back...

I pulled the R. Mullins out of the cd shelf today. The World as Best as I Remember It, vol. 1 & 2. Man, some good stuff. If you are looking for some good story telling, you really can't beat it. Let us sit around this thought for a bit:

hello old friends
there's really nothing new to say
but the old old story bears repeating
and the plain old truth grows dearer every day
when you find something worth believing
that's a joy that nothin could take way

or

two full grown men in a huddle of kids
and they're trying to help them to believe
what is too good to be real
but is more real than the air they breath
and it's Wally and the Beaver, David and Johnathan
it's the Love of Jesus puttin on the flesh and bone

Centralia WA

Roy Gardner
Centralia Massacre
Santa Lucia

This is a small list of people we learned about and places we went to while exploring the town of Centralia WA. Amazing as it may seem it is not just a collection of outlet stores on the way to Portland. We didn't take any pictures, and if we had, I don't own a digital camera, so I wouldn't have shown them to you anyway. The hotel was boarding house style, and our room had a king size bed, and more importantly, no kids calling in the next room in the morning. All in all, a wonderful escape for a night.

Just a short trip...

Centralia is not always what I have thought of as a destination. There are some outlet stores, but when my parents are not spending the money, I am not all that interested in going. However there is a hotel/restaurant that has come highly recommended and we have baby-sitting. Yea!

Halo v. Jesus

Blessed are the peacemakers,
for they will be called sons of God.

I am beginning to have a crisis of conscience.

This summer, next fall...

I am currently trying to decide what will happen in just a few months for the summer. Right now I am pretty sure that we will be going on a 1/2 day boating trip, a baseball game and a water ski day (this from a person who hasn't played a game of baseball since he was 10. And from a person who tries to avoid recreational water use at all costs.)

Next fall is coming so soon. Several months back I thought about going through the gospels as the guiding subject matter. I don't really have any other ideas.

Three...I have started to explore the posibilities of overseas work, including MCYM (Military Community Youth Ministry). But this last thought is a further away reality. Maybe a couple of years out. I wouldn't mind going just about anywhere in the world right now.

Ahhhhhhh!

King of the Hill

A true state

All this flashy rhetoric about loving you. I never had a selfless thought since I was born. I am mercenary and self-seeking through and through; I want God, you, all friends merely to serve my turn. Peace, reassurance, pleasure, are the goals I seek, I cannot crawl one inch outside my proper skin; I talk of love- a scholar's parrot may talk Greek- But self-imprisoned, always end where I begin.

cs lewis

Notebook entries

I keep a book of notes with me, where I enter small bits of information. Once in a while I will share some of these notes, here is the first post:

The Nellie, a cruising yawl, swung to her anchor without a flutter of the sails and was at rest.

How many books can someone read...

I am currently reading Bonhoeffer's "Cost of Discipleship" after finishing "The Jesus Creed". I am begining to doubt the usefulness of so many books.

More almost Jesus junk

I am reading "The Jesus Creed" by Scot McKnight. The idea is this: Jesus' guiding thought is the Shema with the small addition of Love your neighbor as well. Not bad and the basic idea is useful. Unfortunately McKnight continually uses the phrase "Jesus Creed" and it has started to remind me of the pray of Jabez. Scot doesn't make the claims that Wilkerson made but the feeling is the same. The book is a quick read and some insightful observations of life in the jewish community. It is worth a read, but I expect some backlash.